Herschel, Sir

JOHN FREDERICK WILLIAM, BART, F. R. S., D. C. L., only son of the preceding, B. 1792. He was educated at Cambridge, where he became senior wrangler in 1813, and following in his father's footsteps, devoted his future career to astronomical pursuits. In 1816 he received the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for observations on 10,000 multiple stars, and in 1823 presented to the Royal Society a catalogue of 380 double and triple stars, whose positions and apparent distances had never until then been fixed. In 1830, he published measurements of 1,236 stars, which he had discovered with his 20-feet reflecting telescope. At the same time he also devoted his attention to physics, the results of which appeared in his Treatise on Sound ; Treatise on the Theory of Light ; Treatise on Astronomy, ., besides a great number of scientific memoirs published in the Royal Society's "Transactions," . He spent four years (1834-8) at the Cape of Good Hope, where he examined the whole Southern celestial hemisphere, and derived important meteorological and astronomical observations therefrom. In 1838 he was elected president of the Royal Society, and created a baronet; in 1839, an honorary D. C. L. of Oxford; and in 1842 was elected Lord Rector of Aberdeen University. In 1848 he filled the office of President of the Royal Astronomical Society; in 1850, published his valuable Outlines of Astronomy, and in the same year was appointed Master of the Mint, which post he resigned in 1855. D. 1871. Her's chelite, n. ( Min .) A white or colorle mineral, found in hexagonal tubular crystals. Sp . gr . 2:06. Comp . Silica 47:39, alumina 20-90, lime 0.38, soda 8.33, potash 4:39, water 17-84.