HERSCHEL, Sir WILLIAM, b. at Hanover, Nov. 15, 1738, was the son of a musician and was educated specially as a professional musician. In 1757 he went to England. where he became a teacher of music in the town of Leeds, from winch he went to Halifax as organist, and subsequently (1766) in the same capacity to Bath. Here he would seem to have first turned his attention to astronomy. Wanting a telescope, and unable to afford a reflector, he made one for himself—a Newtonian, of 5 ft. foenl length, and with this applied himself to study the heavens. 1n.1781, ite made his first discovery (Plsilos. Trans. 1780-81), being a new• planet, which at first he took for a comet. It was detected by an exhaustive process of surveying the heavens, which Herschel was the first to follow, taking the stars in regular series, and examining them all in their groups through the same instrument. The result of his discovery was his appointment to be private astronomer to George III., with a salary of £400 a year. Ile then went to live at Slough, near Windsor, where, assisted by his sister Caroline (q.v.). lee continued his researches. Herschel married a Mrs. Mary Pitt, and left one son, Johu (q.v.). Little is known of his private life. He wits knighted by George III., and made n D.C.L. by the university of Oxford; he became rich partly through his wife's jointure, and partly through selling mirrors for reflecting telescopes. He (lied at Slough, Aug.
23, 1822.
Herschel contributed 69 papers to the Plums. Trans. between the years 1780 and 1815; and to the 1st vol. ,01 Mem. of Astron. Society, lie contributed a paper, On the Places of 145 New Double Slurs." He greatly added to our knowledge of the solar system: lie discovered 'Uranus and its six satellites, and two satellites of Saturn. Besides this, he detected the rotation of Saturn's ring, the period of rotation of Saturn itself and that of Venus, the existence of the motions of binary stars, the first revelation of systems besides our own. He threw new light on the Milky Way and the con stitution of nebulte, and, in fact, was the first to give to the human mind any conception of the immensity of the universe. Ilis catalogue of double stars, nebula?, etc., and tables of the comparative brightness of stars, and his researches in regard to light and heat, would of themselves entitle him to the first rank as an astronomer and natural philosopher. For a notice of Herschel's telescope, see TELESCOPES. He erected one monster telescope, as it was then considered, of 40 ft. length. It was begun 1785 and finished 1789, on Aug. 28, of which year he by means of it detected the sixth satellite of Saturn.