SIMON NEWCOMB 379 



was the procuring of the greatest and most powerful telescope 

 that had ever been made. Newcomb was soon consulted in regard 

 to this interesting proposition, and in December, 1874, he was 

 invited to visit the European workshops as an agent of the Lick 

 trustees. This duty he promptly accepted, and after failure to 

 negotiate satisfactory arrangements abroad, he finally advised 

 that the making of the great 36-inch lens be given to Clark and 

 Sons. From its inception, therefore, until its inauguration, 

 Newcomb was the principal scientific adviser of the trustees of 

 the Lick Observatory, and recommended for their consideration, 

 Edward S. Holden, who was chosen their first director. 



Of almost identical nature was his relation to the construction 

 of the 30-inch object-glass for the Pulkowa telescope. In 1878, 

 Otto Struve, the director of that observatory, began correspondence 

 with Newcomb concerning the building of a large refracting teles- 

 cope. Struve came to the United States on Newcomb's suggestion 

 in 1879, and together they visited the workshops of the Clarks in 

 Cambridge. After due consideration Struve decided to place the 

 contract for making the object-glass with the American firm, and 

 thereafter, until its completion, Newcomb was frequently consulted 

 in regard to it. In 1887, in appreciation of this work, the Emperor 

 of Russia ordered Newcomb's portrait to be painted and placed 

 in the Government gallery of famous astronomers in Pulkowa. 

 Two years later Newcomb received a rare vase of jasper on a 

 pedestal of black marble, six and a half feet high, which "in recog- 

 nition of these deserts, His Majesty, the Emperor, graciously 

 sends as a present for you from the observatory of Pulkowa." 



In 1884 he was invited to accept the professorship of mathe- 

 matics and astronomy in the Johns Hopkins University, which 

 place he held until 1893, when he resigned, but again returned to 

 that chair in 1898, and two years later was made emeritus. In 

 reference to his work it has been said that "no American would 

 have been more worthy of succeeding Sylvester. As an astronomer 

 his name has long shone with a lustre which fills with pride every 

 American breast." Johns Hopkins was keenly appreciative of 

 his services to that university, and in 1901 Newcomb was one of 



