the star places given in the catalogues, that it led to an almost immediate call for better places, and arrangements were made with the observatories of the country to obtain the necessary observations, the Survey to pay for the labor involved. Stimulated by the knowledge that better work was required to meet the new demand, observatories deficient in instruments procured new ones, and soon furnished more accurate star places. Continued observation has added still further improvement until to-day we have catalogues that furnish the highest degree of precision. Professor Chauvenet defines "Talcott's method" as "one of the most valuable improvements in practical astronomy of recent years, surpassing all previous known methods (not excepting that of Bessel by prime vertical transits) both in simplicity and accuracy." But the advantages of the method have been found to be of a practical nature also; as it is productive of large economy in time and labor and has reduced the cost of the Survey many thousands of dollars.
The introduction of the Electric Telegraph was utilized by the Survey immediately on the practical accomplishment of the first line built, as a ready and improved means for determining longitude. Indeed, before Professor Morse had demonstrated to the world the truthfulness of his theories and experiments, the bare possibility of their success, and availability in the instant transmission of time, had been discussed on the Coast Survey, and the method to be first employed fully considered. But as in the application of all things under new conditions, experience is the teacher, and improvements were frequently made, until finally the invention and perfection of the "chronograph" has brought the method to a degree of precision that little more can be looked for. This method of determining longitude, introduced, fostered and perfected on the Coast Survey, has been more far reaching than geographical boundaries. All civilized nations have adopted it as the "American Method," and by the greater accuracy and reliability of the results the whole world has profited. The saving that has accrued by the more perfect determination of longitudes and the consequent increased safety to commerce, may be counted by millions every year; until one stands aghast in contemplation of the immensity of the sum, and fears to reckon it, even approximately, much less to prophecy what it may reach in the future. The system is but a natural sequence of the development of the telegraph, but emphasizes in a marked
