82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nati no small proof of Prof. Mitchel's power as a lecturer. 1 The last 

 lecture of the course was delivered in one of the great churches of the 

 city (a thorough American and sensible proceeding), and at the close 

 Prof. Mitchel submitted to the audience, consisting of more than two 

 thousand persons, his plan for erecting a first-class observatory, and 

 furnishing it with instruments of the highest order. He promised to 

 devote five years of faithful effort to accomplish this task. The fol- 

 lowing course was then suggested : " The entire amount required to 

 erect the buildings and purchase the instruments should be divided 

 into shares of twenty-five dollars ; every shareholder to be entitled to 

 the privileges of the observatory under the management of a board of 

 control, to be elected by the shareholders. Before any subscription 

 should become binding, the names of three hundred subscribers should 

 be first obtained. These three hundred should meet, organize and 

 elect a board, who should thenceforward manage the affairs of the as- 

 sociation." In three weeks the three hundred subscribers had been 

 obtained, without calling any public meeting, and merely by quiet 

 visits in which the nature of the scheme was described and explained. 

 Then officers were elected, a directory formed, and Mitchel was sent 

 " to visit Europe, procure instruments, examine observatories, and 

 obtain the requisite knowledge to erect and conduct the institution, 

 which it was now hoped would be one day reared." 



When Mitchel returned, four months later, a great change had 

 occurred in the commercial affairs of America. " Everything was de- 

 pressed to the lowest point," and it was with great difficulty that a 

 sum of $3,000 was collected and remitted to meet the first payment 

 for the telescope of twelve inches aperture ordered of Merz. The 

 best place for the observatory was a hill-top rising 400 feet above the 

 level of the city. On offering to purchase this from Mr. Longworth, 

 to whom it belonged, Prof. Mitchel was directed to select and inclose 

 four acres, which Mr. Longworth presented to the association. On 

 November 9, 1843, the corner-stone of the pier which was to sustain 

 the great refracting telescope was laid by John Quincy Adams, who 

 undertook the long (and then difficult) journey from Washington to 

 give this proof of his interest in the cause of astronomy. When, in 

 May, 1844, the great telescope was paid for, the funds of the associa- 

 tion were exhausted, and the estimated cost of the building amounted 

 to more than $7,000. In this difficulty a simple but again perfectly 

 American plan was followed. Mechanics and others were invited to 

 subscribe for stock in the Astronomical Society, paying their sub- 

 scriptions with work. In six weeks not less than'one hundred hands 

 were at work on the hill-top and in the city. The stone of which the 



1 The same remark applies to the lectures which he subsequently delivered in New 

 York, New Orleans, Boston, Brooklyn, and other large cities. It is almost impossible to 

 over-estimate the service thus rendered by Prof. Mitchel to astronomy in the United 



States. 



