OBTAINING LONGITUDE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 6, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 31.

OBTAINING LONGITUDE.

WHAT it means to get the longitude of a place is shown in the following: The College of Civil Engineering at Cornell University is engaged in the determination of the longitude of Cornell. They are working conjointly with the United States Naval Survey and Harvard University. Two officers of the Naval Survey are stationed at Washington, D. C., for accomplishing this purpose. The astronomical observations at the three places must be carried on simultaneously, and great difficulty is experienced in getting nights which

are sufficiently clear at all three places. Twenty stars are to be observed, in sets of four each night, and ten nights of simultaneous observation will be required to complete the work. The Cornell observer will then go to Washington to correct his personal equation, after which all the three sets of observations will be reduced to a common standard of time, and the special relation of Cornell to the rest of the universe will be determined with final accuracy.—Selected.