THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



AUGUST, 1909 



THE FUTTJKE OP ASTKONOMY 1 



By Professor EDWARD C. PICKERING 



HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY 



IT is claimed by astronomers that their science is not only the oldest, 

 but that it is the most highly developed of the sciences. Indeed it 

 should be so, since no other science has ever received such support from 

 royalty, from the state and from the private individual. However this 

 may be, there is no doubt that in recent years astronomers have had 

 granted to them greater opportunities for carrying on large pieces of 

 work than have been entrusted to men in any other department of pure 

 science. One might expect that the practical results of a science like 

 physics would appeal to the man who has made a vast fortune through 

 some of its applications. The telephone, the electric transmission of 

 power, wireless telegraphy and the submarine cable are instances of 

 immense financial returns derived from the most abstruse principles of 

 physics. Yet there are scarcely any physical laboratories devoted to 

 research, or endowed with independent funds for this object, except 

 those supported by the government. The endowment of astronomical 

 observatories devoted to research, and not including that given for 

 teaching, is estimated to amount to half a million dollars annually. 

 Several of the larger observatories have an annual income of fifty 

 thousand dollars. 



I once asked the wisest man I know, what was the reason for this 

 difference. He said that it was probably because astronomy appealed 

 to the imagination. A practical man, who has spent all his life in his 

 counting room or mill, is sometimes deeply impressed with the vast 



1 Commencement address at Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, May 

 27, 1909. • ■•■;.; 



VOL LXXV. — 8. 



