Cambridge sketches
Estelle M. H. Merrill, Ed.

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[151] wait for the glass, the telescope was begun and successfully completed. Before it left the workshop of the Clarks it made them famous by their discovery, through it, of the companion star of Sirius. For this, as the most interesting discovery of the year, the French Academy of Sciences awarded Mr. Clark the Lalande medal. The telescope was finished in 1863, but did not go to Mississippi on account of the breaking out of the Civil War. Instead, it was sold to a private association in Chicago.

From that time the size of the aperture of telescopes has steadily increased. The Clarks have several times been privileged to have in their workshop glasses larger than any before made. One of the best known of these is the twenty-six inch glass now at the National Observatory in Washington. This, with its twin, made at the same time and sold into private hands, long held the place of the largest telescope in the world. It was completed in 1873. Again and again, however, this aperture was exceeded until the famous Lick telescope aroused the extraordinary popular interest of a few years ago. The Lick telescope is of thirty-six inches aperture, and promised to hold the first place for many years. But the new Chicago University wants to be first in everything, and so of course wishes to own the largest telescope in the world. The man has been found to make the princely gift, and now (1895) the object glasses for the forty-inch Yerkes telescope are lying nearly finished in Mr. Clark's workshop. Cambridge people have come to feel that if a telescope of extraordinary proportions is to be made, of course it must have its lenses ground at Clark's.

A visit to the modest shop where all this work has been done, is full of interest. Everything is