A Statement In Respect To The United States Naval Observatory And Its Organization PDF Download

Excerpt from A Statement in Respect to the United States Naval Observatory and Its Organization Within the past decade the Government of the United States has been making provision for an astronomical observatory, which in cost is scarcely to be surpassed anywhere in the world. Not including some minor items, the appropriations for this purpose thus far made are: In addition to these sums, the Naval Observatory was already in possession of instruments, books and furniture, the original cost of which was not less than $100,000. The great equatorial telescope cost $50,000, less than twenty years ago. The real value of all this apparatus for the purpose of removal to the new observatory cannot be regarded as less than $50,000. This brings up the cost of the new Naval Observatory to not less than $650,000. But when the current appropriation of $136,689 shall have been exhausted, the new observatory cannot by any means be regarded as completely equipped. Taking as a basis the estimate of $294,487.29, officially submitted to Congress at its last session (51st Cong., 2d session, H. R. Ex. Doc., Nos. 79 and 147), about $160,000 more will be needed to carry out the plans which have been made. This would raise the total cost of the plant for the new Naval Observatory to more than $800,000. The sum already appropriated is larger than that which has been devoted to a like purpose for any national observatory in the world. The Russian Imperial Observatory at Pulkowa, has always, heretofore, been regarded as the most remarkable example of the generosity of governments toward astronomy. It has an equipment of unexampled perfection, and is provided with quarters for all the employees. The original cost in 1845 was 2,100, 000 paper roubles, usually estimated to be about equivalent to $340,000. Extraordinary additions to the equipment in recent years, including the astro-physical laboratory, as well as the thirty-inch telescope, the largest, or most powerful, in possession of any national observatory, may possibly have added $200,000 to the cost of plant. The cost of the new Naval Observatory is large enough to have built, equipped, and to have furnished funds for the perpetual endowment of two such institutions as the Bonn Observatory, renowned for the great number and lasting value of its contributions to astronomical science throughout the past fifty years. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.