big science and the transits of venus 147
to pay, by definition, connotes lower international status. It is no wonder,
therefore, that with every transit more nations were willing to fund expe-
ditions in order to gain membership in this “civilized” club.
Interestingly, Russia refused to fund a transit expedition in 1882 , pro-
viding an illuminating example for the logic of free riding. In a frank letter
to their British counterparts, Russian astronomers tried to justify the Rus-
sian decision: “Although I must admit that so rare an opportunity of study-
ing the atmosphere of the planet ought not to be neglected, yet it seems
certain that so many and such excellent data will be obtained through the
agency of the United States, as well as by other countries, having well pro-
vided observations in the Southern Hemisphere, as well as by other sea-
faring nations. Under these circumstances Russia has not considered it
incumbent on itself to organize any observing parties” (Times [London],
December 2 , 1882 , 4 ).
While $ 75 , 000 or even $ 177 , 000 might not seem much in comparison
with the budgets of modern Big Science, these sums are striking when
compared to the almost nonexistent governmental investment in the sci-
ences at the time. The only continuous fund for science in Britain, for
example, was an annual governmental grant administered by the Royal
Society. From 1849 to 1914 this grant funded 2 , 316 projects with an aggre-
gate sum of £ 179 , 000 , or an average fund of £ 77. 2 per project (MacLeod
1971 , 324 ). At the turn of the century, the US National Naval Observa-
tory, the best- funded observatory in the world, had an annual budget of
$ 85 , 000. Congress rejected reforms to the observatory to avoid hiring
a scientific director with an annual salary of $ 5 , 000 (Plotkin 1978 ). The
amount of $ 177 , 000 was therefore a lot of money, and it is no wonder
that such unusual investment attracted public scrutiny. As the New York
Times noted, if New Yorkers could view the transit through smoked glass
from their own backyard, how could one justify the expense of interna-
tional expeditions?
Hitherto the most remarkable feature of a transit of Venus has been the assumed
impossibility of seeing it at home. No matter where an astronomer might live,
the transit was never visible within a thousand miles of his home. The New York
astronomers had to go to Pekin to observe a transit; the Chinese astronomers
had to go to Australia, and the Australian astronomers had to go to Europe....
The opinion that all transits of Venus may be observed at home and through
smoked glass will be as universal today as are blackened noses and eye- brows,
and there will be no astronomer hereafter who will venture to dissent from this
opinion. (December 6 , 1882 )