The National Academy of Sciences The First Hundred Years, 1863-1963 (1978) / Chapter Skim
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4. The Government Calls upon the Academy
4. The Government Calls upon the Academy
Pages 79-99
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From page 79... ...
In his first report to Congress he described how he had arrived at it: It was obvious that the only effective and prompt mode of action by members scattered over the United States, as were the fifty named in the charter, must be through committees. Action must originate with committees and be perfected by discussion in the general meetings of the academy or in the classes or sections—decisions to be finally pronounced by the entire body.
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From page 80... ...
Alexander, Fairman Rogers, Wolcott Gibbs, Arnold Guyot, Benjamin Silliman, Jr., William Chauvenet, and John Torrey as members. At its subsequent meetings the committee made plans for an extended survey of the weights and measures of the principal commercial countries of the world, expressed itself strongly in favor of adopting the French metric system, unanimously agreed that an attempt be made to arrive at an interna
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From page 81... ...
Davis as Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, asked the Academy to investigate protection for the bottoms of iron ships from injury by salt water. Wolcott Gibbs's committee, appointed the next day, reported to the Academy seven months later that a metallic coating or alloy was commonly used to prevent or arrest corrosion of the metal, and that poisonous substances in paint or varnish were used to destroy accumulations of plants or animals on ship bottoms.
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From page 82... ...
: ~ ' 0 / ~~ —~~ ~ :, : : :: : : :: . : ~ i:: ~ : i: ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ : : : ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~~ : : ~~ ' :: :: : , ~ i: ~ : : : ~~"~ 0~:~ , ~rct_e ~.~ The first request for an Academy committee came in this letter from Secretary of the Treasury Chase, asking for a report on the feasibility of achieving "uniformity of weights, measures, and coins...." (From the archives of the Academy)
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From page 83... ...
The Government Calls upon the Academy 1 83 I ~~ ' ~ it)
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From page 84... ...
6, 96-97 8 Ibid., pp. 98-112; True, A History of the First Half-Century of the National Academy of ~ ~czences, pp.
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From page 85... ...
. prolix and faulty, both in matter and arrangement, to such an extent as to render the limited amount of original information which they actually contain costly and inaccessible." In response, Bache appointed F
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From page 86... ...
. that they have served very greatly to shorten passages 'a True, A History of the First Half-Centur7 of the National Academy of Sciences, pp.
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From page 87... ...
Schaeffer, of the Bureau of Navigation, on this committee at the request of the Treasury, was the third non-Academy member to be appointed under Article II, Section 4, of the Academy Constitution: "It shall be competent for the President, in special cases, to call in the aid, upon committees, of experts, or men of remarkable attainments, not members of the Academy" See Secretary of the Treasury to Bache, August 3~, ~863, in "National Academy of Sciences, Committee Papers, ~863-'64." The first expert had been Samuel B Ruggles, a New York lawyer, historian, and public servant, on the Committee on Weights and Measures.
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From page 88... ...
is At the end of March ~864, the Secretary of the Treasury again asked the Academy for another report, this time on the suitability of aluminum bronze and similar materials that had been suggested for the manufacture of cent pieces. At the request of the Secretary, Bache was appointed to a committee under John Torrey, which was set up on April ~ I
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From page 89... ...
In ~863 the Coast Survey, the agricultural elements in the Patent Office, elements of the Corps of Engineers, and the Naval Observatory were the only scientific departments in the federal structure. The Smithsonian had set up a useful weather-reporting agency and carried on other serviceable wartime tasks, and the Permanent Commission was handling possibly the only real scientific problem, that of sifting from the ideas of an inventive citizenry those of potential immediate use.
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From page 90... ...
The one on Maury's charts produced three days of discussion before it was approved. At the scientific session, Agassiz and Benjamin Peirce read long papers on "individuality among animals" and "on the elements of mathematical theory of quality." After greeting the twenty-two members assembled on Friday, ~anuary 8, Bache opened the meeting with the announcement of President Lincoln's invitation to a reception at the White House at 1:00 P.M.
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From page 91... ...
