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New York Scientific
“Genius of Discovery,” an allegorical figure of a winged boy by Gaetano Russo, at
the base of the Columbus Memorial on Columbus Circle.
 New York
Scientific
A Culture of Inquiry, Knowledge,
and Learning

Istvan Hargittai
and Magdolna Hargittai

1
 3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
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© István Hargittai and Magdolna Hargittai 2017
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
First Edition published in 2017
Impression: 1
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contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
 PREFACE

This book introduces the reader to the visible reminders of science and scientists in
New York City. The English word “science” means what other languages express
as “natural” sciences. We are using the term primarily in this sense, but consider
technology, inventions, medicine, humanities, social sciences, and explorations
as well.
Our coverage includes statues, plaques, and buildings of venues of science
along with other artifacts related directly or indirectly to science, such as symbols
of wisdom, truth, knowledge, and learning. Further, it extends to some institu-
tions and scientists that currently or previously worked in the city. New York is
home to world-renowned universities, a museum of natural history and other
museums, a science academy, historical societies, botanical gardens and zoos,
libraries, and a hall of science. The monuments in the city honor scientists that
may have lived here or elsewhere.
Science is not the first thing that comes to mind in connection with New York;
rather, it is commerce and finance; communication and architecture; popular
and high culture; transportation hubs; baseball and other sports; and so on. Yet
the city is a “superpower” in science, and if the number of Nobel laureates is a
measure of achievements in science—in reality, it is one of many—New York is
unsurpassed.
Considering its achievements, the recognition of science and scientists in
terms of monuments and memorials in New York is rather modest. Differing
from most great European cities, much of what commemorates science and
scientists in New York and many of its related great institutions have been
the results of private initiative and funding. This adds to the value of all such
memorials.
One of the unique memorials related also to science and scientists, among
many others, is the sculpture “The Immigrants” in Battery Park at the southern
tip of Manhattan. It is inscribed, “Dedicated to the people of all nations | Who
entered America through Castle Garden | In memory of Samuel Rudin (1896–
1975) | Whose parents arrived in America in 1883.” Samuel Rudin commissioned
the sculpture and his family offered it as a memorial to Rudin’s parents.1 Castle
Garden used to be the processing venue for new arrivals before the facilities of
Ellis Island took over this task.
Preface

“The Immigrants” (by Luis Sanguino, 1983) in Battery Park.

This staggering monument depicts representatives of immigrant groups,

including an eastern European Jew, a freed African slave, a priest, and a worker.
Many American scientists or their parents were immigrants who struggled to
establish themselves in their new homeland. Education and science was the road
for many to improve their lot.
Many great American scientists arrived having already established themselves
as top players in the world of science, including even Nobel laureates. They were
escaping life-threatening persecution or were merely seeking better conditions
for their work. However, it would be an unfair characterization of the success of
American science to ascribe it primarily to imported talent. A great part of Amer-
ican pre-eminence in world science is due to the development of homegrown
talent. It thrives on the substantial support of research and development and on
the free spirit of scientific endeavor. Scientists gain independence in American
academia at an earlier age than in most other nations, including even the most
developed western European countries and Japan.
Memorials represent the past and we wanted to bring in more of the immediate
past and the present by including features about current world-renowned scien-
tists. Most of these features we based on personal encounters and experience.
It might seem strange that two scientists from Budapest would embark on pro-
ducing a book on the scientific memorabilia of New York. However, to make such
a book, the two basic ingredients are the love and knowledge of science and the
city, and we both possess these two ingredients.

vi
 Preface

We have recently produced a book, Budapest Scientific, and we have been inter-
ested in the fate of those Jewish-Hungarian-American scientists who grew up in
fin de siècle Budapest and immigrated to the United States, via Germany. Budapest
and New York—through which almost all immigrants at that time arrived—were
linked in a symbolic, antisymmetric relationship. One rejected and the other
accepted these scientists. This was an additional motivation for us to embark on
this project.
Although we tried to make our presentation free of politics, this was not always
possible. We mention a few examples. We consider the sphere an object of science
due to its perfect geometry. The sphere conveys the perception of the rules of
construction and a wealth of symmetries. However, even the natural occurrences
of spheres are far from being perfect. There was then “The Sphere” that used to
stand in front of the World Trade Center, which was not perfect either, yet it was
a sphere. Sadly, “The Sphere” was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks. The human lives
that perished could not be recreated, but the salvaged “Sphere” in its even more
imperfect appearance symbolizes the resilience of this great city (Chapter 8).
When looking for memorabilia honoring Isidor I. Rabi, we thought it inter-
esting to follow his path (Chapter 7). He made great discoveries in physics and
equally remarkable was the atmosphere he created at Columbia University that
brought together an extraordinary collection of physicists under his tutelage.
Rabi was an infant when his parents took him from a most backward corner of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the United States and settled in the Lower East
Side of Manhattan. Rabi lifted himself from near-ghetto-like conditions to the
Parnassus of Physics within a few decades. He became the first Jewish full profes-
sor of Columbia University. This was no small feat. Not long before, according
to the late Nobel laureate Arthur Kornberg, when he was looking for a graduate
school upon finishing City College in 1937, he experienced that “Medical schools
were largely closed to Jews. Even Columbia University down the street hadn’t
filled a scholarship available to a City College student for the previous nine years,
and not for lack of good applicants.”2
Women used to have similarly hard times. There has been considerable pro-
gress in facilitating women having a greater share in science, and not only in the
lower ranks but also among the top. Indications are that discrimination may
still exist for women although in subtler ways than it used to be. We were happy
whenever we discovered memorabilia related to women scientists.
We were happy to discover memorials honoring African-American contribu-
tors to science and related areas of human endeavor. For African-Americans the
roadblocks hindered their advancement before and after becoming eligible to join
academia. The memorabilia we collected should serve not only to commemorate
and honor them, but should encourage future generations that follow in their
footsteps.
Beyond the obvious memorabilia related to science, there are others that need
to be noticed and learned about and they may turn out to be at the most diverse

vii
Preface

venues. Knowing about them may lend a warm feeling to the visitor and those
who live nearby alike. For example, Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the double-
helix structure of DNA and a trend-setting scientist of the twentieth century, and
his family lived for a year in a Brooklyn neighborhood in 1953–1954, right after
his seminal discovery. There is no memorial plaque on the house where they lived,
but walking by the building with this knowledge makes a difference and generates
thoughts. Or remembering that the owl symbolizes wisdom and knowledge gives
a feeling of familiarity when looking at their numerous images, especially on the
façades of educational institutions. We hope that this book enhances the aware-
ness of science and learning.

