On Nov. 7, 1848, a transit circle was set up and it completed the set of new instruments at first proposed for the observatory. Previous to this date two new “comet seekers” had been received, the gifts respectively of President Quincy and Mr. J. I. Bowditch. With these in the six years beginning with 1845 the original discovery of ten comets was made by Mr. G. P. Bond. In his report for 1846 Prof. Bond says that during that year stellar and lunar observations had been made in co-operation with like work done by observers of the United States Coast Survey at West Point, Philadelphia and Nantucket, to determine longitudes for the purposes of the coast survey. [Illustration: W. C. BOND’S OBSERVATORY CHAIR.] But visions of the sky were not the only matters of interest at the observatory in this early period. The great telescope was poised at a height of 13 feet from the floor of the dome, and its sweep was from three degrees beyond the zenith to as many below the horizon. The visual end of the instrument therefore might need to be set at any point along an arc of 90 degrees, and an observer would have to be something of an acrobat in successfully using it unless a suitable chair could be obtained. There was none in the world that filled all the requirements, and Prof. Bond invented and made one. It is in use, unchanged, to this day, and by means of its ingeniously combined wheels, cogs and pulleys the observer can quickly and easily place himself anywhere along the vertical quarter circle and horizontal full circle traversed by the eye-piece of the telescope. Prior to 1845 a transfer of 12 chronometers to and from Greenwich, Eng., had been made by Prof. Bond and Commodore Owen, for the determination of the longitude of the observatory. Other chronometer expeditions were conducted subsequently in co-operation with the United States Coast Survey, the final one being in 1855. In the summing up of results, 723 independent chronometer records were used. The magnitude of this undertaking, as a whole, surpassed anything ever attempted in any other country. In his report, reviewing the year 1848, the director says; “Some experiments made with the daguerreotype and talbotype processes for obtaining impressions of the sun’s image formed by the telescope have not been attended with complete success; however, we do not despair of ultimate success.”