Obituary Notices of Astronomers, Fellows and Associates of the Royal Astronomical Society Written Chiefly for the Annual Reports of the Council
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ISBN10: 1154041247
ISBN13: 9781154041248
Publisher: General Books
Pages: 66
Weight: 0.30
Height: 0.14 Width: 7.44 Depth: 9.69
Language: English
ISBN13: 9781154041248
Publisher: General Books
Pages: 66
Weight: 0.30
Height: 0.14 Width: 7.44 Depth: 9.69
Language: English
This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1879. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... SIR JOHN F. W. HERSCHEL, Bart., K.H., F.R.S. 1792-1871. AMONG modern English men of science no one has been more known, or has attained a higher rank as a writer on astronomy and general physics, than Sir John Herschel. His father had, however, laid the foundation of his honoured name in science, now a household word wherever astronomy is cultivated. The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, beginning with the year 1780, and the Memoirs and Proceedings of other Societies have, since that time, been frequently enriched with papers and observations bearing that illustrious name. Rarely do we see such family talent exhibited in scientific researches as that possessed by the two Herschels; and it is remarkable that this hereditary talent is not exhausted in the third generation. The circumstances of the early lives of these two great astronomers and philosophers could not have been more widely different. Sir William, born in comparative obscurity, and without a trained education, was unknown in scientific circles till he was entering upon middle life. By his great natural genius and power of application, he, however, in a few years, soon attained the proud position of the most celebrated astronomer of the age, and the successful constructor of a gigantic forty-feet reflecting telescope, which for a long time had no rival. Sir John, on the contrary, had as a youth the example of his father to guide him in his scientific tastes, which, added to the highest university training capable of being received at Cambridge, enabled him in early manhood to develop those great mathematical powers which he was known to possess, and which, in his more mature years, so materially assisted him in his investigations. This combination of high education and an extraordinary ...