Chapter Overviews
1 Explorers and Naturalists
Christopher Columbus has ample memorials in New York City. Giovanni da Ver-
razano, Henry Hudson, and other explorers also have their memorials. Explorers
and naturalists have busts and statues in the Hall of Fame of Great Americans
in the Bronx, on the façade of Surrogate’s Court, at the entrance to the Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History, and elsewhere. This museum and the zoos and
botanical gardens bring the wonders of nature and the Universe to close proxim-
ity for their visitors. The conservationist president Theodore Roosevelt was the
first Nobel laureate of the United States, soon to be followed by hundreds of other
Americans. The sculptures of continents at the former US Customs House offer a
possibility of comparison with similar sculptures at the Vienna Museum of Natu-
ral History. The science-related institutions are venues for exploration and focal
points where the public and science meet.

2 Scientists and Innovators

A number of memorials attest to the fact that solving practical problems has been
at the forefront of science in the United States. The innovations of Alexander
Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, John Ericsson,
Samuel Morse, Nikola Tesla, the Wright brothers, and others had immediate
benefits for society. The discoveries of Josiah Willard Gibbs, Clinton Davisson,
and Albert Michelson represent fundamental science. The progress in develop-
ing railways and gems of architecture, such as New York’s popular museums and
bridges, are all memorials to scientists, technologists, and innovators.

3 Learning
Plaques and busts commemorate teachers and educators from the time of the
Dutch colonies to the twentieth century. High schools in New York have served
as workshops to develop creativity. Learning and knowledge have been great
engines of upward mobility in society. A number of these high schools have
graduated as many Nobel laureates as some European nations.

viii
 Preface

4 Aiming Higher in Education

The public school system includes legendary colleges of City University, such as
City College, Hunter College, and Brooklyn College. They put on the fast track the
children of impoverished immigrants. New York University, including its legend-
ary Courant Institute, and its engineering arm, which used to be Brooklyn Poly,
constitute one of the internationally renowned centers of research and higher
education.

5 City of Medicine
There are whole districts in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx that operate
as medical cities at the highest level of biomedical research as well as clinical
facilities for patients. Bellevue Hospital, New York Hospital, New York Uni-
versity School of Medicine, Sloan Kettering, Mount Sinai, Weill Cornell, the
Bronx VA Medical Center, Albert Einstein College, SUNY Downstate Medical
Center, New York Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center, and The Rockefeller
University, just to mention some of the best known among them, are all pro-
ducers of new knowledge from basic biology to bedside medicine. Handling
and eradicating illnesses of epidemiological scale are among their spectacular
successes.

6 The Rockefeller University

Considering its small area, The Rockefeller University may have the highest con-
centration of world-renowned science. Oswald Avery and his associates at the
Rockefeller made the discovery that DNA is the substance of heredity, one of the
most significant discoveries of the century. Personalized medicine of the future
has its roots in Avery’s finding. Research on nucleic acids and proteins, microbiol-
ogy, and cell and developmental biology has dominated the life sciences in the
second half of the twentieth century and it continues to do so. The Rockefeller
University has been at the front line.

7 Columbia University
Columbia University is a world leader in several areas of science. Considering
its Morningside Heights Campus, its Physics Department has greatly influenced
modern developments and applications in the field. Chemistry and a variety of
engineering disciplines have also produced seminal discoveries and innovations.
The graduates of Columbia University have developed other great schools around
the United States and beyond.

8 Roaming the Streets

A number of artifacts in New York represent symbols of science or relate to
concepts in science and traits of scientists. Science cannot claim exclusivity over
them but shares them with other areas of human activities. The gods in Greek
mythology, ancient philosophers, the wisdom of Moses and Confucius, and even

ix
Preface

the notion of the owl as representing knowledge, all help embed the idea of sci-
ence in our perception. Once we grasped the awesomeness of science in all its
forms, we ourselves become discoverers of memorabilia related to science just
by walking the streets, squares, and parks of the city. The representation of sci-
ence and scientists may be façade decorations, figurative and non-figurative
sculptures, geometrical shapes and the ball that drops on New Year’s Eve in Times
Square, a sundial or an armillary, a shop window of books, an ornate gate, a café,
or a theater that hosts plays related to science.
•••

Magdolna, Eszter, and Balazs Hargittai some time in the mid-1980s on top of one of
the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

Ever since our first visit in New York in the summer of 1969, we have taken every
opportunity to return to this city. We have collected snapshots and enhanced our
interactions with fellow scientists. We express our relationship to this city with
many of our own photographs in this book, and the book is a manifestation of
our affection for science and for New York.

Istvan and Magdolna Hargittai

New York and Budapest, Fall, 2016
•••

x
 Preface

All photographs are by the authors unless otherwise indicated. They are all pro-
tected by copyright. For images from other sources, we have made reasonable
efforts to uncover the copyright holders and contact them for permission to
reproduce. In cases where further data appear to be available we would appreciate
hearing about them to augment our efforts.
•••
Notes
1 Samuel Rudin was a real estate developer whose Belarusian Jewish parents immigrated
to the United States and settled in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They started with
a dry goods store and the family eventually became one of the most successful builders
of Manhattan skyscrapers. Samuel Rudin’s will established the Samuel and May Rudin
Foundation to support education, welfare agencies, hospitals, museums, and the per-
forming arts in Manhattan.
2 Istvan Hargittai, Candid Science II: Conversations with Famous Biomedical Scientists, ed.
Magdolna Hargittai (London: Imperial College Press, 2002), p. 55.

