314 NOTES TO BOOK VII. 



(v.) p. 275. In the series of these great astro- 

 nomical mechanists, we must also reckon George Reichen- 

 bach. He was born Aug. 24, 1772, at Durlach ; became 

 Lieutenant of Artillery in the Bavarian Service in 1794 ; 

 (Salinenrath) Commissioner of Salt-works in ]811 ; and 

 in 1820, First Commissioner of Water- works and Roads. 

 He became, with Fraunhofer, the ornament of the me- 

 chanical and optical Institute erected in 1805 at Bene- 

 dictbeuern by Utzschneider ; and his astronomical instru- 

 ments, meridian circles, transit instruments, equatorials, 

 heliometers, make an epoch in Observing Astronomy. 

 His contrivances in the Salt-works at Berchtergaden and 

 Reichenhall, in the Arms Manufactory at Amberg, and 

 in the works for boring cannon at Vienna, are enduring 

 monuments of his rare mechanical talent. He died 

 May 21, 1826 at Munich. Littrow's Note. 



(w.) p. 280. Joseph Fraunhofer was born March 6, 

 1 787, at Straubing in Bavaria, the son of a poor glazier. 

 He was in his earlier years employed in his father's trade, 

 so that he was not able to attend school, and remained 

 ignorant of writing and arithmetic till his fourteenth year. 

 At a later period he was assisted by Utzschneider, and tried 

 rapidly to recover his lost ground. In the year 1806 he 

 entered the establishment of Utzschneider as an Optician. 

 In this establishment (transferred from Benedictbeuern to 

 Munich in 1819) he soon came to be the greatest Optician 

 of Germany. His excellent telescopes and microscopes 

 are known throughout Europe. His greatest telescope, 

 that in the Observatory at Dorpat, has an object-glass of 

 9 inches diameter, and a focal length of 13^ feet. His 

 written productions are to be found in the Memoirs of the 

 Bavarian Academy, in Gilbert's Annalem der Plwsik, and 



