Erving Winslow

“ Gould, being quite independent, and no longer obliged to divide his energies among many different interests, has undertaken a series of great works of remarkable value. He has just published his new "Uranometry of the Southern Heavens," including all stars visible to the naked eye, the magnitude of each star being determined by not less than four independent observations. In the course of these researches he has found as many variable stars visible to the naked eye as have been discovered to this day in the northern heavens. ”

“ Gould has deduced a formula according to which the number of stars increases in proportion to the diminution of their luster, and he has suggested that our solar system is not part of the milky way, but of a stellar system to which about four hundred of the brighest fixed stars also belong, and which bisects the milky way at an angle of about 20°. ”

“ Gould's study of astronomy was pursued under the learned Gauss and in the scientific courses at Paris, and in the observatory there, then under the direction of Arago. On returning to America he was employed to determine astronomically the various geodetic stations of the United States Coast Survey. Dr. Gould has proved in his scientific career that he possesses in a rare degree that bold, initiative spirit which is so marked a characteristic of our countrymen. As soon as any progress has been made in any department of science, Dr. ”

“ Petersburg, as well as of the American Academy of Science, and many other learned bodies. He has given to the world works which will be classical, and in the history of his country his name will stand among those of the most illustrious savants who have contributed to the development and advancement of science.
Dr. Gould was married October 29, 1861, to Mary Apthorp Quincy, a helpmate without whom his long expatriation would have been a banishment, and without whose sympathy and active assistance his greatest labors would have been impossible. ”

“ Gould is not only one of the founders, he is one of the most distinguished masters of the school of American astronomy. He established and supported at his own expense from 1847 to 1861 the first astronomical journal ever published in the United States. Between 1855 and 1858 he organized the Dudley Observatory at Albany, and it was there that the normal clock, protected from atmospheric variations and furnished with barometric compensation, was first used. ”

“ In this work he determines anew all the co-ordinates of the stars observed at different epochs by Lacaille, Piazzi, Brisbane, Rümker, Johnston, Taylor, Maclear, Ellery, and others. He has also made observations of other stars down to the ninth magnitude, which gave him his fundamental positions. By these three great works he has established certain bases for future research. ”