368 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



on horseback to the city of Washington where soon "the Smith- 

 sonian Library was one of the greatest attractions" and from which 

 he began to borrow the works of the great masters. There for 

 the first time he saw the four volumes of the Mecanique Celeste 

 by Laplace, "the greatest treasure that my imagination had ever 

 pictured." And then he called on the Secretary and told him of his 

 ambitions. He says of this interview: "When I found Professor 

 Henry he received me with characteristic urbanity, told me some- 

 thing of his own studies, and suggested that I might find something 

 to do in the Coast Survey, but took no further steps at that time." 



On leaving the Smithsonian he made his way to the office of 

 the Coast Survey and there asked if a knowledge of physical 

 astronomy was necessary to a position in that office. Other visits 

 to Professor Henry followed, and at one of these he received a 

 letter to Julius E. Hilgard, then assistant in charge of the Coast 

 Survey office. He promptly availed himself of this opportunity 

 and of his reception Newcomb wrote: "I found from my first 

 interview with him that the denizens of the world of light were up 

 to the most sanguine conceptions I ever could have formed." 



Towards the close of the year he received a note from Mr. Hil- 

 gard saying that "he had been talking about me to Professor Win- 

 lock, superintendent of the Nautical Almanac, and that I might 

 possibly get employment on that work." This possibility was 

 not one that could be safely disregarded, and on the last day of 

 December, 1856, he started for Cambridge where the office of the 

 Nautical Almanac then was. At that time there was no vacancy 

 on the staff but he had not long to wait, for he writes: 



"I date my birth into the world of sweetness and light on one 

 frosty morning in January, 1857, when I took my seat between two 

 well-known mathematicians, before a blazing fire in the office of 

 the Nautical Almanac at Cambridge, Mass. I had come on from 

 Washington, armed with letters from Professor Henry and Mr. 

 Hilgard, to seek a trial as an astronomical computer. The men 

 beside me were Professor Joseph Winlock, the superintendent, 

 and Mr. John D. Runkle, the senior assistant in the office." 



From 1857 to 1861, Newcomb remained in Cambridge as 



