IIKKS< IIKL'S IN 1TY 117 



own making, which wan to have total me all my In'. - 



The ingenuity <>f tl^appliancesf or eiuraring stability 

 -ning labour in commit in- the telescope was a 

 monument to the mechanical genius of Herachel. in 

 keeping with the greatness of the mirror. Theae 

 mces are now things of the past, not to be re- 

 peated by any future adventurer in the fields of 

 research, but none the less worthy of respectful regard 

 ren in this age of engineers. They were not successful 

 in making a cumbrous machine so light and easy to 

 handle as science required, but that is only saying that 

 the necessity for this preceded the discovery of th<- 

 means of doing it, and that the first attempts were 



ior to those made later. The iron tube, at 

 bottom of whi.-h lay the colossal eye that looked 

 heavenwards, was 39 feet 4 inches in length and 4 

 10 inches in diameter. It was an unwieldy ani 

 from necessary addition to the structure, enough to 

 cause error in observations by ite ton-weight and 

 instability. He had also to make arrangements for 

 conveying observers and visitors from the ground to 

 the gallery, 30 feet high or more, to whom ladders 

 would have been difficult or dangerous. A chair-lift 

 was devised, but was never erected. So easy did he 

 thi'l the ladders, and such was his agility at sixty and 

 seventy years of age, that he preferred to reach or 

 leave his post of observation by running up or down 

 them. Among other requirements was a means of 

 communicating readily and at once from his lofty 

 perch both with the recorder of observations, whose 



1 March 1831, Mrmoir*, p. 344. Comp.ro this with the " hot-hcwlcd 

 old Wtbh woman j,. S3. 



