• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Reminiscences of an Astronomer, by Simon
Newcomb

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Reminiscences of an Astronomer
Author: Simon Newcomb

Release Date: September 17, 2006 [eBook #19309]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE REMINISCENCES OF AN
ASTRONOMER***
E-text prepared by Ferdinand van Aartsen

THE REMINISCENCES OF AN ASTRONOMER
by
SIMON NEWCOMB
1903

PREFACE

The earlier chapters of this collection are so much in the nature
of an autobiography that the author has long shrunk from the idea of
allowing them to see the light during his lifetime. His repugnance
has been overcome by very warm expressions on the subject uttered
by valued friends to whom they were shown, and by a desire that
some at least who knew him in youth should be able to read what he

has written.

The author trusts that neither critic nor reader will object
because he has, in some cases, strayed outside the limits of his
purely personal experience, in order to give a more complete view
of a situation, or to bring out matters that might be of historic
interest. If some of the chapters are scrappy, it is because he
has tried to collect those experiences which have afforded him most
food for thought, have been most influential in shaping his views,
or are recalled with most pleasure.

CONTENTS
ITHE WORLD OF COLD AND DARKNESS
Ancestry.--Squire Thomas Prince.--Parentage.--Early Education.--
Books read.
II

DR. FOSHAY
A Long Journey on Foot.--A Wonderful Doctor.--The Botanic System of
Medicine.--Phrenology.--A Launch into the World.--A Disillusion.--
Life in Maryland.--Acquaintance with Professor Henry.--Removal
to Cambridge.

III

THE WORLD OF SWEETNESS AND LIGHT
The American Astronomical Ephemeris.--The Men who made it.--
Harvard in the Middle of the Century.--A Librarian of the Time.--
Professor Peirce.--Dr. Gould, the "Astronomical Journal," and the
Dudley Observatory.--W. P. G. Bartlett.--John D. Runkle and the
"Mathematical Monthly."--A Mathematical Politician.--A Trip to
Manitoba and a Voyage up the Saskatchewan.--A Wonderful Star.

IV

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY
A Professor, United States Navy.--The Naval Observatory in 1861.--
Captain Gilliss and his Plans.--Admiral Davis.--A New Instrument
and a New Departure.--Astronomical Activity.--The Question of
Observatory Administration.--Visit from the Emperor of Brazil.--
Admiral John Rodgers.--Efforts to improve the Work of the
Observatory.

VGREAT TELESCOPES AND THEIR WORK

Curious Origin of the Great Washington Telescope.--Congress
is induced to act.--A Case of Astronomical Fallibility.--
The Discovery of the Satellites of Mars.--The Great Telescope
of the Pulkova Observatory.--Alvan Clark and his Sons.--A Sad
Astronomical Accident.

VI
THE TRANSITS OF VENUS
Old Transits of Venus.--An Astronomical Expedition in the 18th

Century.--Father Hell and his Observations.--A Suspected Forger
vindicated.--The American Commission on the Transit of Venus.--
The Photographic Method to be applied.--Garfield and the
Appropriation Committee.--Weather Uncertainties.--Voyage to
the Cape of Good Hope.--The Transit of 1882.--Our Failure to
publish our Observations.

VII

THE LICK OBSERVATORY
James Lick and his Ideas.--Mr. D. O. Mills.--Plans for the Lick
Observatory.--Edward E. Barnard.--Professor Holden.--Wonderful
Success of the Observatory.

VIII

THE AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC WORK
The Orbits of the Asteroids.--The Problems of Mathematical
Astronomy.--The Motion of the Moon and its Perplexing
Inequalities.--A Visit to the Paris Observatory to search for
Forgotten Observations.--Wonderful Success in finding Them.--
The Paris Commune.--The History of the Moon's Motion carried back
a Century.--The Harvard Observatory.--The "Nautical Almanac" Office
and its Work.--Mr. George W. Hill and his Work.--A Wonderful
Algebraist.--The Meridian Conference of 1884, and the Question
of Universal Time.--Tables of the Planets completed.--
The Astronomical Constants.--Work unfinished.

IX

SCIENTIFIC WASHINGTON
Professor Henry and the Smithsonian Institution.--
Alumni Associations.--The Scientific Club.--General Sherman.--
Mr. Hugh McCulloch.--A Forgotten Scientist.--The National Academy of
Sciences.--The Geological Survey of the Territories.--The Government
Forestry System.--Professor O. C. Marsh.--Scientific Humbugs.--
Life on the Plains.

XSCIENTIFIC ENGLAND

My First Trip to Europe.--Mr. Thomas Hughes.--Mr. John Stuart Mill.
--Mr. Gladstone and the Royal Society Dinner.--Other Eminent
Englishmen.--Professors Cayley and Adams.--Professor Airy and
the Greenwich Observatory.--A Visit to Edinburgh.

XI

MEN AND THINGS IN EUROPE
A Voyage to Gibraltar with Professor Tyndall.--The Great Fortress.
--"Whispering Boanerges."--A Winter Voyage in the Mediterranean.--
Malta and Messina.--Advantage of not understanding a Language.--
German Astronomers.--The Pulkova Observatory.--A Meeting which
might have been Embarrassing.--From Germany to Paris at the Close
of the War.--Experiences at Paris during the Commune.--The Greatest
Astronomer of France.--The Paris Observatory.

XII

THE OLD AND THE NEW WASHINGTON
Washington during the Civil War.--Secretary Stanton.--
The Raid of General Early.--A Presidential Levee in 1864.--
The Fall of Richmond.--The Assassination of President Lincoln.--
Negro Traits and Education.--Senator Sumner.--An Ambitious Academy.

of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...