Sky and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory, 1830-2000 (review)

In 1829 the Board of Navy Commissioners to the secretary of the navy proposed the establishment of a new Department of Docks and Navy Yards, a change intended to be part of a wider internal reorganization of the U.S. Navy. The department would provide what was termed a "special officer" who would be responsible for rating timepieces and chronometers, which were becoming ever more important for determining longitude, as well as nautical instruments, books, and charts not currently in use aboard ship. Such a department would therefore pursue practical goals that aided the maintenance and effective operation of the navigational technology that guided the navy's ships around the globe.

By 1842, however, these modest plans had blossomed into the establishment of the Naval Observatory, a national institution with decidedly more ambitious goals than a "Depot of Charts and Instruments." In his classic 1957 book, Science in the Federal Government, A. Hunter Dupree argued that this result was "the classic example of the surreptitious creation of a scientific institution by underlings in the executive branch of the government in the very shadow of congressional disapproval" (p. 62). One of Steven J. Dick's achievements in Sky and Ocean Joined is to show that Dupree's account overestimated congressional disapproval but underestimated the crucial role played by a number of naval secretaries in transforming the initial concept of a depot and small observatory into a national observatory. Indeed, Dick has written such a big volume, underpinned by such an extensive body of research, that it puts in the shade all earlier works dealing with the Naval Observatory's history.

Following a prelude that establishes the context, Dick devotes long sections to what he calls the "founding era" of 1830-65 and the "golden era" of 1866-93. Then come four chapters on the observatory's fortunes during the twentieth century. The book is richly illustrated. In addition to a bibliographical essay, it includes appendices on sources, selected instruments and standard clocks, personnel, and the more important legislation related to the Naval Observatory and Nautical Almanac Office. One of the main themes concerns the way that the observatory both absorbed and detached various functions related to navigation. In 1866, for example, the observatory spun off the Hydrographic Office. It consistently sought more accurate navigational tools, from better chronometers to global positioning systems. In the late nineteenth century, it chose not merely to determine time but also to work on its distribution by telegraph companies. The observatory's entry into this arena prompted disputes over its relationship with Western Union, but Dick concludes that in the end this involvement boosted both its reach and prestige.

Perhaps best known as the author of two important books on the history of the debate on extraterrestrial life, Dick was a member of the Naval Observatory's staff from 1979 to 2002. He thus brings to the volume a familiarity with the recent workings of the observatory and direct experience of many of the technologies and instruments he describes. The result, however, is very far from the sort of celebratory history designed to inspire the young and comfort the old that is often produced by in-house staff. Rather, this is a book that is sensitive to the shaping of the Naval Observatory's history at many levels. The writing is clear, the analysis and arguments generally persuasive, and despite the work's length it never slips into a morass of detail. Sky and Ocean Joined is an outstanding book. A less expensive paperback edition would also be very welcome.