During
the concert season, which lasted five or six months, he had never a
night disengaged, but was conducting oratorios at Bath or Bristol,
arranging for public concerts, attending rehearsals, and superintending
the performances of his choir. As soon as a lull came, the indomitable
man, assisted by his faithful sister, returned to his astronomical
pursuits. To gain a fuller and clearer knowledge of the starry worlds
scattered over the vast fields of space, Herschel from the first had
seen that instruments of much greater power were necessary than any
hitherto used by astronomers. He set to work, therefore, on the
construction of a thirty-foot telescope; the metallic mirror of which
must, of course, be of proportionate dimensions. This huge mirror was to
be cast in a mould of loam prepared from horse-dung, of which an
immense quantity was to be pounded in a mortar, and sifted through a
fine sieve; an arduous and almost endless task, undertaken by Caroline
Herschel and her brother Alex. Then a furnace was erected in a back-room
on the ground-floor; and every preparation having been made, a day was
set apart for the casting.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36