Harvard College Observatory.
Harvard College Observatory chronometric expedition records, 1845-1875.
This collection consists of notebooks, data sheets, reports and memoranda, and correspondence, which document the planning and execution of the Observatorys expeditions to England to determine differences of longitude between the observatories in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Liverpool, England in 1849, 1850, 1851, and 1855. The records contain hundreds of data sheets that capture rates and comparisons of chronometers in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Liverpool and Greenwich, England; rates of time and temperature; and recordings related to stars. The correspondence includes letters between Observatory director William Cranch Bond and U.S. Coast Survey superintendent A.D. Bache, discussing equipment needs, budgets, and descriptions of the expeditions progressions. Bond's correspondents also include United States Consul to England Nathaniel Hawthorne, scientist Philip Sidney Coolidge, and Bond's son, Richard F. Bond. The notebooks primarily contain chronometric comparison calculations from Cambridge, Liverpool, and Greenwich; some notebooks also include longitudinal and temperature comparisons, and U.S. Coast Survey planning notes. The records also include some memoranda related to the planning of the expeditions, reports of the results, and materials related to the expeditions publications.
The Astronomical Observatory was established in 1839, and is now known as the Harvard College Observatory. The Boyden Station of the Observatory was originally located in Arequipa, Peru until 1927 when it was transferred near Bloemfontien in the Orange Free State, South Africa. This station closed about 1966.
Bache, A. D. (Alexander Dallas), 1806-1867
Bond, William Cranch, 1789-1859
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864
Harvard College Observatory.
United States Coast Survey
Chronometers.
Longitude
AIP-ICOS
Harvard University. Archives. Pusey Library. Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.