SO MUCH FOR FAME - THE STORY OF SWIFT,LEWIS

Between 1862 and 1899, Lewis Swift discovered no fewer than 13 comets, making him one of the most prolific comet discoverers of all time. Sw ift was a farmer and hardware store owner by trade, whose first telesc ope was a homemade 3-inch refractor with a Spencer objective. His firs t comet discovery, 1862III, known popularly as Comet Swift-Tuttle, is the source of the famous Perseid meteor shower. All but one of Swift's comets were discovered with a 41/2-inch Fitz-Clark refractor. In 1882 , Swift became a 'professional' astronomer, heading the Warner Observa tory at Rochester, NY, using a 16-inch Clark refractor, then the fourt h largest in the United States, to survey the heavens for new nebulae. Swift eventually found more than 1200 objects, ranking him third behi nd only the Herschels in this category, and first among American obser vers. In 1893, Swift relocated his 16-inch telescope to Echo Mountain in California, where he spent the remainder of his career at the Lowe Observatory. Today, the 16-inch Clark is used as a teaching instrument by Santa Clara University. The whereabouts of Swift's 3- and 41/2-inc h refractors are unknown.