ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 287 



" The evidence must, of course, have more weight if the stars 

 selected had never found a place in Struve's or any other cata- 

 logues, and were of a character making very sharp defining neces- 

 sary to exhibit them. 



"It was in this way the attention of Rev. W. R. Dawes, of 

 England, was first called to my seemingly incipient, obscure, and 

 humble labors. I have since sold him 5 object-glasses, of from 

 7| to 81 inches aperture, and his published reports upon their 

 qualities have brought orders enough, for a number of years past, 

 to secure for me, in making proficiency, the full benefit of an 

 abundant practice. 



" In April, 1860, an order came from the University of Missis- 

 sippi for an object-glass of unusual dimensions. In undertaking 

 this it became necessary for me to remove to some more commo- 

 dious place than the one I had previous!} 7 - occupied. In the same 

 month a site was selected, and dwellings and a workshop erected 

 in the course of the ensuing summer. The material was ordered 

 from Chance & Co., of Birmingham, and preparations made for 

 the work. 



"This lens was completed in the autumn of 1862, when all 

 communication with Mississippi was cut off. Fortunately they 

 had paid nothing upon it, and I felt at liberty to put it in the 

 market. 



" George P. Bond manifested much interest in it, visiting me 



<TJ * c? 



repeatedly while my rough proving tube was in such a position 

 that he could deliberately examine the great nebula in Orion 

 through it; and he placed his opinion of it on record, at the next 

 meeting of the visiting committee, by recommending its purchase 

 for the Cambridge Observatory, and measures were soon on foot 

 for raising the money. When the sum of $4,500 had been reached, 

 and my expectations were centred in that direction, I was sud- 

 denly and most unexpectedly called upon by a purchaser from 

 Chicago, with a tender of the full price I was to have received 

 from Mississippi. With the assistance of my sons, I have since 

 made a mounting for it, and put the instrument up at the Univer- 

 sity at Chicago, where Professor Safford has it in charge. 



" It was with this glass that my younger son, Alvan G. Clark, dis- 

 covered the companion of Sirius, on the first occasion of its being 

 looked for, and before the star had been in the field three seconds." 



NEW DOUBLE STAR. 



We are informed that a new double star, supposed to be below 

 the defining power of more than two or three telescopes in the 

 world, has been observed by means of the fine instrument in the 

 possession of Jacob Campbell, Esq., of Brooklyn. It is almost 

 in a line between Procyon and the companion star by which the 

 defining power of first-class telescopes is frequently tested. But 

 although it is a common practice of astronomers to try their 

 glasses by first observing Procyon and then waiting a few minutes 

 for the companion star to come into the field, this new companion, 

 which enters the field before the other, had never been revealed 



