America's astronomer king.
Simon Newcomb: America's Unofficial Astronomer Royal Bill Carter and Merri Sue Carter (Mantanzas Publishing, 2006). 213 pages. ISBN 1-59113-803-5. $26.95I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In this era when physics dominates astronomy it was refreshing to read about a scientific giant whose work in the 19th century emphasized "merely" the precise determination of the positions of stars and solar-system objects and the accurate prediction of movements of the latter. (For perspective, at the same time Angelo Secchi and William and Margaret Huggins, for example, were making pioneer spectroscopic observations at the dawn of astrophysics.)
Simon Newcomb (1835-1909) became superintendent of the US Nautical Almanac Office in 1877 after an already wildly successful scientific career. He participated in expeditions to the transits of Venus in 1874 and 1882 to refine the distance to the Sun and the scale of the solar system. He oversaw the acquisition of the US Naval Observatory's 26-inch (0.66-meter) refractor, then the largest in the world; this was a giant step toward his desire to have the United States attain parity with other astronomical world powers. And he had published many works on the orbits and motions of the Sun, Moon, and planets. And he did this all while taking a very active role in popularizing astronomy.
Bill and Merri Sue Carter engagingly describe these achievements. This father-daughter duo is well suited to the task, being a geodesist and an astronomer, respectively. Their title stems from Newcomb's long friendship with George Airy, Astronomer Royal of England from 1835 to 1881, a powerful role model from whom he learned how to manage people to assure precise observations as well as the human computers who would turn them into publishable results.
The Carters bring much to the table. I was fascinated by their account of how Newcomb and other luminaries, such as Alexander Graham Bell, became involved in comforting and caring for President James Garfield after he was shot in 1881. Newcomb had become a friend of Garfield when he was a congressman and became adept at playing the political piano throughout his career. Although government funding for science was radically different and much more restricted than it is today, we nevertheless glimpse the workings of a familiar federal bureaucracy.
Equally appealing is the Carters' description of Newcomb's work with Albert Michelson to measure the velocity of light to unprecedented accuracy for that time. Also worth reading is their account of the discovery by Seth Chandler that terrestrial latitude changes due to a 14-month wobble of the Earth's rotation axis relative to the crust, and Newcomb's interpretation that the effect is due to our planet's elasticity. As the Carters write, "Some might mark that achievement as the birth of geodynamics."
Finally, Chapter 12 tells of Newcomb's success in getting the four countries that published almanacs to adopt the same set of fundamental constants for their 1901 editions. But when it came time to implement them in the US, "Newcomb had been retired for nearly four years and his opinions were no longer welcome.... Hostilities had reached such a level that he had been locked out of the office." Sic transit gloria!
Underlying the Carters' well-written biography is the tale of a poor, underserved--indeed, exploited--Canadian boy making good at first through self-education and then through formal studies (graduating from Harvard in 1859) but always through unbounded energy and imagination. My only knock on this book is its complete lack of photographs--not even the classic, imposing portrait of Newcomb reproduced here. During their extensive archival research, the Carters must have come across scads of unique pictures of people and equipment that deserve to be seen. Nevertheless, here's a pleasant opportunity to get acquainted with a man whose influence on American astronomy persists to this day.
Sky & Telescope editor emeritus Leif Robinson reads while bouncing between homes in Massachusetts and Costa Rica.
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Author: | Robinson, Leif J. |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Sky & Telescope |
| Date: | Nov 1, 2006 |
| Words: | 640 |
| Previous Article: | An astrobiological twist on taxonomy. |
| Next Article: | Pattern Asterisms: A New Way to Chart the Stars. |
| Topics: | |