Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/79

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CAROLINE LUCRETIA HERSCHEL.
61

consequence, she always chronicles the attentions bestowed upon her brother and herself by kings and nobles. Most of her brother's time was spent in making and selling telescopes for other observers, instead of finishing a thirty or forty foot instrument for his own use, upon which his heart was set. The king ordered many seven-foot and four ten-foot telescopes, one of which was to be sent as a present to the observatory at Göttingen. Meantime, through the influence of Sir Joseph Banks, £2,000 had been granted to Herschel, to enable him to make an instrument for himself. After living in Datchet four years, they moved to Slough, in April, 1786, and it was here that Herschel put up his famous telescope, and fixed his residence for the rest of his life.

Sir William Herschel's Forty-foot Telescope at Slough.

In July of this year he went to Germany to deliver the ten-foot telescope from the king, leaving Caroline in charge of matters at home. The stand for the forty-foot telescope was finished, and he left a smith at work on the tube. The mirror was also pretty far advanced. During this absence of her brother Miss Herschel discovered her first