3-039-210 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sir W. Herschel, the father of the late Sir J. Herschel, 1871. Engraving of a painting by Lemuel Abbott in the National Portrait Gallery at South Kensington. When young, '...William Herschel...resolved to make a telescope for himself. He set to work, learnt how to grind glasses or crystals, how to compound metals for the best reflecting mirror, as well as the best form and proportionate dimensions. After two or three years' labour, he possessed a Newtonian telescope of 6 ft. focus, constructed entirely by his own hands. His delight may be imagined when he first turned this instrument to scan the orbs of heaven. It showed him much that he had never seen before. But he wanted a better, and, after that, still a better, telescope, which his mechanical skill was able to provide. One of those, he made for himself at Bath was of 20 ft. focal distance...He studied, meanwhile, the science of astronomy, with the current observations and calculations. He overtook, kept up, and outran its contemporary professors, till he achieved, March 17, 1781, the discovery of a new planet at the remotest verge of our solar system. He named it the Georgium Sidus, in honour of his King...We now call it the planet Uranus'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.