Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/155

 1860-70] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 131 This decade saw the completion of several large telescopes : Lassell's 4-foot speculum reflector (1861), which Lassell and Marth used in observations of satellites and nebulae at Malta, 1861. It was broken up before Lassell's death in 1880. The Melbourne 4-foot speculum Cassegrain reflector (1869), built by T. Grubb, and used by Le Sueur and Ellery in observations of southern nebulae, very little of which has been published. The Dearborn i8|-inch refractor, 1864, built by Alvan Clark & Sons, and used by Burnham in some of his observations of double stars. The Newall 25-inch refractor, 1869-70, built by T. Cooke & Sons, and now at Cambridge. The Directors of Observatories in this mid-century decade may be recalled as follows : Greenwich Cape Edinburgh Dunsiiik. Cambridge Oxford (Radcliffe) Durham. Liverpool. Glasgow. Armagh. Madras Melbourne Nautical Almanac Pulkowa. Paris > Berlin Gottingen Bonn. Copenhagen Athens . G. B. Airy . Sir T. Maclear. . Piazzi Smyth. TSirW. R. Hamilton ' IF. F. E. Briinnow . J. C. Adams Rev. R. Main. Rev. Temple Chevalier John Hartnup . Rob. Grant . T. R. Robinson . N. R. Pogson. . R. L. J. Ellery . J. R. Hind . Otto Struve . Le Verrier f J. F. Encke ' W. Foerster Klinkerfues Argelander . D' Arrest Schmidt 1835-1881 1833-1870 1845-1888 1827-1865 1865-1874 1861-1892 1860-1878 1842-1873 1843-1885 1859-1892 1823-1882 1860-1891 1863-1895 1853-1891 1862-1889 1853-1870 1825-1864 1865-1904 1859-1884 1837-1875 1857-1875 1858-1884 fi8 7 6 fl8 9 2 11878 1-1873 fi88 5 ti892 fi882 fl92I fi88 4 fi88 4 Among the references in the Annual Reports of the Council to private observatories, we find the following names : Carrington, Lassell, De la Rue, Lee (Hartwell), Selwyn, Dawes, Huggins, Wrottesley, Rosse, Lockyer, Webb, Hewlett. As we look through the records from the time of its first incep- tion, the Society seems to have flourished most especially by reason of the confidence which it showed that the science which it was formed to encourage, could best be fostered by giving complete freedom to its members to prosecute researches chosen by them without any official pressure in special directions. The absence of imposed guidance and the freedom of its indivi- dual members is a feature which cannot fail to strike us now, living in these days of tendency towards organisation of scientific work.