Page:The story of the comets.djvu/90

56 to the discoverer of any unexpected comet on the report of a Committee of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

In 1900 a German gentleman named A. F. Lindemann, living at Sidmouth, placed at the disposal of the German Astronomische Gesellschaft a fund to encourage the computation of cometary orbits. The sum of £5 (in marks) is paid for each definitive orbit whether of a modern or an ancient comet. This example deserves to be followed!

An interesting example of the way in which science has been promoted in America by the introduction into scientific fields of American commercial methods has been neatly sketched by Professor H. H. Turner, of Oxford. The Board of Visitors of the Observatory at Albany, doubting the value of some desk work (that is, non-telescopic work) which their Director was carrying on, "inquired tentatively whether it would not rather add to the reputation of the Observatory if some discovery, such as that of a comet, could be made; and were promptly informed that nothing was easier if they would sanction the devotion of a certain sum of money to the purpose, as salary for a person of average intelligence while making the necessary search. The challenge was accepted on the spot; the money subscribed; the searcher set to work, and within the allotted time a fine comet was found. Professor Boss undoubtedly took a certain risk in undertaking to catch a comet, just as a man would who undertook to catch a fish within a definite time. But he was anxious to vindicate his views of the relative importance of different kinds of work, and deserved the success he ventured to count upon "

American astronomers have shown their national acuteness and labour-saving cleverness even in their way of transacting comet business. Some years ago they instituted a Comet Telegraph Code for transmitting, with a certain amount of detail, but in very concise visible form, information as to the discovery of new comets. A specimen of a message in this