Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 49.djvu/790

766 the motto of the Philanthropic Society, "Virtue, Liberty, and Science,"

The first gift to the university, other than lands and money, came from the ladies of Raleigh and Newbern, who contributed a pair of globes, a compass, and a quadrant. The first student, Hinton James, chose as the subjects of his senior forensics, "The Uses of the Sun," "The Commerce of Britain," and "The Motions of the Earth."

The young Professor of Mathematics was made president of the university in 1804. His prosperity culminated in 1824, when the financial condition of the university was so good as to allow the trustees to send him to Europe for the purchase of scientific apparatus and books, appropriating six thousand dollars for the purpose.

Soon after his return from Europe President Caldwell planned an observatory, which he built with his own money. The building was finished in 1827, and in the observatory he placed the instruments which he had brought from Europe. These were a meridian transit telescope, made by Simms, of London; an altitude and azimuth telescope, also made by Simms; a telescope for observations on the earth and sky, made by Dolland, of London; and an astronomical clock with a mercurial pendulum, made by Molineux, of London. To these stationary instruments were added a sextant, made by Wilkinson, of London; a portable reflecting circle, made by Harris, of London; and a Hadley's quadrant.

Before the completion of the observatory building, the clock and meridian transit were set up and used in the library of the university, which was also Prof. Caldwell's lecture room. Here began, in 1825, the first systematic observations upon the heavens made in the United States. Dr. Caldwell was assisted by Profs. Mitchell and Phillips, and their first work was to find the approximate values of the longitude and the latitude of the building in which they worked. Mitchell was a Yale man of the class of