The First College Observatory in the United States.
James L. Love, Associate Professor Mathematics, Univ. North Carolina.
The Sidereal Messenger.  Vol. 7, No. 10, Dec. 1888. pp417-20.
    An Astronomical Observatory begun at the University of North  Carolina 
in 1831 and completed in 1832 has, for some reason, remained  unnoticed by 
historians of astronomy. Professor Loomis, in his 'Progress of Astronomy', 
edition of 1850, gives to Yale College the  credit of the first purchase of 
a telescope, in 1828; and to  Williams College the honor of erecting the 
first Observatory in 1836.  But the University of North Carolina bought 
instruments before Yale,  and built an Observatory before Williams.  Yale 
College ordered her  telescope in 1828, received it in 1830, and placed it 
in the steeple  of one of the buildings, where low windows interfered with 
its use.  Professor Albert Hopkins went to Europe in 1834 to select 
instruments  for Williams College; and his Observatory was ready for use in 
June,  1838. President Joseph Caldwell went to Europe in 1824 to buy books  
and apparatus for the University of North Carolina. He laid out  $3,234.74 
for books and $3,361.35 for apparatus, of which a large  part was for 
astronomical instruments. These were received in  1825-26, and were at 
first set up in Dr. Caldwell's lecture room; and  used in determining, 
among other things, the first approximate values  of the latitude and 
longitude of Chapel Hill. The foundations of the  Observatory were laid in 
April, 1831; but work was stopped until  March, 1832, when it was resumed 
and kept up until the completion of  the building in August, 1832. It was a 
single-roomed building 15 by  23 feet and about 25 feet high. The first 
eight feet of the wall were  of stone, plastered inside and out, and 
enclosing a low basement slightly excavated.  Above this the walls were of 
brick, terminating in a low parapet round the top. The first floor  was 
several feet from the ground, and was reached by a flight of  steps on the 
eastern face of the building. The roof was a nearly  flat double floor, 
caulked and pitched. A steep stairway inside the  building led up to this 
upper floor. Two pillars of masonry rose up  through the interior, one of 
them terminating just above the first  floor and bearing the transit 
instrument, and the other rising above  the roof and bearing the altitude 
and azimuth instrument on its top.  A low tower with doors in opposite 
faces was constructed to protect  the altitude and azimuth instrument. This 
tower was placed on a  railway and was moved back and forth by rope and 
windlasses. Its top  was flat and was reached by a light ladder. To furnish 
a range for  the transit, which was inside the building, a slit several 
inches  wide was made across the roof and down into the north and south  
faces of the walls, in the plane of the meridian. Shutters were  
constructed to close up this slit when the transit was not in use.
    The building was on a low hill just outside the campus. The trees  had 
been cut away so that a sweep of the entire horizon could be made  with the 
altitude and azimuth instrument. This was not a private  Observatory. The 
entire cost of the huilding ($430), as well as of  the instruments, was 
paid by the University.
    The transit instrument was made by Simms of London. Its focal length  
was 44 inches and its aperture 3 inches. The altitude and azimuth  
instrument was also made by Simms. Its aperture was 2 1/2 inches and  focal 
length 33. Its horizontal and vertical circles were 20 and 24  inches in 
diameter, respectively, with two verniers and reading  microscopes to each. 
These circles were graduated on platinum bands  to 5 minutes of arc.
    The telescope was a small portable one of 2 1/2 inches aperture and 52 
inches focal length. It was made by Dollond of London. The astronomical 
clock was made by Molyneux, with mercurial pendulum. The outfit contained 
also a reflecting circle made by Harris of London, a sextant, and a 
Hadley's quadrant.
    Observations were made here by Dr. Caldwell and his two colleagues 
professors James Philips and Elisha Mitchell, but they  were kept up for 
only a few years, but Dr. Caldlwell was the moving  spirit of the 
enterprise. His health began to fail soon after the  building was ready for 
use; and, after his death in 1835, there was  no one here who had time and 
inclination to push the enterprise on to  success. The times were not 
favorable here in North Carolina, nor any  where else in this country, for 
the establishment of Observatories.  Our national Observatory was not 
authorized by Congress for ten years  after this; and even then, its name 
had to be disguised as that of a  'Depot of Charts and Instruments'. It was 
only when some individual  enthusiast like Albert Hopkins or Joseph 
Caldwell, by his personal  effort or influence had an Observatory erected, 
that anything at all  was done. Had Dr. Caldwell been in the prime of life, 
or had there  been any successor to his zeal and energy, something 
excellent would  have grown out of this beginning. But Dr. Caldwell's 
successor in  the Presidency of theUniversity, D. L. Swain, was in no sense 
a  scientific man. His studies were in history, law and politics. The  
Observatory was not fostered by him. The roof began to leak, and it  proved 
so troublesome that the instruments were removed soon after  Dr. Caldwell's 
death; and the wood-work of the building was burnt  from some unknown cause 
about 1838. In a few years the bricks were  hauled away and used in 
building a kitchen, which is in use still!  The foundations of the 
Observatory can be easily traced yet, and  there are several persons of the 
highest character, now living in  Chapel Hill, who witnessed observations 
there in their childhood. All  records of observatiops have been lost; 
whether during reconstruction  days when the University was closed for some 
years and some of the  dormitories turned into stables by negro troops, or 
before, no one  knows.
    All the instruments but the reflecting circle and the quadrant are 
still in the possession of the University; and all are unfit for use except 
the telescope and clock. The latter still marks time for Chapel Hill. It 
will be granted, I think, that Dr. Caldwell had a pretty fair nucleus of 
apparatus to begin his Observatory with. A telescope costing twelve or 
thirteen hundred dollars was in contemplation, but Dr. Caldwell's death 
caused the failure of the whole enterprise before it could be bought.
    Dr. Caldwell was a graduate of Princeton, and was called to the 
Professorship of Mathematics in the University of North Carolina soon after 
its establishment in 1795. He was afterwards made president. When he died 
in 1835, he had brought the University up to a position whicll compared 
very favorably with older and wealthier institutions. He brought back from 
Europe in 1801 nearly a thousand volumes of very carefully and 
intelligently selected books to start a good library with. The apparatus he 
bought was of the best. He brought to Chapel Hill some of the best talent 
in the country as members of his faculty. Among them were Professor James 
Phillips and Dr. Elisha Mitchell, wllo lost his life in the scientific 
exploration of the highest mountain east of the Mississippi, a peak of the 
Alleghany range in western North Carolina now called for him 'Mitchell's 
Peak'; also Professor Ethan A. Andrews, who was called from here to a 
professorship of Latin in New Haven, Connecticut; and Denison Olmsted, who 
went from here to Yale.
    Dr. Caldwell's efforts to promote science deserved a higher 
appreciation than they have yet received. Let us hope that he, and the 
institution he guided so intelligently; may be given the credit they merit 
for building the first College Observatory in the Union.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Oct. 31, 1888.