5 



ture of the universe, these observations can be 

 made to serve, not merely for the tabulation of 

 accurate data, but for the solution of the greatest 

 problems of astronomy. 



Results of the highest importance are therefore 

 within the reach of the investigator equipped with 

 standard instruments. His studies may develop 

 new points of view or new data which will lead into 

 new fields of research, but his position and needs 

 are very different from those of the man whose re- 

 searches force him to leave the familiar path. 

 Discarding, perhaps, the instruments which have 

 proved their strength and weakness by many years 

 of use, he replaces them with others possessing new 

 advantages and defects. In departing from ac- 

 cepted standards and in preparing to overcome 

 difficulties, the initiator of new methods almost 

 necessarily becomes an instrument-maker, and 

 hence a machine-shop may be his first requirement. 

 He can not afford to intrust construction to instru- 

 ment-makers thousands of miles away, with whom 

 he is unable to discuss details of the design, neces- 

 sarily subject to frequent modification in the light 

 of newly acquired ideas. To be most efficient, he 

 must be his own designer and builder, ready to 

 take immediate advantage of those new points of 

 view and new possibilities of attack which his 

 investigations are certain to disclose. 



A laboratory or observatory like that of Mount 

 Wilson, planned for the exploration of unfamiliar 

 fields, can thus possess no fixed and standard 