As he wrote in his private journal that week, the meeting had gone off very smoothly and more harmony prevailed than was expected.... The Academy, if well conducted, will produce important results in the way of advancing American science and also, in serving the government, but the fear is, that it will be governed by clerks and that unworthy members will exert an evil influence.24 23Silliman, Jr., to Bache, January lo, 1864 (NAS Archives: "National Academy of Sciences, Committee Papers, 1863-'64," Committee on Iron Ship Bottoms)
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From page 92... ...
Despite his misgivings about its manner of founding, he had written Bache, The quoted lines, in slightly different form, appear also in "Henryana," p. 2~6, a 2gs-page looseleaf volume of brief extracts from Henry's journals, Locked Book, notebooks, and correspondence, also presumably compiled by Mary Henry, and in the Joseph Henry Papers.
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From page 93... ...
. ,28 Henry to Bache, August ~5, ~864 Joseph Henry Papers, Smithsonian Institution Archives)
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From page 94... ...
Seven months later, at the August ~865 meeting, admitting to an abhorrence of"the labor and fatigue" of administrative duties, Dana submitted his resignation as VicePresident; and at the same meeting a colleague of Agassiz at Cambridge, Jeffries Wyman, long resentful of Agassiz's authoritarian ways, resigned his membership.32 Both meetings in ~865 had been otherwise uneventful, filled each day with administrative matters, minor revisions of the Constitution and Bylaws, committee reports, and expression of concern about the sparse attendance, which on occasion fell as low as eight and did not rise above twenty-two. The January meeting had been "slimly attended .
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From page 95... ...
Discussions of this proposal at the next meeting led Josiah Whitney to recommend successfully the appointment of a committee to consider enlarging the number of Academy members.36 Although it would be well, said the majority report of LeConte, Lesley, and Rutherfurd, "to avail ourselves of the labor and influence of many students of science who will otherwise not be in sympathy with the Academy," it appeared inexpedient to ask Congress to amend the charter, "as it would be entirely uncertain that Legislation would stop with the alteration desired by the Academy." Instead, they recommended that the increase be effected under that section of the charter authorizing "domestic members," who would not be considered corporate or "ordinary members." A minority report by committee chairman Wolcott Gibbs and Hilgard demurred, consider54 For a listing of members' attendance at meetings during the Academy's first three years, see NAS Archives: Meetings: Attendance: ~863-~866. 55 New York Evening Post, August 30, ~ 865 (NAS Archives: Meetings: ~ 865)
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From page 96... ...
Tabled the next year, too, was a proposal to ask Congress simply to change the words of the charter from "not more than fifty members" to "not less than fifty members."37 And there the matter rested. Without presiding officers, owing to the protracted illness of Bache and the precarious health of Dana that had led to his resignation, Home Secretary Wolcott Gibbs opened the meeting in January ~866; and then, upon Joseph Henry's election as the new Vice-President, turned over the chair, "with the understanding," Henry insisted, "that he would be permitted to retire as soon as the President should be able to resume his duties, or his place could be filled by another." "I only accepted the Vice Presidency of the Academy temporarily," Henry wrote to his wife from Boston that August, "because there was no one except myself on whom the whole Academy at the time could agree." Since March, Bache had been "past hope....
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From page 97... ...
A Humphreys, Chief of Engineers and Academy member, and the Isthmian Canal Committee of ~8gg-~go~, committed the United States to the Nicaraguan isthmus as the only practicable route, and only the French interest in Panama changed American policy.
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From page 98... ...
When the incorporators of the Academy were selected, Bache had sought working scientists in the armed services and in federal agencies who would both strengthen science and elevate its role in the government. But he knew that unless the Academy could itself promote worthy research by actively supporting it, the wider influence and effectiveness of the institution would be jeopardized.
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From page 99... ...
The next day Henry reiterated his refusal and resigned as Vice-President as well, in order to permit elections to both of the high offices. When the sessions ended, it had been agreed to delay further balloting until the January ~868 meeting.45 Over the next several months Peirce became the leading candidate for the presidency, and Henry reported "considerable unpleasant feeling among our friends in Cambridge." Any tension within the Academy was relieved at the meeting in January ~868, however.
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