The Origins of the Dominion Observatory,Ottawa

See Jarrell R. A. , The cold light of dawn: A history of Canadian astronomy (Toronto, 1988), for general background. The most detailed account of the Dominion Observatory is Hodgson John H. , The heavens above and the earth beneath: A history of the Dominion observatories (Ottawa, 1989).

A broad sketch of this period may be found in the introduction to Levere T. H. Jarrell R. A. , A curious field-book: Science and society in Canadian history (Toronto, 1974); the connections between political ideals and scientific institutions in the early Victorian period are explored by Suzanne Zeller , Inventing Canada: Early Victorian science and the idea of a transcontinental nation (Toronto, 1987).

Morley Thomas , “Professor Kingston's scheme: Founding the meteorological service”, Chinook , viii/3 (summer 1986), 51–55; see, also, Jarrell R. A. , “Origins of Canadian government astronomy”, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada , lxix (1975), 77–85.

See Douglas Vibert A. , “The St Helena Observatory and Canadian astronomy”, Queen's quarterly , lxxviii (1971), 592–601; the obvious explanation for the failure of the project was upheaval in the wake of the Rebellion of 1837.

Gregory Good , “Between two empires: The Toronto magnetic observatory and American science before Confederation”, Scientia Canadensis , x (1986), 34–52.

Charles Smallwood Dr , a physician, built the former west of Montreal, but undertook no systematic observations; the directors of the latter did hire an observer for recording star transits, but soon transferred the observatory to Queen's University. Its director, Prof. James Williamson, concentrated upon meteorology.

See Jarrell , “Origins of Canadian government astronomy”.

The work is described by Otto Klotz in successive volumes of the Annual report of the Department of the Interior..

National Archives of Canada (NAC), Hayward R. J. , “Inventory of the Records of the Dominion Observatory, Record Group 48”.

This information was provided some years later by Otto Klotz when he became Dominion Astronomer: “The Dominion Astronomical Observatory at Ottawa”, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada , xiii (1919), 1–15.

King W. F. , “The Dominion Observatory at Ottawa”, Transactions of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada , 1905, 27–34, p. 29.

NAC, R.G. 88, vol. 474, Thomson Papers, Hon. Edgar Dewdney to Privy Council, 23 June 1890. King was appointed Chief Astronomer by order-in-council of 30 June.

NAC, R.G. 11, vol. 1264, file 200124, Memorandum, W. F. King to Hon. Clifford Sifton, 7 November 1898. The memorandum is reprinted in full in Hodgson, op. cit. (ref. 1), 10–12.

NAC, M.G. 27 II, D 15, vol. 45, Sifton Papers King W. F. Sifton Clifford Hon. , 15 November 1898. This was, in part, clarified by Otto Klotz in two articles on “Observatories in Canada”, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada , xii (1918), 217–24, and xiii (1919), 322–32.

NAC, M.G. 30, C 1, Otto Klotz Papers, “Diary”, 13 January 1900. Klotz's unpublished diaries are a rich source of material, but his strongly biased account must be read with some caution.

Canada, House of Commons, Debates , 8 August 1899, 9953.

Ibid. , 9953–4. Sproule was Grand Master of the Orange Association of British North America and later Speaker of the House of Commons.

King reported the finalization of the contract a month later: See NAC, M. G. 27 II, D 15, vol. 103, Sifton Papers, W. F. King to Hon. Clifford Sifton, 14 June 1901.

Canada, House of Commons, Debates , 21 May 1901, 5784.

The president reported “The Society has learned with much interest and pleasure of the intention of the Government to establish at the Capital an astronomical observatory of the highest order” ( Transactions of the Toronto Astronomical Society , 1901, 69). Brashear, who had a summer cottage north of Toronto, was an Honorary Fellow of the society.

Canada, House of Commons, Debates , 23 March 1903, 342–4. The meteorological observatory was under the Minister of Marine and Fisheries, not of the Interior.

Ibid. , 16 July 1903, 6792.

Ibid. , 16 July 1903, 6794.

A full description of the equipment, with plates, was written by Plaskett J. S. , who had been initially hired as the mechanical superintendent of the observatory: “Report on the observatory building and instrumental equipment”, Department of the Interior, Report of the Chief Astronomer , i (1905), 199–211.

McLeod C. H. , “A trigonometrical survey for Canada”, Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada , 1899, section iii, 3–7. In 1893, McLeod had organized a telegraphic and observer exchange with Greenwich, giving Montreal the best determined longitude in North America. It would have been natural to base any geodetic survey on and in Montreal.

The period is described well in Brown R. C. Cook R. , Canada 1896–1921: A nation transformed (Toronto, 1974).

Klotz was appalled by the choice of site and strenuously objected; he eventually persuaded Sifton and King to accept a site in the Central Experimental Farm on the edge of the city. The main building, abandoned when the Dominion Observatory was closed in 1970, still stands. The 15-inch refractor is now located at the National Museum of Science and Technology, which also possesses some of the early instruments.

Cited in W. F. King's article, “Astronomy in Canada”, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada: Selected papers and proceedings , 1902–3, 52–60, p. 57.