Scope and Content: As part of a survey of the Commonwealth commissioned by the governor in 1830 in order to prepare an accurate map of Massachusetts, geographic locations of base points were determined by calculations made from trigonometrical and astronomical measurements in the field.  Series consists of original drawings of compensating base apparatus designed by Simeon Borden in 1832 for the trigonometrical survey, of which he was in charge from 1834.
Notes: Memorandum by C.O.B. on item F57a (with accompanying transcript signed: L.H.B., Dec. 2, 1903) states that drawings were given to him by Borden, and that a full set with description was presented by Borden to the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia in 1843; in 1844 they were in possession of Prof. A.D. Bache, superintendent of the U.S. Coastal Survey, Washington. Set probably incomplete
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