The Observatory Volume 12, No. 150 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1889 edition. Excerpt: ...more freedom to experiment. The day of the amateur astronomer is not past. He has done splendid initiating work: he will yet do more. It need hardly be said that Mr. De La Rue received the highest scientific honours. A medal of the Eoyal Society and the. medal of the Royal Astronomical Society were awarded to him. University degrees, a Corresponding Membership of the Institut de France--these honours and many others were his. He had been failing in health for some time; but the end came somewhat suddenly and unexpectedly, and he died April 19, 1889. ..".. farre above these heavens which here we see Be others farre exceeding these in light." There gather the good--the great; but not wholly do they leave Tt 2 us. They, not merely their names, live and abide with us for evermore. For Death reveals a man as Life with its complexities rarely does. Death sharply and certainly separates the accidents from the substance, the dross from the gold, the mortal from the immortal. "II n'y a que les morts qui reviennent." Maegaeet L1ndsay Hugg1ns. The new Meridian of France. The arc of meridian measured by Delambre and Mechain at the end of the last century, by order of the Commission des Poids et Mesures, between Dunkerque and Barcelona, in order to supply the Commission with the elements of the decimal metric system, was, for the times, a work of finished perfection, superior in scientific precision to all that had been before accomplished. The principle of repetition, invented by Tobie Mayer, and applied by Borda to the circles intended for the measurement of angles, and the principle of the metallic thermometer, introduced by the same Borda in the measurement of bases, made of the meridian of Delambre and Mechain a model which...