The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-03
lnOn

copyrighted. 1897. by Frank G. Carpenter.)
WASHINGTON, D. c., Oct. IL
spent an evening this week with the
most eminent of the worlds astrono-
mers. Prof. Simon Newcomb is to the
scientists of Europe a far more inter
esting man than the president of the
United States. The leading foreign
universities have conferred honorary
degrees upon him, the greatest of the
worlds scientific societies have pre-
sented him with gold medals for his
astronomical work, and his books are
used in the chief universities of Eng
land and Germany. There is today not
an astronomer living who does not
base his calculations upon NeWcomb's
tables of the moVeMentS-Of the planets
and the moon, and there is not ship
that sails the seas that is not guided
by his measurements of the solar sys-
tenn.
1t is indeed difficult to give in COM
mon words g. conception of Prof New
combs work. 1t might almost be said
that he has weighed the planets, has
held his stop watch on the motions
Of the moon, and through his mathe
matical genius has given us a set of
instantaneous photographs of the
greater heavenly bodies as they speed
on their courses through the regions
of space. Think Of the most difficult
algebraic calculation you have ever
attempted, imagine it to be a thousand
times harder than 1t is, then take tens
upon tens of thousands Of such calcu-
Iations worked over and over again
until absolute accuracy is assured, and
you have a 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 as
tronomers for hundreds of years back
to form the basis for such calculations,
that you had to work them over your
self to see If they were correct, and
then to recompute and recalculate
them, according to a new set of condt-
tions as to the heavenly bodies, which
you yourself had discovered and you
have another part Of the labor this
man has done.
Much Of his work was performed
during the leisure he had while acting
as comDuter and superintendent Of
,4he Nautical Almanac, which for years
has formed the chief guide of the
shipping of the world, and the calcula-
tions for which require enormous Ia
Dor. He is, in fact, the Hercules of
mathematical astronomy.
Prof. NeWcomb's astronomical sue
cesses have also extended beyond his
generalizations and deductions based
upon the observations of others. He
has Travelled from one end of the globe
almost to the other to get the best
views of the stars. Nov he is In the
Saskatchewan region of British Amer
tca 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.
Prof. Newcomb lives here at Wash
ington in a three-story red brick house
on P street, just off of Sixteenth, in
what is one Of the most fashionable
parts of the city. He has a fine libra
ry on the first floor, the walls of his
workshop, from floor to ceiling, being
filed with books In his collection
there are many rare mathematical
works. Among others, he showed me
q Euclid which was printed ten years
before America was discovered. The
diagrams and initials are beautifully
made, and the ink, Notwithstanding
it's 400 years, is as black as that of
the newspaper in which this letter will
be printed.
Prof. 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