William Cranch Bond

  General notes:

Silversmith, watchmaker, and astronomer

  Events in his life were:

• Apprenticed after 1801 to William Bond in Boston MA ³
after his training, his interest turned to timepieces and astronomy

• He worked from 1806 to 1812 as a silversmith and watchmaker in Boston MA excelling at the making of chronometers and ship's compasses.

• Appointed in 1839 as Director of Harvard Observatory in Boston MA in 1815 he was sent by Harvard College to Europe to visit existing observatories and gather data preliminary to the building of an observatory at Harvard. In 1839 the observatory was founded; Bond supervised its construction and became its first director. In 1847 a 15-in. (37.5 cm) telescope, then matched in size by only one other in the world, was installed. With it, Bond made elaborate studies of sunspots, of the Orion nebula, and of the planet Saturn, publishing his results chiefly in the Annals of the Harvard College Observatory.
³

• He was a partner c 1855 with Robert and Charles Bond in Boston MA as WM BOND & SONS, listed in the 1855 city directory at 17 Congress Street.

William married Selina Cranch on 18 Jul 1819 in Portland ME. (Selina Cranch was born on 21 Sep 1800 in Kingsbridge, Devon, England.)