Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/361

FURTHER EXPANSION 317 In October, 1892, the President's confidence that the golden stream would continue to flow was again justified. The story has been told, in the chapter on "The Second Era of Building," how, during the very week in which the University opened, Mr. Yerkes agreed to provide it with the largest telescope in the world and a suitable Observatory in which to house it, and how the Observatory was built. When the University opened George E. Hale, a young astronomer, was pursuing his scientific work in an observatory his father, William E. Hale, had built and equipped for him in Chicago. President Harper soon found this young astronomical enthusiast, recognized his genius, and secured him as Associate Professor of Astrophysics, without salary, in the first faculty. Mr. Hale was also Director of the Observatory, his own Observatory, and the total expense of the Department of Astronomy with a decent under Mr. Hale was about fifteen hundred dollars a year. The con- tributions of Mr. Yerkes, providing the University with the great telescope and the Observatory at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, changed all this. Although the Observatory was not ready for use till 1897, five years after the first notice of the purpose of Mr. Yerkes to furnish the astronomical equipment, the increase in the staff of the department began without delay. Two additional ap- pointments were made in 1893. Another followed in 1894. And when the Observatory opened the staff consisted of the Director, three other professors, one associate professor, two instructors, one associate, and one assistant. There was also an optician, making the staff ten in all. Meantime the Astro physical Journal had been founded, and the announcement was made in the Register for 1897- 98 that the publications of the Observatory would include "Bulle- tins of the Yerkes Observatory, containing announcements of results and discoveries, .... notes on the work of the Observa- tory, .... and Annals of the Yerkes Observatory .... with accounts of special researches." The maintenance of the Observa- tory required an engineer and other helpers. It is not to be wondered at that the Department of Astronomy, with this remark- able development in the course of less than five years, had, at the end of that period an annual budget of expenditures of more than