The United States Naval Astronomical Expedition (1849–52) for the Solar Parallax

The solar parallax is of course the angle with its apex at the Sun subtended by the Earth's equatorial radius.

Benjamin A. Gould Jr , “The solar parallax, deduced from observations of the U.S.N. Astronomical Expedition” [hereafter: “S.P.”], in Gilliss James M. , The U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the southern hemisphere, during the years 1849–'50–'51–'52 [hereafter: Gilliss, N.A.E.], H. Exdoc. 121, Parts 1–3 and 6, Serial set 728–30 and 733 (4 vols, Washington, D.C., 1855–56), iii, pp. lxi–cclxxxviii; see pp. lxv–lxvii. (Gilliss appears as the author of the four volumes, but sections were written by Gould and others).

Proctor Richard A. , Transits of Venus (London, 1874), 56–66.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, pp. iii–iv. For a portrait of Gilliss, see Figure 2 on p. 34 of the February 1991 issue of this journal. The article in which this appears, “John Quincy Adams, the Smithsonian Bequest, and the origins of the U.S. Naval Observatory” by Dick Steven J. (pp. 31–44), includes an account of Gilliss's work in Washington.

Benjamin A. Gould Jr , Biographical notice of James Melville Gilliss (Cambridge, Mass., 1867), 7–8 and 23–27.

See Ann Mary James , Elites in conflict (New Brunswick and London, 1987), 47.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, p. v.

Patterson R. M. McCulloh R. S. Kendall Otis E. , report to the American Philosophical Society of 7 January 1848, quoted in ibid. , p. xiv.

Benjamin Peirce, letter of 18 December 1847 to Gilliss James M. , quoted in ibid. , p. xi.

Ibid. , p. xv.

Congressional globe, 30th Congress, 1st session (Washington, D.C., 1848), 814–15.

Ibid. ; and Congressional globe, 30th Congress, 2nd session (Washington, D.C., 1849), 232–6.

See Harry Woolf , The transits of Venus (Princeton, 1959), 81–83; and Marc Rothenberg , “Patronage of Harvard College Observatory, 1839–1851”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxi (1990), 37–46, p. 43.

Gould , Biographical notice (ref. 5), 35. Motives for the Gilliss expedition are fully discussed in Taylor Kenneth L. , “Motivations for federal support of science in overseas explorations, 1842–1856” (Senior honors thesis, Harvard University, 1962), 25–47.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, p. xviii.

Ibid. , iii, pp. xi–xxiii; reference to Bache's suggestion is on p. xi.

Ibid. , iii, p. xxxi.

Ibid. , i, 454.

Ibid. , iii, pp. xxiii–xxv, and xlvi.

Congressional globe, 30th Congress, 2nd session (Washington, D.C., 1849), 233.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, p. xxvi; and Rasmussen Wayne D. , “The United States Astronomical Expedition to Chile, 1849–1852”, Hispanic American historical review , xxxiv (1954), 103–13, p. 104.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, p. xxvii.

Maury Matthew F. , Circular prepared by direction of the Hon. Wm. Ballard Preston, secretary of the navy, in relation to the astronomical expedition to Chile (Washington, D.C., 1849), 3–5.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, pp. xxix–xxxiii; and i, 454–5.

Gilliss James M. , “Schreiben des Herrn Lieut. Gilliss an Herrn Professor Gerling”, Astronomische Nachrichten , xxxi (1850), cols 145–52, see cols 145–6.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, pp. xxxiii–xxxiv.

Ibid. , i, 455.

Ibid. , iii, pp. xxxiii–xxxiv. According to Callahan Edward W. (ed.), List of officers of the Navy and of the United States Marine Corps, 1775–1900 (New York, 1901), 285, Hunter resigned from the Navy in 1854.

Gould , “S.P.”, p. lxviii.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, p. xxxiii.

Gould , “S.P.”, p. lxviii.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , i, 506–7; and iii, pp. xix, xxxvi, and xxxix.

Ibid. , i, 507–8.

Ibid. , 509; and “The late Professor Moesta”, The observatory , vii (1884), 173–4, p. 173. A brief account of the transfer of ownership of the observatory to Chile is given by Keenan Philip C. , “The earliest national observatories in Latin America”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxii (1991), 21–30, pp. 25–26.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , i, 509–10. Phelps would eventually return to South America several times as an agent and vice president of the United States Mail Steamship Co., and finally in 1883 as U. S. minister to Peru where he died ( National cyclopedia of American biography , xii, 358–9).

Archibald MacRae , “Report of a journey across the Andes and pampas of the Argentine provinces”, in Gilliss , N.A.E. , ii, 1–67. An accident with the pack animals rendered the recordings useless and MacRae repeated the crossing at his own expense in 1853–54.

