The Project Gutenberg eBook ofEarly American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofEarly American Scientific Instruments and Their MakersThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Early American Scientific Instruments and Their MakersAuthor: Silvio A. BediniRelease date: March 14, 2012 [eBook #39141]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Hunter Monroe, Joseph Cooper andthe Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS AND THEIR MAKERS ***

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Early American Scientific Instruments and Their MakersAuthor: Silvio A. BediniRelease date: March 14, 2012 [eBook #39141]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Hunter Monroe, Joseph Cooper andthe Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net

Title: Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers

Author: Silvio A. Bedini

Release date: March 14, 2012 [eBook #39141]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Hunter Monroe, Joseph Cooper andthe Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS AND THEIR MAKERS ***

and Their Makers

SILVIO A. BEDINI

inside cover

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

shield

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 231

WASHINGTON, D.C.

1964

Publications of the United States National Museum

The scholarly publications of the United States National Museum include two series,Proceedings of the United States National MuseumandUnited States National Museum Bulletin.

In these series are published original articles and monographs dealing with the collections and work of the Museum and setting forth newly acquired facts in the fields of anthropology, biology, geology, history, and technology. Copies of each publication are distributed to libraries and scientific organizations and to specialists and others interested in the various subjects.

TheProceedings, begun in 1878, are intended for the publication, in separate form, of shorter papers. These are gathered in volumes, octavo in size, with the publication date of each paper recorded in the table of contents of the volume.

In theBulletinseries, the first of which was issued in 1875, appear longer, separate publications consisting of monographs (occasionally in several parts) and volumes in which are collected works on related subjects.Bulletinsare either octavo or quarto in size, depending on the needs of the presentation. Since 1902 papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum have been published in theBulletinseries under the headingContributions from the United States National Herbarium.

Frank A. Taylor,Director, United States National Museum.

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C., 20402—Price $1.00 (Paper Cover)

Frontispiece

Frontispiece.—"Washington as a Surveyor." Engraving reproduced from Washington Irving's Life of George Washington (New York: 1857, vol. 1).

and Their Makers

SILVIO A. BEDINI

Curator of Mechanical and Civil Engineering

MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

WASHINGTON, 1964

Contents

PageAcknowledgmentsixPrefacexiThe Tools of Science3Philosophical and Practical Instruments3The Need for Instruments6Colonial Training in Instrument Making8The Mathematical Practitioners15The Rittenhouse Brothers15Andrew Ellicott19Owen Biddle21Benjamin Banneker22Joel Baily24Reverend John Prince24Amasa Holcomb26Instruments of Metal27Pre-Revolutionary Immigrant Makers27Post-Revolutionary Immigrant Makers30Native American Makers33New Hampshire34Vermont34Massachusetts36Rhode Island43Connecticut45Ohio49New York51New Jersey53Delaware54Maryland and Virginia54Pennsylvania58Instruments of Wood65The Use of Wood65Surviving Instruments69Compass Cards75Trade Signs75The Makers80Joseph Halsy80James Halsy II84Thomas Greenough85William Williams93Samuel Thaxter97John Dupee104Jere Clough105Andrew Newell106Aaron Breed107Charles Thacher107Benjamin King Hagger109Benjamin Warren112Daniel Burnap117Gurdon Huntington118Jedidiah Baldwin123Thomas Salter Bowles124The New Era130The National Collection131Appendix153Surviving Wooden Surveying Compasses153Mathematical Practitioners and Instrument Makers155Bibliography172Index177

The writer wishes to acknowledge his great indebtedness to the various compilations relating to clockmakers and instruments which have been consulted in the preparation of this work, and which have provided an invaluable basis for it.

He is especially grateful for the generous and interested assistance of the many who have cooperated in making this work possible. Particular credit must be given to Mrs. H. Ropes Cabot of the Bostonian Society; Mrs. Mary W. Phillips of the Department of Science and Technology of the U.S. National Museum; Prof. Derek J. de Solla Price, Avalon Professor of the History of Science at Yale University; Mr. Stephen T. Riley, Director of the Massachusetts Historical Society; and Mr. Charles E. Smart of Troy, New York.

