Evening star., 1927-11-20

and charts were dumped down any!
where. and were only brought out and
busted off when required for another
ship The best star charts and tables
were in foreign languages, .<a
To look after this material properly,
Congress created a Depot of Charts
and instruments, and placed 1t In
the charge of an officer of the Navy.
The first director of this depot,
Lieut.. l.. NJ. Goldsborough, fitted up
building for it on what is now G
street between Seventeenth and
Eighteenth. He served three years.
In 1884 he was succeeded by Lieut..
Charles Wilkes whose interest in his
field was so great that he fitted up a
small observatory at his own expense.
moved his equipment there and added
new instruments to it. The new build
ing stood just north of the Capitol.
Lieut.. Wilkes, after some years, was
detached from this duty~and placed In
command of an exploring expedition
to the Pacific and the South Seas.
He was the same Wilkes who cap
tured the Confederate agents, Mason
and Slidell. in the Civil War, and al
most precipitated war with Great
Britain.
TT was not until 1914 that the depot
of Charts and Instruments began
to make astronomical observations.
partly for the purpose OF correcting IN
struments. but partly, too, In the gen
eral interest of "the highest, known
branch of science" From that time
to the present this work of obserVa-
ton has gone on continuously. Con-
gress had previously provided for the
construction of new building, ADAPT
ed to observatory work, and this was
erected between Twenty-third and
Twenty-fifth streets, on the site OF the
present Museum of Hygiene.
Hardly had the institution made Its
bow to the world as a real observatory
when throughout civilized lands 1t
drew the attention of every one who
was interested in astronomy. In Eng
land and France the growing science
Of astronomy had startled the world
by one of the most brilliant achieve
ments in its annals--the simultaneous
discovery by an Englishman and
Frenchman Of the planet Neptune, en-
tirely through mathematical calcula-
ton. That was in September. 1346.
In February of the next year one of
the astronomers of the new observa-
tory found that in the records Of OBJ
seryations made 50 years before
noted astronomer had actually seen
and listed the planet, but had consid-
cred it merely another fixed star.
With the aid of this information the
orbit of the far-f1ung member Of the
suns family was soon computed.
But for many years the astronom.
ical activities of the institution were
subordinated to the work of charting
winds and ocean currents and other
photographic interests. A vast amount
of information was pressingly needed
for our great fleet of clipper ships and,
presently, for the strange new vessels
run by steam. Under Lieut.. Maury
| this work went forward vigorously,
and the study Of the skies had to give
| it precedence. But after the civil
War the separate photographic Office
! was created and the observatory was
left free to expand.
THE growing pride of the Govern
ment in the institution was evi.
denced by the provision Of new instru.
ments from time to time, eliminating
in a provision in 1870 for the installa-
| ton of what was then the largest re-
| fracting telescope in the world. This
| was the 26inch refractor which IL in
use today. The rough glass for this
lens was brought from England.
ground and polished by the firm of
Alvan Clark & Sons of Cambridgeport,
Mass, and by it set up in the observa.
| tory in 1873.
Four years later. In 1877, DIR. Asaph
| Hall was enabled through the use of
| the new instrument to make perhaps
the most notable d'ecovar ary In the OBJ