SOME ASPECTS OF AMERICAN ASTRONOMY 71 



the great mathematical astronomers of Europe were laying 

 the fomidation of celestial mechanics their writings were a 

 sealed book to every one on this side of the Atlantic, and so 

 remained mitil Bowditch appeared, early in the last cen- 

 tury. His translation of the Mecanique Celeste made an 

 epoch in American science by bringing the great work of 

 Laplace down to the reach of the best American students of 

 his time. 



American astronomers must always honor the names of 

 Rittenhouse and Bowditch. And yet in one respect their 

 work was disappointing of results. Neither of them was the 

 founder of a school. Rittenhouse left no successor to carry 

 on his work. The help which Bowditch afforded his genera- 

 tion was invaluable to isolated students who, here and there, 

 dived alone and unaided into the mysteries of the celestial 

 motions. His work was not mainly in the field of observa- 

 tional astronomy, and therefore did not materially influence 

 that branch of science. In 1832 Professor Airy, afterwards 

 astronomer royal of England, made a report to the British 

 association on the condition of practical astronomy in various 

 countries. In this report he remarked that he was unable to 

 say anything about American astronomy because, so far as 

 he knew, no public observatory existed in the United States. 



William Bond, afterwards famous as the first director 

 of Harvard observatory, was at that time making observa- 

 tions with a small telescope, first near Boston and afterwards 

 at Cambridge. But with so meager an outfit his estabhsh- 

 ment could scarcely lay claim to being an astronomical 

 observatory, and it was not surprising if Airy did not know 

 anything of his modest efforts. 



If at this time Professor Airy had extended his investiga- 

 tions into yet another field, with a view of determining the 

 prospects for a great city at the site of Fort Dearborn, on the 

 southern shore of Lake Michigan, he would have seen as little 

 prospect of civic growth in that region as of a great develop- 

 ment of astronomy in the United States at large. A plat of 

 the proposed town of Chicago had been prepared two years 

 before, when the place contained perhaps half a dozen families. 

 In the same month in which Professor Airy made his report, 



