Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/563

Rh was a plow-maker by trade, but was well versed in astronomical calculations and observations, having been the first discoverer of the great comet of 1811, and was in his most congenial pursuit when he was making telescopes, a work to which he brought much mechanical skill and scientific accuracy. His "scientific workshop," on the Jedburgh turnpike, "became a gathering-place for all the young men of intelligence in the neighborhood, most of them being in training for the ministry, for medicine, and other liberal pursuits. They had lessons in mathematics and mechanics, but especially in the favorite science of astronomy. The telescopes were tested in the day-time by the eyes of the birds perching on the topmost branches of the 'King of the Wood,' a noble relic of the past forest days, about half a mile from Inchbonny. When the bright sparkle of the bird's eye was distinctly visible by day, James Veitch's specula and lenses were considered fit to show the glories of the sky by night." David "was the very youngest," says his daughter, Mrs. Gordon, from whose book we borrow our anecdotes, "of the quaint and varied group. When he began his visits I do not know, but we find that at the age of ten he finished the construction of a telescope at Inchbonny, which had engaged his attention at a very early period, and at which he worked indefatigably, visiting the workshop daily, and often remaining till the dark hours of midnight to see the starry wonders and test the powers of the telescopes they had been making."

Brewster gave faithful attention at the university to the studies which were assigned to him, having no intention as yet, nor for a considerable time afterward, to allow them to be superseded by any other. Yet all the time we find scientific questions prominent in his thoughts, and growing in interest to him. At every holiday he would make the journey to his home, a distance of forty-five miles, on foot, and then, before the day had ended, of another half mile to Inchbonny, to have a scientific chat with his friend Veitch. His letters to Veitch during this period are frequent, and full of references to scientific questions and scientific men. He is making an electrical machine, and tells of all his experiments and difficulties; he has made a map of the stars near our planet, and offers suggestions about grinding speculums; he is greatly satisfied with his telescope, to which, or any of Veitch's instruments, the great Newtonian reflector at the observatory can no more be compared than "a dirty common refractor with a fine achromatic telescope"; and he describes how a galvanic column may be made by combining copper or silver coins and pieces of tin or zinc with disks of card or leather soaked in water. These things were much more novel in those days than they are now. "He had," says his daughter, "a sincere attachment to the principles and constitution of the Established Church of Scotland, and a thorough acceptance of her doctrinal standards," and was duly licensed to preach. His first