Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

APPENDIX A
a salary of $3,000 and $1,500 for expenses, and was to continue his superintendency over
the work in Weights and Measures, without additional compensation..
The survey of the coast that had been carried out after 1818 largely under naval
auspices produced a vast body of partial maps and charts at vast expense, Secretary of
the Navy Southard reported in 1828. The maps and charts were based on nautical and
chronometric surveys, not triangulation, and so far as their use for commercial and naval
interests and means for national defense was concerned, Southard declared them "unsafe,
and in many instances, useless and pernicious." Hassler resumed the survey on his
original plan.
Once again in charge, he borrowed the mathematical books he had sold to West
Point more than a decade before, refurbished his traveling carriage brought down from
Cape Vincent, and ordered from Troughton of London a new and improved theodolite
made to his specifications, as well as a dividing engine, new telescopes and microscopes
of his devising, and other instruments. While his son Edward continued the work on
weights and measures, Hassler himself began measuring a new baseline at Fire Island,
off the south shore of Long Island, "the longest baseline," it was later reported,
run in the history of geodetic surveys." At the peak of activities in 1841, Hassler, with
the Army topographic engineers and Navy officers detailed to the Survey, had unler his
superintendence in the two offices a staff of 93 officers and civilians.
The years between 1832 and 1843 were filled with skirmishes with the Secretaries
of the Treasury, with accountants and auditors, and with Congress over the financial
procedure in operating the offices, over congressional demands that would have meant
a less accurate, less scientific, and cheaper survey, and threats to form committees to
supervise Hassler's expenditures and progress. In March 1834, possibly to insure more
professional administration, the Coast Survey was transferred from the Treasury to the
Navy Department, and Hassler at once asked to be relieved from the Survey work.
President Jackson intervened, kept the accounting of Survey funds in the Treasury,
and Hassler accepted Navy administration.
At the time of the transfer, Hassler insisted that he keep his salary of $3,000 for
superintending Weights and Measures alone. Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury
replied that the Office need not require much time and attention, and $1,200 or $1,500
was enough for the work. Hassler answered that he had large plans for Weights and
Measures. As he wrote to the Secretary, he intended "to form an establishment which
has never even been attempted in this country," for which much heavier expenditures would
be necessary. He may have had in mind somthing like the bureau established almost
70 years later, but what he intended is not known. Before the plans were committed to
paper, President Jackson in March 1836 restored the Coast Survey to the Treasury and
to Hassler.
It is said that on the occasion of the restoration a dispute arose about more
compensation for Hassler's two superintendencies, and Hassler carried his case to the
White House.
"So, Mr. Hassler, it appears the Secretary and you cannot agree about this
matter," remarked Jackson, when Hassler had stated his case in his usual
emphatic style. "No, Sir, ye can't." "Well, how much do you really think
you ought to have?" "Six thousand dollars, Sir." "Why, Mr. Hassler, that is
as much as Mr. Woodhury, my Secretary of the Treasury, himself, receives."
"Mr. Voodbury!" declared Hassler, rising from his chair, "There are plenty
of Voodburys, plenty of Everybodys who can be made the Secretary of the
Treasury. But," said he, pointing his forefinger toward himself, "there is only
one, one Hassler for the head of the Coast Survey." President Jackson, sympa-
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