Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/860

840 to be encouraged to come to town, to take a lead in a manufacture, optical and mathematical, which never had been attempted in America, and drew thousands of pounds to England for instruments, often ill-finished; and it would redound to the honor of Philadelphia to take a lead in this, and of the Assembly to encourage it." The proposition was received enthusiastically, and the whole house rose to vote for Mr. Rittenhouse, one of the members exclaiming, "Our name is legion for this vote." The Assembly adjourned, however, without passing the bill, although Mr. Rittenhouse was afterward appointed to the position for which he was named in it. He removed to Philadelphia, on his own account, in the fall of 1770. The next scientific investigation in which he appears to have been engaged was the observation of the comet of 1770, of which he calculated the elements, and communicated the results to the American Philosophical Society. We afterward find him, with several other gentlemen, making experiments on the electric eel for the purpose of ascertaining the origin of the shock which the animal emits on being touched.

From this time on, Rittenhouse was to a considerable extent engaged in works in the service of the public, to some of which he was called in consequence of his scientific ability and mechanical skill, to others commended by his character as a citizen and his integrity. He was given charge of the State-House clock; appointed to survey the lands between the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers; to superintend the improvement of the Schuylkill; and to determine the northwestern extremity of the boundary between New York and Pennsylvania.

In 1775 the American Philosophical Society presented to the Pennsylvania Assembly a plan for the erection of an observatory under State control, with Mr. Rittenhouse as "public astronomical observer"; describing him as "a gentleman whose abilities, speculative as well as practical, would do honor to any country. . . . Under his auspices the work could now be undertaken with the greatest advantages; and others may be bred up by him, to prosecute it in future times; but, if the present opportunity is neglected, perhaps whole centuries may not afford another. To rescue such a man from the drudgery of manual labor, and give him an occasion of indulging the bent of his genius with advantage to his country, is an honor which crowned heads might glory in; but it is an honor also, which it is hoped, in the case of a native, Pennsylvania would not yield to the greatest prince or people on earth." The Revolution came on, and the scheme was not carried out.

In view of that crisis, Mr. Rittenhouse was commissioned to prepare molds and have iron clock-weights cast, to be exchanged with the people for their leaden ones; as engineer to the