The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-28
THE GREAT LENS MAKER
GENIUS or THE LATE ALVIN CLARK
SLOW TO BE RECOGNIZED.
His Work Revealed to Astronomers
Many of the Secrets of the Heavens,
and Made His Name Famous.
Y Haynie. in Boston Herald.

The late Mr.. Alvan Clark who had so
long and usefully cultivated the sublime
science which treats of celestial bodies.
once said to the present writer that he
rever looked toward the stellar worlds
without feeling his heart palptate with
emotion as he contemplated the marvels
of the universe 1--WE boast our knowl-
edge" said Mr.. Clark, and certainly there
is a wonderful amount of intelligence in
the world, still, is it not remarkable, when
you think of it, that we know some neigh
Dor globe much better than we know our
own. We can stand there on my lawn and
see Mars or Venus, but we cannot see
earth. And it may be added that, we
gaze above and around us, hardly daring
to think of the moving swarms of suns
which are but centers of remoter celestial
systems, we begin to realize that the linn
its of the universe are, indeed, unthink-
able.
This so he told me, was one of the chief
reasons why Mr.. Clark was so devoted to
his work of telescope making, for he want
ed to master as much as possible of that
immensely. He was far from satisfied with
what he had accomplished in this direc-
ton, however. Said he: Many of the clus-
tered or scattered stars in yonder skies
so far away from us that even this new
glass made for the Chicago University will
only be able to show them as a mass of
light, so faint that the separate stars will
hardly be distinguished. In other words,
this distance is such that they are beyond
not only our power of estimation, but it is
utterly hopeless to attempt to determine
how far away they are, even, as 1 say,
with this achromatic objective which we
have completed for Mr.. Yerkes."
Apropos, it might naturally be supposed
that the brightest stars are those nearest
the earth. but that would be an error The
brightest star mot planeD in the heavens
is Sirius, but Sirius is by no means the
nearest neighbOr of the solar system The
star Arcturus. one of the three or four
most beautiful stars visible in our northern
skies, is not one of the stars comparative
~ near to the earth. In fact, Arcturus is
so far away that astronomers will probably
never learn what the distance of it's re-
moteness actually amounts to. So far as
telescopes can show the star which lies
closest to the earth IS one not seen in the
northern hemisphere, though ii is familiar
TO residents in southern ATTITUDES. This
ton of the Centaur; it is spoken of as
Alpha, Centauri, and its distance from us
has been measured by Professor Elkin of
Yale University with all the accuracy
which modern science permits.
INTERSTELLAR DISTANCE.
But If you stated that distance in miles
your readers would not understand" ex-
claimed Mr.. Clark, land you had better
tell them how great it is in some other
way. Well, suppose we make use of the
electric telegraph for this purpose. The
maximum speed under the most favorable
circumstances of message along the wire
is 100000 miles in second, If it were pos
sible to stretch a wire from the earth to
the nearest bright star, and another to a
faint telescope star, and still another all
the way from earth to one of the more
distant stars, why of course we could, at
that rate Of speed, send a message there
in next to time"
Now let us see about that" remarked
Dr. Campbell wonderful mathematician
who was one of our little party and he
soon produced a mass of figures. And what
ne showed was this: That it would take
a telegraphic message, moving at the max
imum rate of speed, that is to say, $780, 600
miles in second, no fewer than eight min
utes to pass from the earth to the sun; that
it would take four years of time for a SINH
lar dispatch to reach Alpha Centauri that
IT, on the day when Queen Victoria was
born, nearly eighty years ago, this news
had been thus telegraphed up to one of
those thousands of twinkling points which
delight our eyes, that message, flashing
along with velocity which would carry
1t more than seven times round the earth
in the interval between two ticks of a
watch would not yet be half way on its
journey. Why, over us are thousands of
stars so remote that if the glad tidings of
disseminated through Gods kingdom by
the sWiftest electric current ever known
that message would not yet have been re-
ceiVed by them, and there are many suns
which this great lens made by Mr.. Alvan
Clark will reveal to astronomers that are
far beyond the most remote ones hitherto
visible through good telescopes.
Now minute those stars and clusters
appear to u.s., said this master maker of
they be, there is nothing that we know of
to prevent our supposing each of them to
be the center of group of planets as ex-
tensive as our own and each planet to be as
full of inhabitants as is the earth. The
question of the number of worlds in the
universe of the Almighty is still insolube
but we do know that all those we see have
proper motion. To all appearances Orion
and the pleiades are still exactly as Enos
and Seth saw them many thousand years
ago, but modern astronomy and telescopes
with the magic aid OF mathematics, have
shown that these stars are in motion; and
there are some up yonder so far away from
us that it would take infinite cons of time
Tor any change to be noticed in the aspect
of the constellation of which they form a
part in our astronomy no. not even with
this Yerkes glass. thus far the largest and
most powerful ever made"
THE YERKES DISC.
Then he told me the story of that lens
and its cost in round numbers. While in a
certain sense the disc in question is the
most wonderful piece of human workman
ship of its kind that has ever been pro-
$4,000 to $4,000. 1t is pretty certain how
ever, that the successors to the genius
whom we have just lost would hardly
guarantee to reproduce it's equal for twice
that latter sum. Alvan G. Clark com
pleted it without any serious accident but
when he was preparing in like manner a
lens for the Lick telescope one thirty-six
inches in diameter and constructed ar a
cost of $50, Co., there were no fewer than
nineteen failures, involving a delay of more
than three years in carrying out the con-
tract. 1t then believed that none
larger more powerful could be ever
made, but the Yerkes glass proves the con-
trary. as it is forty inches in diameter and
believe they are making fifty-inch lens
at Pittsburg.
Physical astronomy depends wholly on
instrum-e nts, by the aid of mathematics
and it should be a proud satisfaction to
our people to know that two of the most
powerful telescopes in existence are i'm
America. These are the one on Mount
Hamilton, in California, the other on Lake
Geneva, some forty miles from Chicago
And it seems strangely anomalous that the
metropolis of the West. a city of CONNER
cial din, tense financial activities and re-
markable railway noises should be so deep
ly interested in a science that is so pro-
found as astronomical science But then
Chicago always was one of the worlds
greatest wonders.
Only few months back / had my last
interview with Mr.. Clark and we
cOnVerSed not ouI.f abonf ,,pgr,arra