The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1907-08-17
be greater part Of her life 10 helping

ton that she learned enough Of math-
ematlcs. and methods of calculation to
enable her to commit to writing the re-
suits Of her brothers researches. It
was he whom she loved and believed
in and helped with all her heart and
strength. She was jealous of every
word said in her own praise, jealous
lest 1t be just so much taken from the
honor due to her brother. Such de-
voted assistance to him could not but
be crowned with success for them
both.
In reading the life of Caroline
Herschel one finds something almost
pathetic in the account of her unset
fish efforts in her brothers behalf, and
the discomforts she voluntarily en-
dured for his sake-such as recording
his observations on nights so cold
that the ink would actually freeze on
her pen. Her life of self-denial and
unconscious heroism may have been
considered wrecked happiness" by
the pessimistic Sonia Kovalevsky, but
Caroline Herschel surely found true
happiness in merging her interests
and desires with those of her re-
nowned brother.
AS his assistant she was enabled to
publish several catalogues of stars and
nebulae, no small task when we con-
slider that her memory and ability as
always kept with her small multi
plication table ever ready for use. Dur
ing the intervals when her services
were not required she succeeded in
discovering eight comets, concerning
which a package entitled BILLS and
Receipts of My Comets" found among
her papers after her death, showed the
personal interest she took in her ce-
lestial captives
During our own time we have had
several illustrations recalling the de-
shown by Caroline Herschel For ex-
ample, the discovery of the two satel-
lites of Mars in 1877 is due as much to
Mrs. Asaph Hall as to her renowned
husband. Wearied by ceaseless watch
ing, discouraged by the lack of sue
cess in searching for that which he
suspected but could not see, he was
urged by his wife to return to his task
each night until finally on August II
his vigils and her confidence were
doubly rewarded
About the same time Mrs. David Gill
on the far-away island Of Ascension
was contributing to her husbands sue
cess in finding desirable location for
temporary observatory. She de-
scribes her adventure in her entertain
ing book, "Six Months in Ascension"
telling how night after night the sky
above Garrison on the northwestern
shore Of the island, where her hus-
band had located his heliometer, was
overcast with clouds caused by trade
winds blowing across Green mountain,
and how despite friendly advice and
earnest entreaties, she persisted in a
midnight tramp across the "clinker"
to the western shore to prospect for a
clearer sky-and found it,
DR.. Hermann S. Davis in his inter-
esting account of woman AstronO-
mers" remarks: "The adventure was
a far more toilsome one than the bare
mention of it would indicate. It re-
quired bold heart and great enthusi-
asm for science to initiate and execute
the undertaking, as I can affirm from
personal experience in following the
same route in daylight II years later"
The result of the undertaking was
most satisfactory and continuous Sc
ries of excellent observations for the
determination of solar 'parallax has
since been made at the location Sc
lected.
It may be Interesting here to draw
attention to the fact that the wife of
Dr. Hermann S. Davis has followed
the example set by Mrs. Asaph Hall
and Mrs. David Gill by her continuous
labor in assisting her husband with
his work. She has also been at work
upon the new reduction of Piazzi's
catalogue of nearly 5000 stars and has
made many computations connected
with the Rutherford Photographic
plates.
These plates were made more than
80 years ago by Rutherford, who had
SO far perfected his methods of stellar
photography that he was able to Sc
cure excellent pictures of stars as far
as the ninth magnitude. Thirty years
ago Miss Ida C. Martin was Ru-
therford's assistant in the measure
ment of the plates made by him at
that period. All the earlier contribu-
tons issued from the observatory of
Columbia university, New York, based
on the Rutherford plates, depend en-
tirely on her methods.
The application of photography to
astronomy, whereby star positions,
spectra type, the variability Of stars,
etc., can be determined, has vastly in
creased woman's opportunity for work
in this department of science, measur-
ing Photographic plates being a spe-
cialty for which she is admirably
adapted, since patience, persistency
and absolute accuracy are required.