New Light on Olbers's Dependence on Chéseaux

Jaki Stanley L. , The paradox of Olbers' Paradox (New York, 1969).

Traité de la comète qui a paru en Décembre 1743 & en Janvier, Février & Mars 1744 (Laussanne & Genève, 1744), Appendix II, “Sur la force de la lumière, sa propagation dans l'Ether, & sur la distance des Etoiles fixes”, 223–9.

“Ueber die Durchsichtigkeit des Weltraums”, Astronomisches Jahrbuch für das Jahr 1826 … (Berlin, 1823), 110–21.

Announced in the Bremer Nachrichten, 15 July 1969, 3, cols. 2–4.

Part II, ch. III, par. 1 and 2, or 59–72.

Olbers's own copy, acquired after Olbers's death by the Pulkovo Observatory, may, if it still exists, contain important information on this point. My inquiry of 1 October 1969 addressed to the Library of Pulkovo Observatory about the copy in question has not been answered yet.

Some of these manuscripts are now being prepared for publication with the kind permission of the Bremer Staatsbibliothek.

This work, Ueber die leichteste und bequemste Methode, die Bahn eines Kometen zu berechnen, is reprinted in C. Schilling's edition of Olbers's published papers, Wilhelm Olbers: Sein Leben und seine Werke (Berlin 1894–1909), i, 3–65. There are two cursory references to Chéseaux in a paper of Olbers published in 1812 on the tail of the great comet of 1811. Chéseaux's work is not mentioned although half a dozen other publications are carefully quoted. See Schilling , op. cit., i, 333 and 335.

In Olbers's words: “Chéseaux objects to Newton's method of finding the orbit of a comet on the ground that it demands too exact observations; whereas he takes exception to Gregory's method because it makes calculations too lengthy and difficult. Chéseaux also struck out a new path, which in his opinion would avoid both difficulties. But later he admits with noble frankness that he had found on more careful study of the Newtonian method that it should be much preferred to his own and that he had erred about the complicatedness of calculations and other inconveniences. Meanwhile his method deserves to be explored and set forth.” (T4, 1–2).

“Mars und Aldebaran am 23. Februar 1801”, in Schilling , op. cit., i, 123–133.

Olbers referred once to §1048 (in Schilling , op. cit., i, 125., this reference is incorrectly given as §4048) and twice to §1072, both paragraphs being from Part VI, ch. I of Lambert's work. Lambert's reference to Chéseaux is a few pages later, in §1138, from ch. II of Part VI.