180 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
and labor, he succeeded in 1864 in making a most excellent lens 
with which he obtained remarkable photographs of the Pleiades 
and other star-clusters, and an exquisite one of the moon. Next 
he turned to the problem of making measurements on the pho- 
tographic plates and invented a micrometer. ‘This work of 
photographing and measuring, and the constant introduction of 
improvements in the instruments employed, was carried on until 
1877, when failing health obliged him to desist. In 1880 the 
city having encroached upon the home and the observatory, Mr. 
Rutherfurd removed to a rural estate named “ Tranquillity ” in 
northwestern New Jersey. His winters were passed in Florida 
and in visits to southern Europe. Finding his health steadily 
failing in 1884, he presented to the Observatory of Columbia 
College his 13-inch telescope, with its corrector and the im- 
proved micrometer, together with 1456 plates and records of the 
measures made, providing also means for continuing the work 
of measurement. His death occurred May 30, 1892, at Tran- 
quillity. 
(From B. A. GouLp, in Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of 
Sciences, vol. 3, 1895, pp. 415-441.) 
JOSEPH SAXTON 
Born, March 22, 1799; died, October 26, 1873 
Joseph Saxton was a man of remarkable inventive ability. 
His imagination ran in scientific lines, and when he had grasped 
the principles underlying the action of natural forces, he knew 
how to make them subservient to the needs of his fellowmen. 
The town of Huntington, Pennsylvania, was a small village at 
the time of his birth, in 1799, and afforded few opportunities 
for education. His father, James Saxton, after engaging in a num- 
ber of different pursuits, became the proprieter of a small nail 
factory. At the age of twelve his son Joseph entered the factory 
and it was not long before he had made improvements in the 
machinery which increased its efficiency. ‘Tiring of the limita- 
tions of his work, however, he was permitted to apprentice him- 
self to a watchmaker, but after two years his employer died, and 