Within recent years fairly exhaustive studies have been made on many aspects of American science and technology. For example, there have been numerous works relating to clocks and clockmakers, so that the collector and horological student have a number of useful sources on which to rely. More recently there has been a series of publications on the development of American tools and their makers. Until now, however, no systematic study has been attempted of the scientific instruments used in the United States from its colonial beginnings. While several useful regional lists of instrument makers in early America have been compiled from advertisements in contemporary newspapers and published as short articles, these, however, are fragmentary, and are inadequate to the need for documentation in this field.

With the rapidly growing interest in the history of science, it becomes necessary to have a more complete background for the student and the historian alike. It is desirable to have a more comprehensive picture of the work of the scientific practitioners of the earlier periods of American scientific development, and of their tools. At the same time it is essential to have a history of the development and distribution and use of scientific instruments by others than the practitioners and teachers. The role of the instrument maker in the American Colonies was an important one—as it was in each epoch of the history of science in Europe—and it deserves to be reported.

To make a comprehensive study of American scientific instruments and instrument makers in the American Colonies is no simple matter, partly because of an indifference to the subject in the past, and partly because of the great volume of sources that must be sifted to accomplish it. Such a project would require an organized search of all published reference works relating to the field and associated topics, of all contemporary newspapers for advertisements and notices, of civil records filed in state and community archives, of business account-books and records that have been preserved, and of business directories of the period under consideration. In addition, such a study would require the compilation of an inventory of all surviving instruments in private and public collections, and a correlation of all the data that could be assembled from these sources.

The present study attempts only in part to accomplish this aim, being no more than a preliminary compilation of the scientific instruments known to have been used during the first two centuries of American colonial existence. It merely attempts to assemble all the data that is presently available in scattered sources, and to organize it in a usable form for the student and historian of American science. A supplement relating to 19th-century instruments and instrument makers is in progress.

The most that is hoped for the present work is that it will be of temporary assistance, serving to bring forth additional information on the subject from sources not previously available or known.

February 1, 1964S.A.B.

and Their Makers

Development of the sciences in the American Colonies was critically dependent upon the available tools—scientific instruments—and the men who made and used them. These tools may be separated into two groups. The first group consists of philosophical instruments and scientific teaching apparatus produced and employed for experimentation and teaching in educational institutions. The second includes the so-called "mathematical instruments" of practical use, which were employed by mathematical practitioners and laymen alike for the mensural and nautical needs of the Colonies. It is particularly with this second group that the present study is concerned.

It has been generally assumed that scientific instruments, as well as the instrument makers, of the first two centuries of American colonization were imported from England, and that the movement declined by the beginning of the 19th century with the development of skilled native craftsmen.[1]This assumption is basically true for those instruments grouped under philosophical and scientific apparatus for experimentation and teaching. Almost all of these items were in fact imported from England and France until well into the 19th century.

Likewise, the very earliest examples of mathematical instruments for surveying and navigation in the Colonies were imported with the settlers from England. It was not long after the establishment of the first settlements, however, that the settlers, and later the first generation of native Americans, began to produce their own instruments. Records derived from historical archives and from the instruments themselves reveal that a considerable number of the instruments available and used in the Colonies before 1800 were of native production. Apparently, relatively few instrument makers immigrated to the American continent before the end of theRevolutionary War. Later, with the beginning of the 19th century, makers of and dealers in instruments in England and France became aware of the growing new market, and emigrated in numbers to establish shops in the major cities of commerce in the United States.

Quite possibly the few instrument makers trained in England who immigrated to the Colonies in the early epoch of Colonial development may have in turn trained others in their communities, although no evidence has yet been found. Perhaps more data on this aspect of the subject will eventually come to light.

There is reason to believe that a few mathematical practitioners and instrument makers lived and worked in the New England colonies as early as the first century of colonization.

The evidence, frankly meager, consists of two items. The first is a reference relating to James Halsie of Boston. In a land deed made out to him in 1674 he was referred to as a "Mathematician."[2]Halsie was listed as a freeman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1690. He apparently was the forbear of the several members of the Halsy family of instrument makers of Boston of the 18th century, mentioned later in this study. It is uncertain whether the use of the term "mathematician" in this connection meant an artisan, but if not it may be inferred that Halsie was a practitioner.

