A deputation waited
on the offended Emperor at Halle, and begged him to allow the aged duke
to die in his own house. They were brutally denied by the Emperor, and
returned to Braunschweig to try and save the unhappy duke from
imprisonment. One evening in the late autumn, Gauss, who lived in the
Steinweg (or Causeway), saw an invalid carriage drive slowly out of the
castle garden towards the Wendenthor. It contained the wounded duke on
his way to Altona, where he died on November 10, 1806, in a small house
at Ottensen, 'You will take care,' wrote Zach to Gauss, in 1803, 'that
his great name shall also be written on the firmament.'
For a year and a half after the death of the duke Gauss continued in
Braunschweig, but his small allowance, and the absence of scientific
company made a change desirable. Through Olbers and Heeren he received
a call to the directorate of Gottingen University in 1807, and at once
accepted it. He took a house near the chemical laboratory, to which he
brought his wife and family. The building of the observatory, delayed
for want of funds, was finished in 1816, and a year or two later it was
fully equipped with instruments.
In 1819, Gauss measured a degree of latitude between Gottingen and
Altona.
Pages:
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340