The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-07-16
The California Telescope.

The most remarkable of Mr.. James
Lick's donations to California is the set
ting aside of seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars for the purpose oferect-
ing and endowing an astronomical OBJ
servatory, and equipping it with pow
erful telescope, superior TO-, and more
powerful than any telescope ever yet
made" The author of this magnificent
bequest, is, i'm every sense of the word, a
self-made man. Starting in life as a
Pennsylvania farmers boy, he laid the
foundations of his fortunes as cattle
raiser in South America. One of the
earliest of California pioneers, his riches
have grown with the material prosperity
of the Pacific slope. He has always been
among the foremost benefactors OF san
Francisco, and i'm the recent requests he
has followed the wise example OF the
founders of Cooper Institute and Lenox
Library by securing the proper fulfllment
of his trust by providing for its organi-
cation in his life time.
The United States already possesses i'm
the telescope at the Naval Observatory
at Washington the most powerful and
effective instrument in existence. This
is refracting telescope, with an object
glass of twenty-six inches in diameter,
and focal length of thirty-four feet.
The glass for the lenses of this instrument
was furnished by Chance & Co., of Bir-
mingham, England, but their preparation
and adjustment, as well as the arrange
ment of the delicate mechanism on which
the motion of the telescope depends, was
the work of the great American opticians,
Messrs. Alvan, Clark q Sons. Under
Mr.. Lick's bequest, the same firm are
designated as the final judges of the most
appropriate site for the proposed great
telescope of California and the world.
Curiously enough, the senior Clark began
life, like Mr., Lick, as farmers boy, and
passed through the intermediate stages of
calico printer and portrait painter before,
at the age of forty years, he turned his
attention to telescopes, with the improve
ment of which his name will be associ-
ated as long as the science of astronomy
has any existence.
How amply endowed will be the Lick
Observatory, on the summit of the Ser
ra, may be conjectured from the fact that
the great Washington telescope cost but
forty-four thousand dollars. The trustees
who have the spending of the seven hun.
dred thousand dollars will be limited
simply by the ability of the glass manu-
facturers to turn out lens of sufficient
size. We assume that the proposed tele.
scope will be refractor, since the great.
est refiectors, of which the best known
are Herschers and ROSES, have been
found comparatively useless for accurate
observations. The great speculum or OBJ
ject mirror of the former was 49, inches
in diameter, and the latter had two spec.
ula of six feet diameter Both were
among the marvels of the generation
which saw them constructed, but the lat
ter, albeit only thirty years old, is nearly
as much out of date as the former, which
was constructed eighty-five years ago. II
is Just possible that the existence of q
bequest large enough to yield six times
the price which has ever been paid for q
telescope may be the means of giving
| birth to lenses of what would now be
reckoned impossible size and perfection
The 26-inch object lens of the Washing.
ton telescope has been duplicated in the
one ordered by Mr.. Mccormick, of Chi.
cago, for the Washington and Lee Uni
versity, of Lexington, Va. But, though
larger lenses have been talked about, theil
successful production is still problemat
ical. Many costly failures have preceded
the attainment of the twenty-six inches
diameter, and Chance & Co. are said tC
be the only firm in the world who vii
undertake the manufacture of disc o
that size.
Under the stimulus of Mr.. Lick's Law
ish endowment, it is to be hoped that
some American glsss-makers will be
tempted to make an effort to render il
unnecessary for our opticians to go tc
England for their lenses. Science know;
no country, and Mr.. Lick's munificent
bequest in the cause of astronomy viii
be hailed by sorans all over the world
But now that we have at Washington, al
Chicago, at Harvard, and at Lexington
four telescopes that can be matched by
no country in the world, it is to be wished
that the scientific workmanship of the
country will keep pace with its scientific
ardor.