The astronomer Caroline Herschel聽was the first woman to discover a comet, and was so well-recognised at the time that King George III rewarded her with a scientific salary. But she was her own worst enemy, lamenting:聽鈥淚 am nothing, I have done nothing鈥�. This self-abnegation has helped push her into the backwaters of history.
Even her own mother hampered her career, insisting that she stay at home to wash and clean. Eventually Herschel escaped from family servitude in her native Hanover to join her brother William in England, best known for discovering Uranus. He soon enlisted her to collaborate on his astronomical projects.
Night after night, they recorded telescope observations together, even when it was so cold that the ink froze and the metal mirror cracked. She performed the calculations needed to convert numbers on a dial into locations on a map, and it was thanks to her that Britain鈥檚 major star catalogue was brought up to date. Independent of her brother, she identified several new comets and at last allowed herself a rare moment of pique at male oppression. Admitting to the Astronomer Royal that his interest had stimulated her 鈥渧anity鈥�, she pointed out that 鈥渁mong gentlemen the commodity is generally styled ambition鈥�.聽Patricia Fara
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