The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-03-31


schel ncw delighted her by presenting
her with a telescope, a ''seven-foot
Newtenian sweeper" With this instru-
ment she faithfully swept the heavens
during her brothers enforced absence
at court, bringing herself after some
rebellion OF spirit TO spend night after
night on deWy or frosted grass plot
with no one within call. Soon she over
came her repugnance to the loneliness
or this work by rejecting that not far
away her beloved brother was at the
same time making observations upon
double stars or planets, and this sense
Of nearness encouraged her to work
away on the nebulae or star clusters
which she intended TO catalogue. Once,
upon discovering a comet, she had the
pleasure of writing this fact to her
brother, her letter crossing the follow
ing diary letter from him:
Dear Lima: Aug. Ii counted 100
nebulae today, and this evening 1 saw
an object which I believe will prove
tomorrow night to be comet. 2d.-Tol
night l calculated $50 nebulae. 1 fear
IT viii not be clear tonight. One
o'clock-The object of last night is a
comet"
1t seems, however. from several con-
gratulatory letters received from noted
astronomers that to Caroline belonged
the priority Of observing this, the first
CT the eight comets which she discover
ed
Until William Herschel's day six or
eight inches was considered the regu-
lation size for the mirror of an astron-
omical telescope. He and his sister
polished many ten and seven foot mir
rors from rough to fnlng down"
process tedious beyond description.
William once became SO absorbed in
polishing a seven-fOot mirror that he
never took his hand off it for sixteen
hours, his distressed and devoted sister
meanwhile literally keeping him alive
by dropping bits Of food into his mouth
While he worked.
With this enthusiastic brother Caro-
line Herschel braved the toughest
weather, noting the right ascensions
and polar distances of the objects OBJ
served while the ink froze in the bottle,
helping regularly in his numerical cal
culations and reductions and only dur
ing MS absence using the priced New
tonian sweeper, and getting through an
amount OF independent, original work
that caused amaZement among the adj
miring astronomers Of all countries.
By this time her self-abnegation was
so complete that the joys Of youth,
the drawbacks of age, were alike I'M
noted because of her absorption in her
brothers life work. She resented fierce
iy all praise of herself which might
detract from her brothers fame and
writes with all sincerity: Il have
done nothing; all 1 am, all know, 1
owe TO my brother. 1 am only a tool
which he shaped to his use-a we'll
trained puppy-dog would have done
as much"
The many distinguished visitors who
o. RI hn Of
of the Georgian satellites-17S6-7-di
not agree with CarOline's modest eSti-
mate of herself. So that when, in 1877,
the salary of the astronomer royal was
COUPLED the modest sum of $50 annu-
ally was settled upon Caroline as as
slstant astronomer. Her joy, however.
ever this unprecedented action in the
history Of science and the possession
of the first money, most jrregularly
paid, which she had ever been able 10
spend 10 her liking, was soon clouded
by the first real trial of her life.
That spring her brother William
married; although his wife became
Caroline's lifelong friend it was a
great blow TO woman whose IS years
had been so lived in her brothers life
to be thus relegated to q secondary
place. Although bitterly lonely in her
lodgings, she nevertheless worked IN
tiringly, not for the sake of science, but
for the sake of the brother who had
trained her 10 believe that astronomy
was the only branch Of science worth
studying. She but thinly wells her con-
tempt of other studies when she writes
of her brother Dietrich: He amuSes
himself with insects; it is we'll he does
not see the word 'amuses,' for when
ever he catches a fly with a leg more
than usual he says it is as good as
catching a comet
Caroline Herschel discovered the ma
jority of her comets after her brothers
marriage. Nevertheless she still spent
many nights star gazing with him,
roughly jottins down his observations,
and at dawn Fastening to her cottage
where she worked until breakfast in
order to send her brother q fair copy
Of the nights work, together with the
working plan fer the following evening
Sometimes when Mrs. Herschel would
be absent for a month with her only
son, to whom Caroline was always de-
voted, the sister would come to her
brothers home, working night after
night with him in the dear old way.
Indeed, had it not been for the frequent
cloudy evenings, these laborers by dav
and night would not have been able
TO stand the unresting strain of 60
many years. AS it was. Sir William
Herschels iron frame succumbed pre-
maturely TO the outrageous treatment
which it constantly received, and he
died in 1922. England was no longer
England now that the brother who
brought her thither was gone, and the
broken hearted sister returned at the
age of Y, to Hanover, where she lived
tWenty-siX years. Still faithful to her
task of ''minding the heavens for her
brother, she completed some of his
most important works in her native
land. The reduction and ARRANGEMENT
in the form of a catalogue in zones of
all the star clusters and nebuIae oh
served by Sir W. HerscheI in his
sweeps won for her in 1923, at the age
OF Is, the gold medal Of the Royal As
Economical society. She also wrote
many other catalogues and indexes in
valuable to astronomers, who can but
appreciate the Unremitting intellectual
activity which produced them She
worked slowly. as though she had near
ly a century in which to be painstak-
ing.
The pleasures of her latter years
were found in music, and she retained
TO the last her enthusiasm for great
musical performers and composers. Her
life was so simple that ii was with
great difficulty that she could spend
one-haiT Of the annuity of e100 which
Sir William Herschel left her Her
dearest joy was in the achievements Of
her illustrious nephew, the beloved
brothers only child. Sir John Herschel.
an unusual example OF the genius of
the father descending to the succeed
ing generation. Sir John HerscheI ably
carried on the great work which his
father had begun. and through his orig
inal researches kept the name of Her
schel foremost in science for a century,
dating from Sir Williams discovery of
the Georgium Sidus TO Sir Johns
death, nearly 100 years later. When Sir