The Three Secretaries 205 



time the Smithsonian Institution had recently published a 

 monograph by the younger Draper, of New York, on the 

 making of a reflecting telescope. This, and the advice of Mr. 

 Clark, were all we had to go upon. We had a small foot- 

 lathe and a few tools in the barn belonging to the house 

 where we were living, and with this outfit we undertook to 

 make a reflecting telescope seven inches in diameter by five 

 feet in focal length, all the work on which, both optical and me- 

 chanical, was to be by our own hands, and nothing but crude 

 material and a few necessary tools were to be purchased. 

 Above all things, no lenses or other completed optical appara- 

 tus were on any account to be bought; we were to make it all. 

 " Under these conditions of limited outfit and no experi- 

 ence, progress was slow, but we persevered. After weeks of 

 labor, a speculum would be assumed to have the right shape, 

 and ready for an optical test. This generally showed all 

 stars with wings, like small comets, and single objects like a 

 distant flag-staff, as a double stick with an attendant company 

 of ghosts. Then the speculum went back into the grinding 

 bed and was wholly reshaped. Eventually all the spare time 

 of nearly three years was spent on this telescope, but suc- 

 cess was finally reached, the instrument showing practically 

 perfect definition for one of its type and size ; but probably 

 the finished reflector represented at least twenty others 

 abandoned or reground before this result was reached. My 

 brother's interest in astronomy and his perseverance would 

 not allow us to be satisfied with anything short of a practical 

 degree of perfection." 



In those days of boyhood, as the writer has often heard 

 Mr. Langley relate, he was deeply interested in the question 

 of flight, and spent many an afternoon watching the motions 

 of hawks and other birds. 



His taste for mechanical pursuits was early developed. 

 He made all kinds of tools and instruments which were re- 

 quired in his boyish experiments, and the degree of his skill 

 may be judged from the fact that he was able to grind mir- 



14* 



