" The
execution of this law necessarily involves the question, "What
shall be considered astronomical and what nautical purposes?"
Whether it was from the difficulty of deciding this question, or
from nobody's remembering the law, the latter has been practically
a dead letter. Surely, if there is any region of the globe which
the law intended should be referred to the meridian of Washington,
it is the interior of our own country. Yet, notwithstanding the
law, all acts of Congress relating to the territories have, so far
as I know, referred everything to the meridian of Greenwich and
not to that of Washington. Even the maps issued by our various
surveys are referred to the same transatlantic meridian. The
absurdity culminated in a local map of the city of Washington and
the District of Columbia, issued by private parties, in 1861, in
which we find even the meridians passing through the city of
Washington referred to a supposed Greenwich.
This practice has led to a confusion which may not be evident at
first sight, but which is so great and permanent that it may be
worth explaining. If, indeed, we could actually refer all our
longitudes to an accurate meridian of Greenwich in the first
place; if, for instance, any western region could be at once
connected by telegraph with the Greenwich Observatory, and thus
exchange longitude signals night after night, no trouble or
confusion would arise from referring to the meridian of Greenwich.
Pages:
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274