SKETCH OF ASAPH HALL. . 833 



SKETCH OF ASAPH HALL. 



IN spite of the few wonderful accidents that have led to great 

 changes and advance in modern ideas, most of the real ad- 

 vances of the world have been the results of simple hard work 

 and hard thinking by men of ability. As an example of the type 

 of scientist who does not make astounding discoveries of doubt- 

 ful value, but who siirely and steadily advances the cause of 

 science by faithful work, stands the astronomer ASAPH HALL. 



He was born on October 15, 1829, in the little town of Goshen, 

 in the northwestern part of Connecticut, where the Berkshire 

 Hills come rolling over from Massachusetts. His grandfather, a 

 Revolutionary officer, was one of the first settlers of the place, and 

 was a wealthy man. But his father, through business failures, 

 lost nearly all his property. In 1842 he died, leaving a wife and 

 six children, of whom Asaph, then thirteen, was the oldest. Up 

 to the time of his father's death Asaph's life was that of a well- 

 to-do country boy. He had worked on the farm and he had gone 

 to the village school. His father was far better educated than 

 most of the men of the place, so that many good books fell into 

 the boy's hands. Often his rainy days were spent in the garret, 

 fighting the battles on the plains of Troy, or following Ulysses in 

 his wanderings. 



When his father died everything was changed. Almost all 

 the property was mortgaged. In a family council it was decided 

 to remain on one of the farms and try to pay off the mortgage. 

 So Asaph and his mother set to work, and for three years toiled 

 with might and main, carrying on the work of a large farm 

 almost entirely by themselves. Asaph's mother was a tireless 

 worker, and he helped her as best he could ; but when the three 

 years were past they found they had been able to pay the in- 

 terest on the mortgage and nothing more. Sticking to the farm 

 did not seem to pay, so Asaph decided to leave and go and 

 learn the carpenter's trade. He persuaded his mother to move 

 to a little place she owned free from debt, and he apprenticed 

 himself to a local carpenter. He worked for three years for 

 sixty dollars a year. At the end of that time he became a jour- 

 neyman and worked for himself. He stayed in Litchfield County, 

 helping to build houses and barns that are standing on the old 

 farms to-day. 



For six years he stuck to carpenter work, but all that time he 

 was full of ambition. He saw that the men he worked with were 

 a poorly educated set. They knew how to make a right angle by 

 the three, four, five rule, but they had no idea at all of the reason 

 for it. He was not satisfied to work in this blind rule-of-thumb 



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