TO KNOW THE STARRY HE WENS 



25 



strunieiits is to be Iwenty-four l)y 

 twelve feet, of tile with a facing- of 

 concrete. 



The interior of the tower is linished 

 in white enamel and all woodwork is 

 red oak with a natural finish. A part 

 of the main floor is used as a liljrary 

 and reception room. 



From the main floor a spiral stairway 

 leads to the observation or equatorial 

 room. In this room is an eleven-inch 

 equatorial telescope of the latest type, 

 designed and constructed under the 

 personal direction of Mr. Saegmuller 

 and embodying several new features 

 intended to add to accuracy and to the 

 comfort of the observer. It is sixteen 

 feet long and has a free opening at the 

 outer or object end of ten and one-half 

 inches. 



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The Telescope. 



The telescope is moved by means of 

 clockwork mechanism and revolves 

 with the motion of the earth, so that 

 once it has been set so that a particular 

 star falls within its field the telescope 

 will automotically follow the star's 

 course as long as it is above the hori- 

 zon. The dome revolves with the tele- 

 scope by means of similar mechanism, 

 electrically operated. The instrument 

 is mounted on a cast iron pier bolted 

 to a concrete column twenty-eight feet 

 high, eleven feet of which is imbedded 

 in the ground. Before the pier was 

 sunk careful tests were made to deter- 

 mine that it was sunk deep enough to 

 avoid the ground tremors that might 

 result from the motion of street cars 

 and the like. 



As the telescope revolves it describes 

 a circle varying in size with the dis- 

 tance of the object from the astronomi- 

 cal pole, so that the eye-piece will be 

 at varying heights from the floor at 

 different times. In observatories of the 

 older type this difficulty was overcome 

 by using an inclined observing chair. 

 Floor-Raising Mechanism. 



In the Bausch & Lomb observatory 

 the difficulty is overcome by raising 

 and lowering the floor of the equatorial 

 room. When the observer desires to 

 change the floor level to accommodate 

 himself to the changed position of the 

 eye-piece he will have only to touch a 

 button and the floor will rise or sink to 

 the desired level. The floor, when at 

 its highest level, is at a distance of 

 about twentv feet from the main floor. 



and when at its lowest level, at a dis- 

 tance of aboat ten feet from the main 

 floor. Only a few of the larger or more 

 recently built observatories have floor- 

 raising mechanism. 



The wing that houses the time and 

 latitude instruments contains a small 

 office and computing room. It is fin- 

 ished in a manner similar to the inside 

 of the tower. The office is fitted with 

 bookcases, tables and chairs for the 

 use of the observer while he is waiting 

 for stars to come into the field of view 

 of the transit or when he is computing 

 results of his observations. 



The transit room contains a three- 

 inch transit, mean and sidereal clocks 

 and a chronograph on which the time 

 is recorded. There is a vertical colli- 

 mator below the floor to measure the 

 deviation of the transit from the mer- 

 idian. Wireless time signals are re- 

 ceived from the Naval Observatory at 

 Washington. An opening cut in the 

 two walls and the ceiling of the transit 

 room permit the transit to sweep in the 

 plane of the meridian and permit the 

 stars to be observed at culmination. 



Regulation of Temperature. 



Double doors shut ofif the transit 

 room from the ofifice, since the delicate 

 instruments require that the room have 

 the same temperature as prevails out- 

 side. 



It is planned eventually to erect a 

 wing on the opposite side of the tower 

 in which will be installed a meridian 

 circle and seismograph, the latter to be 

 placed in the basement and used for 

 measuring the amplitude and intensity 

 of earthquakes. 



The dome and the wood work were 

 built under the direction of Oscar Kal- 

 lenbach. mechanical engineer in the 

 drafting room at the Bausch & Lomb 

 plant: the mason work done by Stall- 

 man & Sons, and the instruments were 

 all designed and constructed under the 

 personal supervision of Mr. Saegmul- 

 ler in the Bausch & Lomb factories. 



The first original work carried on at 

 the observatory was a series of obser- 

 vations of Jupiter in September of last 

 year. This work was done by Latimer 

 J. Wilson, Director of the Planetary 

 and Lunar Section of the Society for 

 Practical Astronomy. The results of 

 this work, together with sixty-four of 

 the drawings made by the observer 

 have been published by Bausch & 



