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Yesterday I wrote-

>I've just discovered an interesting 20-page pamphlet by Chauvenet,
>"Astronomy, comprising suggestions to U.S. naval officers, bearing on
>points connected with nautical astronomy, astronomical geography, and
>general astronomy", dated 1868.

and Dan Allen asked-

"Where did you discover this pamphlet?"

It was in a catalogue of secondhand maritime books that I get sent
regularly by McLaren Books, of Glasgow. It cost me ?12 (about $20).

It seems never to have been properly bound, just the 20 pages (1 to 20)
stitched together, and a modern paper cover has then been glued over the
binding to make it look a bit more respectable. There's no sign of it being
pages extracted from a larger work. It came from the Government Printing
Office, in Washington.

I speculate that possibly, these Navy Scientific Papers were not available
to the public as a publication, but printed for issue to US Navy officers,
perhaps those graduating through college. Alex Eremenko usefully tells us
that Chauvenet had previously been head of the shore Naval School in
Philadelphia, so he knew what was needed..

It would be interesting to learn more about those Navy Scientific Papers.
If we can judge them by No 1, they were of very high quality.

George.

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