xi
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the following for their most diverse assistance: Bob Allison, Cynthia
B. Altman, Sumio Asakusa, Tom Baione, the late Endre A. Balazs, Benjamin
Bederson, Christina Benson, Douglas Braaten, Jeff Brand, Laurie Brown, Chelsea
Burgess, Jane Callahan, Curtis G. Callan, Jr., William D. Caughlin, Alan Chodos,
Jennifer Comins, Sara Conners, Janet Denlinger, Andrew Dolkart, Viv Ellis, Susan
Epstein, Edit and the late Lars Ernster, M. Danielle Farrell, Wendy Feuer, the late
Val L. Fitch, Alex Green, Arthur Greenberg, Florence Greffe, Balazs Hargittai,
Eszter Hargittai, Mary Hedge, Roald Hoffmann, Douglas Hofstadter, Judith A.
Howard, Mihály Hujter, Alexej Jerschow, Michael C. Johnson, Stefanie Jovanovic-
Kruspel, István Juhász, the late Leo Kadanoff, Robin M. Katz, Kate P. Kirby, Andras
Koerner, Felix Köther, Géza Komoróczy, Kozo Kuchitsu, Jonathan Kuhn, Haresh
Lalvani, James D. Lax, Peter Lax, Shelley Lee, Keith L. Lindblom, Greg Lord, Vera
V. Mainz, Djokan Majstorovic, the late Karl Maramorosch, Lou Massa, Mihaly
Mezei, Carol Moberg, Svetlana Mojsov, Emil Molnár, Miklós Müller, Yoshi Oka-
moto, Tom Ottersend, János Pach, Cricket Powell, the late Norman F. Ramsey,
Laura Reiner, the late Frederick C. Robbins, the late Irwin Rose, Jeff Seeman, Ned
Seeman, Marjorie Winkler Senechal, Carol Sirovich, András Simonovits, D. Ray
Smith, Kenneth D. Snelson, Barry Solow, Danielle Spencer, Joel Spencer, Manfred
Stern, Domokos Szász, Alex Thorp, Brinsley Tyrrell, Zoltán Varga, Zach Veilleux,
James D. and Elizabeth Watson, Steven Weinberg, Charles Weissmann, Torsten
Wiesel, and Richard N. Zare. We owe special thanks to Bob Weintraub and Irwin
Weintraub for scrutinizing the entire text and for useful suggestions. We express
our appreciation to Senior Commissioning Editor Sonke Adlung and Assistant
Commissioning Editor Ania Wronski for their encouragement, to Senior Produc-
tion Editor Victoria Mortimer for her dedicated efforts in bringing this book to
life, and to copy editor Charles Lauder, Jr., for many helpful suggestions.
 CONTENTS

1 Explorers and Naturalists  1

2 Scientists and Innovators  54

3 Learning  84

4 Aiming Higher in Education  114

5 City of Medicine  144

6 The Rockefeller University  182

7 Columbia University  206

8 Roaming the Streets  240

Selected Bibliography  295

Index  297
Index of Artists and Architects  309
Also by the Authors  311
Christopher Columbus Memorial on Columbus Circle, Eighth Avenue and 59th Street,
by Gaetano Russo (1892, the 400th anniversary of Columbus reaching the American
continent).
 1
Explorers and Naturalists

Explorers in the Customs House

The Alexander Hamilton US Customs House is at One Bowling Green, between
State Street and Whitehall Street in the southern tip of Manhattan. The building is
no longer a customs house; it now houses, among others, the National Museum
of the American Indian.

The rotunda of the Alexander Hamilton US Customs House.

The Customs House has an ornate rotunda decorated by frescos of eight

explorers and of the narrative of a ship entering New York Harbor. The eight
explorers are, starting from the left upon entering the rotunda, and progress-
ing in a clockwise order: John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), Giovanni da Verrazano,
Christopher Columbus, Henry Hudson, Adriaen Block, Gaspar Corte-Real,
Americus Vespucius (Amerigo Vespucci), and Estêvão (Estevan or Esteban)
Gomez. Three of them will now be discussed separately.
Four of the eight explorers depicted in frescos (by Reginald Marsh, 1937) in the rotunda
from left to right: Christopher Columbus, Henry Hudson, Giovanni da Verrazano, and
Americus Vespucius.

Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) was an Italian explorer who, aided by the
Spanish throne, sailed westward from Europe aiming to reach India. Instead, he
reached the New World of the American continent. Columbus made four voyages
across the Atlantic Ocean.

Two bronze reliefs at the base of the Columbus Memorial on

Columbus Circle. They present scenes of Columbus’s first
encounter with the American continent. According to the
relief on the northern side of the monument foundation, a
longboat ferries Columbus to shore, his fleet anchored, and
his sailors are looking on. On the southern side, the relief
shows a triumphant Columbus stepping ashore.
 Explorers and Naturalists

The stand of the Columbus memorial bears this inscription:

TO
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
THE ITALIAN RESIDENT IN AMERICA
SCOFFED AT BEFORE,
DURING THE VOYAGE, MENACED,
AFTER IT, CHAINED,
AS GENEROUS AS OPPRESSED,
TO THE WORLD HE GAVE A WORLD.

Statues of Christopher Columbus, from left to right: on Columbus Circle (see photo of
Columbus Memorial at start of this chapter); in Central Park (Jeronimo Suñol, 1894);
in Columbus Park in front of the New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn (Emma
Stebbins, 1867); and on Columbus Triangle in Queens where Astoria Boulevard
becomes the Grand Central Parkway (Angelo Racioppi, 1941).

Left: Columbus head (Olin Levi Warner) on the façade of the Brooklyn Historical Society
(see below). Middle: Columbus bust (Attilio Piccirilli, 1992) in the D’Auria-Murphy
Triangle Park in the Bronx; Crescent Avenue, Adams Place, East 183rd Street, and
Arthur Avenue border the park, which is dedicated to the memory of veterans from
the Belmont Community of the Bronx. Right: Upper part of the Columbus statue in the
Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights.

3
New York Scientific

There are at least seven Columbus memorials in New York. Distances to and
from New York City are measured from the location of the Columbus Memo-
rial on Columbus Circle. The Columbus statue in the Cathedral of St. John the
Divine in Morningside Heights is part of the parapet displaying one person for
each century who contributed the most to the progress of humankind. Columbus
represents the fifteenth century.

Cathedral of St. John the

Divine at 1047 Amsterdam
Avenue between West 110th
and West 113th Streets.

Four of the 24-part set of tablets entitled “The Fate of the Earth.”

4
 Explorers and Naturalists

The construction of this Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine began
toward the end of the nineteenth century. It was part of the rapid development of
New York City to become an international center of cultural and international life.
There are various contemporary motifs represented in the cathedral. The artist
Peter Gourfain’s set of 24 tablets, “The Fate of the Earth,” calls attention to the
dangers of how modern life destroys the woods and fauna. We show here 4 of
those tablets.

Giovanni da Verrazano
Giovanni da Verrazano (1485–1528) was an Italian explorer who, aided by Fran-
cis I, the King of France, charted the east coast of North America. This coast area
included New York Harbor where the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, opened in 1964
and called popularly the Verrazano Bridge, connects Staten Island and Brooklyn.

