The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-18

VINO Qle1 at an + IdtlAts tiEut etdio a 80
provided in her will for a prize of $4,000.
to be given to the person who will ind a
means of communicating with star
(Mars, for example,, and receiving a reply
to the communication. The prize money is
held in trust But the quaint bequest is
a reminder. most substantial of the inter-
est that women of the present day take
in scientific Advancement The number
of women who contribute out of their pri-
vate means to the maintenance of obser-
vatories and who eqgip poor but jealous
astronomers for individual investigation
increases every year, and at no time since
astronomy was nave there been as many
women constantly engaged in the mathe-
NAUTICAL part of the work.
The improved instruments now available
and the universal application Of photogra-
ply 10 astronomy has opened the door
wide for the woman computor and astron-
omer's assistant. AZ all the notable OBJ
servatories and those more or less newly
established in what used 10 be considered
remote parts of the earth-lndia, Mexico
at the Cape of Good HOPE, in far Scandi-
navia and up in the East Andes-there
are women working in the laboratory de-
partments of astronomers. Some OF these
women are able to make original invest
cations being in sympathy with IN
science and having studied its principles.
Others are purely calculators and accurate
measurers, measuring the photographs
and computing and reducing the estimates
obtained as dispassionately as any school
girl plods a her equations.
Both classes of workers are valuable, Tor
astronomy as a science is absolutely de
H. 3 ham at
what thrilling revelations the astronomer
NAV discover with his glass his work Is
almost valueless to science unless SUD
jected to ma thematical proof Now ne pho-
tographs those views verbatim and pre-
serves the plates, to be examined at iels-
ure The authorities at the several OBJ
seryatories habitually exchange the photo-
graphs taken of the same stars and plan
cts in order that comparisons may be made
regarding their aspect from dliterem iati-
tudes Thousands of such photographs
are measured and computed in any single
observatory during a year and women do
the work, laborious, pauence-taklng, out
as necessary to the development of science
as TO growing a crop.
In Mathematics and Physics
Caroline Hazard of Wellesley said the
other day that when higher education was
first being preached for women IT was De
Ueved that they would as a class turn
branches of a college course than to the
exact sciences. But experience has prov
en- that many find pleasure in mathefna-
tics and physics
A short time ago woman devised
certain mechanism concerning clocks ami
timepieces that was of distinct value TO
clock makers. And apropos of women
measurers and computors there is a Wo-
man draughtsman who makes the sample
drawings for noted firm of instrumental
makers. All manner of instruments for
measuring, computing, exploring, both in
aerial and nautical matters, are manufac-
tured by this firm and they state that
this woman does their work more accept
ably than many of the men they employ.
There is absolutely evenness in her fine
lines and not hairs breadth difference
in the calculations that she means to be
alike. She has the reputation of charg
ing 500 for drawings that a less accom-
pllshed draughtsman would do for $40,
but her work is worth the difference.
Small Salaries.
The average woman computor in the
big observatories makes only $500 a year
The draughter of the instruments she
handles in measuring her spaces and de-
grees Will double her income. The compu-
tor who maps out work for the others and
carries on private research work of her
own, or as assistant to director makes
$500 According TO a Minnesota woman,
now chief computor at Columbia Univer-
sity, science does not pay; dressmaking
or delfca lessen keeping, millinery or hab-
erdashery is far more remuneratve. But
this woman loves her business and IS
even now in outside hours engaged upon
determination of the proper motions of
certain stars, 1000 of which were cata-
logued years ago by learned authorities
There are three young college women
working in the computing room at CO.
lumbia. They measure the stars by means
of photographs of them, and are assisted
in the task by matchlessly human-lke in
struments devised for this purpose They
toll daily over the calculations of their
measurements. but they are mathematic-
ians, pure and simple. and aspire to no
flights in astronomy. Should they marry
they will compute no more But with the
chief computor it S different If she mar
ried tomorrow she would go on deter
mining the proper motions Of stars unAess
her hust and positively forbid.
Opposed TO WOman's Rights.
And it is noticeable that women mathe-
maticians and scientists are seldom for
womans rights. In the category of bril-
liant names from Madame Lepante the
wife of the royal clockmaker in Paris,
down to the workers Of the present day,
they are retiring. Womanly. domestic.
Some have reared as many q $ twelve chill
dren wholesomely and tenderly, and even
-hoca accorded as having discovered com
cts in their own rght have practiced self
abnegation in following their husbands 10
the ends Of the earth or in subvertine
their own ambition and accomplishments
that masculine achievement might be for
warded.
Mrs. Elizabeth p. b. Davis.
The most unique mathematical calcula-
tor of the gentle sex in America to-day
is Mrs Elizabeth =. 3. Davis. who works
at the government observatory at Wash
iDgion. She has for number Of years
calculated the ephemerls Of the sun for
The Nautical Almanac a publication OF
first interest to navigators ana explorers
There are volumes and volumes of the
Almanac bearing testimony 10 this wo-
mans calculations The advance sheets
have TO b. got ready three or four years
ahead Of time TO forestall the needs OF
those ships captains who essay long ex-
perimental voyages and who may be away
q -