Title: GREAT ASTRONOMERS
Author: SIR ROBERT S. BALL
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Chapter I - Preface
GREAT ASTRONOMERS
by SIR ROBERT S. BALL D.Sc. LL.D. F.R.S.
Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry in the
University of Cambridge
Author of "In Starry Realms" "In the High Heavens" etc.
[PLATE: GREENWICH OBSERVATORY.]
PREFACE.
It 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
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