Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-06-06

of Chicago, has made discovery in re-
fraction of lights which promises a
sudden stride in astronomical science,
such as the widest dreams would not
have imagined. Basing his experiments
upon fundamental principle of refrac-
ticn Mr.. Gathmann has perfected a
lens which will prove ten, fifteen. per-
haps twenty times as powerful as any
now il use. By means of this lens the
moon will be brought within five or
six miles of the astronomers eye. Mars
and his mysterious population will be
close enough for detailed study of sur
face conditions, for communication
with the inhabitants perhaps. With
the visual distance of all the astral bod
les decreased in such proportions it is
impossible to predict what mysteries of
the heavens astronomy will reveal be-
fore the close of the century.
Not only are these the Immediate
prospects, but the possibilities thai
may be developed are practically I'M
limited. Gathmann has solved the one
great difficulty which seemed to have
set a fixed limit to any further progress
i'll telescope-lnaking. lie has made
sectional lens.
All lenses now in use are made OF
one solid mass of glass. When lens of
more than 3o-inch diameter is made, the
difficulty of pouring it becomes so great
and the quality of the material and
sharpness of the focus are bound to
decrease so rapidly with the increasing
size that the telescope makers have
come to believe that the limit in the
progress of their cutting has been vir-
tually reached. The sectional lens re-
moved the difficulty. Each section is
poured and cooled separately, and the
l. q
consist of glass true as that of mi
croscope. Each section is a perfect lens
in itself, focusing to the same point as
every other section. Thus all the SEP
arate foci meet, and form one focus, Civ
ing a single and accurate definition"
or image. This is the principle upon
which the eye of the fly is built. Sim
pie it may seem, the sectional
lens is unique discovery. Expert
ments have frequently been made
with two or three lenses with COM
plete convex surfaces, SO placed that
the conveying rays of the two would
meet in single focus. But it was
found that the different sets of rays con-
f1icted with each other in their re-
spective paths. In the Gathmann lens,
each section is cut-not into COM
plete convex surface, but according to
it's position on the entire lens sur
face; that is, not each section, but all
the sections together form single
convex surface. The opaque material
between the sections does not interfere
with the image. The sections may be
many or few, of any shape or size. pro-
vided only that every piece of glass is
ground precisely according to its po
sition on the complete convex surface.
The principle of optics involved is
this: In looking into a telescope, the
eyes are fixed not upon the lens but up
on the point where the incoming rays
of light are focused.
The importance of the invention of
the sectional lens will be the better real
lied when one considers the tremen-
dous difficulty of making a very large
lens. The object glass of the telescope
in Lick observatory is &c inches in diam
etcr, and it took months and months of
work, months and months of repea ted
failure to get proper results. The
Serl<es telescope has a 40-inch lens, the
largest ever made. With all the precau-
tions exercised, with the thousands~and
thousands of dollars spent on the work.
these lens are sadly deficient, after all.
A microscope containing material of
the same quality could not be used in
any nice work.
AS the slightest blister or other ir-
regularity necessitates new pouring
the difficulty of that operation increases
greatly with the size of the mold. But
it is primarily the danger attendant
upon the cooling process that has set an
absolute limit to the size. The surface
while the mass within is still hot and
nreSSaS onward Thourh r,,npfhs aro