LASSELL

William (son of Mr. La ell of Bolton, d. 1810). b. Bolton 18 June 1799; apprenticed to a Liverpool merchant 1814–21; a brewer about 1825; commenced constructing reflecting telescopes 1820; built an observatory at Star field near Liverpool, which he moved to Brad stones near there 1854; invented a new machine for grinding specula; member of Royal Astronom. Soc. 1839, pres. 1870–2, discovered the satellites of Uranus 10 Oct. 1846; received gold medal of Royal Astronom. Soc. 1849; the first to clearly ascertain composition of the Uranian system; mounted a four-foot reflecting telescope at Valetta in Malta 1861, worked there 3 years and catalogued 600 new nebulæ; set up a two-foot reflector at Ray lodge near Maidenhead 1865; F.R.S. 7 June 1849, royal medallist 1858; F.R.S. Edin.; hon. LL.D. Cambridge 1874; his specula have never been surpa ed; ranks with sir Wm. Herschel and lord Ro e among the perfecters of the reflecting telescope. d. in his sleep at Ray Lodge, Maidenhead 5 Oct. 1880. Proc. of Royal Soc. xxx i 7–10 (1881); Wallich’s Eminent men of the day (1870), portrait No. 13; Nature, xxii 565–6 (1880).