Upper left: Old image from 1914 of the Verrazano

Memorial (Ettore Ximenes, 1909) in Battery Park,
Manhattan (courtesy of Felix Köther). http://nucius.
org, (image received from Felix Köther). Right: View of
the Verrazano Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Staten
Island (built by Othmar H. Ammann from 1959 to 1964),
as viewed from the Staten Island Ferry in the summer of
2015. Bottom: Part of the renovated Verrazano monument
in Battery Park (May 2016) expected to be inaugurated
soon.

5
New York Scientific

Postage stamp with the Verrazano Bridge issued in 1954,

a decade before the bridge opened and the bridge in
2015 as seen from Bay Ridge, the southwestern area of
Brooklyn.

Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson (1565?–1611?) was an English explorer who made sailing voyages
to chart water routes in North America. The Dutch East India Company aided his
explorations. He came upon numerous rivers and bays and many carry his name
today, among them the Hudson River and the Hudson Bay.

The Henry Hudson Memorial (Karl Bitter and the Karl Gruppe, 1909)
in the Henry Hudson Park at the intersection of Kappock Street and
Independence Avenue in the South Bronx.

6
 Explorers and Naturalists

Two scenes from Henry Hudson’s explorations as depicted on

brass reliefs on the base of the Henry Hudson Memorial.

The Purchase of Manhattan

In 1926, the Dutch people presented the City of New York a flagpole with a relief
on its stand commemorating the purchase of the Island of Manhattan in 1625.
The text on the opposite side from the relief reads, “On the 22nd of April 1625
the Amsterdam Chamber of The West India Company decreed the establishment
of Fort Amsterdam and the creation of ten adjoining farms. The purchase of the
Island of Manhattan was accomplished in 1626. Thus was laid the foundation of
the City of New-York.” The scene of the mythical transaction is reminiscent of the
scene in one of the reliefs of the Hudson Memorial. It is “mythical,” because we
cannot know what exactly happened.

7
New York Scientific

Stand of a flagpole
in Battery Park,
commemorating the
Manhattan Purchase.

Hall of Fame of Great Americans

The Colonnade of the Hall of Fame of Great Americans came to existence in
1900 in the Bronx. At that time, the venue was part of the new University Heights
campus of New York University (NYU). Architect Stanford White designed it
and the campus opened in 1901. White also designed three great halls on the
campus, the Philosophy Hall, the Gould Memorial Library, and the Language
Hall. The entrance to the colonnade of the Hall of Fame adjoins the Hall of
Philosophy.
The Hall of Fame has been part of Bronx Community College of the City
University of New York (CUNY) since 1973 when it acquired the University
Heights campus of NYU. The Hall of Fame is in the northwest corner of the col-
lege campus bordered by the Hall of Fame Terrace and Sedgwick Avenue and
can be approached through the entrance of the campus on the Hall of Fame
Terrace.

8
 Explorers and Naturalists

Left: Hall of Philosophy and on the right, the entrance to the colonnade of the Hall of
Fame. Right: View of the Colonnade from Sedgwick Avenue—from behind the Hall of
Philosophy.

Two views of the Colonnade of the Hall of Fame.

The colonnade displays busts of authors, educators, architects, inventors,

military leaders, judges, theologians, philanthropists, humanitarians, scien-
tists, statesmen, artists, musicians, actors, and explorers. The nominations cor-
responded to rigorous criteria that no longer matter because no more than a
couple of empty slots remain. Had there been an attempt to fill these spots, the
problem of having an enormous number of worthy candidates would have been
overwhelming.
The records show scores of worthy men and women who had been nominated
but were not elected.1 Among them, there are conspicuous names in science and
innovation, such as Karl Landsteiner (Chapter 6) and Nikola Tesla (Chapter 2). Off
the rows of busts in the colonnade, there is another bust at the back façade of the
Gould Memorial Library. In 1932, New York University honored the Marquis de
Lafayette with a bust. He was a French aristocrat and military leader who fought
for the United States in the Revolutionary War and has often been referred to as
“The Hero of Two Worlds.”

9
New York Scientific

Bust of the Marquis de

Lafayette (1757–1834).

The colonnade with its 99 busts could be a great educational tool and a prime
tourist attraction. Currently, it does not appear to be either, judging from our
several visits during the fall of 2014 when each time we had the entire colonnade
to ourselves.
Of the 99 busts, we considered 42 belonging to the topics covered in our
book. The busts of explorers, conservationists, and botanists appear in this
chapter; those of other scientists and innovators in Chapter 2; educators in Chap-
ters 3 and 7; and the busts of people of medicine in Chapter 5.
Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) was a Swiss-born naturalist who immigrated to
the United States in 1847. He engaged in research of natural history. In ichthyol-
ogy, he made important contributions to the classification of fish species. Agas-
siz investigated the glacial age in the geological history of the earth. He found
that the movement of ice during Ice Ages had extended worldwide. He based
his views on careful investigation of geological deposits. Sadly, his contempo-
raries criticized and even ridiculed him. Others, among them Charles Darwin,
admired his science and his integrity. In contrast, when Darwin’s teaching
about evolution had reached America, Agassiz positioned himself in the camp
of anti-Darwinists.
Agassiz became a popular and respected scientist and lecturer in the United
States. Later in his career, when he received prestigious invitations to return to
Europe, he declared, “The confidence shown in me by those who have at heart
the intellectual development of this country [the United States] make my return
to Europe impossible.”2 Nonetheless, for many years he remained a Swiss citizen
and naturalized only in 1861 as an expression of solidarity with Lincoln’s cause at
the outbreak of the Civil War.

10
 Explorers and Naturalists

Louis Agassiz’s bust (Anna Hyatt Huntington, 1928) and Agassiz’s photo from
about 1870 (this photo by an unknown photographer appeared in Schweizerischer
Beobachter, 14/2011, p. 36, downloaded from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_
Agassiz#mediaviewer/File:Jean_Louis_Agassiz_1870.jpg; accessed February 28, 2015).

Asa Gray’s bust (Chester A. Beach, 1925) and a postage stamp honoring him.

Asa Gray (1810–1888) was a biologist and the foremost American botanist
of his time. He contributed to the unification of the taxonomy of the plants of
North America. He was a strong supporter of Charles Darwin even before Dar-
win had published his On the Origin of Species. He had to keep his correspondence
with Darwin secret for years at Darwin’s request, because Darwin was afraid of
belligerent reaction to his theory before he could fully elucidate it. When Dar-
win published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859 in Brit-
ain, Gray arranged for an American edition in 1860, and it became a bestseller
overnight.

