Editing Lewis A. Swift (section)

==Life==
According to Swift, he first became interested in astronomy as young boy after observing the [[Great Comet of 1843]] while on his way to school in [[Clarkson, New York]].  His teacher initially dismissed his observation, but three days later the 'discovery' of the comet was announced.<ref name=NYT1902>{{Cite journal |journal=New York Times |date=Feb 2, 1902 |title=Prof. Lewis Swift |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1902/02/02/101932831.pdf |accessdate=2009-07-09 }}</ref>

Swift conducted his early observations in [[Rochester, Monroe County, New York|Rochester, NY]], 'lain out in the snow' in an alley on Ambrose Street or on the roof of Duffy's Cider Mill.  Later he gained a patron in the Rochester [[patent medicine]] businessman [[Hulbert Harrington Warner]], who financed the building of an observatory for Swift. A fund of $13,000 was raised to purchase a 16-inch telescope for Swift.<ref name="wlasuk1996">{{cite journal
   | last = Wlasuk 
   | first = Peter T. 
   | author-link =
   | title = 'So Much for Fame!': The Story of Lewis Swift 
   | journal = [[Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society]]
   | volume = 37 
   | number = 4 
   | pages = 683–707
   | date = 1996 
   | bibcode = 1996QJRAS..37..683W
   }}</ref><ref name=NYT1902/>

Warner went bankrupt in the [[Panic of 1893]], which ended his financial support, and Swift then went to [[California]] to become director of [[Mount Lowe (California)|Mount Lowe]] Observatory, taking the 16 inch telescope with him.<ref name="wlasuk1996"/>

He was married twice, first to Lucretia Hunt in 1850 and then to Carrie D. Topping in 1864. [[Edward D. Swift]] was his son by the latter wife.