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Page 12
He stated that it allowed the observer to penetrate one-fourth farther
into space than the famous Lick telescope. It was therefore to be
supposed that some new knowledge about the moon and the planets would
soon be obtainable.
He expected that in the course of a few weeks he would be able to give
some new information about the planet Jupiter and its moons, and Saturn
and its rings. He hoped also to give a fuller description of the hills
and valleys on the desolate surface of the moon.
Unfortunately his hopes will not be fulfilled for a long time to come.
But eight days after the first peep had been obtained through the great
glass, a very unfortunate accident happened in the observatory.
The elevating floor of the telescope gave way, and fell forty feet, to
the bottom of the dome.
Two astronomers had been observing the stars the entire night, but
happily they had left the building just before the accident occurred. As
good luck would have it, the great telescope was also uninjured, but a
great deal of damage was done to the building.
It is estimated that it will take the whole summer to tear out the
wreckage and make the repairs.
During that time the telescope cannot be used. This is a great
disappointment to the scientists.
We told you of the labor entailed in the grinding of a lens.
Mr. Alvan G. Clark, the man who made the great glass of which we have
been speaking, has just died.
He and his father and brother had devoted their entire lives to the
making of telescopes, and made many of the famous glasses of the world.
The great glass at the Lick Observatory, which measures thirty-six
inches across, is of their manufacture.
Their greatest triumph was the Yerkes lens, which is forty inches in
diameter, and which was completed only a few months before Mr. Clark's
death.
This firm did a great deal to further astronomical research. Not only
did they manufacture such perfect instruments that the possibilities of
observing the stars were greatly increased, but they were close students
of the science themselves. Mr. Alvan G. Clark, in particular, made
several important discoveries, having found no less than fourteen new
stars.
* * * * *
We told you about the _Holland_, the new submarine boat which has just
been launched at Elizabeth-port.
It will interest you to know that she has had a partial trial, which has
proved very satisfactory.
While she was still at the wharf an attempt was made to submerge her. On
the turning of the lever she sank, inch by inch, until only her tower
was out of water.
A day or two after she was taken for a spin down Staten Island Sound.
She attracted a good deal of attention among the seamen, who looked
rather askance at the strange cigar-shaped craft that shot through the
water.
From all accounts it would appear that her crew do not regard her with
very much favor.
It is said that the swish of the waters against her sides can be heard
very distinctly in the engine-room, and that the crew feel somewhat
nervous about her seaworthiness.
Several of these fish-like boats are being made just now. One has just
been completed in Wisconsin, in which it is hoped to explore the bottom
of Lakes Michigan and Huron.
Like the _Holland_, this boat can move on the surface of the water or
dive beneath it at will. But this vessel is arranged with a view to
remaining under water for a whole day without causing any inconvenience
to the inmates.
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