11
New York Scientific

George Washington Carver’s bust (Richmond Barthé, 1977) and his photo
(http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/George_Washington_Carver.aspx,
accessed February 10, 2015).

George Washington Carver (1861 or 1864–1943) was born a slave who

overcame all adversities to become an agricultural researcher, a chemist, and a
botanist as well as an artist. He is best known for promoting alternative crops to
cotton. He advocated growing peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes for their
nutritious value and issued bulletins in which he communicated useful recipes.
His activities were so universal that in 1941, Time Magazine called him the “Black
Leonardo.”3 In 1896, the president of Tuskegee Institute, Booker T. Washington
(Chapter 4), invited Carver to head the institute’s Agriculture Department. Carver
stayed with the institute for the rest of his life.

Matthew F. Maury’s bust (F. William Sievers, 1931) and his portrait by Ella
Sophonisba Hergesheimer (courtesy of the US Naval Academy Museum).

12
 Explorers and Naturalists

Matthew F. Maury (1806–1873) was a hydrographer and oceanographer and

researched the physical geography of the sea. As a Navy officer, he noted the
scarcity of data in nautical books that impaired the efficiency of his voyages.
Upon his retirement from the Navy, he began building up a scientific literature for
navigation and later published the textbook A New Theoretical and Practical Treatise
on Navigation. Upon reading the book, Edgar Allan Poe was “pleased to see that
science was gaining votaries from the Navy’s ranks.”4

Statues of Surrogate’s Court

The name Surrogate’s Court refers to the origin of the court when the Dutch ini-
tiated it “in 1656 for the administration of the property of ‘orphans and minor
children.’”5 Surrogate’s courts handle cases when, for example, people leave
behind estates, but no will. The Surrogate’s Court of the State of New York is at
31 Chambers Street, between Elk Street and Centre Street, in Manhattan, on the
northwest corner of Chambers Street and Centre Street.
This building is also the Hall of Records. John R. Thomas was the architect
and the building opened in 1907. Fifty-four sculptures decorate the building, all
the works of two sculptors, Philip Martiny and Henry Kirke Bush-Brown. We
included the Surrogate’s Court in this chapter because four of the eight statues of
the front (southern) façade depict individuals belonging to our discussion here.
A fifth one, Peter Stuyvesant, of the front façade appears in Chapter 3 in connec-
tion with the Stuyvesant High School. A few of the sculptures of the eastern and
northern sides of the building will figure in Chapters 2 and 8.
David P. de Vries (1593?–1662?) was a Dutch navigator and world traveler. He
was versed in geography, celestial and coastal navigation, and piloting. He estab-
lished settlements on Staten Island and elsewhere. After he returned to Holland,
he described his explorations and experience in his book Short Historical and Jour-
nal Notes of Various Voyages in the Four Quarters of the Globe.
Abram S. Hewitt (1822–1903) was a teacher of mathematics, a lawyer, and an
iron manufacturer. He voyaged to Europe and on his return trip to America, he
was shipwrecked, which greatly influenced his outlook on life. He was mayor of
New York and was influential in creating the New York subway system. Hewitt
was interested in education and Columbia University conferred a degree on him
when he was 65 years old. He was Peter Cooper’s (Chapter 4) son-in-law.
Cadwallader Colden (1688–1776) was an Irish immigrant physician and bota-
nist as well as a politician. He pointed out the correlation between filthy living
conditions and the high rate of disease in New York. Colden encouraged Ben-
jamin Franklin to establish the American Philosophical Society. Franklin sup-
ported Colden’s work in botany and Colden compiled the taxonomy of the region
of Orange County, NY, where he lived.
Colden wrote on a variety of other issues as well, such as light and colors,
motion in matter, and gravity. He dared to question dogmas and in this connection,

13
New York Scientific

Surrogate’s Court with the statues of outstanding personalities on top of the

colonnade.

Franklin noted, “It is well we are not as poor Galileo was, subject to the Inquisition
for philosophical heresy.”6 Colden’s daughter, Jane Colden (1724–1766), was the
first woman botanist in America.
DeWitt Clinton (1769–1828) was a naturalist and a politician who served New
York State in different capacities, including mayor of New York City, US senator,
and governor. He was instrumental in the decision to build the Erie Canal, con-
necting the eastern shore of Lake Erie with the upper Hudson River.

14
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 THE STAR-CLUSTER 47 TOUCANI
From Sir John Herschel’s drawing

Smaller than ω Centauri, but even more beautiful in the

telescope, is the cluster 47 Toucani,[10] which to the unaided eye
appears like a fourth-magnitude star near the smaller Cloud of
Magellan. The long curve of Grus followed southwards leads to it.
Nearly as many stars as in ω Centauri, or about 9500, are here
massed into a still smaller space, so the cluster is brighter, and is
“compressed to a blaze of light” at the centre. The two sets of stars,
which are mingled together throughout, are of thirteenth to fifteenth
and of seventeenth magnitudes respectively. Herschel saw the inner
denser part rose-coloured while the outer was white, but the present
writer could not see this nor find anyone to confirm it to-day, possibly
because the refracting telescopes now so often used do not show
colour so well as large reflectors like Herschel’s. A double star of
11th magnitude, which is conspicuous in Herschel’s drawing, is
doubtless far outside the cluster, and only appears projected against
it by perspective.
Near β Aquarii there shines with the light of a sixth-magnitude
star another “magnificent ball of stars” which has been compared to
“a heap of fine sand.” It is named 2 M Aquarii.
Over seventy of these tightly packed balls of stars are known,
even counting only the brightest, and their distribution is rather
curious. A large number (about twenty) occur in the Clouds of
Magellan, and more than half of the seventy are in the Milky Way,
not scattered evenly along its course, but almost if not entirely
confined to its southern part, and chiefly gathered in a great group in
its brightest portion, where it passes through Sagittarius, Ophiuchus,
and Aquila. Here they are mingled with—or perhaps projected
against—numerous stars of the same magnitudes; but many balls
are also found outside the Milky Way, widely scattered, and in these
parts of the sky there are relatively few of the faint-magnitude stars
which compose all the globular clusters. 47 Toucani, for instance,
though it is near the small Magellanic Cloud, stands quite apart from
it, isolated in a black sky.
We do not know the distances of any of these balls of stars.
Those which have been examined spectroscopically shine like
Canopus—that is, they are of a type intermediate between Sirius and
our sun—but the chief light comes, of course, from the brighter stars,
and it may be that the fainter stars mingled with them belong to a
different type.
A remarkable fact lately discovered is that many globular clusters
—but not all—contain a large number of variable stars. These vary in
light in a period of about a day and have a range of about one
magnitude. They are not of the Algol type, nor quite of the usual
“short-period” types, and it is not yet clear what is the cause of
variation, though it seems probable that “cluster-variables” are
double stars.
 XIV
NEBULAE