The second piece of evidence is even more slender; it consists of an inscription upon a dialing rule (fig. 1) for making sundials and charts. The instrument is of cast brass, 20-7/16 inches long and 1-11/16 inches wide. The date "1674" is inscribed on the rule together with the name of its original owner, "Arthur Willis." The instrument almost certainly was produced by the school of Henry Sutton, the notable English instrument maker who worked in Threadneedle Street in London from about 1637 through 1665. The name and date inscriptions are consistent and contemporary with the workmanship of the rule, and were probably inscribed by the maker for the original owner. It is conceivable that Arthur Willis was an Englishman and that the rule was brought into this country even in relatively recent times. However, it is claimed that the rule was owned and used by Nathaniel Footes, surveyor of Springfield, Massachusetts. Nathaniel Footes, believed to have been originally from Salem, subsequently moved from Springfield to Wethersfield, Conn. The instrument was later owned and usedin Connecticut not later than the early 19th century[3]by the forbears of Mr. Newton C. Brainard of Hartford, Connecticut. If records relating to Willis as a resident of the New England colonies can be recovered, it may then be possible to establish whether he worked in the Colonies as a mathematical practitioner in the 17th century. His name is included on a tentative basis.

Figure 1

Figure 1.—Dialing rule made of brass and inscribed with the name "Arthur Willis" and the date "1674." Allegedly used by Nathaniel Footes, surveyor of Springfield, Massachusetts. Photo courtesy Newton C. Brainard, Hartford, Connecticut, and the Connecticut Historical Society.

The production and use of scientific instruments in the American Colonies reflected colonial development in education and in territorial and economic expansion, and closely paralleled the same development in England, where the first mathematical practitioners were the teachers of navigational and commercial arithmetic and the surveyors employed in the redistribution of land following the dissolution of the monasteries. As the communities became established and the settlers gained a foothold on the soil, their attention naturally turned to improving their lot by expanding the land under cultivation and by trading their products for other needs. The growth of the communities became increasingly rapid from the end of the 17th century, and the land expansion closely paralleled the development of trade. The educational institutions placed greater emphasis on the sciences as their curriculums developed. Particularly there was a greater preoccupation with the sciences on the part of the layman because of the need for knowledge of surveying and navigation.

The colonial school curriculum was accordingly designed from the practical point of view to emphasize practical mathematics, and there was an increasing demand for instruction in all aspects of the subject. One of the earliest advertisements of this nature appeared inThe Boston Gazettein March 1719. In the issue of February 19 to March 7 the advertisement stated that:

This day Mr. Samuel Grainger opens his school at the House formerly Sir Charles Hobby's, where will be taught Grammar Writing after a free and easy manner in all the usual Hands, Arithmetick in a concise and Practical Method, Merchants Accompts, and the Mathematicks.He hopes that more thinking People will in no wise be discouraged from sending their children thither, on the account of the reports newly reviv'd, because these dancing Phaenomena's were never seen nor heard of in School Hours.

He hopes that more thinking People will in no wise be discouraged from sending their children thither, on the account of the reports newly reviv'd, because these dancing Phaenomena's were never seen nor heard of in School Hours.

The advertisement was further amplified in its second appearance, in the issue of March 21-22, 1719:

At the house formerly Sir Charles Hobby's are taught grammar, writing, after a free & easy manner in all hands usually practiced, Arithmetick Vulgar and Decimal in a concise and Practical Method, Merchants Accompts, Geometry, Algebra, Mensuration, Geography, Trigonometry, Astronomy, Navigation and other parts of the Mathematicks, with the use of the Globes and other Mathematical Instruments, by Samuel Grainger.They whose business won't permit 'em to attend the usual School Hours, shall be carefully attended and Instructed in the Evenings.

They whose business won't permit 'em to attend the usual School Hours, shall be carefully attended and Instructed in the Evenings.

