GUDDE: A CENTURY OF ASTRONOMY AND GEODESY IN CALIFORNIA 69 



institution for a most munificent endowment, the valuable corner lot of Fourth 

 and Market Streets, which Lick had deeded to the Academy on February 15, 1873. 



Of the many strange characters who had come to California in the early days, 

 James Lick was perhaps the most peculiar. Whereas thousands rushed to Cali- 

 fornia to make a fortune, Lick arrived in the early part of 1848 bringing with 

 him a handsome capital, acquired through twenty years of hard work as a cabinet- 

 and piano-maker in South America. In another twenty years he greatly increased 

 this fortune and decided to spend it for the benefit of his adopted state and for 

 the glorification of his name. 



Upon Lick's request Davidson repeated his visits and was finally let in on 

 a secret : Lick wanted to create a new world wonder by erecting a telescope much 

 larger and much more powerful than any in existence. The somewhat conserva- 

 tive Davidson soon realized that Lick had strange ideas about such a telescope, 

 that he expected that it would provide spectacular discoveries in the universe, and 

 that it would be a world-wide attraction. Davidson's first task was to guide Lick's 

 enthusiasm in the right direction. He did this with tact and understanding. If 

 in the end he did not succeed entirely, it was not his fault. 



Before the location of the observatory was discussed by the cautious Davidson, 

 a mutual friend. Dr. Frederick Zeile, the pioneer of the bathtub in San Francisco, 

 informed him that Lick had made up his mind to build the observatory at Fourth 

 and Market Streets in San Francisco, between the sites he had given to the 

 Academy of Sciences and the Pioneer Society. In front of the observatory he 

 planned to erect three statues: one for Francis Scott Key (the one now stand- 

 ing in front of the Academy of Science buildings in the Golden Gate Park), one 

 for Thomas Paine, the pioneer of atheistic thought in America, and one for Lick's 

 own grandfather, who had once shared the trials of Washington's revolutionary 

 army in Valley Forge. It took Davidson several months of diplomatic and per- 

 sistent argument to convince Lick that, though downtown San Francisco would 

 doubtless be the ideal spot to attract tourists to his spectacular show piece, it left 

 much to be desired as a site for scientific research in astronomy. Gradually he 

 guided Lick's judgment to place the observatory in the Sierra Nevada — not on 

 one of the high peaks where conflicting upper air currents would be detrimental 

 to astronomical observation but near the summit of Donner Pass. 



On October 20, 1873, Davidson announced at the monthly meeting of the 

 Academy that Lick had agreed to his proposals and to the erection of an observa- 

 tory with "a telescope superior to and more powerful than any telescope yet 

 made." The next morning the Alta Calif ornian, in a three-column spread on the 

 front page, imparted the news to the world. Since the announcement of the dis- 

 covery of gold no more exciting intelligence had come from California, and the 

 names of Lick and Davidson were as much in the mouth of the people as the 

 names of Sutter and Marshall had been twenty-five years before. The young 

 state, which many still associated with lawlessness, fraudulent land grants, and 

 unscrupulous lawyers, was suddenly to take the lead in the study of an important 

 field of human knowledge. 



Davidson's task, however, was not yet done. Next he had to dissuade Lick 

 from building a reflector telescope. This type of telescope, an invention of Isaac 

 Newton, had just then been greatly improved and was especially favored in 

 England. Davidson, however, as well as the majority of American astronomers, 



