Paris Observatory

“ The Observatory was built by Charles II., in the year 1675—probably, observes a recent writer, "with no better motive than to imitate Louis XIV.," who had just completed the erection and endowment of an observatory at Paris. The English Observatory was fortunately placed under the direction of the celebrated Flamstead, whose name the hill, or site of the building, still retains. He was appointed astronomer-royal in 1676 ”

“ We still find a large private observatory in the middle of the 17th century, that of Johannes Hevelius at Danzig, but the foundation of the royal observatories at Paris and Greenwich and of numerous university observatories shows how rapidly the importance of observations had become recognized by governments and public bodies, and it is not until within the last hundred and thirty years that the development of various new branches of astronomy has enabled private observers to compete with public institutions. ”

“ He then applied for admission to the University of Brussels, but failed to pass the examinations. He returned to Mons, where he was allowed to pursue his astronomical studies and ramble over the fields at will. From this time his mind was always on the alert, and he showed uncommon faculties of observation. With his own hands he constructed a small observatory on a neighboring hill. It included a wooden cabin in which were a mural circle, a transit instrument, and a telescope. The tubes of these instruments were of zinc; the glasses, which were not achromatic, were bought in Paris. ”

“ All the early observatories of Europe seem to have been built as temples to Urania, and not as working-chambers of science. The Royal Observatory at Greenwich, the Imperial Observatory of Paris, and the beautiful structure on Calton Hill, Edinboro', were at first wholly useless as observatories. That of Greenwich had no steadiness, while every pillar in the astronomical temple of Edinboro', though it may tell of the enlightenment of Greece, hides the light of the stars from the Scottish observer. ”

“ Opposite the Children’s Asylum are the lofty walls of the convent of the Good Shepherd, administered by the lady hospitallers of Saint-Thomas de Villeneuve, for the benefit of penitent women.
Enclosed by the Rue d’Enfer, the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, and the Boulevard Arago stands the Observatory, one of the most celebrated scientific establishments of Paris and of the world. It was founded by order of Louis XIV. Colbert took the work in hand, Claude Perrault designed it, and Cassini inaugurated it in the name of Science. ”

“ The observatory at the old church-tower St Jacques (16th century) in the centre of the city, and since 1896 a municipal establishment, is of special interest on account of the study made there of the transparency and purity of the air. There are barely 100 days in the year when the air is very clear. Generally the city is covered by floating mists, possibly 1500 ft. in thickness. During the prevalence of north-easterly winds the sky is most obscured, since on that side lies the greatest number of factories with smoking chimneys. ”

“ It is painful to add that not long before that period (in 1791) the corps of geographical engineers, which alone could give utility to such valuable materials had been suppressed. [4]
In the mean time, the sudden changes in the administrative system had dispersed the learned societies employed in astronomy, or the mathematical sciences. The National Observatory was disused. The celebrated astronomers attached to it had no rallying point: they could not devote themselves to their labours but amidst the greatest difficulties; the salary allowed to them was not paid ”

“ The CASSINIS had neglected the Observatory in Paris; but when LALANDE was director of this establishment, he obtained from BONAPARTE good instruments of every description and of the largest dimensions. These have been executed by the first artists, who, with the greatest intelligence, have put in practice all the means of improvement which we owe to the fortunate discoveries of the eighteenth century. Of course, it is now as well provided as that of Greenwich. MÉCHAIN, the present director, and BOUVARD, his associate, are extremely assiduous in their astronomical labours. ”

“ It is quite possible that there are many people whose sole opportunity of looking through a telescope is the penny peep through the instrument of some itinerant showman, who may have seen more of these than an active astronomer in a lifetime; while as to 'discoveries,' these lie no more within the scope of our national observatory than do geographical discoveries within that of the captain and officers of an ocean liner.
If it is not to afford the astronomer beautiful spectacles, nor to enable him to make thrilling discoveries, what is the purpose of Greenwich Observatory? ”

“ History will be just to his memory, and will not fail to record his early interest and strenuous zeal for the advancement of astronomical science, and the influence his eloquence and untiring perseverance, in illustrating its importance with an unsurpassed array of appropriate learning, exerted on the public mind in the United States, not only in effecting the establishment of other Astronomical Observatories, but absolutely compelling party spirit, notwithstanding its open, bitter animosity, to lay the foundation of that Observatory which now bears the name of "National." ”

“ The building is by far the largest on the ground, but in little accord with the popular idea of an astronomer as perpetually looking through a telescope, carries but a single dome; its best rooms being set apart as 'computing rooms,' for the use of those members of the staff who are employed in the calculations and other clerical work, which form, after all, much the greater portion of the Observatory routine.
An observer with the transit instrument, for instance, will take only three or four minutes to make a complete determination of the place of a single star. ”

“ And beside the enjoyment of all this entrancing spectacle of celestial beauty, the fortunate astronomer sits at his telescope and discovers—always he discovers.
This, or something like it, is a very popular conception of an astronomer's experiences and duty; and consequently many, when they are told that 'discoveries' are not made at Greenwich, are inclined to consider that the Observatory has failed in its purpose. An astronomer without 'discoveries' to his record is like an angler who casts all day and comes home without fish—obviously an idle or incompetent person. ”

“ This was a fatal mistake, and one which it is very hard to understand how any one with a real interest in the science could have made. Men who had the spirit of 'drudges,' to whom observation was a mere 'mechanical act,' and calculation a 'dull process,' were not likely to maintain the honour of the Observatory, particularly under an absentee Astronomer Royal. ”

