THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



409 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



DEDICATION 

 ALLEGHENY 



OF THE NEW 

 OBSERVATORY 



The new Allegheny Observatory in 

 Kiverview Park, Pittsburgh, was dedi- 

 cated on the afternoon of August 28, 

 in the presence of the members of the 

 Astronomical and Astrophysical So- 

 ciety of America and of many of the 

 Pittsburgh friends of the institution. 

 The new building and its contents have 

 cost about $300,000, the equipment 

 being in quite the first rank. The new 

 site is higher than the old and is 

 farther removed from the city. As the 

 observatory now stands in a large 

 park, it will probably be free from 

 serious encroachments in the future. 



The Allegheny Observatory dates 

 back to 1859, in which year a number 

 of citizens of Pittsburgh and Alle- 

 gheny organized the "Allegheny Tele- 

 scope Association ' ' and purchased a 



13-inch refracting telescope. Although 

 this telescope was then the third 

 largest in the world, the sole purpose 

 of its owners was "star-gazing," and 

 no attempt was made to use the tele- 

 scope otherwise until 1867. In that 

 year, chiefly through the efforts of 

 William Thaw, the observatory became 

 the astronomical department of the 

 Western University of Pennsylvania, 

 now the University of Pittsburgh. In 

 the same year the trustees secured the 

 services of Samuel Pierpont Langley 

 as director, who at once set on foot 

 the series of solar investigations that 

 soon gave the observatory and its di- 

 rector an international reputation. In 

 the course of this work Langley in- 

 vented the bolometer and succeeded in 

 mapping the solar spectrum far into 

 the infra-red. It was at Allegheny,, 

 too, that he began his researches on 



The Keeler Memorial Reflector. 



vol. lxxxi.— 28. 



