Shortly afterwards Caroline was appointed as assistant to her brother at a salary of L50 a year. This we should now consider but a nominal sum, but she managed to live on it. When she received the first quarterly payment of twelve pounds she wrote in her memoirs, "It was the first money I ever in all my lifetime thought myself to be at liberty to spend to my liking." Her appointment as assistant to her brother is notable from the fact that she was the first woman in England, if not in the world, to hold such a position in the government service. Miss Herschel held this official appointment until Sir William's death in 1822. When not acting as her brother's assistant or secretary, she devoted her time to what she quaintly called "minding the heavens." It was during this period that she made her most important discoveries. As assistant, however, to so indefatigable an observer as Sir William Herschel, she had but little time for sweeping the heavens, for, when at home, Sir William "was invariably accustomed to carry on his observations until day-break, circumstances permitting, without regard to seasons; it was the business of his assistant to note the clocks and to write down the observations from his dictations as they were made. Subsequently she assisted in the laborious numerical calculations and reductions, so that it was only during his absence from home or when any other interruption of his regular course of observation occurred that she was able to devote herself to the Newtonian sweeper, which she used to such good purpose. Besides the eight comets by her discovered, she detected several remarkable nebulae and clusters of stars, previously unnoticed, especially the superb nebulae known as No. 1, Class V, in Sir William Herschel's catalogue. Long practice taught her to make light of her work. 'An observer at your twenty-foot when sweeping,' she wrote many years after, 'wants nothing but a being who _can_ and _will_ execute his commands with the quickness of lightning; for you will have seen that in many sweeps six or twice six objects have been secured and described in one minute of time.'"[145] It was her quick, intelligent action, combined with a patience, enthusiasm and powers of endurance that were most extraordinary, that made Caroline Herschel so valuable as an assistant to her brother, and enabled him to achieve the unique position which is his among the world's greatest astronomers. Had she been able to devote all her time to "minding the heavens," it is certain that she would have made many more discoveries than are now credited to her; but her service to astronomy would have been less than it was as the auxiliary of her illustrious brother. No two ever did better "teamwork"; no two were ever more devoted to each other or exhibited greater enthusiasm in the task to which they so heroically devoted their lives.[146]