“ New and brilliantly appointed observatories are rising in every latitude, or risen; and none, by the way, of these new-born observatories, is more interesting from the circumstances of its position, or more picturesque to a higher organ than the eye—viz., to the human heart—than the New Observatory raised by the university of Glasgow. ”

“ Like pecuniary restrictions continued until 1879, when a subscription was completed providing for the institution, $5000 annually for five years. Since then much larger gifts have been bestowed and the instrumental equipment, in recent years especially, has been whatever the latest demands or suggestions of science called for; the observatory staff has been augmented from time to time, till it now numbers about 40 persons, and the field of observation has been extended to include the southern hemisphere of stars. ”

“ In 1870, an observing-room for the transit-circle was added, forming an extension of the west wing. A tower and dome, to accommodate the superb new equatorial telescope recently completed, was finished in October. The equipment of the observatory in astronomical, magnetic, and meteorological instruments is now in a fair way to become worthy of the institution and the country it represents, and the library is increasing rapidly in the number of volumes and their scientific value. ”

“ In the early observations of Mr. Bond at Cambridge, priority was given to the work begun at Dorchester for the naval department. In the college record a considerable part of the routine is classed as meteorology, with reference, chiefly, to the earth’s magnetism. The scheme of observation in this department was, however, much broadened, and in this the observatory appears to have performed its first notable service to pure science and to have assumed a place that gave it international recognition. ”

“ It is only in such an institution, to be founded by the public, that all the necessary implements are likely to be collected together, that systematic observations can be made for any great length of time, and that the public can be made secure of the results of the labors of scientific men. In favor of such an institution it is sufficient to remark that every nation which has established a first meridian has also established an observatory. ”

“ In distinction from a laboratory, which is a place where phenomena can be brought to pass and experiments tried, an observatory is a place for the observation of phenomena over which we have no control, as an eclipse of the moon or a sudden variation in the earth's magnetism. Those institutions which are exclusively devoted to observational work are the purely astronomical observatories. ”

“ The advance made in astronomical science during the 50 years past is among the wonderful facts comprised in the record of the 19th century, and it is true that since it became fairly organized and equipped, Harvard College Observatory has been in the front rank in the march. A review of this progress so far as pertaining to the institution at Cambridge, is, therefore, timely. A history of 50 years, embodying so many facts of the first importance and interest as does this, cannot, even with the most resolute purpose as respects brevity, be disposed of in a single chapter. ”

“ It sends galvanic signals every day along all the principal railways diverging from London. It drops the Greenwich Ball, and the Ball on the Offices of the Electric Telegraph Company in the Strand;... All these various effects are produced without sensible error of time; and I cannot but feel a satisfaction in thinking that the Royal Observatory is thus quietly contributing to the punctuality of business through a large portion of this busy country. ”

“ It should be fixed at such a distance that the mark may be distinctly seen without altering the focus of the telescope when adjusted to the sun or stars, which, in most cases, will require to be at least half a mile from the place of observation, and more if it can be obtained.
Observatories may be distinguished into public and private. A private observatory may be comprehended in a comparatively small building, or in the wing of a building of ordinary dimensions for a family, provided the situation is adapted to it. ”

“ An astronomer-royal, supported by a parliamentary grant, constantly resides and pursues investigations in the Observatory. From this spot British geographers measure the longitude. The collection of instruments kept and used in this building is superb and costly; but the public are not admitted to see them. An electric time-ball falls every day at one o’clock precisely ”

“ That stern disciplinarian asked what business the assistant had to be there on his free night, and on being told he was 'searching for new planets,' he was severely reprimanded and ordered to discontinue at once. A similar energy would not meet so gruff a discouragement to-day; but the routine work so fully occupies both staff and telescopes that an assistant may be most thoroughly devoted to his science, and yet pass a decade at the Observatory without ever seeing those 'show places' of the sky which an amateur would have run over in the first week after receiving his telescope. ”

“ Here, as one of his brief biographers remarks, “no eclipse or occultation escaped him, though occupied in business during the day in Boston,” and here Mr. Quincy found him in 1839, busy in his work for the Navy Department. The period which had elapsed since the setting of the granite block and the poising upon it of the borrowed telescope had been for Mr. Bond one of constant and rapid advance in the astronomer’s art. The Cottage street observatory was built about the year 1823. ”

“ There was none in the world that filled all the requirements, and Prof. Bond invented and made one. It is in use, unchanged, to this day, and by means of its ingeniously combined wheels, cogs and pulleys the17 observer can quickly and easily place himself anywhere along the vertical quarter circle and horizontal full circle traversed by the eye-piece of the telescope.
Prior to 1845 a transfer of 12 chronometers to and from Greenwich, Eng., had been made by Prof. Bond and Commodore Owen, for the determination of the longitude of the observatory. ”

“ The line was interrupted after the resignation of the sixth Astronomer Royal, and the third section will be devoted to the seventh director, Airy, under whom the Observatory entered upon its modern period of expansion.
'God suffers not man to be idle, although he swim in the midst of delights ”

“ The details of observatory-work are not, properly speaking, scientific. They involve, no doubt, the continuous application of scientific principles, but no such processes as are likely to lead to discoveries in science. The ordinary notion, for instance, that the large telescopes of our national observatories are employed in advancing our knowledge of astronomy, is altogether erroneous, as any one will perceive who examines the records of the work done in those observatories. ”