SACRIFICE FOR SCIENCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10704, 30 March 1926, Page 8

SACRIFICE FOR SCIENCE.

ASTRONOMER’S LONELY LIFE.

PATHETIC STORY OF OLD AGE. (Per Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON', March 29. The “Daily Chronicle’ ’publishes a pathetic story of the sacrifices Mr William Denning has made in the interests of science. Mr Denning is 78 years of age and lives alone in Bristol. He has a small Civil List pension, but is able to eat only liquid food owing to the hardships of his earlier life when, for many years, he spent nights in his garden observing the stars, even when snow covered the ground. Often he spent the following day in his study checking his observations. The face of the heavens became so familiar to him that a glance of the naked eye was sufficient to tell whether there was ail alteration among the larger stars. In this manner he was able to make his famous discovery of the new star in Cygnus. Mr Denning’s observations recently proved that the temperature 50 miles above the earth was tropical.

Mr William F. Denning, F.R.A.S., is a well-known accountant, amateur astronomer, and writer on astronomical subjects. He was born in Somerset in 1848 and was educated at various schools at Bristol. He began his study of astronomy in 1865, and since that period has discovered no fewer than five comets. His principal labour, however, has been in the meteoric department, in which sphere he has made some valuable observations.