Athwart the False Cross, from δ Velorum to ι Carinae, a line

passing on leads to the round white spot which we found to be a
star-cluster. A little further in the same direction is a larger curved
white patch, bright enough to be visible, once it is familiar, even after
the moon has risen. This is the Great Nebula in Argo, the Keyhole
Nebula, in which Eta Argūs once blazed out. Even a binocular will
divide it into two parts separated by a chasm, and will show the
pearly background powdered over with many small stars.
But even the most powerful telescopes do not resolve this pale
background into stars, as they resolve the star-cluster just
mentioned: it remains a pearly mist, the brighter part strangely
broken by dark rifts, the fainter, beyond the chasm, a tangled skein
of long cloudy streaks reaching out into the darkness and gradually,
irregularly, fading away.
When Herschel found this background unresolvable into stars, he
concluded that it did not form part of the Milky Way, but was at an
immeasurable distance behind, so that here he was looking right
through the Galaxy at a still more distant region of stars, too distant
and faint for his telescope to distinguish them separately. But the
spectroscope has taught us that these cloud-like nebulae, though
stars are often mingled with them, are not formed of stars at all, but
of inchoate masses of faintly luminous gas; and they cluster so
thickly in the Milky Way, generally avoiding other parts of the sky,
that it seems evident that they lie in it and form part of it. They are
also found in great numbers in the Greater Magellanic Cloud.
If the days of the Herschel’s photography had not come to the aid
of astronomers, and Sir John speaks of the feeling of despair which
often almost overcame him when trying, night after night, to draw the
“endless details” of this nebula, so capricious in their forms are its
curving branches and the dark spaces between, so strangely does
its brightness vary in different regions, and so numerous are the
stars scattered over it. With extraordinary patience he succeeded in
cataloguing the positions of over 1200 of these. To compare the
present aspect of the stars with his catalogue would be a laborious
task, but might lead to results of great value.
The curious dark oval rift in the midst of the bright part, which he
compared with a keyhole, he found to be not entirely devoid of light,
a thin nebulous veil covering part of it; and many of the dark lanes
and holes which in small instruments look perfectly black, are
actually filled with faint stars and extremely faint nebulosity. The
whole region near the nebula is exceedingly rich in stars, and also in
star-clusters, as we have already seen. To quote Herschel once
again:
“Nor is it easy for language to convey a full impression of the
beauty and sublimity of the spectacle it offers when viewed in a
sweep, ushered in as it is by so glorious and innumerable a
procession of stars, to which it forms a sort of climax, justifying
expressions which, though I find them written in my journal, in the
excitement of the moment, would be thought extravagant if conveyed
to these pages. In fact, it is impossible for anyone with the least
spark of astronomical enthusiasm about him to pass soberly in
review, with a powerful telescope and in a fine night, that portion of
the southern sky ... such are the variety and interest of the objects
he will encounter, and such the dazzling richness of the starry
ground on which they are presented to his gaze.”
In the constellation of the Sword-fish, on the edge of the Great
Cloud of Magellan, is another nebula, 30 Doradūs, the Great Looped
Nebula, which is even more marvellous in complexity of structure
than the Keyhole Nebula in Argo. No photograph can reproduce, and
no words can describe, the filmy appearance of these nebulae as
seen in a telescope. The Looped Nebula seems to consist entirely of
strangely curved and twisted streamers on a background of dark sky,
with a few sparkling stars of various brightness scattered over it. At
the complicated centre one of the loops forms a nearly perfect figure-
of-eight, and another takes the outline of an eye.
Brightest of all the large gaseous nebulae is the well-known Orion
Nebula, in the sword of the giant. A 3-inch telescope shows the main
features well, the dark bay running into its brightest region, the row
of three brilliant stars and the “trapezium” of four tiny ones very close
together, and the long outlying branches which have such fantastic
curves. Because of its comparative brightness, its entrancing beauty,
and its position where it can be seen from all latitudes, this nebula
has been studied more than any other. The first drawing of it was
made in 1656, the first photograph in 1880. It remains a baffling
mystery still, but a few facts have emerged.
Its distance is immeasurable: it has been guessed at a thousand
light-years. It must, therefore, be inconceivably vast in extent, but it
is probably excessively tenuous, like a comet’s tail, of which a million
miles contain a negligible amount of matter. It is almost stationary in
space, and a careful study of its form since 1758 proves that there
has been no visible change, except perhaps in the relative
brightness of some of its parts. Yet a recent spectroscopic
investigation shows that movements are taking place in different
directions within the nebula, and a slow rotation of the whole mass,
or of its brightest portion, is suggested.
It is composed of faintly luminous gas, though whether it glows
from heat or from some other cause we do not know. Photographs of
nebulae are very misleading with regard to brightness: one must
remember that they have often been exposed for many hours.
Helium, hydrogen, and an unknown gas which we call nebulium are
mingled together, but not in equal quantities. In some of the fainter
regions of the nebula, especially on the south and west borders,
hydrogen produces a great deal of the light; in the brightest parts,
near the trapezium, the glow of nebulium is much more prominent.
It is scarcely doubtful that many of the stars which appear to be
involved in the nebula are physically connected with it, especially
since they are of a type frequently found near nebulae, viz. very blue
Orion-type stars with some of their hydrogen lines not dark but
bright, as in the nebula.
The southern hemisphere is rich in nebulae smaller but of the
same kind as these three magnificent objects, the Keyhole, the
Looped, and the Orion Nebulae—that is, large irregular masses of
gas, often spangled with stars—and each has some special beauty
of its own; but for most of them large telescopes are needed to grasp
the faint details. There is a nest of them in the northern part of
Sagittarius: a cloudy streak visible to the naked eye, a little north of
the star γ Sagittarii, represents three nebulae and clusters close
together—M 8, M 20, and M 21. The first is a wonderful combination
of a bright scattered star-cluster and a gaseous nebula, with dark
rifts dividing the cloudy structure. The second is the celebrated Trifid
Nebula, less bright and large, but with even more striking black lanes
which split the principal part into three almost separate portions.
Many faint stars are scattered over it, but as they are scarcely more
numerous than in the surrounding regions, most of them probably
are not connected with the nebula. M 21 is a star-cluster.
Near these, where Sagittarius borders on Aquila,[11] is a small but
very remarkable nebula, known from its shape as the Horseshoe or
the Omega Nebula (M 17). It has a curious mottled appearance, with
bright knots here and there.
And a little further west, near together, are two wonderful nebulae
which surround the two stars Rho Ophiuchi and Nu Scorpii.
Professor Barnard, who has studied and taken exquisite
photographs of many nebulae, considers the first of these the finest
in the sky, because of its dark, winding lanes and the veiling of the
stars in places by partly transparent nebulous matter.
 XV
OTHER TYPES OF NEBULAE

