Quantum Physics and the Stars (V): Physicists at Mount Wilson Prior to 1922

Hale Rutherford E. , 1 June 1914. George Ellery Hale Papers, microfilm edition, California Institute of Technology (hereinafter GEH).

Hale Rutherford , 1 June 1914, GEH.

Brashear R. S. , “A brewing storm: Hale, Gale, and researcher selection at the Mount Wilson Observatory”, AAS talk abstract, January 1993; idem, “Sharing a mountaintop: The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory on Mount Wilson”, in Good Gregory (ed.), The Earth, the Heavens and the Carnegie Institution of Washington (Washington, D.C., 1994), 89–101; Osterbrock Donald E. , Pauper & prince: Ritchey, Hale, & big American telescopes (Tucson, 1997); idem, Yerkes Observatory 1892–1950 (Chicago, 1997); Hale Ellery George , “The Ast́ro-Physical Journal”, Astronomy & astro-physics , xi (1892), 17–22; idem, “The aim of the Yerkes Observatory”, Astrophysical journal , vi (1897), 310–21; Wright Helen , Explorer of the universe (New York, 1966; repr. 1994); DeVorkin D. (ed.), The American Astronomical Society's first century (New York, 1999).

DeVorkin David H. Kenat Carl Ralph Jr , “Quantum physics and the stars (I): The establishment of a stellar temperature scale”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xiv (1983), 102–32; “Quantum physics and the stars (II): The abundances of the elements in the atmospheres of the Sun and stars”, ibid., xiv (1983), 180–222; “Quantum physics and the stars (III): Towards a rational theory of stellar spectra”, ibid., xxi (1990), 157–86.

Since the 1880s, laboratory physicists had struggled to achieve higher and higher temperature conditions, with flame, arc, spark, furnace and finally exploding wire sources, whereas the stars provided realms of far greater temperatures and higher ionization conditions.

In November 1890, the 22-year-old Hale pursued laboratory studies of the spectra of metals at his parents' home in Chicago, but soon found to his chagrin that Henry Rowland of Johns Hopkins, the greatest physicist of the land, had scooped him, which caused him to shift immediately to the spectra of meteoritic material in order to take a fresh look at the Lockyer controversy. Hale to Harry Manley Goodwin, 16 November 1890, File 28430, George Ellery Hale Papers, Huntington Library (hereinafter HL/GEH). On Lockyer's controversial theories, see Meadows A. J. , Science and controversy: A biography of Sir Norman Lockyer (Cambridge, Mass., 1972).

In the summer of 1891 Hale learned that Henri Alexandre Deslandres, director of Meudon Observatory, had successfully photographed the spectrum of a solar prominence the previous May; this was Hale's goal for his spectroheliograph. Deslandres announced the first prominence spectrum, but Hale secured credit for the spectroheliographic technique itself when Deslandres presented him with the Janssen Medal of the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1894. Wright , Explorer (ref. 3), 83–85, 119. Hale to Goodwin, 8 October 1891, HL/GEH. Hale was also in competition with Pickering to build the largest telescope in the world. In September 1892, as he was planning for his first international astrophysical congress in Chicago, Hale knew that two 40-inch lens blanks that had been cast for a defunct southern California telescope project were now available. Pickering wanted them for a southern observatory in Peru, Hale wanted them for Chicago. “You can imagine that I am now losing no time”, Hale confided to his friend Harry Goodwin, “for Pickering has many times succeeded in getting money in just such a way, and I am afraid that he will beat us”. Hale to Goodwin, 25 September 1892, Item 28447, HL/GEH.

Hale Ellery George , “The aim of the Yerkes Observatory”, Astrophysical journal , vi (1897), 310–21, p. 311.

Clerke Agnes M. , Problems in astrophysics (London, 1903), 115.

Wright , Explorer (ref. 3), 106–8, 120. Lockyer and Frankland had first called the solar emission feature ‘helium’ and William Ramsay found in 1895 that the line was coincident with a gas emanating from the mineral cleveite.

