CLAKK, ALVAN. 



COLOMBIA, 



137 



streets graded and macadamized, and nearly 

 all of them are now lined with trees. There 

 is a new street-railroad. The entire city is 

 lighted by electricity, and telephone and tele- 

 graph wires connect with neighboring towns 

 and distant cities. The water-supply is ample, 

 though not without fault, as it is obtained 

 from the Codorus. 



CLARK, ALVAN, an American optician, born in 

 Ashfield, Mass., March 8, 1808, died in Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., Aug. 19, 1887. He was the 

 son of a farmer, and obtained his education in 

 public schools. At an early age he showed 

 considerable artistic ability, which was put to 

 practical use when he became an engraver for 

 calicoes at the print-works in Lowell and else- 

 where. This occupation he followed until 

 1835, when he settled in Boston, and there 

 opened a studio on Tremont Street, where he 

 continued his career as a portrait-painter for 



ALVAN CLARK. 



many years. His pictures of Robert Hare, 

 Thomas Hill, and Daniel Webster, are well- 

 known specimens of his skill. In 1846, in con- 

 nection with his sons, A Ivan G. and George B. 

 Clark, he established the firm of Alvan Clark 

 and Sons, which has since continued and be- 

 come famous as the leading telescope-makers 

 of the world. Its origin is due to the younger 

 sou, Alvan G. Clark, who is an accomplished 

 astronomer, and who, being unable to secure 

 suitable lenses, induced his father to establish 

 the business. For ten years the subject of op- 

 tics was carefully studied, and Mr. Clark spent 

 some time in Europe making himself familiar 

 with astronomy, before the reputation of the 

 firm was fully established. His first order for 

 a large telescope came from the University of 

 Mississippi in 1860, the object-glass of which 

 was to be 18i inches, 3 inches larger than any 

 that had hitherto been successfully used in the 

 world. The civil war prevented the comple- 

 tion of the contract, and the instrument was 

 purchased for the University of Chicago. Then 

 followed the construction of two glasses of 26 

 inches each, one of which was made for the 



University of Virginia, and the other for the 

 U. S. Naval Observatory in Washington. These 

 lenses required four years of labor, and cost 

 $46,000. Many others of varying sizes, from 

 4 inches to 36 inches, have been made for ob- 

 servatories throughout the world. Some idea 

 of the labor required may be formed from the 

 fact that for a good 4-inch objective a month's 

 constant work is required, and for an 8- or 10- 

 inch glass a year is necessary. In 1870 the 

 Russian Government contracted with Messrs. 

 Clark & Sons for an enormous telescope to be 

 placed in its observatory in Pulkowa, and in 

 1883 the instrument was completed. Otto N. 

 von Struve, the distinguished astronomer, 

 visited all of the well-known makers in the 

 world before giving the order. The telescope 

 was then the largest in existence, costing $33,- 

 000, having a clear aperture of 30 inches, a 45- 

 foot focus, and weighing 418 pounds. It pos- 

 sessed a magnifying power of 2,000 diameters, 

 and was capable of increasing the surface of 

 the object viewed 2,500,000 times its natural 

 eize. Mr. Clark received a vote of thanks 

 from the Imperial Academy of Science, and a 

 gold medal from the Emperor of Russia. A 

 few years since this firm undertook the con- 

 struction of the 36-inch object-glass for the 

 Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, Cal., 

 which was completed and safely forwarded to 

 its destination in the autumn of 1887. Mr. 

 Clark invented numerous improvements in 

 telescopes and their manufacture, including 

 the double eye-piece and an ingenious method 

 of measuring small celestial arcs. A list of 

 the discoveries made by him with telescopes of 

 his own construction is given in the " Proceed- 

 ings of the Royal Astronomical Society" (Lon- 

 don, vol. xvii). Mr. Clark received the honor- 

 ary degree of A. M. from Amherst College in 

 1854, from Princeton in 1865, and from Har- 

 vard in 1874, and also the Rurnford medal from 

 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 



COLOMBIA, an independent republic of South 

 America, covering an area of 586,000 square 

 miles, and having a population of 3,500,000. 

 It has been decided that the capitals of de- 

 partments are to be the following : Medellin, 

 capital of Antioquia; Carthagena, of Bolivar; 

 Tunja, of Boyaca ; Popayan, of Cauca ; Bogota, 

 of Cundinamarca; Santa Marta, of Magdalena; 

 Panama, of Panama ; Bucaramanga, of San- 

 tander ; Tolima, of Ibagu6. Each of these 

 capitals is to be the seat of a superior court. 



Government. At Bogota, on June 4, Dr. Ra- 

 fael Nuftez, re-elected President for six years, 

 from December, 1886, entered formally upon 

 his office. Subsequently, he formed the fol- 

 lowing Cabinet : Minister of Government, Dr. 

 Felipe F. Paul; Foreign Affairs, Dr. Carlos 

 Holguin ; Treasury, Dr. Ontario Roldun ; War, 

 Don Felipe Angulo ; Education, Dr. Domingo 

 Ospina ; Auditor- General, Dr. Curios M.-irti- 

 nez Silva ; Public Works, Dr. Jesus Casas Ro- 

 jas. Vice-President, Gen. Eliseo Pay.-m. 



The United States Minister at Bogota is Hon. 



