NOVEMBER 12, 1897. ] 
ties. But the greatest astronomical activity 
during our colonial period was that called 
out by the transit of Venus in 1769, which 
was visible in this country. A. committee 
of the American Philosophical Society at 
Philadelphia organized an excellent system 
of observations, which we now know to 
have been fully as successful, perhaps more 
so, than the majority of those made on 
other continents, owing mainly to the ad- 
vantages of air and climate. Among the 
observers was the celebrated Rittenhouse, 
to whom is due the distinction of having 
been the first American astronomer whose 
work has an important place in the history 
of the science. In addition to the observa- 
tions which he has left us, he was the first 
inventor or proposer of the collimating tele- 
scope, an instrument which has become 
almost a necessity wherever accurate ob- 
servations are made. The fact that the 
subsequent invention by Bessel was quite 
independent does not detract from the 
merits of either. 
Shortly after the transit of Venus which I 
have mentioned, the War of the Revolution 
commenced. The generation which carried 
on that war, and the following one which 
formed our Constitution and laid the bases 
of our political institutions, were naturally 
too much occupied with these great prob- 
lems to pay much attention to pure science. 
When the great mathematical astronomers 
of Europe were laying the foundation of 
celestial mechanics their meetings were a 
sealed book to every one on this side the 
Atlantic, and so remained till Bowditch 
appeared, early in the present century. His 
translation of the Mécanique Céleste made an 
epoch in American science by bringing the 
great work of Laplace down to the reach of 
the best American students of his time. 
American astronomers must always 
honor the names of Rittenhouse and Bow- 
ditch. And yet, in one respect their work 
was disappointing of results. Neither of 
SCIENCE. 
713 
them was the founder of a school. Ritten- 
house left no successor to carry on his work. 
The help which Bowditch afforded his gen- 
eration was invaluable to isolated students 
who, here and there, dived alone and un- 
aided into the mysteries of the celestial 
motions. His work was not mainly in the 
field of observational astronomy, and there- 
fore did not materially influence that branch 
of the science. In 1832 Professor Airy, 
afterward Astronomer Royal of England, 
made a report to the British Association on 
the condition of practical astronomy in 
various countries. In this report he re- 
marked that he was unable to say anything 
about American astronomy because, so far 
as he knew, no public observatory existed 
in the United States. 
William C. Bond, afterward famous as the 
first Director of the Harvard Observatory, 
was at that time making observations with 
a small telescope, first near Boston, and 
afterward at Cambridge. But with so 
meager an outfit his establishment could 
scarcely lay claim to being an astronomical 
observatory; and it was not surprising if 
Airy did not know anything of his modest 
efforts. 
If at this time Professor Airy had ex- 
tended his investigations into yet another 
field, with a view of determining the pros- 
pects for a great city at the cite of Fort 
Dearborn, on the southern shore of Lake 
Michigan, he would have seen as little 
prospect of civic growth in that region as of 
a great development of astronomy in the 
United States atlarge. A plat of the pro- 
posed town of Chicago had been prepared 
two years before, when the place contained 
perhaps half a dozen families. In the same 
month in which Professor Airy made his 
report, August, 1832, the people of that 
place, then numbering twenty-eight voters, 
decided to become incorporated, and selected 
five trustees to carry on their government. 
In 1837 a city charter was obtained from 