The large irregular nebulae described in the last chapter are all
more or less mingled with stars, at least in appearance, and it has
been suggested that they are star-clusters in process of formation,
with larger and brighter masses of filmy nebulosity all about them
than at later stages, for long-exposure photographs reveal some
exceedingly faint nebulosities surrounding Kappa Crucis and the
Pleiades and other fully-developed star-clusters. But this can only be
a guess until we know more about the nature of nebulae. In some
regions of the sky we find vast spaces thinly veiled by nebulosity so
faint and transparent that it seems to have reached the very limit at
which matter can exist and be recognised as such. Thus in the
constellation of Orion nearly all the bright stars are connected
together by the vast convolutions of an exceedingly faint diffused
nebula in spiral form, the innermost curve of which ends in the Great
Nebula of the Sword, and the whole region within is filled with faint
light.
Quite distinct from these nebulae are others of perfectly regular
form, very small, purely gaseous, without intermingling of any stars,
but usually with one bright star-like nucleus at the centre. One form
is the ring nebula, of which much the best known is that in the
northern constellation of the Lyre. There are, however, some in the
south. In a large telescope they appear like little golden wedding-
rings against the dark sky background.
Another regular form is the “planetary nebula,” so called because
they look much like planets in large telescopes, being perfectly round
or oval with a sharply-defined edge, and in several cases there are
handle-like appendages, which may possibly be encircling rings, like
the rings of Saturn. These nebulae shine with a peculiar bluish-green
light, the colour of the unknown gas nebulium, of which they are
chiefly composed. In Hydra, south of the star Mu, is one of the
brightest and largest, known as H 27—that is, No. 27 on William
Herschel’s list. It is elliptical and of a lovely bluish colour, with a
bright nucleus exactly in the centre.
By means of these sharply-defined central nuclei it has been
found possible to measure the approaching or receding movements
of these nebulae, and although the one just mentioned is receding
from us with a speed of only 3½ miles a second, their average speed
is high, amounting to 40 or 50 miles a second. One in Sagittarius is
receding at more than 80 miles a second, and another in Lupus
attains a speed of over a hundred.
These are movements comparable with those of stars, but the
average is higher than even for the most rapidly moving class of
stars, the red-solar and Antarians. May we, then, place the planetary
nebulae at the end of our star-series, since we saw that from the
blue down to the red the average movements became faster and
faster, and may we believe that all stars eventually become gaseous
nebulae, as “new stars” seem to do? But we saw that in spectrum
these nebulae rather resemble the stars at the other end of the
series, the Wolf-Rayet, which lead directly to the hottest and
brightest of all, the Orion stars. Planetary nebulae also resemble
Wolf-Rayet, Orion, and Sirian stars, and differ from solar and red
stars in that they cluster near the Milky Way, and are scarcely ever
found far from it. Their place in the universe cannot be established
yet.
One more kind of nebula, the most numerous of all, remains to
be mentioned, the so-called “white nebulae,” which do not glow
green like many of the brighter planetaries, but shine with a white
light and have more or less star-like spectra, although not even the
most powerful telescopes can resolve the white cloudiness into
stars. The typical nebula of this class is the famous Andromeda
Nebula, visible to the naked eye in northern skies as a large oval
spot shining softly “like a candle shining through horn.” Photography
first disclosed the remarkable fact that it has the form of a great,
closely-wound spiral, and further research has shown that by far the
greater number of “white nebulae” have this form. There is a very
fine one in Aquarius,[12] which has been known since 1824, but
visual observations gave absolutely no idea of its true form. A
photograph exposed for four hours in September 1912 showed it
clearly as about two turns of a great spiral.
The distribution of this kind of nebula is quite different from that of
the gaseous nebulae, for, instead of clustering towards the Milky
Way, they avoid it, and especially the brightest region, where we saw
that the others most abound, viz. in Scorpio, Sagittarius, and
Ophiuchus. On the contrary, the largest number of these is found
near the north pole of the Galaxy—that is, as far removed from it as
possible, in Virgo. There is, however, no corresponding group about
the south pole of the Galaxy.
One investigator has found the distance of the Andromeda
Nebula to be twenty light-years, but the distance and the movements
of this type are difficult to discover. They are evidently very different
from the others, and quite as mysterious.
 XVI
THE CLOUDS OF MAGELLAN

One of the wonders which most attracted the attention of early

explorers in the southern hemisphere, and roused as much interest
as the Southern Cross, was the pair of faint clouds, looking like
detached pieces of the Milky Way, which are seen in the
neighbourhood of the South Pole. Marco Polo made a sketch of the
Greater Cloud, which he describes wonderingly as “a star as big as a
sack.”
Although some star-maps show short branches of Milky Way
pointing towards the two Clouds, this is incorrect, and they are quite
separate from it. Herschel was struck by their isolation, especially in
the case of the Little Cloud, which he described as situated in a
“most oppressively desolate desert,” its only neighbour being the
globular cluster 47 Toucani, which is near, but separated by a
perfectly black sky.
The Greater Cloud is much brighter to the naked eye than the
Lesser, and it is much more complex and interesting in the
telescope. It contains, moreover, the wonderful Looped Nebula, of
which we have already spoken.
Both Clouds consist of gaseous nebulae and star-clusters on a
background of vague nebulosity and crowds of almost
indistinguishable stars. But the white nebulae shun the Clouds, just
as they shun the Milky Way.
An immense number of variable stars have been discovered in
the Clouds of Magellan, of the same type as those in globular
clusters. Miss Leavitt of Harvard Observatory catalogued from
photographs no less than 969 in the Lesser Cloud and 800 in the
Greater. In the latter the greatest number of variables was found in a
stream of faint stars which connects a group of star-clusters with the
Looped Nebula, and others occur locally in certain parts of the
Cloud, but few are in its northern region or in parts where many of
the brighter stars congregate. All the variables are very faint, the
usual minimum in both Clouds being about fourteenth magnitude,
and the maximum seldom more than one magnitude brighter. A few
in the Lesser Cloud have been found with periods unusually long for
this “cluster type” of variables, amounting to 32, 66, and even 127
days. These longer periods seem to belong to somewhat brighter
stars, but they are quite as exact as the usual period of a few days or
a single day.
 XVII
THE MILKY WAY

