272 



NATURE 



[January 17, 1901 



not forget that its present size and arrangement are due, 

 not only to the seven men mentioned above, but also to 

 nineteen years' work from Mr. Christie, the present 

 Astronomer Royal. In these nineteen years he has con- 

 tributed to the buildings and equipment about as much 

 as his seven predecessors together. There is a new 

 transit-circle, which can be used on or off the meridian ; 

 the 13-inch refractor has been increased and multiplied 

 into a 28-inch visual refractor, a 26-inch photographic 

 refractor, and a 30-inch reflector, besides the 13-inch 

 astrographic equatorial ; and a large, commodious build- 

 ing has been erected, which more than doubles the space 

 available for computing, measuring photographs, and all 

 the miscellaneous duties of which the lay-mind has 

 probably never imagined the existence. In this noble 

 extension of our National Observatory, the Astronomer 

 Royal has been generously helped by others, and es- 

 pecially by Sir Henry Thompson, who gave two of the 

 large telescopes, and by Mr. Crisp, the architect of the 

 new buildings, whose name we are sorry not to find in 

 Mr. Maunder's book. 



On one day in the year, " Visitation Day," the Obser- 

 vatory is devoted to visitors ; and though it is not even 

 then thrown open to the public, those with a definite 

 interest in astronomy can generally obtain a card of ad- 

 mission. They find a great many things to see — those 

 who see them for the first time find the number and 

 variety almost bewildering ; there is, in fact, the year's 

 work of fifty busy people to look at, as well as the com- 

 plicated instruments with which it was done. Things 

 have changed somewhat, in spite of the reluctance of 

 economical Governments, since Flam steed was installed 

 as Astronomer Royal in 1676 with a salary of 100/. a 

 year, a "surly labourer" to help him, and no instru- 

 ments ! To such as are fortunate enough to be admitted 

 on these annual occasions we can recommend the later 

 chapte rs of the book for perusal both before they go and 

 after they come away ; a number of technical matters are 

 described in a thoroughly attractive way. 



Sometimes in reading a book a stray sentence or two 

 impress the memory, though they may be only incidental 

 to the main theme. Pond's notion of the kind of man 

 who would make a good assistant in an observatory 

 arrests the attention : — 



" I want indefatigable, hard-working, and, above all, 

 obedient drudges (for so I must call them, although they 

 are drudges of a superior order), men who will be con- 

 tented to pass half their day in using their hands and 

 eyes in the mechanical act of observing, and the 

 remainder of it in the dull process of calculation." 



There is undoubtedly a vast amount of drudgery in 

 astronomy, if people choose to so regard it. Other 

 sciences multiply their observations ten or a hundred 

 times ; the astronomer deals in thousands and even 

 millions. But men with the spirit of drudges, as Mr. 

 Maunder truly remarks, cannot be trusted to do the 

 work honourably and therefore accurately ; and besides 

 this the work is not drudgery. Mechanical it may be, 

 but good men and true have found it far from dull. 

 Did Herschel find it dull to pass the whole heavens in 

 review star by star ? Does Mr. Denning, of Bristol, find 

 it dull to watch night after night for long hours on the 

 chance of observing a few meteor-tracks, and that after 

 NO. 1629, VOL. 63] 



a day's business toil ? If it were drudgery they would 

 have stopped, but Herschel went on, and Mr. Denning 

 goes on, and these are only two random instances out 

 of hundreds. 



At the same time Pond put his finger on a real diffi- 

 culty, which is just as pressing to-day, nay, far more 

 pressing since the introduction of photography into 

 astronomy has so enormously increased the work. How 

 are we to get through this work ? The army of astro- 

 nomers is so small ; it has not been recruited with 

 sufficient rapidity to keep pace with the extension of our 

 Empire. Pond thought of drudges, as commanders of 

 old employed mercenaries : both found them unsatis- 

 factory. What is the real solution ? Conscription will 

 scarcely work here. Will the volunteers solve the 

 difficulty, or may we hope for a big reorganisation 

 scheme ? H. H. T. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF ROADS. 

 Road-making and Maintenance : a Practical Treatise for 

 Engineers, Surveyors and Others. By Thomas Aitken, 

 Ass.M.Inst.C-E. Pp. xvi -H 440. With numerous 

 plates and illustrations. (London : Charles Griffin and 

 Co., Ltd., 1900.) 



SINCE the introduction of bicycles and motor-cars 

 the question of road maintenance has come vejry 

 much to the front. It formed one of the subjects dis- 

 cussed in Section G at the late meeting of the British 

 Association, and was considered of sufficient importance 

 to warrant the appointment of a committee to inquire 

 generally into the subject, but more especially as to the 

 effect of the condition of the surface of roads on the 

 tractive force required to move vehicles along them. 



The author of the book under notice has given an in- 

 teresting account of the history of road-making from the 

 time of the ancient inhabitants of Peru, and of the Romans, 

 to the days of road revival in this country, when General 

 Wade was employed by the Government in constructing 

 about 250 miles of roads through the Highlands of Scot- 

 land as the most effectual means of putting an end to 

 the Rebellion of 171 5. 



Then followed the establishment of turnpike trusts, 

 no less than 11 00 Acts of Parliament having been passed 

 for this purpose, and a very large amount of capital was 

 raised for opening out new, or improving old, roads. In 

 this work Telford, the father of modern civil engineer- 

 ing, constructed over 900 miles at a cost of nearly half 

 a million of money. So great was the revolution in the 

 condition of the roads that Macadam, another of the 

 great road-makers, was described as being regarded by 

 the public as a sort of magician, and his invention some- 

 thing preternatural. As the result of their work it be- 

 came possible to run stage coaches between the principal 

 centres of population at the rate of ten miles an hour. 

 The establishment of railways and the termination of the 

 turnpike trusts under provisions contained in the Acts 

 of Parliament led to the decadence of the main roads 

 of the country, the management of the old turnpikes 

 having reverted to the parochial surveyors. A certain 

 amount of improvement took place when the system of 

 grants out of the county rates towards the maintenance 

 of the main lines of communication was introduced, these 



