Apbil 20, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



233 



New World, I venture to send you a brief description of 

 the building, furnishings, observatory and telescope, and 

 in addition, by the kindness of Mr. Warner, I am able to 

 send also an electrotype of the exterior and interior views 

 of the Observatory. 



The building was begun in ISSO, and was slowly con- 

 structed, so that the foundations might be well set before 

 the roof was put on and the telescope mounted. It is 

 located on the corner of East Avenue — the finest street in 

 the city — and Arnold Park, the finest private park in this 

 city of private parks. It is constructed of Lockport white 

 sandstone, rough ashler, and is the most noteworthy struc- 

 ture in the city, and probably the finest private observatory 

 in the world. The entire establishment cost about £16,000 



made large and heavy to prevent fle.xure. The two circles 

 are respectively it and ."iO in. in diameter, graduated in 

 silver. It is driven by clockwork, and is provided with a 

 full battery of eye-pieces, haxing powers from 50 to 

 2,500 diameters. From the following list of prominent 

 private observatories, it will be seen that this telescope 

 surpasses all in size and power : — 



Draper's, Ilasting-onlludson 11 inches. 



Morrison's, Glas<;ow, Mo., U.S.A. ... 12] 



Rutherfurd's, New York, U.S.A. ... 13 



Crawford's, Dunecht, Scotland 15 



Warner's, Rochester, N.Y , U.S.A.. IG 



It is 21 inches larger than that in your Greenwich 



(-S'80,000). The interior is finished in the finest native hard 

 woods, and is tastefully decorated and furnished. An 

 elevator (lift) conducts to the floor under the operating- 

 room, the latter thence being reached by a cut-off staircase, 

 which excludes all currents of warm air from below. The 

 observing room is four stories from the ground, has an 

 interior diameter of thirty feet, and a height of thirty feet 

 from fioor to peak of dome. It is abundantly supplied 

 with cold air, and in the summer season the dome can be 

 readily and quickly cooled. 



To avoid the jar of the neighbouring railway, the pier is 

 laid on a bed of sandy earth considerably above bed 

 rock. The telescope is a refractor, having an aperture of 

 16 in. clear, and a focal length of 22 ft When in perpen- 

 dicular position its ob)ecf>-glass is 25 ft, and its eye-glass 

 thrown 3 ft. from the floor. The cylinder is of sheet steel, 



Observatory, which is the most elaborately equipped of all 

 observatories. The telescope is provided with devices for 

 rough setting both in R.A. and Declination. The observa- 

 tory possesses a positive micrometer and Burnham's device 

 for illuminating the wires with dark field. The field can 

 also be made bright with dark wires. The telescope has 

 two comet eye-pieces, one negative, the other periscopic and 

 positive, for working on nebuhe, and for the detection of 

 expected comets. J.Ir. Swift will use his old four and one 

 half inch telescope for comet-seeking. He tells me he is 

 preparing a chart of all known nebulae, for the benefit of 

 comet-searchers. 



Mr. Hiram Sibley, of this city, one of the heaviest 

 capitalists of the country, and a well-known benefactor to 

 several American universities, has presented the observa- 

 tory with the finest spectroscope that could be made, and 



