PROFESSOR ROBERT WHITE McFARLAND'S
HISTORY OF THE ASTRONOMICAL PIER
AT MIAMI UNIVERSITY
A recent issue of the Alumni News
Letter of Miami
University published the history of the
Astronomical
Pier at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio,
as it was writ-
ten by Professor Robert White
McFarland, with a quill
pen in 1904, and sent to Dr. Clyde
Fisher, an alumnus
of that institution, and now curator of
astronomy, and
visual instruction at the American
Museum of Natural
History, New York City. Following is
the contribu-
tion of Professor McFarland:
THE ASTRONOMICAL PIER
Forty or fifty yards southwestwardly
from the south door
of the main building there is a stone
pier about three feet high
and about two feet square. Almost every
stranger who sees it
asks what it was for. This article will
give answer and in addition
thereto will state some general
historical facts pertaining to the
subject.
The first third of the last century had
passed before any
marked attention was given to astronomy
in the United States.
From 1835 to 1840 there was a general
waking up on the subject.
In the former year there was not a
single pedestal for a transit
telescope on this continent. An extract
or two may serve to
make the case clear. So far as known to
me the first suggestion
of an observatory was made by Mr.
Hassler, a Swiss mathema-
tician, who had settled in this country.
The communication was
laid before Congress in 1807 by Albert Gallatin, a
member of the
President's cabinet, I think. But the
proposition met with no
favor and Mr. Hassler had proposed to
have a coast survey in-
stituted and the observatory was to be
used in connection with
that undertaking. About ten years later
a beginning was made
in the survey and Mr. Hassler was put in
charge of the work. But
Vol. XLI--21. (321)
322 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
little was done until after 1830. In the
first annual message of
President John Quincy Adams in 1825 he
recommended the found-
ing of a National University. He says,
"Connected with the estab-
lishment of a university or separate
from it, might be undertaken
the erection of an Astronomical
Observatory with provision for
the support of an astronomer to be in
constant attendance of obser-
vation upon the phenomena of the heavens
and for the periodical
publication of his observations. It is
with no feeling of pride as
an American that the remark may be made
that in the compara-
tively small surface of Europe there are
existing upward of one
hundred and thirty of these light-houses
of the sky, while
through the whole American hemisphere
there is not one--while
scarcely a year passes over our heads
without bringing some new
astronomical discovery to light which we
must fain receive at sec-
ondhand from Europe. Are we not cutting
ourselves off from the
means of returning light for light while
we have neither observa-
tory nor observer upon our half of the
globe?"
Professor Loomis says, "This
eloquent appeal from the
chief magistrate of the country in
behalf of the cause of
Science was received with a general
torrent of ridicule." In 1832
an act of Congress in regard to the
Coast Survey expressly forbids
the erection of an observatory.
In 1830, Yale College had received as a
gift, a telescope of
five-inch aperture. It was placed in the
steeple of one of the
College buildings, and there in 1835
Professors Olmsted and
Loomis observed Halley's comet weeks
before any account of it
was received from the observatories of
Europe. This fact may
have served to draw the attention of
astronomers to the general
neglect of their science.
In 1833 Sir John Herschel went to the
Cape of Good Hope
to make astronomical observations with a
large telescope. He re-
mained some years. Meanwhile a New York
writer made up a
long account of Sir John's discoveries,
and published it in news-
papers. He had not received any
information at all from the as-
tronomer, but that made no
difference--he gave a full and glowing
description of things seen on the moon
and excited widespread
interest on the subject. Professor
Olmsted of Yale went to New
York to see this wise man--and found the
account a fabrication.
The story was published in book form,
and was known as the
"Moon Hoax."
In 1836 Sears C. Walker published an
edition of Sir John
Herschel's astronomy, and before 1840 there appeared
also the
treatises of Olmstead, of Gurnmere and
Norton, all creditable
works.
History of Astronomical Pier at Miami
University 323
The first observatory in the United
States was built at Wil-
liams College, Massachusetts, in 1836.
The next two efforts at
establishing observatories were made in
Ohio, one at Western
Reserve College at Hudson, not far from
Cleveland, under the
personal direction of Professor Loomis;
the other at Miami Uni-
versity by John Locke, Professor in a
Cincinnati College of Medi-
cine. Locke's attempt preceded Loomis's
by a few months. In
the fall of 1836 Professor Loomis went
to Europe to purchase the
necessary outfit for his observatory. He
returned in the fall of
1837, and in September 1838 the
instruments were put in place.
Loomis calls this the second one erected
in this country, but the
one at Oxford was a little in advance.
The old stone pier long
bore on its west face this inscription
"Designed in 1834
and erected in 1838
By John Locke M. D."
More than twenty years ago some vandal
defaced the stone
and partly destroyed the inscription.
Locke had been on the first Geological
Survey of Ohio and
delivered some lectures on geology,
while engaged on the astron-
omical pier. The small transit telescope
used in the University
had been purchased of the Cincinnati
college in 1836. The pier
was made to suit the cast-iron frame
which supports the transit
while in use. One of the iron fastenings
is still on the old pier.
From 1834 to 1846 Ormsby M. Mitchel was
professor of
mathematics and astronomy in the
Cincinnati college. He was an
enthusiastic astronomer unequalled in
this country and possibly in
any country. By his own unaided
exertions, by talks, and by lec-
tures he raised funds for the Cincinnati
observatory, and it is
probable that the small transit which
Miami purchased was
deemed too small for his purposes, and
that its sale might further
his own wishes. He was a most potent
factor in the astronomical
awakening of the West. When the
corner-stone of his observatory
was laid in 1843 on the summit of Mt.
Adams, John Quincy
Adams made the address.
The writer of this article and other
students in Augusta
College, Kentucky, made arrangements to
hear that address, but
for some reason not now remembered, it
was not done. But to
return to "our mutton." After
the pier was put in place here in
the early part of 1838, a small frame house was put
over it. But
in the course of a year or two, some
persons more inclined to
pranks than to study, tore the building
down and scattered the
lumber around.
324 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
The transit was replaced in the college
apparatus room and
the building was never restored, and the
several changes in the
professorship of astronomy here from
1836 to 1848 had an ad-
verse influence on the subject.
Mitchell endeavored to find some way in
which the astrono-
mical clock should record the seconds,
and the old clock now in
the office of the Secretary here is said
to have been the one on
which the trial was first made After
some years the chronograph
was invented, an instrument now used in
every observatory on the
globe--both Locke and Mitchel claiming
part in the invention.
The principal statements above made
concerning the old stone
pier were given to me by Professor Bishop
nearly fifty years ago,
while the incidents were still
comparatively recent, and fresh in the
memory. It would be well if the old
clock and the old pier could
be long preserved, and their history be
made known.
BRONZE TABLET AT MIAMI OBSERVATORY
On the south side of Miami University's
astronom-
ical observatory, Maple avenue, a
handsome bronze
tablet has recently been placed. The
inscription on the
tablet is as follows:
The Robert W. McFarland
Observatory
Named in Honor of
Robert W. McFarland
Professor of Mathematics and
Astronomy
1856-1873
President of the University
1885-1888
Dr. McFarland was one of the most
beloved men on the
faculty of "Old Miami." He was
a descendant of Simon Kenton
and a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Civil
War. He was born June 16,
1825, and died October 23, 1910. A
sketch of his life appears in
volume 21, pp. 333-334 of
the Publications of the Society.