R. F. Seybold[4]has noted that: "In advertisements of 1753 and 1754, John Lewis, of New York City, announced 'What is called a New Method of Navigation, is an excellent Method of Trigonometry here particularly applied to Navigation; But it is of great use in all kinds of measuring and in solving many Arithmetical Questions.' James Cosgrove, of Philadelphia, in 1755, taught 'geometry, trigonometry, and their application in surveying, navigation, etc.,' and Alexander Power, in 1766, 'With their Application to Surveying, Navigation, Geography, and Astronomy'." These subjects were featured also in the evening schools of the colonial period, maintained by private schoolmasters in some of the larger communities for the education of those who could not attend school in the daytime.

According to Seybold, surveying and navigation were the most popular mathematical subjects taught. Some explanation is to be derived from the statement by Schoen[5]that: "In the days when the 'bounds' of great wilderness tracts were being marked off by deep-cut blazes in the trees along a line, a knowledge of land surveying was a useful skill, and many a boy learned its elements by following the 'boundsgoer' in his work of 'running the line.' And those who did not actually take part in running the line must have attended many a gay springtime 'processioning' when neighbors made a festive occasion out of 'perambulating the bounds'." "Vague land grants and inaccurate surveys," he adds, "made the subject of boundary lines a prime issue in the everyday life of colonial homes."

At the same time there was interest in the other aspects of the mathematical sciences. As early as 1743, for instance, a Harvard mathematician named Nathan Prince advertised in Boston that if he were given "suitable Encouragement" he would establish a school to teach "Geography and Astronomy, With the Use of the Globes, and the several kinds of Projecting the Sphere" among other things.[6]A decade later, Theophilus Grew, professor in the academy at Philadelphia which has become the University of Pennsylvania, published a treatise on globes, with the title:

The DescriptionandUseof theGlobes, Celestial and Terrestrial; With Variety forExamplesfor the Learner'sExercises: Intended for the Use of Such Persons as would attain to the Knowledge of thoseInstruments; But Chiefly designed for theInstructionof the youngGentlemenat theAcademyin Philadelphia. To which is added Rules for working all the Cases in Plain and Spherical Triangles without a Scheme. ByTheophilus Grew, Mathematical Professor. Germantown, Printed by Christopher Sower, 1753.[7]

Thus, the need for practical mathematical instruments for the surveyor and navigator became critical in proportion to the need for men to make and use them, and it is not surprising to discover that the majority of the instruments produced and advertised by early American makers were for surveying, with nautical instruments in second place. Generally, the surveyors were not professionals; they were farmers, tradesmen, or craftsmen with a sound knowledge of basic arithmetic and occasionally with some advanced study of the subject as taught in the evening schools. The surveying of provincial and intercolonial boundaries required greater skill, however, as well as a knowledge of astronomy, and this work was relegated to the scientific men of the period.

As the increasing preoccupation with subdivision of land and with surveying led to a greater demand for suitable instruments, it was the skilled craftsmen of the community, such as the clockmaker and the silversmith, that were called upon to produce them. Superb examples also were produced by the advanced scientific men, or "mathematical practitioners," of the period.

One may well ask, where did these native craftsmen acquire the knowledge that enabled them to produce so skillfully the accurateand often delicate mathematical instruments? There were a number of possible sources for this knowledge. The first source lies in England, where some of these craftsmen could have studied or served apprenticeships. After completing their apprenticeship with English mathematical practitioners, they may have immigrated to the Colonies and taught the craft to others. This seems to be entirely plausible, and was probably true, for example, of Thomas Harland the clockmaker, Anthony Lamb, and perhaps several others. However, these were the exceptions instead of the rule, since a biographical study of the instrument makers in general reveals that they were for the most part native to America. It is not likely that the one or two isolated practitioners that had been trained in England could have taught so many others who worked in the same epoch.

Figure 2

Figure 2.—Title page of The Surveyor by Aaron Rathborne, published in London in 1616. The book was one of the sources of information for American makers of mathematical instruments.

