366 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



Ohio. This became the center from which numerous observatories 

 radiated, until now one-fourth of all the great telescopes of the world 

 are in America, and of these by far the most powerful and eflBcient. 

 Armed with this magnificent equipment, our investigators are out- 

 stripping those of other countries. Scores of such men as the two 

 Pickerings, Newcomb, Young, Keeler, Mitchell, Proctor, Barnard, 

 Burnham, Chandler, Gould, Lowell, Ritchey and others have assisted 

 in placing the astronomical bays upon Columbia's brow. We should 

 not forget the Clarkes, Brashear, Swazy, etc. — the Herreschoffs of 

 astronomy. 



Hardly a generation ago, Alvan Clarke, of Cambridge, Mass., was 

 possessed with the foolish and presumptuous idea that Europe had no 

 perpetual patent upon telescope-making, and that he, a mere nobody, 

 could grind a lens. Despite the kindly discouragement of the Har- 

 vard professor whom he consulted, he ground away until he had per- 

 fected a six-inch lens which stood every test that he could apply. He 

 carefully wrapped the precious glass and carried it to the professor's 

 laboratory. Alas for his pride and presumption against the gods of 

 precedent, the lens miserably failed to respond to the very tests he 

 had applied in his workshop ! The professor kindly intimated that he 

 had told him so ; and, although Clarke had made a really good glass 

 for an amateur, no astronomer would think of mounting it in an ob- 

 servatory. Nearly heart-broken with disappointment, Clarke carried 

 his disgraced lens back home, and again tried the tests, without suc- 

 cess. The next morning he tested the lens again, and it stood magni- 

 ficently every trial the professor had made. It slowly dawned upon 

 Clarke that the lens had been warped by the heat of his body and the 

 strain of transportation. He was more careful the next trip, and the 

 professor forgot his references to amateurs in his admiration of a per- 

 fect glass made in America. 



Perhaps we have nearly reached the limit of the size and efficiency 

 of refractors, because of the difficulty of polishing large lenses and 

 because of the increased length of the tube required. These diffi- 

 culties do not obtain, however, with reflectors, and there is no insu- 

 perable barrier against the construction of a ten-foot speculum, at 

 least. Such an instrument would cost but a mere fraction of the ex- 

 pense of a battle-ship or an abortive polar expedition, and would ex- 

 tend enormously the range of vision. If there are limits to our stellar 

 universe, and if there are other similar universes beyond, such a tele- 

 scope might possibly reveal them. 



Within recent years the camera has become the efficient hand- 

 maiden of the telescope. Photography has indeed worked a revolu- 

 tion in astronomical methods. Heretofore we have had to rely upon 



