Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-03-13
STAR R-GAZERS.
LIFE AT THE GREAT LICK OBJ
SERVATORY IN WINTER
Astronomical Researches Under DIE
enthusiastically of Supplies
Terrific Wind storms
Frigid Temperatures.

LICK ODStINdtOty III Nohipihib - e"NSN
from an address by the director of the
observatory, Professor Edward F. Hol-
den. before the Astronomical Society oil
the Pacific.
To those who visit Mount Hamilton
in summer, says Professor Holden, moth
jnp can seem easier or more delightful,
than to plan and execute investigations
with the instruments at hand. A short
visit there, however, would at once show
the almost insurmountable difficulties
that attend an attempt to live at such an
elevation.
As soon as the winter sets in, storms
that in New York we would call cyclones
sweep over the mountains and drift the
snow around the astronomers dwelling:
more than ten feet deep. Three or four
times during each of the winter months
the wind blows at the rate Of more than
sixty miles an hour. Many of the
stronger gusts, which must exceed
seventy-fve or eighty miles an hour,
have never yet been measured, for no in
strument can be found that will stand
the test. Although the windmill which
supplies the observatory with water is
carefully furled before each storm and
held in position by iron braces, nearly
two inches in diameter, once year it is
torn from its mounting and destroyed.
During five days of February, 1880,
absolutely no communication with the
outside world was possible. The snow
fell in enormous quantities, and fierce
blizzard was blowing, which could not
be faced. On the sixth day OF our i'm
prisonment three men started together
for Smith Creek and returned the same
night, bringing the mail and thirty
pounds of much-needed provisions, after
a tourney of fourteen miles, which had
taken something like eight or nine hours
of hard work.
There is nothing to be had nearer than
San Jose, twenty-six miles away, and
it is necessary to transport everything by
stage. Frequently the stage has no
room for our parcels, and very frequently
has no passengers for the observatory,
and stops at the foot of the mountain.
In such a case we must send our men
over the road fourteen or fifteen miles
to Smith Greek. Very often the road
has been impossible to wagons ION ac-
count of snow, and all our supplies have
been brought in the mailbag on horse
back. Whatever was too large or too
heavy for the bag was not brought and
had to be done without.
During the 112 days from November
Is to March the stage came to the OBJ
servatory only thirty-six times. The
difficulties in this matter can be met by
a kind of "forhandedness, but when we
come to the strictly scientific side of Our
difficulties, they are more serious. For
example, bit of colored glass is wanted
to moderate the brightness of Mars, so
that the satellites can be seen. Where
IS it TO be foundl There is not so much
as a square millimeter of such glass west
of the Allegheny Mountains.
One of the prisms of our spectroscope
is stained and yellow. 1t cannot be re-
placed nearer than Pittsburg. If it is
sent away we lose its use for month or
more. The negatives of the solar eclipse
of December 81 remained at the foot Of
the mountain from February 16 to March
5 from lack OF some way to bring them
up.
Fuel seems to be no exception to other
articles in regard to the difficulty OF get
ting it up the mountain. 1t is the pres
cnt policy not to cut any wood on the
reservation, and hence it must be found
where best it may and its delivery hast
ened as much as possible. During the
winter of 1888 and 1889 the only wood
available for the various households was
from my private stores, which had been
ordered in May, but which were not all
delivered until the following February.
During the severe winter Of 1886 and
1887 the Lick trustees were obliged to
collect wood along the stage road, ,and it
was delivered in small parcels like ex-
press packages. Even so it was impos-
sible to keep the houses warm, and the
water troze on the very dinlng-tables.
The Photographic lens of the great tele-
scope was washed by Mr.. Clark in water
so cold that it froze where it was not
Immediately under his hands, and this
because no room in the observatory
could be heated above the freezing
point.
The difficulty, aside from the scanty
supply OF fuel, rests with the chimneys,
which wee not properly constructed for
the peculiar currents on the mountain
top. The wind blows up the deep can
yons on either side and sweeps almost
vertically down the fues. In consequence
the flames are driven two or three feet
out into the room. In vain every kind
of chimney-top has been tried. Moth
ing can remedy the difficulty but to re-
build the chimneys.
When summer comes there is constant
communication between the observatory