The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1893-08-31
THE BIG YERKES TELESCOPE
A Marvel Of Ingenuity To Be Shown
at Chicago.
LARGEST IN THE UNIVERSE
LARGEST IN THE UNIVERSE
1t WIN $50 Without a Peer Among the
Great Rencctois Of the Different AS
Economical Stations.

The Opening exhibit of the forty
inch Yeres telescope at Chicago this
week is an occurrence of no little in
terest to the general public To both
the lay and the scientific mind astron-
omy is fascinating study. The stu
pendous magnitudes with which 1t
deals and the brilliant beauty of its
phenomena attract while they bewll-
der, 1t offers, moreover, field of In
estimable richness for research and
for the enlargement OF human knowl-
edge But this Is a field whose cult
walton depends, more than any other,
upon the implements used. Invention
is vain; speculation Is futile; calcula-
ton waits on data. Actual observation
through powerful instruments alone
can give results and promise Of results,
and so progress In astronomical
knowledge must be measured by the
progress made in the manufacture of
astronomical instruments. How much
further progress will be made, or can
NC AAiehNOg IL AtAAo QtAOCNiOiig IC WOuiA NC
rash who would attempt to say. No
such limit yet appears as has been
reached, for example, in microscopy
and, with the requisite care and skill
in casting and grinding glasses, there
seems no good reason why telescopes
should not be made by far exceeding
in size and power the greatest Of those
now projected.
1t is one thing, however, to plan a
huge telescope, and even make It's
tube and exhibit it to admiring multi
tudes; but 1t is another and far diff
ferent thing to make the lenses and
to put the machine into use. The Lick
telescope Is smaller than the YerlSes,
yet what a task it was to make its
ponderous objective! Disc after disc of
crown glass was cast, at great expense
and labor, only to be rejected. Some
got broken, some contained flaws,
some were spoiled in cooling, some
were ruined in annealing. After more
than thirty attempts, success was at
tanned. Then 1t was the task of more
than year to grind and polish the
disc, and the care bestowed on the
packing and transportation of It was
such as no cargo or diamonds ever
received This was an objective thirty
six inches in diameter. That of the
YerlSes telescope is forty inches. anc
proportionately more difficult to make
When this great instrument is fin
ished, 1t will be, in size, without a RI
val; and though the efficiency Of tele-
scopes does not increase in equal ra-
ito with their size, 1t ought to excel
all Others in powe. It's nearest COM
petitor in size is the Lick telescope,
with it's thirty-six inch disc. Russia
boasts one of thirty inches. England's
largest, in the Royal Observatory at
Greenwich, measures twenty-eght in
ches. the same as Dr. Draper's largest,
and that at Yale. The great telescope
at Washington has lense of twenty
six inches, and that at Princeton Of
twenty-three. There are other much
larger tubes, DuI lney are TeneClOTb,
not refractors-an entirely different
type. Mr.. Commons, at Ealing, Eng
land, has a superb thirty-six inch re-
flector. There is one of forty-elght
inches at Melbourne The famous Her
scheI reflector also measures forty
eight inches, while Lord Ross's mighty
tube boasts a speculum no less than
seventy-two inches in diameter How
the Yerkes forty-inch refractor will
compare with these may in part be
reckoned from the fact that after care
full consideration, the builders of the
Lick telescope preferred the thlrty-six
inch refractor to proposed seventy
two-inch reflector. A possible rival to
the Yerkes telescope, and the only one
yet heard Of, is the great reflector
which M. Deloncle proposes to build
for the Paris Exposition Of 1900, and
which is to have spectrum hum
dred and eighteen inches in diameter.
and tube hundred and thirty-two