Congress authorizes U.S. Naval Observatory, Aug. 31, 1844

On August 31, 1842, the United States Naval Observatory was authorized by an act of Congress. From the article:

"On this day in 1844, Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Naval Observatory. Then located on a hill north of where the Lincoln Memorial now stands, the observatory, one of the oldest scientific agencies in the United States, expanded the mission assigned to the Navy’s depot of charts and instruments, formed in 1830 to care for its chronometers, charts and other navigational equipment. (It calibrated ships' chronometers by timing the transit of stars across the meridian.)

President John Quincy Adams, who in 1825 just before leaving office signed the bill to create an astronomical facility, intended for it to be called The National Observatory. National Observatory and Naval Observatory were used interchangeably as names for the next decade, until the naval designation was officially adopted. (After leaving office, Adams spent many nights at the observatory, watching and charting the stars.)

"FacebookTwitterPrint
Continue to article content
The vice-president's residence at the Naval Observatory.
In 1974, a large renovated house on the observatory grounds became the official residence of the U.S. vice president. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

Congress authorizes U.S. Naval Observatory, Aug. 31, 1844
By ANDREW GLASS 08/31/2018 07:09 AM EDT
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
On this day in 1844, Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Naval Observatory. Then located on a hill north of where the Lincoln Memorial now stands, the observatory, one of the oldest scientific agencies in the United States, expanded the mission assigned to the Navy’s depot of charts and instruments, formed in 1830 to care for its chronometers, charts and other navigational equipment. (It calibrated ships' chronometers by timing the transit of stars across the meridian.)

President John Quincy Adams, who in 1825 just before leaving office signed the bill to create an astronomical facility, intended for it to be called The National Observatory. National Observatory and Naval Observatory were used interchangeably as names for the next decade, until the naval designation was officially adopted. (After leaving office, Adams spent many nights at the observatory, watching and charting the stars.)


The observatory’s time ball was one of the first systems to support remote users. Placed into service in 1845, it dropped the ball from a mast every day except Sunday at precisely mean solar noon in Washington, which enabled the navigators of ships anchored in the Potomac River to recalibrate their chronometers.

After the Civil War, the observatory’s clocks were linked via telegraph to ring the alarms in all Washington firehouses three times a day. By the early 1870s, its daily noontime signal was being distributed nationwide via the Western Union Telegraph Co."