Value of Astronomical Work
This brief sketch of the work of the observatory naturally leads to the question frequently asked of astronomers:—What use is the work done at observatories and what practical value can a knowledge of the stars have in everyday life? While astronomy has obvious practical applications to navigation and surveying yet nine-tenths of modern astronomical research is devoted to the more or less abstract question of the constitution and motion of the stars and the structure of the universe. Indeed most physical and chemical as well as astronomical research is undertaken for the purpose of increasing our knowledge and of investigating the secrets and laws of nature and has generally no direct practical economic application. But it is now generally recognized by the layman as well as the scientist that without abstract there can be no applied science and that all the great economic and industrial applications of science have had to be preceded by the abstract and apparently non-practical investigations of pure science. The Great War perhaps made more evident than ever before the absolute dependence of applied science upon the unselfish and abstract work of pure science.