Side-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular ScienceNewcomb, Simon
Science
Side-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular Science
Newcomb, Simon
Astronomy; Compass; Flying-machines; Hyperspace; Learning and scholarship; Rain-making
The other work to which I refer was the application to astronomy and to
the determination of longitudes of the chronographic method of
registering transits of stars or other phenomena requiring an exact
record of the instant of their occurrence. It is to be regretted that
the history of this application has not been fully written. In some
points there seems to be as much obscurity as with the discovery of
ether as an anaesthetic, which took place about the same time. Happily,
no such contest has been fought over the astronomical as over the
surgical discovery, the fact being that all who were engaged in the
application of the new method were more anxious to perfect it than they
were to get credit for themselves. We know that Saxton, of the Coast
Survey; Mitchell and Locke, of Cincinnati; Bond, at Cambridge, as well
as Walker, and other astronomers at the Naval Observatory, all worked
at the apparatus; that Maury seconded their efforts with untiring zeal;
that it was used to determine the longitude of Baltimore as early as
1844 by Captain Wilkes, and that it was put into practical use in
recording observations at the Naval Observatory as early as 1846.
At the Cambridge Observatory the two Bonds, father and son, speedily
began to show the stuff of which the astronomer is made. A well-devised
system of observations was put in operation. The discovery of the dark
ring of Saturn and of a new satellite to that planet gave additional
fame to the establishment.
Nor was activity confined to the observational side of the science. The
same decade of which I speak was marked by the beginning of Professor
Pierce's mathematical work, especially his determination of the
perturbations of Uranus and Neptune. At this time commenced the work of
Dr. B. A. Gould, who soon became the leading figure in American
astronomy. Immediately on graduating at Harvard in 1845, he determined
to devote all the energies of his life to the prosecution of his
favorite science. He studied in Europe for three years, took the
doctor's degree at Gottingen, came home, founded the Astronomical
Journal, and took an active part in that branch of the work of the
Coast Survey which included the determination of longitudes by
astronomical methods.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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