Another source for this knowledge of instrument making was probably the reference works on the subject that had been published in England and in France. As an example, Nicolas Bion'sTraitè de la Construction et des Principaux Usages des Instruments de Mathematique, which had been first published in 1686, was translated into English by Edmund Stone in 1723, and went into several English editions. Copies of this work in English undoubtedly found their way to America soon after publication. Other popular works were Aaron Rathbone'sThe Surveyor, which appeared in London in 1616 (see fig. 2); William Leybourn'sThe Compleat Surveyor, in 1653; and George Atwell'sFaithfull Surveyour, in 1662. Other works popular in the Colonies were R. Norwood'sEpitome, or The Doctrine of Triangles(London, 1659) and J. Love'sGeodasia, or the Art of Surveying(London, 1688).

These works undoubtedly inspired similar publications in America, for many books on surveying and navigation appeared there before the beginning of the 19th century. Chief among them were S. Moore'sAn Accurate System of Surveying(Litchfield, Conn., 1796), Z. Jess'sA Compendious System of Practical Surveying(Wilmington, 1799), Abel Flint'sSurveying(Hartford, 1804), and J. Day'sPrinciples of Navigation and Surveying(New Haven, 1817).

The published works were unquestionably responsible for much of the training in the making of mathematical instruments in America, although no documentary evidence has yet been recovered to prove it.

Another important influence on early American instrument-making which must be noted was that of the clockmaker as an artisan. A comprehensive study of surviving instruments andrelated records has revealed that only a few of the many clockmakers working in the American Colonies in the 18th century made mathematical instruments. Yet, a large proportion of the surviving surveying and nautical instruments produced before 1800 were the work of clockmakers. Classic among these must be noted the instruments produced by the brothers David and Benjamin Rittenhouse (see p. 15 and figs. 3 and 4), as well as the fine surveying instruments made by four separate members of the Chandlee family, whose clockmaking traditions began early in the 17th century (see p. 54).

Figure 3

Figure 3.—Transit telescope made by David Rittenhouse and used by him for the observation of the transit of Venus in 1769. Brass, 33-1/2-in. tube on a 25-in. axis, with an aperture of 1-3/4 in. and a focal length of 32 in. Photo courtesy the American Philosophical Society.

Figure 4

Figure 4.—Surveying compass marked "Potts and Rittenhouse." Believed to be the work of David Rittenhouse in partnership with Thomas Potts. Photo courtesy the American Philosophical Society.

Finally, one must not overlook the fact that examples of English and other European instruments were available in the Colonies, and that at least some of the early colonial makers undoubtedly copied them. It is apparent from some surviving early American instruments that the materials, designs, dimensions, and details of European prototypes had been deliberately copied. It is possible to see in public collections, for instance, a Davis quadrant of English manufacture exhibited beside a later example, signed by a New England maker, which comes extraordinarily close to duplicating it in every feature.

As with the presumed influence of published works, the practice of copying imported instruments cannot be documented, but it must have been engaged in by many of the unschooled New England instrument makers. By this means some may even have profited to the degree that they became professional craftsmen without benefit of formal apprenticeship.

Yet it is remarkable that although numerous instruments were produced by native artisans, in addition to the substantial number which were imported before the end of the 18th century, relatively few specimens have survived in public collections as well as in private hands. Despite the exhaustive combing of attics and barns throughout the country by dealers in antiques and by avid collectors during the past several decades, the number of surviving instruments now known is incredibly small in comparison with the numbers known to have been made locally or imported before the beginning of the 19th century. Since instruments are not items which would ordinarily be deliberately discarded or destroyed, or melted down for the recovery of the metal, this small percentage of survival presents a puzzle which has not been resolved.

Figure 5

Figure 5.—David Rittenhouse. Engraving from portrait by Charles Wilson Peale.

Notable among the American practitioners was David Rittenhouse (1732-1796) of Norristown and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was established as a clockmaker and surveyor in Philadelphia by 1749. He surveyed the boundary between Pennsylvania and Delaware in 1763 with instruments of his own design and construction. Six years later, in 1769, he successfully calculated the transit of Venus and later observed that planet with astronomical instruments he had constructed himself. In the following year, 1770, he built the first American astronomical observatory, in Philadelphia. Two orreries that he designed and built—at the University of Pennsylvania and at Princeton University—survive as outstanding examples of American craftsmanship.[8]Several of his surveying and astronomical instruments are exhibited in the collections of the U.S. National Museum. David Rittenhouse is credited with being the originator of a declination arc on the surveying compass, a feature to be copied by a number of later instrument makers.

