Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-11-26
UNITED STATES COAST sURvEY-oFFICE WORK
CHARTS

the Coast Survey, with specia view 10 Illustrate tne
functions of the Coast Survey instruments exhibited at
the Crystal Palace, propose to describe in some
detail its oice-work and organization the results Of
which are in the extended series Of charts covering
the walls and tables of the space assigned to that
tional work at the Exhibition. This win require to
trace the successive to which the records of
field observations subjected in their progress that
dignity of charthood in which they are presented
to the public
The visitor in Washington who, impelled by curiosity
or business is led to ferret out the Coast Survey Office
usually experiences quite surprise on being directed
rough, rusty, rambling pile of brick buildings
some three hundred yards New Jersey avenue south
from the Capitol ANY romantic notions Of halls sacred
to science of magnifcence lending its embellishments
synods of profound mathemacans and delicate fingered
artists which the inexperienced neophe may have borne
with him up the Capitoline Hill, fated to undergo
lively collapse in threading the ntrcacies OF this Office
an-hll honeycombed with complex ins and outs known
only the oldest inhabitants The Coast Survey Office
is INTELLECTUALLY fiction, and the quarters to which its
operations have hitherto been consigned bear no marks
adaptedness to this rather than any other; while
the dispersion of ocerooms is obvious drawback on
the convenience Of administration Yet in this unosten.
tatious Judgment goody amount of work. both Of head
and of hand is annually accomplished and in despite of
all labyrnthine zgzags and dusty cobwebbed passage
there ample proofs of clear heads and of delicate
artistic figures to be in the published office products
Doubtless the only reason why appropriate special
building has not been erected for the Coast Survey Office
Is that this work is not to be permanence; but after
about fifteen years its contemplated Object will have been
achieved, and in the time akeshfs can be made
to answer. Yet fifteen years Of rent would not
good investment for our Governments and ct the expra
ton of that PERIOD is it not sure to have good
for building of the description proper for this office APP
pication But leaving oil Of this to the wiser heads in
Congress, it is business penetrate beneath
these of inegument to the interior life Of the
Coast Survey Office as it now is.
Two quite different and distinct phases of duty apper
tain to the Coast Survey Office ls 1t is Office of
records and Of correspondence 3D. 1t is manufacture
ing establishment in which the raw materials of note
books Typographical and photographic sheets from the
field parties worked up through successive processes
into charts for general use.
When the field operations for any locality are compet-
ed when, at rigonometrca station the note books of
all its latitude, longitude azmuh, magnetic angle and
elevation observations complete; when Topographic
cal sheet has been made the pictorial receptacle of all the
hills, marshes fields woods shore line houses roads,
SC. within its limits when photographic sheet has re-
ceiyed its full complement Of soundngs bottoms tidal
and current observations, sailing directions and notes
then all these become permanent records and sent
the office for deposite in the archives So too the
books of soundngs, photographic angles tide-ga
readings and indeed every notebook of original obser
vatons each and all find appropriate places in the fire.
proof building Of the archives. Within its pent cir
conference already stored 353 typographical sheets
and 300 Autographed Sheets each in special num-
bered tin tube 23O volumes Of trangulaton records
l66 of astronomical; 46 Of magnetic; 277 duplicate
Volumes 236 volumes Of computations l178 vo-
umes of photographic sounding and angle books with
80 duplicates Go tide and current original and 500
duplicate volumes the aggregate being manuscript
volumes of all kinds. This of material is under
going rapid augmentation from year year. but by
systematic arrangement all its component elements are
readily accessible that the original note of any sound
ing among the $500 loo record can be found in
ed in
the 353 typographical sheets be at displayed to
inquirer. Such is that body of records systemati
cally arranged and indexed, which constitutes the ar
chves This is that stock of original materials which is
the basis of all the manufacturing processes of the Office
Specimen typographical and photographic sheets are ex
ibited at the Crystal Palace, and will to give an
idea Of the quality and extent of these original records
But there is another species Of record of great mpor
lance which has accumulated in the Office The
tons and reports relating to field and Office work. the
business letters accounts and vouchers records sre
cal Investigations map projects reductions files of en-
craving proofs and mass Of miscellaneous matter re-
lang the history, Details administration and exeou
ton Of every part of the Coast Survey work all these
cords make aggregate the stubborn RESPONSIVENESS
of which system quite sufices to tame. Personal
memory must also be made to bear its part but alas
how few Of the swft-thronging events in crowded Office
life leave mnemonic footprints In Office, in editorial
life, the rush of overwhelming present oberates all
but the deepest traces Of the past The track Of car
riage country highway is almost permanent re.
cord of it's movements, but in the crowded streets Of
consign to memory, like evanescent sky
tnts vanish with the swift hours; tnts and treasures
alike 60 beyond recall SO too rapid mutations ever
oyertakng the members of Office personnel Not alone
in themselves is transition, but they too, through cs
changes and the great translation 90 and have success
sors, who 20 and succeeded Excellent for present
use, but for future reliance poor indeed living
monte tablets Better far than the unstable brain Of man
paper wherein to write out thoughts and facts in
DERBY progression.
We might add much Of possible interest in regard to
the record duties Of the Office. We might show how i'm
porant to the field operations is a careful, sys
temac arrangement and charge Of the archives and ep
toary records We might make apparent the intimate
relation between efficient Office administration aud
wedirected energetic prosecution Of the field work We
should not lack materials for amusement at lib
erty to exhibit the epistoary oddities which turn up in
the thick OF the current Of correspondence But what
ever entertainment instruction might thus be derived
must now be foregone and taking leave of the record
phase Of Office duty attention be turned to
that chartmakng phase process which gives occupa
ton to far the greatest portion Of the Office personnel
Under the general direction Of the assistant in charge
OF the Office and under the special direction Of their an
propriae heads the following departments contribute
their sbor in producing the Coast Survey charts ls
the Computing Department; ID, the Drawing Depart
ment 3D. the Engraving Department. 4th the Electro
type Department; 9th, the Printing Department; Gth
the Archives The department Of instrument making and
that Of carpentry complete the Of distinct Office
subdivisions. The superintendent maintains n general
but critical charge Of all the Office work and the assist
ant in charge bears to him much the same relation that
the heads OF Departments do to the assistant in charge
This organ saton has grown mp under the guidance of
experience since the present superintendent has had
charge Of the work. and has probably now reached its
final shape except that organized department of Pub
cauon ana safes and one OF photographic Examinations
may in time be added We will now give some details Of
the work and processes in these several departments
First in order sad first in the intellectual character Of
its duties is the Computing Department This has for its