A GREAT TELESCOPE.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1843, 28 November 1874, Page 2

A GREAT TELESCOPE.

(FEOM NATtTBE.) We have already referred to the series of splendid gifts from Mr James Lick, from San Francisco, to the state of California, the whole amounting to 2,000,000 dollars. The most remarkable of these donations is one of 700,000 dollars for the errecting and endowing an astronomical observatory, and equipping it with "a powerful telescope, superior to, and more powerful than, any telescope ever yet made." The author of this magnificent bequest (the Ne.wYork Times states) is in every sense of the word a self-made man, and has followed the wise example of the founders of our Cooper Institute and Lennox Library in securing the proper fulfilment of his trust by providing for its organisation in his life-time. The United States already possess in the telescope of the Naval Observatory at Washington an instrument of the^Jjame gigantic proportions as that erected fly Mr IM ewall in this country; and we may add that this was the first instrument constructed alter Mr N ewall had shown by his costly experiment that such dimensions were possible. The glass for the lenses of both these instruments was furnished by Chance and Co., of Birmingham, England. Under Mr Lick's gift Messrs. Alvan Clark and Sons are designated as the final judges of the most appropriate site for the proposed great telescope of California and of the world. How amply endowed will be the Lick Observatory, on the summit of the Sierra, may be conjectured from the fact that the great

Washington telescope cost but 44,000. The trustees who have the spending of the 700,000d015. will be limited simply by the ability of the glass-makers to turn out a lens of sufficient size. We assume (continues the above paper) that the proposed telescope will be a refractor, since the great reflectors, of which the best known are Herschel's and Eosse's, have been found comparatively useless for accurate observations. The great speculum or object-mirror of ihe former was 49| inch diameter, and the latter had two specula of 6 feet diameter. Both were among the marvels of the generations that saw them constructed; but the latter, albeit only 30 years old, is nearly as much out of date as the former, which was constructed 85 years ago. It is just possible that the existence of a bequest large enough to yield six times the price which has ever been paid for a telescope may be the means of giving berth to lenses of what would now be reckoned impossible size and perfection. The 2in object lens of the Washington telescope has been duplicated in the one ordered by Mr M'Cormick, of Chicago, for the Washington and Lee University of Lexington ; but, though larger lenses have been talked of, their successful production is still problematical. Many costly failures have preceded the attainment of '" 'The 26-inch, diameter, and Chance and Co. are said to be the only firm in the world who will undertake the manufacture of a disc of that size. Science knows no country, and Mr Lick's munificent bequest in the cause of astronomy will be hailed by savans all ever the the world.