The Reminiscences of an Astronomer |
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academy afterward Airy Alvan Clark American arranged asked astronomers B. A. Gould Benjamin Peirce called civil committee complete computations Congress course Delaunay director doubt early eclipse eminent Ephemeris fact Gibraltar Gould Greenwich Hansen impression institution instruments interest investigation known learning Leverrier Lick Observatory Litchfield Observatory looked mathematical matter ment method moon motion Nautical Almanac Naval Navy necessary never night nomical object observations observatory organization paper Paris Paris Observatory party passed Peirce perhaps phrenology planets position President Professor Henry published Pulkova question refracting telescope remark replied result scientific Secretary seemed seen Senate showed SIMON NEWCOMB sion Smithsonian Smithsonian Institution sort stars Sudlersville supposed Survey telescope thing thought tion told took transit of Venus walk wanted Washington
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Page 251 - States as may be designated, and the Academy shall, whenever called upon by any department of the Government, investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art, the actual expense of such investigations, examinations, experiments, and reports to be paid from appropriations which may be made for the purpose, but the Academy shall receive no compensation whatever for any services to the Government of the United States.
Page 255 - ... to take into consideration the methods and expenses of conducting all surveys of a scientific character under the War or Interior Department, and the surveys of the Land Office, and to report to Congress as soon thereafter as may be practicable a plan for surveying and mapping the Territories of the United States on such general system as will, in their judgment, secure the best results at the least possible cost...
Page 6 - My mother was the most profoundly and sincerely religious woman with whom I was ever intimately acquainted, and my father always entertained and expressed the highest admiration for her mental gifts, to which he attributed whatever talents his children might have possessed.
Page 210 - I was doing this work, Paris was under the reign of the Commune and besieged by the national forces. The studies had to be made within hearing of the besieging guns...
Page 221 - And here was perhaps the greatest living master in the highest and most difficult field of astronomy, winning world-wide recognition for his country in the science, and receiving the salary of a department clerk.
Page 94 - Capella, which was now just rising a little to the east of north ; "there is the star setting." "No, it isn't," said I ; "there is the star we have been looking at, now quite inconspicuous near the meridian, and that star which you think is setting is really rising and will soon be higher up." A very little additional watching showed that no deviation of the general laws of Nature had occurred, but that the observers of previous nights had jumped at the conclusion that two objects, widely apart in...
Page 159 - ' fulmen 9 32 48 " is not only an interlineation, but is written in decidedly different ink from all the original MS. — an ink which has not faded so much as the other, and so has almost a blue tinge by contrast. That Littrow, in arraying his proofs of Hell's forgery, should have failed to dwell upon the obvious difference between this ink and that with which the alterations were made leads me to suspect a defect in his sense of...
Page 409 - ... legerdemain A noted spiritualist had visited Washington during Mr. Lincoln's administration, and held several seances with the President himself. The latter was extremely desirous that Professor Henry should see the medium, and give his opinion as to how he performed his wonderful feats. Although Henry generally avoided all contact with such men, he consented to receive him at the Smithsonian Institution. Among the acts proposed was that of making sounds in various quarters of the room. This...
Page 126 - Congress and appointed in 1901 expressed its conclusion that the official head of the observatory should be an eminent astronomer appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, holding his place by a tenure at least as permanent as that of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey or the head of the Geological Survey, and not merely by a detail of two or three years
Page 7 - So far as the economic condition of society and the general mode of living and thinking were concerned, I might claim to have lived in the time of the American Revolution. A railway was something read or heard about with wonder ; a steamer had never ploughed the waters of Wallace Bay. Nearly everything necessary for the daily life of the people had to be made on the spot, and even at home. The work of the men and boys was "from sun to sun...