"At Bath in my leisure hours," he says, "by way of amusement, I made for myself several 2-feet, 5-feet, 7-feet, 10-feet, and 20-feet Newtonian telescopes; besides others of the Gregorian form of 8 inches, 12 inches, 18 inches, 2 feet, 3 feet, 5 feet, and 10 feet focal length. My way was ... to have many mirrors of each sort cast; and to finish them all as well as I could; then to select by trial the best of them, which I preserved; the rest were put by to be repolished. In this manner I made not less than 200, 7-feet; 150, 10-feet; and about 80, 20-feet mirrors, not to mention those of the Gregorian form, or of the construction of Dr. Smith's reflecting microscope, of which I also made a great number. . . . The number of stands I invented for these telescopes it would not be easy to assign."[1] The story he tells of this magnificent "amusement," if less racy than his sister's, is far more wonderful. Could these mirrors have been sold at the prices then ruling the market, a large fortune would have rewarded the maker, as it ultimately did.
In June 1773 the new departure of Herschel commenced. Some of his pupils had left Bath; concerts, oratorios, and the theatre were at an end for five or six months. "To my sorrow," his sister writes, "I saw almost every room turned into a workshop." A cabinetmaker was making a tube and stands of all kinds in the drawing-room; her brother Alexander was "turning patterns, grinding glasses, and turning eye-pieces" in a bedroom; and while this manufactory was in its busiest whirl, William Herschel was besides composing glees, catches, anthems for winter consumption in the public rooms and the chapel, or holding
- ↑ Phil. Trans., 1795, pp. 347-48
