The New Student's Reference Work/Burnham, Sherburne Wesley

Burnham, Sherburne Wesley, a notable astronomer, now professor of practical astronomy, in the University of Chicago, was born at Thetford, Vt., in 1838. While clerk of the United States circuit court in Chicago, he early devoted himself to the study of the heavens and made many discoveries, especially of double stars, which he described with a 6-inch refractor. In 1876 his devotion to astronomy led to his connection first with Chicago Observatory and for a time with the Lick Observatory in California. For his discovery, measurement and cataloguing of double stars, he was awarded the gold medal and made a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society of England.