Runge to Hale, quoted in Wright , Explorer (ref. 3), 139.

Hale to Newcomb, 21 March 1906, Box 25, Simon Newcomb Papers, Library of Congress (hereinafter LC/SN).

Hale to Newcomb, 30 January 1908; quoted from 10 February 1908, GEH/MIC. CIW yearbook #7 (for 1908), 147.

Undated publicity release: “Barnard visits Mount Wilson.” Folder 1.24, “E. E. Barnard”, F. H. Seares Papers, Huntington Library (hereinafter HL/FHS).

Fowler A. Young C. A. , 16 January 1906, Dartmouth.

Mitchell Mann Walter , “Researches in the sun-spot spectrum region F to a”, Astrophysical journal , xxii (1905), 4–41. Russell H. N. , “Transcript of Colloquium…” (1954), 17, reprinted in DeVorkin Philip A. G. D. , In memory of HNR (IAU Proceedings no. 80, 1977), 104. Indeed, fresh from a visit to Mount Wilson, Mitchell wrote to Russell reporting that: “Hale finds that my reversals are due to Zeeman effect! I tried for that at Princeton several years ago, but for lack of proper apparatus did not get any results. If somebody besides Edgar [Lovett] had been director I might have succeeded better.” Mitchell to Russell, 14 August [1908], postcard fragment, PUL/HNR.

Mitchell Hale , 8 April 1908; 6 May 1908; Hale to Mitchell, 12 May 1908, GEH. Wright, Explorer (ref. 3), 221, notes that Hale observed continuously for two weeks in mid- to late June 1908.

Hale Ellery George , The study of stellar evolution (Chicago, 1908), 148.

Campbell King A. S. , 13 June 1903; to H. Kayser, 13 June 1903; King to Campbell, 27 July 1903. W. W. Campbell Papers, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California (hereinafter LAUC/WWC).

King Campbell , 12 June 1903, A. S. King 1903 file, LAUC; quote from Campbell to King, 29 July 1903, Letterbook, vol. lxxx, LAUC/WWC. Campbell also suggested laboratory studies that could help to understand the behaviour of the hydrogen spectrum in the stars, as well as the composite spectra many celestial objects present and the comparative rarity of pure bright-line spectra in celestial sources. While at Berkeley King struck up a general correspondence with Hale over designing a proper furnace laboratory and how to test Julius's theory of anomalous dispersion. This led to his hiring in August 1907. See Hale-King correspondence, GEH.

Hale Mendenhall Charles E. , 13 January 1905, 3 March 1905, HL/GEH.

Hale Mendenhall Charles E. , 3 March 1905, HL/GEH.

Mendenhall Hale , 26 March 1905, HL/GEH.

This episode is examined in detail in DeVorkin David H. , Henry Norris Russell: Dean of American astronomers (Princeton, 2000).

Hale Pickering , 16 March 1917, HL/GEH.

See, for instance, Walter Colby to Randall, 17 March 1915; Henry S. Carhart to Randall, 4 October 1916, Physics Department Papers, University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library (hereinafter UMBL/PP). Babcock Harold D. , “Charles Edward St. John”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific , xlvii (1935), 115–20.

Colby to “Dear Randalls”, 22 November 1914, UMBL/PP.

Colby to “Dear Randalls”, 17 March 1915, UMBL/PP.

Ibid. .

Ibid. .

Ibid. .

Ibid. .

Ibid. , and “Dear Friends”, 1 July 1915, UMBL/PP.

Osterbrock , Pauper & prince (ref. 3), 152; David H. DeVorkin, “A. A. Michelson and the problem of stellar diameters”, Journal for the history of astronomy , vi (1975), 1–18.

Ibid. .

DeVorkin David H. , “Toshio Takamine's contact with Western astrophysics”, in Ansari R. (ed.), Proceedings of Joint Discussion 17 (Dordrecht, forthcoming).

Wilson H. C. Merrill , 10 February 1915, Folder 1TUVWXYZ22; W. W. Campbell to Merrill, 15 February 1915, Folder 1C22, Paul W. Merrill Papers, Huntington Library (hereinafter HL/PWM).

