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76 taste. It was the habit of the day to compare Rittenhouse to Newton, and who can say that if this scheme could have been carried into execution, and he could have devoted the remainder of his days to quiet study and investigation in those pursuits in which unquestionably he was a master, the parallel would not have been justified? Fate, however, determined otherwise. It was not to be. America had other work to do, and her science must bide its time, though it be for ages. The whirlwinds of war were about to be let loose over the land, and even then the drums were beating in the town of Boston. A month later occurred the battles of Concord and Lexington. The next we see of Rittenhouse he was busily engaged in military rather than astronomical problems, and henceforth his time, his energies, and his talents were in the main occupied with sublunary affairs. He had made many clocks; their leaden weights were now needed for bullets, and it was ordered by the Committee of Safety that he and Owen Biddle “should prepare moulds for the casting of clock weights, and send them to some iron furnace, and order a sufficient number to be immediately made for the purpose of exchanging them with the inhabitants of this city for their leaden clock weights.” He understood the measurement of heights and the establishment of levels, and was therefore sent to survey the shores of the Delaware to ascertain what points it would be best to fortify in order to prevent a landing of the enemy. The Committee of Safety appointed him their engineer in October, 1775, and in this capacity he was called upon to arrange for casting cannon of iron and brass, to view a site for the erection of a Continental powder mill, to conduct experiments for rifling cannon and musket balls, to fix upon a method of fastening the chain for the protection of the river, to superintend