The Largest Lens.
The largest telescopic lens ever made has just been completed in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. It cost $100,000, and is the property of the Chicago University, for use in the observatory on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. This lens is the greatest work of its kind ever undertaken in the world. Day and night, not a single minute has the lens been neglected. Every precaution was taken to insure its safety from damage, and now that the work is finished, it only remains to carefully ship it to its destination.
Once it safely arrives at Lake Geneva, the huge lens will be placed in the telescope of what is known as the Yerkes Observatory. The dome of the observatory is 110 feet high and ninety feet in diameter. Its weight is about 200 tons. It revolves on twenty-six sets of ball-bearing wheels, and is worked by electricity. Beneath the dome is a marble floor hung with counter-balance weights. This floor, ponderous as it appears, can be raised or lowered twenty-five feet, at the will of the observer, by the simple turning of a lever.