Campbell Merrill , 15 February 1915, Folder 1C22, HL/PWM.

Merrill Stratton F. J. M. , 15 May 1916, Box 1S22, HL/PWM.

From records in the Merrill Papers, Huntington Library.

Hale Merrill , 1 June 1918; Merrill to Hale, 19 August 1918, Box 1GHIJ22, HL/PWM (emphasis in original).

Moore J. H. Merrill , 27 May 1920, HL/PWM.

Merrill Meggers , 1 March 1920, Box 1, W. F. Meggers Papers, American Institute of Physics Niels Bohr Library (hereinafter AIP/WFM).

Merrill Meggers , 1 March 1920, Box 1, AIP/WFM.

Ibid. Merrill's attitude was not so different from that of many laboratory spectroscopists; as late as 1934, the Berkeley physicist Harvey E. White wrote in the preface to his textbook on atomic spectra: “of all the theories and knowledge concerning atoms, the spectrum lines will remain the same for all time.” White Harvey E. , Introduction to atomic spectra (New York, 1934), p. viii.

Meggers Stebbins , 12 November 1921, Box 1, AIP/WFM.

Kevles Daniel See , ‘“Into hostile political camps’: The reorganization of international science in World War I”, Isis , lxii (1971), 47–60.

Among copious examples of the test bench metaphor, including Hale's own discovery of the Zeeman Effect in sunspots and Nichols's radiometry, was Hale's sponsorship of Michelson's experiments. DeVorkin , op. cit. (ref. 34).

His most powerful critic, E. C. Pickering, had recently died. Pickering's opinion of Hale's domination of funding for American astronomy is explored in DeVorkin , op. cit. (ref. 24). See Pickering to Eliot Charles W. , 8 August 1917, Box 376, Eliot Papers, UAI.5.150, Harvard University Archives.

Goodstein Judith R. , Millikan's School (New York, 1991), 45; Wright , Explorer (ref. 3), 247.

Quoted in Seares F. H. , “George Ellery Hale: The scientist afield”, Isis , xxx (1939), 241–67, p. 244.

Hale's motives are noted in Kevles Daniel J. , The physicists (New York, 1978), 155, though they evidently changed over time. See Wright Helen , “George Ellery Hale, 1868–1938”, in The legacy of George Ellery Hale , ed. by Wright Helen Warnow Joan Weiner Charles (Cambridge, Mass., 1972), 1–111, p. 87.

Goodstein , Millikan's School (ref. 50), chaps. 2–4, provides a detailed account. See also Kevles, The physicists (ref. 52), 155–6.

Goodstein , Millikan's School (ref. 50), 94.

Röntgen Boveri Theodore Mrs , 13 November 1921, quoted in Kevles, The physicists (ref. 52), 156.

Goodstein , Millikan's School (ref. 50), 93.

Ibid ., 97–99.

Merrill Shapley , 27 December 1921, Box 1S22, HL/PWM.

Ibid. , emphasis in original.

Hale Ellery George , “Mount Wilson Observatory”, Carnegie yearbook no. 20, 1921 (Washington D.C., 1922), 215–95, p. 220.

As gleaned from correspondence between A. S. King, W. S. Adams and H. N. Russell during the early 1920s, Henry Norris Russell Papers, Princeton University Library (PUL/HNR).

Hale , op. cit. (ref. 60), 221.

DeVorkin David H. , “A fox raiding the hedgehogs: How Henry Norris Russell got to Mount Wilson”, in Good (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 3), 103–11; idem, Henry Norris Russell (ref. 24), chap. 12.

Struve Otto , “Fifty years of progress in astronomy”, Popular astronomy , li (1943), 469–81, p. 477.

Quoted in Hufbauer Karl , “Astronomers take up the stellar-energy problem, 1917–1920”, Historical studies in the physical sciences , xi (1981), 277–303, pp. 298–9. Russell to D. L. Webster, 9 June 1919, PUL/HNR.

Kevles , The physicists (ref. 52), 200–19.