Bessel, Friedrich Wilhelm, a Prussian astronomer of prominent ability, born at Minden; professor of Mathematics at Königsberg, and director of the Observatory; discovered—what was a great achievement—the parallax of the fixed star 61 Cygne; his greatest work, “Fundamenta Astronomiæ,” on which he spent 10 years, a marvel, like all he did, of patient toil and painstaking accuracy (1784‒1846).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Bessar`ion, John * Bessemer, Sir Henry