Arago, Dominique Fran?ois (1786-1853)

Two biographical fragments: on Sir William Herschel [1738-1822] and on Jean Sylvain Bailly [1736-1793]. Author's holograph MSS. (1) This fragment is headed: 'Perfectionnement des moyens d'observation' (pp. 19-51). Arago's essay on the life and works of Herschel was published in 1843. (2) Jean Sylvain Bailly. Fragment of a biography (10 ll.). Bailly was a distinguished astronomer and wrote an excellent history of astronomy in five volumes, 1773-1787. He was a Member both of the Acad?mie des Sciences and of the Acad?mie Fran?aise. In the Revolution he was elected Mayor of Paris, and was President of the Constituent Assembly for a time. His royalist sympathies were against him, and after retirement from public life, he was guillotined in 1793. Produced in Paris.