Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-02

on their courses through the regions Of
space. Think of the most difficult algebraic
Cacula ton you have ever attempted, i'm
agine il to be a thousand times harder than
il is then take tens upon tens of thousands
of such calculations worked over and over
again until absolute accuracy is assured,
and you have small part of the details of
the work of Prof. Newcomb. Think again!
Suppose you had to travel the world over
TO get the records of astronomers for hun
dreds of years back to form the basis for
such calculations. that you had to Work
them over yourself to see If they were cor
rect and then to recompute and recalculate
them according to new set of conditions
as to the heavenly bodies. which you your
self had discovered and you have another
part of the labor this man has done.
Much of this work was performed during
the leisure he had while acting as COM
puter and superintendent of the Nautical
Almanac. which for years has formed the
chief guide to the shipping of the world,
and the calculations for which require
enormous labor. He is. in fact, the Her
cules of mathematical astronomy.
Prof Newcombs astronomical successes
have also extended beyond his generaliZa-
tions and deductions based upon the OBJ
servations of others. He has travelled from
one end of the globe almost to the other to
get the best views of the stars Now he is
in the Saskatchewan region of British
America watching an eclipse of the sun,
now you find him at Gibraltar noting the
motions of the moon, and now his telescope
is pointed toward the skies at the Cape
of Good Hope.
Prof. NewcOmb at Home.
Professor Newcomb lives here at Wash
ington in three-story redbrick house on
street. just off of 10th. in what is
one of the most fashionable parts Of
the city. He has fine library on
the first floor, the walls of his workshop,
frcm floor to ceiling, being filed with
III
rare mathematical works. Among others,
he showed me Euclid which was printed
ten years before America was discovered.
The diagrams and initials are beautifully
made, and the ink, notwithstanding it's
four hundred years. is as black as that of
the newspaper in which this letter will be
printed
Professor Newcomb does the most of his
work in his library. He works with his
family about him. and many of his most
difficult calculations have been made while
his wife and daughters were chatting to-
gether in the same room. He has, you
know, now retired from his labors for the
government, but at sixty-two he is intel
lectually as able as he has ever been, and
he tells me that the work he has laid out
before will keep him busy for ten years TO
come Just at present he is completing mis-
tables of the planets, upon which he has
been busy for number Of years.
The beginnings of an Astronomer.
1 first asked Professor Newcomb whether
his mathematical ability was matter of
Inheritance. He replied:
Il don't know. 1 have studied my an
cestors somewhat to see but have failed TO
find any of them who, during the past two
centuries. have been college graduates. One
of my grandfathers was a stone cutter by
trade, but he owned copy of Euclid, and
tradition credits him with the possession
OF unusual learning. My father was a
school teacher"
You were born in Nova Scotia, were you
not?''
Yes" replied Professor Newcomb. "but
my family came first to New England
along about 166D and 1t was Just before the
revolution that the family moved to Can
hood. and there lived until I came to the
United States to seek my fortune"
DO You remember. professor. when You
hrst realized that you had more than ortli-
nary ability as a mathematics
Il do not know that L can" was the re-
ply. Il began to study arithmetic when I
was five years old, and at six / am told
was very fond of doing sums. At twelve /
was studying algebra, and about that time
i began 10 teach. i remember that 7 was
thirteen when first took up Euclid. There
was a copy OF 1t among my fathers works
II was. think. the one which belonged to
my grandfather / took il down one day and
got interested In II. / there got INV first
idea OF mathematical demonstration Tho
DOCK delighted me- Ii opened a new world
OF thought, and remeu Der / explained n
TO my brother by demonstrating some of
the principal theorems, drawing the dia-
grams with a pencil on the ends of the
logs of a pile of wood. There was NOT
much chance for boy In Nova Scotia.
however. The people were very poor Near
ly every family made its own clothes The
N en- and boys sawed humber and cut wood.
emo the women and girls sheared the sheen
ard wove the wool into homespun cloth.
There were but few books, and until
was twenty-one 1 had never seen "a college
professor
You can hardly imagine how simple the
people are there" broke In Mrs Newcorb
with a laugh. I'VE have visited Nova SEQ,
tia. and found that the reputation Of Prof
Newco:nb has gone about among; the peo.
PIE with whom he used to live. I remem-
Der hearing one woman say: I hear Mr.
Newcomb spends all his time lookin' nj
the stars. and that he really gets paid
money for II, too.'"
How did you happen to come to the
United States. professor" said i.
u came to seek my fcrtune," was the
reply. Il began as a country school teach
Sr on the eastern shore of Maryland. The
people there we're more advanced than
those among whom j had lived I'm Canada
but not much I taught reading writing