Front Matter

Preface to the New Edition

T HERE is but little alteration in this edition, for so far as regards the older astronomers at all events there has been nothing to add or to correct. It may, however, be mentioned here that a commemorative tablet has recently been placed on the house, in New King Street, Bath, in which William Herschel resided. Nor could it be possible to allow the sketch of the late Earl of Rosse to be reprinted without adding the fact that his youngest son, Hon. C. A. Parsons, is, as all the world knows, the famous engineer who invented the steam turbine.

Robert S. Ball.

            Cambridge.

      21st February,  1906.

Preface to the Original Edition

I T has been my object in these pages to present the life of each astronomer in such detail as to enable the reader to realise in some degree the man's character and surroundings; and I have endeavoured to indicate as clearly as circumstances would permit the main features of the discoveries by which he has become known.

There are many types of astronomers—from the stargazer who merely watches the heavens, to the abstract mathematician who merely works at his desk; it has, consequently, been necessary in the case of some lives to adopt a very different treatment from that which seemed suitable for others.

While the work was in progress, some of the sketches appeared in Good Words.  The chapter on Brinkley has been chiefly derived from an article on the "History of Dunsink Observatory," which was published on the occasion of the Tercentenary celebration of the University of Dublin in 1892, and the life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton is taken, with a few alterations and omissions, from an article contributed to the Quarterly Review  on Graves' life of the great mathematician. The remaining chapters now appear for the first time. For many of the facts contained in the sketch of the late Professor Adams. I am indebted to the obituary notice written by my friend Dr. J. W. L. Glaisher, for the Royal Astronomical Society; while with regard to the late Sir George Airy, I have a similar acknowledgment to make to Professor H. H. Turner. To my friend Dr. Arthur A. Rambaut I owe my hearty thanks for his kindness in aiding me in the revision of the work.

R.S.B.

            The Observatory, Cambridge.

      October,  1895.