The Various Twine of Light

Abstract

The Leviathan’s example inevitably stirred attempts to emulate its power without suff ering the disadvantages of its situation. William Lassell, a wealthy Liverpool brewer who had visited Rosse’s workshops in Parsonstown in 1844 and had partly witnessed the six-foot refl ector’s erection, set to building a grinding machine and polishing machine similar to (but improving upon) those Rosse had used, and constructed a 24-inch refl ector, mounted equatorially rather than on an alt-azimuth, at his residence near Liverpool. He demonstrated its power with the discovery of Triton, Neptune’s largest satellite, soon aft er the discovery of the planet itself in September 1846. Increasingly dissatisfied with the poor observing conditions in Liverpool—this was, aft er all, the period of the Industrial Revolution, and Liverpool was in the heart of the north of England with their “dark Satanic mills” and choking air pollution–Lassell in 1852 transported the 24-inch to the clearer skies of Valetta, Malta, chiefl y to observe the nebulae. He followed up with construction of a 48-inch refl ector, also mounted equatorially, which he took to Malta in 1861. It was never installed in a building, but remained in the open air when not in use.

Meantime, refracted from yon eastern cloud, Bestriding earth, the grand ethereal bow Shoots up immense; and every hue unfolds, In fair proportion running from the red To where the violet fades into the sky. Here, awful Newton, the dissolving clouds Form, fronting the Sun, thy showery prism, And to the sage-restricted eye unfold The various twine of light, by thee disclosed From the white mingling maze.

—James Thomson, Spring (1728), from The Seasons