David's brother, Benjamin Rittenhouse (1740-c.1820), served in the Revolution and was wounded at Brandywine. He superintended the Government's gunlock factory at Philadelphia in 1778 and achieved recognition as a maker of clocks and surveying instruments (see fig. 8).[9]During one period of his career he worked in partnership with his brother David. An interesting advertisement appeared in the May 14, 1785, issue ofThe Pennsylvania Packet:

WANTED, An ingenious Lad not exceeding 14 years of age, of a reputable family, as an Apprentice to learn the Art and Mistery of making Clocks and Surveying Instruments. Any lad inclining to go an apprentice to the above Trade, the terms on which he will be taken may [be] known by enquiring of Mr. David Rittenhouse, in Philadelphia, or at the subscriber's house in Worcester township, Montgomery county. Benjamin Rittenhouse.

Figure 6

Figure 6.—Astronomical clock made by David Rittenhouse for his observatory at Norristown, Pa., and used by him for the observation of the transit of Venus in 1769. Unembellished pine case 83-1/2 in. high, 13-1/4 in. wide at the waist with a silvered brass dial 10-5/8 in. diameter. Photo courtesy the American Philosophical Society.

Figure 7

Figure 7.—Orrery built by David Rittenhouse for the University of Pennsylvania. The center section shows the motions of the planets and their satellites and the right-hand section the eclipses of the Sun and Moon. The case, considered to be an outstanding example of colonial cabinet-work, was made by John Folwell.

Figure 8

Figure 8.—Brass surveying compass inscribed "Made by Benjamin Rittenhouse, 1787." Photo courtesy Ohio State Museum, Columbus, Ohio.

Figure 9

Figure 9.—Portrait of Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) by unknown artist.

A name closely associated with that of the Rittenhouse brothers was that of Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) of Solebury, Pennsylvania, and Ellicotts Mills, Maryland. Andrew was the son of Joseph Ellicott, the clockmaker and pioneer industrialist who founded Ellicotts Mills. Although a Quaker, Andrew (fig. 9) served in the Revolution, and he became one of the most distinguished engineers of the new republic. He worked as a clockmaker and instrument maker from 1774 to 1780. In 1784 he ran the boundary between Virginia and Pennsylvania and in the following year he was a member of the survey that continued Mason and Dixon's line. In 1785 and 1786 he served on the Pennsylvania commissions that surveyed the western and northern boundaries of the state, and in 1789 he served on the commission that fixed the boundary between New York and Pennsylvania. Between 1791 and 1793 he surveyed the site of the city of Washington, D.C., and redrew L'Enfant's plan for the city.

In early 1793 Ellicott was appointed commissioner by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the project of viewing and locating a road from Reading to Presque Isle, now Erie. It was an extremely difficult undertaking, but Ellicott completed the work by the autumn of 1796, including laying out the towns of Erie, Warren, and Franklin.

In May 1796 Ellicott was commissioned by President Washington to survey and mark the boundary line between the United States and the Spanish Province of Florida in accordance with the provisions of the Pinkney-Godoy Treaty of October 27, 1795. This line was to begin at the point where the 31st parallel of north latitude intersected the Mississippi River, and to proceed thence along that parallel eastward to the Appalachicola River for about 400 miles.

In 1801 Ellicott was offered the position of surveyor general of the United States by President Jefferson. Ellicott declined, but subsequently accepted the secretaryship of the land office of Pennsylvania, a post he held until 1808.

In 1811 Ellicott became commissioner to represent Georgia in locating the Georgia-North Carolina boundary, a project on which he was engaged for the major part of the following year.

In 1815 President Madison appointed Ellicott professor of mathematics at West Point, with the rank of major. This is an appointment he kept until his death in 1820. It was interruptedin 1817 when the Government required his services as astronomer to locate a portion of the United States-Canadian boundary in accordance with the fifth article of the Treaty of Ghent.

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