BENJAMIN PEIRCE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 08/17/1870 - HFSID 33811
Sale Price $225.00
Reg. $280.00
BENJAMIN PEIRCE.
As Superintendent of the US Coast Survey, he signs an autograph 1870 letter
to Vermont Senator George Edmunds about a survey of Lake Champlain and a
projected ship canal.
ALS: "Benjamin Peirce", 1½ pages, 5x8 (front and verso). Coast
Survey Office, 1870 August 17. To U.S. Senator George F. Edmunds. In
full: "I am greatly delighted at the provision for the survey of Lake
Champlain. I shall send parties into the field at once and I assure you that
there shall be no delay in the execution of this work and that I fully
appreciate its importance. I shall be greatly disappointed if I am not able
before the conclusion [?] of the session put you in possession of
valuable information in relative to the projected ship canal. Very faithfully,
your obedient servant". Benjamin Peirce (1809-1880), Harvard professor of
mathematics and astronomy from 1833-1880, was Superintendent of the U.S.
Coast Survey from 1867-1874. He was renowned for his accurate computation of
the general perturbations of Uranus and Neptune and for his researches on the
rings of Saturn. He also made important discoveries in mathematics. When
Senator George Edmunds of Vermont successfully authored legislation entrusting a
survey of Lake Champlain to Peirce's US Coast Survey, he unwittingly ignited a
feud between Peirce and the Army Corps of Engineers, which claimed exclusive
authority to map inland waterways. Peirce, however, refused to back down,
and his survey went forward. Pencil notes (unknown hand) at upper left of front
side. Light ink show-through. Horizontal fold creases. Left edge ragged.
Otherwise, fine condition.
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