Los Angeles herald., 1890-05-20
WILSON'S PEAK AND THE GREAT
TELESCOPE.

Great interest centefS just now IN
Wilson's peak. That noble mountain
has been for decades the favorite eyrie
of adventurous climbers who sought
thereon health and landscape views,
with scarcely superior on the conti-
nent. Seen from that sublime height,
there are few more lovely prospects than
the Los Angeles valley presents, and the
charming ensemble is eked out by a
magnificent prospect of the ocean and
the Santa Catalina islands.
OF old the peak was availed of, as we
have said, for views of the hills and
dales and wales of Los Angeles. OF late,
however, the idea has been adopted of
utilizing this noble altitude for views
of the heavens. Something like three
years ago Hon. E. F. Spence, the presi-
dent of the Commercial Bank of this city,
feeling that he had been signally pros
porous in his business undertakings,
conceived the pleasant idea, profitable
to the section, that he could afford to
donate $4,000 to the University of
Southern California, stipulating that
this sum, or the major portion of it.,
should be devoted to the purchase and
erection of the largest telescope ever
constructed. As guarantee of his
good faith, Mr.. Spence decided to trus-
tees specially deslgnated-not to the
trustees of the university-property that
was estimated by them as worth fully
$4,000. There was a general opinion
that the telescope was to be erected on
Wilson's peak, and it is only lately that
any doubt has been cast on that matter.
No sooner had the munifcent gift of
Mr.. Spence called attention to the de-
STABILITY of the location of an astro-
nomical observatory on Wilson's peak
than, 10! and behold, Harvard univers-
ity got wind of the matter, and, shortly
thereafter, that famed institution of
learning stole a march on the Angeleflos,
sending out here large telescope and a
corps of observers, taking possession
OF Wilson's peak, and proceeding
to take daily and nightly photo
graphic views of the heavens. The Har-
ward plant in no sense fills the concep-
ton which had been outlined by Mr..
Spence. The telescope is devoted purely
10 scientific purposes, the negatives
which are taken are on sensitized
paper, they are shipped daily to Harvard
university, where they are developed,
and even the operators themselves, on
Wilson's peak, derive no benefit from
their observations. Far different was the
scheme of Mr.. Spence, which contem-
plated the purchase and erection of the
largest telescope in the world on this
superb height, to be availed of by the
people at large: without regard to their
scientific attainments or to the absence
OF them, as source of pleasure and in
struction. That Harvard is determined
to keep the foothold she has gained, was
shown the other day by the introduction
of bill in the United States senate by
Hoar giving the Massachusetts univer-
sity some forty acres of government land
on the peak.
Without regard to the operations of
Harvard, the trustees of the Spence fund
proceeded to order of the Mantous. of
Paris, the largest telescope lens ever
constructed, and for which they will pay
the sum of $4,000 francs when approved
by Alvin Clark & Sons. This
costly article was shipped to Boston
some time ago, and the Messrs. Clark &
Sons, who finished the great lens for the
Lick observatory, will do the final work
upon the Spence crystal. At this stage
slight unpleasantness has occurred.
The trustees of the Spence gift think
that the Boston firm ought to ship the
great lens out to Monrovia, or some
where in the foothills, and do the pol
ishing up there. They contend, with
great plausibility, that great advantages
would accrue from the equability of the
temperature. Glass, like iron, is
liable to contraction and expan-
sion by cold and heat, and the
climate of the foothills is one of the
most equable in the world. This the
Messrs. Clark seem averse to doing.
Most people will think that the request
of the trustees is highly reasonable
one.
In passing, it may be remarked that
Wilson's peak is exactly of the same
height as Mt. Rigi, over Lake Luzerne,
viz, 1920 feet. 1t would have been an
exceedingly popular location, and
Angelenos will be sorry to learn
that there is some danger of
the great telescopes not going
to that point. Liberal offers of eligible
sites have reached the trustees from San
Bernardino county, but it is hardly pos
sible that these gentlemen would allow
this splendid observatory to be located
elsewhere than in Los Angeles county.
1t is understood that movement will
be made in congress to have site on or
near Wilson's peak donated to the Uni
versity of Southern California, and no
doubt the government, which owns the
land, would readily concede this. On
the other hand, the most natural and
practicable way of accomplishing this
would seem to be to have some citizen
pre-empt the land or buy it at the gov
ernment price, and turn it over to the
university.
The foregoing facts have been learned
on good authority. On the other hand,
it is asserted, in some quarters, that the
Messrs. Spence, Bonebrake, Bryson and
others, are about to build a railway to
the top of Wilson's peak, that it will
start from Monrovia and that it will be
great success.
The Bottom Facts.
Fortunately the HERALD reporter did
not abandon his search with the gentle
man who gave him the information en-
bodied in the foregoing. Later he struck
Major George H. Bonebrake, president
of the Los Angeles National Bank, a
gentleman who is taking much interest