Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1884-12-25
THE BIG EYE OF THE WEST
JAMES IICF AND ms MAMMuT,f
TELEsGOPB.
HOW LICK MADE HIS MONEY
BLS sPhtRDID BAQUEsT IN am
OF sc. EhG~.

THE Advantages or MouDtaIn Oh.
teTVBnrna vinibiItty of Jupites,H
Moons 10 Rare sIr-6rsnt Refrae.
Tors and Rcnect0ra.
-
Abridged f'om the Popular Science Monthly.
On oo:ober lst, 1876, one OF the mil.
liOnarts Of thu new world died At San
Francisco Although owning a no more
euphoniOus name u an james Lick, he
hRd aontrlved to secure future for It.
he had founded kad endowed the
hTBl great astronomical observatory
planted on the nights, between
the stars aud the sea. How he came by
his love OF science We have NO means Of
knowing. Born obscuTely at FrederIoks-
burg In Pennsylvania, August 25th, ,1796,
hs hmassed some $4,000 by oommeroe
In South America, and 10 1S47
trsnifsrTed the money sud himself TO
village which had Just ex-
changed its name OF Ysrba Busna for
that of Ssn Francisco. The gold fever
broke cut the next spring; wealth poured
In, trade sprung up; population Of 900
increased 20 quarter Of million; build
tpg sEourd rose to fabulous price, and
James Lick fund himself one Of the
richest men In the United States.
Thus he got his money we have now
To sse how he spent it. Already the
munifeent bepefaotor Of the learned in
stitutions Of California, he in 1874
formally set aside q sum OF $4,000, 600,
for various public purposes, philanthropio,
patriotic and scientific. OF this sum
S7OO, 900 was appropriated to the erection
Of q telescope ''superior to and more
powerful than any yet made" s'-5'- 81
He further determined that the power
Of this great telescope should be fettered
as little IS possible by the hostility Of
She elements. The choice Of its local
habitGtiOn was, accordingly, matter OF
grave delibeIation with him for scme
time previous TO his death. Although
oloee upon his 90Lh year, be spent q
night upon the summit Of Mt 81. Helena,
with view Of testing its astronomical
capabilities, and site already secured IN
the Sierra Nevada was abandoned on the
ground Of olimatie disqualification
Finally one of the eliminating peaks Of
the Coast Range, elevated A, ,440 feet above
the sea, was fixed upon. Situated about
30 miles southeast Of San Francisco,
Mount Hamilton lies far enough inland
to escspe the sea fog, which only on the
rETest occasions drifts upward to Its
triple crest. All through the summer
the sky above It is limpid and
cloudless and, though winter storms
are frequent, their raging is not without
highly available lucid intervals Such
world known astronomers as Professor
Newoomb and 8. W. Burnham have en-
Enthusiastically declared it the best obssrv-
ing station in the United States.
The telescope which the bounty OF
James Lick has thus made available to
the astronomical world is now nearly
ready for transportation to Mount Hamil-
ton. 1t will be the largest refrsotor ever
constructed; having a clear aperture Of
three feet. The next largest is the Pal.
kowa telescope recently finished for the
Russian government by the same world
renowned optioians--Alvan Clarke *
Sons of Cambridgeport, MAss., the object
glass Of which ia 30 inches In diameter.
The third ia the great Vienna equatorial,
made by Grubb of Dublin, "a inches In
diameter. The great Washington equa-
torial, made also by Clarke x Sons, Is 26
inches In diameter.
But larger rejecting telescopes than
these have been turned out. Chief
among these Ia Lord Rosse's mammoth
speoulum- metal re eheotor, 6 feet In diame-
ter. This was constructed before the late
DR.. Draper made the great improvement
which has revolutionized the character OF
these telesoopes-the substitution Of sill
vered glass for speculum metal. OF the
latter substance some notable telescopes
have been since made; among them the
Paris reflector, feet In diameter; the
Melbourne reflector, 43 inches; Mr.. A. A.
Commons reflector, 81 inches, and others
almost IS large; and Calver Of London, is
now engaged upon . mirror feet In
diameter.
To return to the Lick telescope. A
disc Of flint glass was, after an indnite
amount Of labor and the surmounting Of
many difficulties, successfully cast In
1882 by NJ, Fell Of Paris for the most i'm
portant lens Of the object glass. This
disc measured se l9 inches across, cost
92. 600 and was month ia ceoling.
The grinding OF this AhA.jts crown glass
mate has been great &C '---ssTi.. whioh
the Clsrkss have successfully completed.
Preparations are now being made for
the proper housing OF this monster on
Mount Hsmilton's summit. The scAbrous
peak has bsen smoOthed down by the re-
moval Of 10000 tons of hard trap rock
on which the erection of an observatory
with dome rs feet in diameter has been
begun.
Much ia hoped for from the striking ad-
vsntAges Of so elevated an observing
station, Prof. Piszzi Symyth found.
years ago, that his little telescope, having
an aperture OF not much over 3 inches,
would show stars ct GuajArA, s,903 feet
above the ssa, fainter by four masnitudes
than could be seen through the game
instrument at Edinburgh. At the latter
place he never could make out, through
this telescope, the l1th magnitude COM
panion to Vegs; st GuajAra he
found this little twinkler an easy object.
We are also told that three American
observers In the Rocky Mountains, be-
longing 10 the BcliPss expedition Of 1878,
easily cav Jupiter's satellites night
after night with the nsked eye. The
superior visibility Of celestial objects,
through the rRrsr air Of mountain nights,
has bsen tested inuumerabla times, and
it IL common experiment with mountain
climbers thus to look, with the unaided
eye, for the JOvian satellites, which are
never visible from lower regions except
to a very few who are gifted with phe-
nomsnglly keen eyes