The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1911-01-17
SHARP
The Only Real Astronomer
In Congress
Tells Other Members Of A
FiIar MiCrOmcter
The Instrument That Puzzled
The House
Congressman From This
District Makes SpGaCh
And EntertainS All With
knowledge Of Astronomy

Washington, d. c., Jan. 14-With
the solitary exception of one new
member, the House of Representa-
tives at Washington had to confess to-
tai ignorance on subject under leg
islative consideration in Congress
few days ago. This may seem remark
able when consideration is taken Of
the fact that the House of Representa-
tives numbers among its members all
sorts and conditions of men repre-
senting an amazingly wide range of
experience, intelligence and interests.
But here was case in which the sub
ject under consideration found the
House completely non-plussed. No
body seemed to know what it was
about-in fact, had never heard of it
before.
Then curious thing happened.
William Graves Sharp, the new Demo-
cratic Representative from the Four
teenth Ohio District, who had not as
yet been heard in the House, arose to
make his maiden speech, and held the
attention of the entire House of Rep
resentatives far beyond the allotted
time and taught his fellow-Repre-
sentatives much they didn't know
about astronomy and astromical in
struments.
In defense of the members of the
House 1t must be said that their ig-
many readers ever heard of filar
micrometer, or, having heard of it,
could describe such an instrument and
explain its use?
In the legislative, executive and ju-
dicial appropriation bill which came
up for consideration in the House
there was paragraph authorizing
the expenditure of $2,5O0 for new
filar micrometer for the Naval OBJ
servatory.
Two thousand five hundred dollars
is great deal of money to spend on
something you know absolutely moth
ing about, and question was raised.
What was filar micrometer? Who
had ever heard of such contrivance
before, and what was it for?
There was silence in the House.
For probably the first time in the en-
tire history of Congress the Repre-
sentatives found themselves in the
dark, with no one to turn on the light.
Filar micrometer? Filar micromet-
er? What on earth was a filar mi
crometer, anyhow?
1t is long jump from Washington
to New York, but at this point it Is
just as we'll to explain that when the
legislative, executive and judicial ap-
propriations bill was brought up in
Congress with its filar micrometer
paragraph a representative of this
newspaper visited many New York
manufacturers and dealers in astrono-
mical instruments before finding out
just what filar micrometer Is.
But to return to the House of Rep
resentatives, where we left the men,
bers in the dark. There happened to
be one member, a lawyer, at that,
who could turn on the light, and he
did. Lawyer Sharp, who is also a
manufacturer of wood by-products and
charcoal pig iron, arose and displayed
to an amazed and intensely interested
House an intimate knowledge of as
tronomy, astronomical instruments
and flar micrometers in particular.
This what he said:
"This filar micrometer is an instru-
ment that is attached to the eye end
of the telescope, which has spider
lines running across 1t, the same as
in a surveyors instrument, and by the
use Of these lines, which are illum-
mated at night by electrical lamps,
the use of which has been greatly i'm
proved In the instruments, they can
get their observations of the stars
and the heavenly bodies more accur-
ately. In fact, without their use the
right ascension and declination of
stars and the heavenly bodies cannot
be accurately obtained. BY the In
creasing discoveries made in the last
twenty or thirty years, from knowl-
edge revealed from the solar spec
trum and photography, the accuracy
with which we make observations
and with which we locate, analyze,