268 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Death of Carl A. R. Lundin. 



Mr. Carl A. R. Lundin died in Cam- 

 bridge, Massachusetts, on November 

 28th, 191 5. He was born in Wenners- 

 borg, Sweden, January 13th, 185 1. 

 Subsequently his family removed to 

 Falun where his education was ob- 

 tained at the Falun High School. 

 Early developing a taste for mechanics 

 he decided to become an instrument 

 maker and soon after his graduation 

 went to Stockholm where he served 

 an apprenticeship of seven years. 

 From thence he went to Christiana, 

 Norway, and was associated with 

 Olsen, the famous instrument maker of 

 that city. In 1873 he determined to 

 come to America, and soon after his 

 arrival in August of that year he 

 entered the employ of Alvan Clark & 

 Sons (who had become famous) as 

 their chief instrument maker. 



From the beginning he was interest- 

 ed in the optical part of the work and, 

 finding him possessed of unusual prom- 

 ise, Mr. Alvan Clark induced him to 

 devote his entire time and study to the 

 art. Up to the time of Alvan' Clark's 

 death a strong attachment existed be- 

 tween the two men. each recognizing 

 and appreciating the ability of the 

 other. It is interesting to note that Mr. 

 Lundin was the only man in whom 

 Mr. Clark ever saw sufficient promise 

 to induce him to educate him in the 

 science of objective making. 



Mr. Lundin had two children — a son, 

 C. A. Robert Lundin, who for the past 

 twenty years has been associated with 

 his father in the making of telescope 

 objectives at the Clark works, and a 

 daughter, Laura M. Lundin, a gradu- 

 ate of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology and now a professor of 

 mathematics and physics. 



Mr. Lundin's first important work 

 was in connection with the thirty inch 

 objective for Pulkowa, Russia, and he 

 v\/as especially designated by the Rus- 

 sian government to take the objective 

 to Russia and install it. At the time 

 it was made, it was the largest glass in 

 the world. In the making of the thir- 

 ty-six inch objective for the Lick Ob- 

 servatory and the forty-inch objective 

 for the Yerkes Observatory, he bore a 

 prominent part. A particularly fine ex- 

 ample of his work is Dr. Lowell's 

 twenty-four inch objective located at 

 Flagstafif, Arizona. He also made the 

 sixteen inch for the University of Cin- 



cinnati and the eighteen inch for Am- 

 herst College. 



Nearly his last work was the six inch 

 refractor for the Agassiz Association. 

 This telescope was received October 

 20th. only a little over a month before 

 his death. 



He was a Fellow of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, and a Charter Member of the 

 Astronomical Society of America. In 

 recognition of his services to science, 

 Amherst College in 1905 conferred up- 

 on him the degree of A. M. 



Faithful Work of an Astronomer. 



Dr. Furness, of Vassar, writes enter- 

 tainingly of the disappointment felt 

 by one, who, fired by a love of astron- 

 omy, visits an observatory for the first 

 time, and watches an astronomer at 

 his work. He is not found sitting at 

 the end of a great telescope, looking 

 at a Lunar landscape or a planet, and 

 uttering from time to time an irrepres- 

 sible exclamation of delight at what 

 he sees, nor is he ever hunting in the 

 sky for something new. Instead, he is 

 probably passing hour after hour plac- 

 ing a fine spider's thread upon the 

 exact centers of successive stars, or 

 determining to the hundredths part of 

 a second the instants when other stars 

 are crossing his meridian — occupations 

 which to the uninitiated seem utterly 

 uninspiring and devoid of interest. — 

 Eric Doolittle, C. E., Professor of As- 

 tronomv. 



A Poor Telescope. 



Sir Robert Ball used to tell a story 

 of an experience he had when he was 

 at the Dunsink Observatory. A farmer 

 came to him one day and asked if he 

 might look at the moon through the 

 telescope. 



"Surely you can," said Ball. "Come 

 round tonight." 



"Can I see it now?" asked the farmer. 

 "I am sorry that you cannot," said the 

 astronomer. "You will have to wait 

 until night." 



"Huh ! Then your old telescope is 

 not so great a thing as I thought it 

 was !" said the man. "I can see the 

 moon at nigfht without it." 



The gray squirrel is reported to be 

 increasing in England, where it is not 

 at all desired. 



