SIMON NEWCOMB, F.R.S., LL.D., D.C.L. vii 



development of eminence in science, seems to have been tacitly 

 accepted by many as practically disposing of the matter. 



The beginnings of physical science in America have been com- 

 pared to the birth of Minerva as she sprang fully armed from the 

 brain of Jove. The simultaneous appearance, here in Philadelphia, 

 of Franklin, Rittenhouse and William Smith, at once brought this 

 country to the notice of the devotees of science in Europe. The 

 interest taken in the transit of Venus in 1769, for observing which 

 elaborate preparations were made in Philadelphia, brought as- 

 tronomy to the front, with plans for a first class astronomical 

 observatory with, presumably, Rittenhouse as director. This project 

 was probably premature, but in any case the approaching revolution 

 soon absorbed all the energies of the country, and three quarters of 

 a century was destined to elapse before anything like a general 

 revival of interest in this subject took place. At the time of which 

 we are speaking, however, the movement was well under way, and 

 the men with whom Mr. Newcomb was associated at Cambridge 

 including more than one name destined to achieve international 

 reputation. A number of observatories were in more or less active 

 operation but, as yet, little had been produced which could bear com- 

 parison with the best work in Europe. 



The work, however, was well begun, but was no doubt destined to 

 be somewhat retarded by the Civil War — the preliminary skirmishes 

 were even now being fought in Kansas and elsewhere. But the 

 times were ripe for an advance and it could not again be suppressed. 



On July 17, i860, occurred a total eclipse of the sun. The path 

 of totality passed across British North America, touching southern 

 Greenland, thence across the Atlantic to Spain. Mr. Newcomb was 

 one of a party organized for observing the eclipse. The point 

 chosen was on the Saskatchewan River, about as inaccessible and 

 remote from civilization at that time as central Africa is today. 

 The journey lay from St. Paul across Minnesota by stage, thence 

 down the Red River by steamer, across Lake Winnipeg and up the 

 Saskatchewan by birch bark canoe. Unexpected delays and difficul- 

 ties seemed likely to prevent the party from reaching its destination 

 in time for the eclipse. By heroic exertion on the part of the half 



