American astronomers must always honor the names of Rittenhouse
and Bowditch. And yet in one respect their work was disappointing
of results. Neither of them was the founder of a school. Rittenhouse
left no successor to carry on his work. The help which
Bowditch afforded his generation was invaluable to isolated
students who, here and there, dived alone and unaided into the
mysteries of the celestial motions. His work was not mainly in the
field of observational astronomy, and therefore did not materially
influence that branch of science. In 1832 Professor Airy,
afterwards Astronomer Royal of England, made a report to the
British Association on the condition of practical astronomy in
various countries. In this report he remarked that he was unable
to say anything about American astronomy because, so far as he
knew, no public observatory existed in the United States.
William C. Bond, afterwards famous as the first director of the
Harvard Observatory, was at that time making observations with a
small telescope, first near Boston and afterwards at Cambridge.
But with so meagre an outfit his establishment could scarcely lay
claim to being an astronomical observatory, and it was not
surprising if Airy did not know anything of his modest efforts.
Pages:
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376