Reuel Edmond Smith , The Araucanians; or, Notes of a tour among the Indian tribes of Southern Chili [sic] (New York, 1855), p. vi. Smith was probably the Edmund Reuel Smith (1829–1911) who exhibited works at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1859 ( The New York Historical Society's dictionary of artists in America, 1564–1860 , ed. by Groce George C. Wallace David H. (New Haven, 1957), 587).

“New determination of the solar parallax”, American journal of science , 2nd series, xxvi (1858), 146–7. Gould's introductory section was most likely delayed in part as a result of his imbroglio at the Dudley Observatory during this period; see James , op. cit. (ref. 6), 94 ff.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, p. lvii.

Gould , “S.P.”, p. cclxxxviii.

Benjamin A. Gould Jr , “New work”, The astronomical journal , xxi (1858), 168.

Gould , Biographical notice (ref. 5), 43.

Airy George B. , “On the means which will be available for correcting the measure of the Sun's distance, in the next twenty-five years”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , xvii (1857), 208–21.

“A catalogue of 16,748 southern stars”, Washington observations for 1890 (Washington, D.C., 1895), Appendix I, pp. iii, xlvi.

Ibid. , p. iv.

Gould , “S.P.”, p. lxviii.

Gould , “S.P.”, p. lxx.

Stone E. J. , “A determination of the Sun's mean equatorial horizontal parallax … 1862”, Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society , xxxiii (1865), 77–102, p. 79; and David Gill , “Introduction”, in [Isabel Sarah] Gill , Six months in Ascension, an unscientific account of a scientific expedition (London, 1878), p. xxii. Simon Newcomb , Popular astronomy (London, 1878), 174, is the only reviewer to come to my attention who looked beyond cooperation in explaining the failure of the expedition.

The view that Maury neglected to make observations from Washington has been attributed to competitiveness and malice, though more recently to Maury's lack of interest in astronomy. See Chester C. M. , “The work of the Naval Observatory”, Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute , xxx (1904), 265–88, p. 271; Harrison John P. , “Science and politics: Origins and objectives of mid-nineteenth century governments expeditions to Latin America”, Hispanic American historical review , xxxv (1955), 175–202, p. 185; and Bruce Robert V. , The launching of modern American science, 1846–1876 (New York, 1987), 180–1.

Maury Matthew F. , “Schreiben des Herrn M F Maury an den Herausgeber”, Astronomische Nachrichten , 1 (1859), cols 153–6, see cols 155–6.

For discussions of perception of Maury see, e.g., Bruce , op. cit. (ref. 49), 181–3; Leigh Frances Williams , Matthew Fontaine Maury, scientist of the sea (New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1963), 236ff; and Marc Rothenberg , “Observers and theoreticians: Astronomy at the Naval Observatory, 1845–1861”, Sky with ocean joined , ed. by Steven Dick Leroy Doggett (Washington, D.C., 1983), 29–43, pp. 35–37 and his note 18.

Both Gould , Biographical notice (ref. 5), 27 and 54, and Simon Newcomb , “The United States Naval Observatory”, North American review , cv (1867), 384–6, maligned Maury's work at the Naval Observatory together with his “desertion” to the Confederacy.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, p. xxiv.

Maury , “Schreiben des Herrn M F Maury an den Herausgeber” (ref. 50), cols 155–6.

Gould , “S.P.”, p. cclxxxvi. Gould distinguished “micrometric” equatorial telescope observations from observations made with meridian instruments.

Stephens Carlene E. , “Astronomy as a public utility: The Bond years at the Harvard College Observatory”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxi (1990), 21–35, pp. 30–31; Gould , “S.P.”, pp. lxx–lxxi; Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, 453–60; and William Bond , “Letter from Mr. Bond to the editor”, The astronomical journal , v (1857), 53.

Gould , “S.P.”, pp. lxx–lxxi and xcvi, and Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, pp. 127 and 142.

Maury , “Schreiben des Herrn M F Maury an den Herausgeber” (ref. 50), cols 155–6, and Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, 1–305. The base numbers do not match because Maury began the first Mars series over a month before the Santiago observatory was in operation.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, pp. xxxiv and xxxviii.

Gilliss , N.A.E. , iii, 389–414.

Gould , “S.P.”, p. cclxxxviii.

Ibid. , p. cclxxxviii, and Newcomb , Popular astronomy (ref. 48), 174.

“The late Professor Moesta” (ref. 34), 174.

Simon Newcomb , “Investigation of the distance of the Sun and of the elements which depend upon it”, Astronomical and meteorological observations made at the United States Naval Observatory during the year 1865 (Washington, D.C., 1867), Appendix II, 22. The modern value for the solar parallax is 8′.79405 ( Lang Kenneth R. , Astrophysical formulae (Berlin, 1980), 524).

Daily national intelligencer , 10 February 1865, 2.

Janiczek P. M. , “Remarks on the transit of Venus expedition of 1874”, Sky with ocean joined (ref. 51), 68.