Like a great river returning into itself, the Galaxy encircles the
starry heavens, and those who know only its northern course have
no idea of its brilliance and wonderful complexity in its brightest part.
Its light is soft, milky, and almost uniform, between Cygnus and
Sirius, but when it enters Argo it becomes extremely broad, and
spreads out like a river on a flat marshy plain, in many twisting
channels with spaces between. Where Canopus shines on the bank
there is a narrow winding ford right across its whole breadth, as if a
path had been made by the crossing of a star.
After this it suddenly becomes extremely narrow, but so bright
that all the light which was shining in the broad channel seems to be
condensed in this narrow bed. In the brightest, richest part the Great
Nebula of Argo is easily distinguished by the naked eye. Contrasting
with this and other bright condensations are black gaps, the largest
and blackest of which is the well-known Coal-Sack near the
Southern Cross.
 THE MILKY WAY IN SCORPIO, LUPUS,
AND ARA
Photographed at Hanover, Cape Colony,
by Bailey and Schultz

The river now divides. One short stream, which goes north from
Centaur towards Antares, is faint and soon lost; but another northern
stream is so bright and so persistent that from Centaur to Cygnus we
may say that the Galaxy flows in a double current. This northern
portion forms first the smoke of the Altar on which the Centaur is
about to offer the Beast, then passes through the Scorpion into the
Serpent-Holder, and here, between η Ophiuchi and Corona Australis,
the double stream has its greatest width. The northern division soon
grows dim and seems to die out, but begins again near β Ophiuchi,
and, curving through a little group of stars, passes through the head
of the Eagle and forms an oval lagoon in the Swan.
The southern stream passes through the Scorpion’s Tail into
Sagittarius, then through the Eagle and the Arrow till it flows close
beside the northern stream in the Swan, and finally rejoins it in a
bright patch round α Cygni. Except just here it is much brighter than
the northern stream, and its structure is even fuller of wonderful
detail than in Argo. In Sagittarius it consists of great rounded patches
with dark spaces between. The brightest of these contains the star γ
Sagittarii; then follows a remarkable region of small patches and
streaks, the portion passing through Sagittarius and Aquila being
thickly studded with nebulae. This is followed by another bright
patch, rivalling that round γ Sagittarii, which involves the stars λ and
6 Aquilae.
This ends the most brilliant and wonderful part of the Milky Way.
When well seen, as we see it in the south, it recalls Herschel’s
words, written at the Cape when it came into view in his telescope:
“The real Milky Way is just come on in great semi-nebulous
masses, running into one another, heaps on heaps.” And again: “The
Milky Way is like sand, not strewed evenly as with a sieve, but as if
flung down by handfuls, and both hands at once.”
What is it? The ancients thought it the pathway of departed
spirits, or fiery exhalations from the earth imprisoned in the skies, or
a former road of the sun through the stars. But Democritus and some
other inquiring Greeks believed it to be the shining of multitudes of
stars too faint and too close together to be seen separately, and we
know this to be the truth. We know also, from simply counting the
stars in different regions of the sky, that their numbers increase
regularly as we go from north or south towards the Milky Way, and
stars of all magnitudes are most abundant within its course. We saw
also that star-clusters and certain kinds of nebulae frequent it, while
other kinds avoid it, and that blue and white stars are the most
abundant near it, and tend to move through space in planes parallel
with it, while the redder stars are scattered and move about in all
directions.
Facts like these lead astronomers to believe that the Milky Way
has a definite relation with all the visible universe, that even the most
distant nebula is not an outlying universe apart from ours, but all are
parts of one vast stellar system.
It is possible that the Milky Way, which we see as a great circle,
double in one part, is really an immense spiral, and that we are
nearest one curve of it, the great southern division which looks so
bright. It may be that the spiral nebulae, vast though they are in
terms of earthly measurement, are tiny models of one tremendous
spiral which enfolds the universe with its coils.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. LTD.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

Footnotes:
[1] Published at 5s. by Gall & Inglis, Edinburgh and London.
[2] Stars are classified by astronomers in “magnitudes,” i.e.
degrees of brightness, those of first magnitude being the
brightest. Stars below sixth magnitude cannot be seen with the
naked eye.
[3] Compare Aratus:

“The Virgin and the Claws, the Scorpion,

The Archer and the Goat.”

[4] Right ascension in the skies corresponds with longitude on

earth, but is more often reckoned in time than in degrees. For
instance, R.A. 1 hour 35 minutes, the right ascension of Achernar,
means that this star will be on the meridian 1 hour 35 minutes
later than the “first point of Aries”—that is, the point at which the
equator cuts the ecliptic at the spring equinox, the fundamental
point corresponding with Greenwich in earthly longitude.
[5] The stars ε and ι Carinae, κ and δ Velorum, form a cross much
like the Southern Cross, but less bright, and this is called the
False Cross.
[6] A “binary” is a system of two stars which are known to be
comparatively close together and influencing one another’s
movements. A “double star” may be a binary, or the two stars may
really be very far apart and have no connection, merely
happening to lie one nearly behind the other.
[7] Now often called Eta Carinae, since Argo has been subdivided
(see p. 7).
[8] It is easy to remember the names of the stars in the Southern
Cross. Begin at the foot, which is obviously the brightest, and
count round the Cross in clockwise direction α, β, γ, δ. κ is
beyond β in a line with γ, β.
[9] These two astronomers observed at Paramatta, New South
Wales, in the early part of the nineteenth century.
[10] Also named ξ Toucani.
[11] On Scutum in maps where this constellation is not included in
Aquila.
[12] N. G. C. 7293.
 Transcriber’s Notes:

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paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.
Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.
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