The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1850-04-23

The recent operations which have been duly noticed
oi ns restoration q me oid boundary stone between
bly, stimulated The curiosity Of some Of our readers to
know who the persons were whose names have se-
e on,;S ns,Iy ssn.s psfps.at1u and will probably
lions OF the North and South In our Union shall have
grown faint or have disappeared Both Mason and Dix
on were astronomers sent at the recommendation OF
Lord baimore IN 763 to assist the surveyors that had
already been called in under the agreement OF 4h July,
1850, Tor commissioners TO the boundary that had
been Tor more than thirty years disputed between the Cal
markabe celebrity though both merlorous in their
proper spheres jeremiah Dixon TO have been
Of geometrican than his colleague; though il was from
al their disposal to the measurement Of degree OF the
meridian. Dixon is said 10 be the OF coal miner in
the Northumberland coal6eld, and himself TO have
been born within the mine. But this is probably mis-
apprehension. or an exaggeration He sell made
man and, returning to England, died in lit. in the
county OF Durham, leaving nothing behind him to com
with the measurement Of the degree, the account Of
which was published in the Philosophical Transactions
for ITS.
Charles Mason was better known. He had been the
assistant OF Bardley al the Greenwich Observatory and
in that capacity calculated large number OF observations
made by the astronomer royal comparisons and
corrections OF the Lunar Iabeso Mayer published ~
1885, at Goltengen and transmitted 10 England TO compete
for the prize offered by the board oil longitude prize
OF ~ 900 sterling in fact bestowed upon them but
Il was supposed that the Greenwich observations would
materially improve their value and this was the task
with which Mason charged by the board OF longis
tude, and which he accomplished He introduced no
methods; the formula which he employed those OF
Mayer, using the Greenwich reading. After the CON-
pleton the work remained long time unpublished;
sweng, part its purpose all the while in being report
ed a. confirming the general accuracy OF Mayors tables
Finally in 1887 published under the title Of Mayors
Lunar Tables improved by Mr. Charles Mason, and pub
shed by order OF the commissioners OF longtudes, &c.
DR. Marheyne, who superintendent the publication, was
assured thar the OF the improved tables did not
coed halt minute in In this shape they were used
Tor the calculations Of the Nautical Almanac; and, La
ande having reprinted them In 1892 they served for the
Connoissance des Temps Latery they have yielded 10
the tables Of Bornard Burg, and Burchhardt and form
only part OF the History of Astronomy.
II has been always said that Mason was disguised at
not receiving the premium himself-a rather unwar-
rantable idea il he really entertained i,and that he
the forests Of the New World There, may Be some
pete in manuscript. the commissioners Of ongudes ac
tuay awarded lin 1862 additional and larger pre-
MUM to the widow of Mayer for an improved copy of
his own tables, which he left at his death
However this may be, Mason came to America shortly
afterwards, finished his works here in 1867 and l76s,
and returned no more to England He died somewhere
in Pennsylvania in 1857 suffering, for several years,
melancholy alterations Of mind.
His chief memento here is the line which bears his
name whose latitude he and his colleague determined at
fifteen miles south of the most southerly point of the
city Of Philadelphia and in the reduction Of the PENN
sular line, dividing the present State OF Maryland and
Delaware, to its value on the meridian. This last is
more remarkable for the attention excited at the time,
than for any intrinsic merit beyond the zeal and labor in
its execution Its conception radically faulty; il
poses upon angulation. but is straight line OF more
than eighty miles, cut through wood; with vista of
thirty feet in width, and measured with steel chain
the ground, where inequalities reduced by calcula
ton to uniform level Mason and Dixon. therefore.
allowed what is still regarded the most hazardous
part Of geodehc operation to peryade their whole
work; and success 10 such undertaking, in spite OF
the ingenious suggestions of Cavendsh and the enco
miums Of Marheyne. would have been more remarkable
than its admitted failure.