Whenever a total eclipse of the sun was visible in an accessible region parties were sent out to observe it. Simon Newcomb Read Quote
The result was that, if it happened to clear off after a cloudy evening, I frequently arose from my bed at any hour of the night or morning and walked two miles to the observatory to make some observation included in the programme. Simon Newcomb Read Quote
The reports of the eclipse parties not only described the scientific observations in great detail, but also the travels and experiences, and were sometimes marked by a piquancy not common in official documents. Simon Newcomb Read Quote
Astronomers are greatly disappointed when, having traveled halfway around the world to see an eclipse, clouds prevent a sight of it; and yet a sense of relief accompanies the disappointment. Simon Newcomb Read Quote
When about fifteen I once made a great scandal by taking out my knife in prayer meeting and assaulting a young man who, while I was kneeling down during the prayer, stood above me and squeezed my neck. Simon Newcomb Read Quote
Until I was four years old I lived in the house of my paternal grandfather, about two miles from the pretty little village of Wallace, at the mouth of the river of that name. Simon Newcomb Read Quote
The beginning of 1856 found me teaching in the family of a planter named Bryan, residing in Prince George County, Md., some fifteen or twenty miles from Washington. Simon Newcomb Read Quote
My first undertaking in the way of scientific experiment was in the field of economics and psychology. Simon Newcomb Read Quote
My father followed, during most of his life, the precarious occupation of a country school teacher. Simon Newcomb Read Quote
