Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1886-05-05
Bill Nye on the Herschels.

IroDaOly no TWO men nave dont
more to promote knowledge, and ad.
vance the interests Of astronomy es'
pecially, than Sir John Frederick
William Herschel and Sir William
Herschel, deceased.
They were both passionately fond Of
astronomy, and nothing pleased them
more than to scour the heavens while
others slept. | do not think the
heavens have ever been so thorough
ly and carefully secured since John
and William died. Many people no.
ticed it right away after their death.
Sir John was bern at Slough, near
Windsor, in the State of England,
March 7, 1892. He breathed the
very air of science at once and yearn.
ed to acquire knowledge. Thus he
fitted himself for the fatiguing and
exhausting labors of scanning the sky
and tracing out the history, location,
and habits of the stars.
He went directly from his home to
Eton, and from there to st. Johns
college, where, in 1913, he graduated
as Smith prizeman and senior wrang-
Ter. Nothing fits young man for
the great field Of science so thorough
ly as diploma showing that he is a
good wrangler. At the age of 81 his
biographer states that he was elected
fellow.
Sir John Hershel at once marched
to the front rank and was elected a
baronet in 1S36-the same year in
which Queen Victoria was crowned,
if my memory is not at fault. Sir
John then began to acquire gold
medals in large numbers and to decor.
ate his bosom with various scientific
tags. He marched onward until he
was chosen president of the Astronom-
ical society and then master Of the
mint
In 1865, his health having been
impaired, he resigned as master Of
the mint and was made honorary
or corresponding member to the aca'
denies of Brussels, St. Petersburgh,
Vienna, Gottingen, Turin, Bologna.
Naples, Copenhagen, Stockholm and
other hotbeds of learning. In 1928
his attention was attracted toward
Margaret Brodie, the daughter Of the
Rev. DR.. Alex. Stewart. 1t was
about this time that he began to sit
up nights and rummage the heavens.
He never got over it.
In 1929 he married Margaret, but
he still continued to sit up nights, and
nothing tickled him more than to
ramble through the trackless void to
watch the antics of his nebulG, or
to follow n skittish comet through
space, trying to put salt on its little
tail. Many a night would he steal
into his couch with cold feet after a
long and tiresome search for stray
star.
In 1926 he began the stupendous
task of getting out catalogue and
price-list of all the stars. No one
who has never tried it can possibly
realize fully the extent of this task.
Not only that, but the most of it had
to be done at night. And yet he
never murmured. His wife murmur-
ed sometimes and asked him to please
warm his feet before he retired, but
Sir John never murmured. He would
work on until very late at night, taxi
ing an inventory Of the stars, and
then he would stick up a stake to
show where lie left off, and retire.
In this way he catalogued between
three and four thousand double stars,
and also passed in review the nebule
discovered and catalogued by his
father. While others slept he labor
ed on. While the giddy throng pour
ed into the halls of pleasure, or sought
out the lawn sociable, Sir John, with
his forty-foot telescope and ten-foot
pole over his shoulder, would start
out to investigate the trackless void.
Thus he became familiar with the
manners and customs of the planets,
and felt perfectly at home in the sky.
He knew at glance whether q planet
was wobbly or not. He could at once
detect it if an orb got sprung. He
had it down fine. No one dared adul-
terate the milky way while Sir John
had charge of the stars.
In 1S47 he published the result of
his observations from the cape of
Good Hope, covering the four years
from 1884 to 1888. These were: 1.
Nebuln and what to do for them. III.
Double stars and their habits. III.
Apparent size of stars, or how they
look to n man up tree. Nv. Dis
tribution of stars, and why early AS
tronomers soured OH the milky way.
V. Halley's celebrated comet, with
appendix treating of bob-tail comets;
also hints about shying comets and
how IN evade N new-laid n,eteor vi