Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1871-06-09

Sir John Herschel is dead not the
man who discovered the lanet so ofsen
called by his name, but son OF that
lllustrious astronomer, and not less
illustrous than he. The father was,
perhaps, the greatest in invention; the
son was king among scientists in APP
plication. We refer not now to that
kind of application of the ideas of
other people, which has gained repu-
tation for not few, but to mental
temperament in which indefatigable
industry was accompanied by search
ing analytical power that opened up
wide fields of thought previously un-
known, and established basic principles
on which several brilliant regulations
have been built up, during his long and
useful life.
John Frederick William Herschel
was born in 1890, at Slough, England,
about twenty years after his father, Sir
William, began to study the heavens,
sixteen years after the construction of
the great Herschelian rejecting tele-
scope, and nine years after the dis
covery of Uranus had extended our
knowledge of the solar system beyond
the bounds assigned to it by the an
Gent world. He graduated at st.
Johns College, Cambridge, in 1918, and
at once turned his whole attention to
the study of mathematics and astrono-
my, making some valuable contribu-
tions to the usefulness of the Calculus,
in 1920. He then devoted himself for
several years to the work of surveying
the siderial heavens, which had been
first systematically undertaken by his
father. He carefully observed the
northern hemisphere, publishing, at
different times, important measure
ments of 1886 stars, and then, in 1884,
went to the Cape of Good Hope, where
he remained four years, at his own ex-
pense, making careful observations of
the stars in the southern sky. On his
return he published the results OF his
investigations under the title OF " Re-
suits of Astronomical Observations, &c;
being the completion of a telescope
survey of the surface of the visible
heavens, commenced in 1926" During
these years of labor he determined the
exact positions of 2,049 nebul@ in the
southern hemisphere, 500 of which were
previously unknown, added 800 to the
list of nebul8 discovered by his father
and his Aunt Caroline (many of whose
discoveries have been unjustly ascribed
to her brother), and discovered the ex-
istence of 1881 double stars, determin-
ing the orbital motions of many Of
them. He also made many valuable
observations on the Milky-Way, and on
the magnitudes and variability of stars.
He is also entitled to the honor of hav-
ing been the first to suggest, while at
the Cape, the Importance of taking
simultaneous barometic observations at
different places, and thus really laid the
which has recently been undertaken,
with much good results, of telegraph
ing the approach of storms in advance
of their arrival at a given place. He
really added largely to the worlds
knowledge of meteorological science,
was the first to gauge the height of an
atmosphere and to compute the tempera-
ture of the interplanetary space $3.50
degrees below zero), though both these
quantities have been subsequently cor
rected He also wrote on the physical
constitution of comets, sun spots,
sounds, the nature of light, chemistry,
optics, and magnetism.
Sir John Herschel early receive two
gold medals from the Royal Astronomi-
cal Society, and was knighted by Queen
Victoria, on her coronation in 1888, in
acknowledgment of his services in the
cause of science. In 1889 he received
from Oxford the degree of Doctor of
Civil Law, and in 1912 was elected Lord
Rector of Marischal College, in Aber-
deem. In 1913 he was elected -Presi-
dent of the Royal Astronomical Society
of England, and, subsequently, was
elected member of the French Academy
of Sciences, only seven other foreigners
sharing that honor with him. In 1850
he was appointed Master of the Mint,
which office he held until 1855, when i'll
health made it advisable for him to re-
sign. During his occupancy of that
office he devoted much time to the
study of the vexed question of uni
versal standard of weight and measure,
and, perhaps, did more than any other
man to prevent the adoption of the
French standard of measures, by show
ing that their unit (metre was based
on an incorrect measurement OF me-
ridional quadrant, and that the quad
rant itself varies with the meridian on
which it is measured.
His communications to the Royal AS
Economical Society were numerous. The
publications to which we have already
referred were addressed to scientific
men, but he was very successful in his
attempts to write for the benefit of
more extended circle of readers. His
outlines of astronomy and his lectures
have had an almost worldwide perusal,
and the compilers of the British Ency-
clop@dia were indebted to him for the
able and plainly written articles on as
tronomy, under several headings, which
are found in that comprehensive work.
IT is often remarked by strangers WIS.,
iting our State, that we show a larger
of good horses than any
other State in the Union. This, we tell
them. is owing to two principal reasons;