Among the observers
was the celebrated Rittenhouse, to whom is due the distinction of
having been the first American astronomer whose work has an
important place in the history of the science. In addition to the
observations which he has left us, he was the first inventor or
proposer of the collimating telescope, an instrument which has
become almost a necessity wherever accurate observations are made.
The fact that the subsequent invention by Bessel may have been
independent does not detract from the merits of either.
Shortly after the transit of Venus, which I have mentioned, the
war of the Revolution commenced. The generation which carried on
that war and the following one, which framed our Constitution and
laid the bases of our political institutions, were naturally too
much occupied with these great problems to pay much attention to
pure science. While the great mathematical astronomers of Europe
were laying the foundation of celestial mechanics their writings
were a sealed book to every one on this side of the Atlantic, and
so remained until Bowditch appeared, early in the present century.
His translation of the Mecanique Celeste made an epoch in American
science by bringing the great work of Laplace down to the reach of
the best American students of his time.
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