to have a larger and better instrument constructed for his use. Having
now the command of workmen who could execute his plans, he conceived the
bold design of making a divided instrument which should distinctly
exhibit single minutes of a degree. While he was transferring the first
rude conception of his instrument to paper, Paul Hainzel entered his
study, and was so struck with the grandeur of the plan, that he
instantly undertook to have it executed at his own expense. The
projected instrument was a quadrant of fourteen cubits radius! and Tycho
and his friend entered upon its construction with that intense ardour
which is ever crowned with success.

In the village of Gegginga, about half a mile to the south of the city,
Paul Hainzel had a country house, the garden of which was chosen as the
spot where the quadrant was to be fixed. The best artists in Augsburg,
clockmakers, jewellers, smiths, and carpenters, were engaged to execute
the work, and from the zeal which so novel an instrument inspired, the
quadrant was completed in less than a month. Its size was so great that
twenty men could with difficulty transport it to its place of fixture.
The two principal rectangular radii were beams of oak; the arch which
lay between their extremities was made of solid wood of a particular
kind, and the whole was bound together by twelve beams. It received
additional strength from several iron bands, and the arch was covered
with plates of brass, for the purpose of receiving the 5400 divisions
into which it was to be subdivided. A large and strong pillar of oak,
shod with iron, was driven into the ground, and kept in its place by
solid mason work. To this pillar the quadrant was fixed in a vertical
plane, and steps were prepared to elevate the observer, when stars of a
low altitude required his attention. As the instrument could not be
conveniently covered with a roof, it was protected from the weather by a
covering made of skins, but notwithstanding this and other precautions,
it was broken to pieces by a violent storm, after having remained
uninjured for the space of five years.

As this quadrant was fitted only to determine the altitudes of the
celestial bodies, Tycho constructed a large sextant for the purpose of
measuring their distances. It consisted of two radii, which opened and
shut round a centre, and which were nearly four cubits long, and also of
two arches, one of which was graduated, while the other served to keep