Page:Hector Macpherson - Herschel (1919).djvu/23
HERSCHEL AS AMATEUR ASTRONOMER
became acquainted with a Quaker resident in Bath, who had in his leisure hours amused himself with efforts at the construction of mirrors. This individual had apparently failed in his endeavours—"his knowledge," Herschel noted, in that indifferent English which characterised him throughout his lifetime, "being very confined"—and had decided to dispose of his tools and half-finished mirrors. Herschel accordingly purchased his stock, and plunged at once into the work of telescope-making.
All through the winter 1773-4 and the following spring and summer, Herschel laboured at his new line of work, in the midst of his busy professional life. By 21st October, he had succeeded in casting mirrors for a two-foot reflector, and by the middle of December, "it became necessary to think of mounting these mirrors". Early in the new year, he placed a 5 1/2-foot mirror into a square wooden tube, but finding the adjustment of the Gregorian telescope very troublesome, he decided to have recourse to the Newtonian form. On 1st March, 1774, he made his first entry in his astronomical journal, stating that he had viewed "the lucid spot in Orion's sword belt" and the ring of Saturn, which appeared "like two slender arms". The success of this instrument encouraged Herschel to construct other telescopes of the Newtonian form, and at length he succeeded in making a 7-foot telescope with "many different object mirrors". On 1st May, 1776, he observed Saturn's ring and two belts "with great perfection".
The memoirs of his sister give us some idea of his unflagging energy. With sorrow, natural from the house-keeper's point of view, Caroline saw almost every room in the house transformed into a workshop. A tube and stand were set up in a handsomely-furnished drawingroom; while Alexander Herschel, the younger brother, who had now come to reside in Bath, erected a huge turning-machine in a bedroom, for turning eye-pieces