Failure and Success: Two Early Experiments with Concave Gratings in Stellar Spectroscopy

The author is very grateful to Helen Wright, Babcock Horace W. , and Daniel J. Shroeder for their advice and comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Crew H. , “On the period of rotation of the Sun as determined by the spectroscope”, American journal of science, xxxv (1888), 151–9.

Meggers W. F. , “Henry Crew”, Biographical memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, xxxvii (1964), 33–54.

See Osterbrock D. E. , “The rise and fall of Edward S. Holden”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xv (1984), 81–127, 151–76, especially pp. 100–8.

Crew H. to Phelps T. G. , 25 Nov. 1891, Crew H. to Sharpless I. , 30 Nov. 1891, Mary Lea Shane Archives of Lick Observatory, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz (hereafter: SLO).

Ames J. S. , “The concave grating in theory and practice”, Astronomy and astro-physics, xi (1892), 28–42; Rowland H. A. , “Preliminary table of solar spectrum wave-lengths”, Astrophysical journal, i (1895), 29–46.

Brashear J. A. to Holden E. S. , 14 Sept. 1891, Brashear J. A. to Crew H. , 24 Nov. 1891, SLO.

Keeler J. E. to Holden E. S. , 29 Jan. 1892, SLO.

Crew H. to Young C. A. , 10 Dec. 1891, 5 July 1892, Young Charles A. Papers, Dartmouth College Library, Hanover N.H. .

This and all subsequent statements about Crew's observational results are from his 36-inch refractor observing books, Lick Observatory plate vault, Mount Hamilton, California.

Crew H. , “On the use of the concave grating for the study of stellar spectra”, Astronomy and astrophysics, xii (1893), 156–8.

The Rowland circle, Abney mounting, and all other spectrograph mountings mentioned subsequently are described in many books on spectroscopy, e.g. Sawyer R. A. , Experimental spectroscopy (New York, 1944).

Hale G. E. to Huggins W. , 28 Dec. 1892, Mount Wilson and Las Campanas Observatories Library, Pasadena, California.

Campbell W. W. to Keeler J. E. , 14 Sept. 1892, Allegheny Observatory Records, Archives of Industrial Society, Hillman Libraries University of Pittsburgh.

Wright H. , Explorer of the universe: A biography of George Ellery Hale (New York, 1966).

Hale G. E. to Ream N. B. , 19 Jan. 1899, Hale G. E. to Harper W. R. , 9 May 1899, Yerkes Observatory Archives, Williams Bay, Wisconsin (hereafter: YOA).

Hale G. E. to Yerkes C. T. , 16 Oct. 1897, 21 Feb. 1900, YOA.

Hale G. E. to Cross C. R. , 17 Apr. 1901, YOA.

Hale G. E. to Cross C. R. , 2 Oct. 1900, YOA.

Hale G. E. , “Photography of the solar prominences” (M.I.T. thesis in physics, 1890, reprinted in Wright H. Warnow J. N. and Weiner C. , The legacy of George Ellery Hale (Cambridge, 1972), 117–39); Hale G. E. , “Solar photography at the Kenwood Astrophysical Observatory”, Astronomy and astro-physics, xi (1893), 407–17.

Hale G. E. , “Spectroscopic notes from the Kenwood Observatory”, Astronomy and astro-physics, xii (1893), 450–5; Hale G. E. and Kent N. A. , “The spectrum of the high potential discharge between metallic electrodes in liquids and gases at high pressures”, Publications of the Yerkes Observatory, iii (1907), 29–66.

Hale G. E. to Langley S. P. , 26 May 1902, Hale G. E. to Brashear J. A. ,6 June 1902, Hale G. E. to Smith Michie C. , 26 June 1902, Hale G. E. to Hastings C. S. , 8 July 1902, Hale G. E. to Campbell W. W. , 26 July 1902, Hale G. E. to Ricco A. , 11 Aug. 1902, YOA.

McDowell J. B. to Frost E. B. , 16 Apr. 1902, Hale G. E. to Brashear J. A. , 11 June 1902, Hale G. E. to Thorpe T. , 7 Nov. 1902, YOA.

Ames J. S. to Hale G. E. , 11 Apr. 1902, Jewell L. E. to Hale G. E. , 21 July, 25 July, 28 July, 4 Aug. 1902, [10 Dec.], 14 Dec. 1903, Hale G. E. to Jewell L. E. , 2 Aug. 1902, Brashear J. A. to Hale G. E. , 17 Nov. 1902, YOA.

Hale G. E. to Wood R. W. , 20 Nov. 1902, Hale G. E. to Crew H. , 9 Dec. 1902, Hale G. E. to Blackstone I. F. , 14 Feb. 1903, Hale G. E. to Jewell L. E. , 28 Nov. 1903, YOA.

Hale G. E. to Harper W. R. , 4 Sept., 15 Oct. 1902, Hale G. E. to Pickering E. C. , 15 Aug. 1902, Hale G. E. to Abbot C. G. , 15 Dec. 1903, YOA.

Blake F. to Hale G. E. , 18 Apr. 1903, YOA.

Hale G. E. to Brashear J. A. , 12 Oct. 1903, Hale G. E. to Abbot C. G. , 21 Oct. 1903, Hale G. E. to Jewell L. E. , 28 Nov., 7 Dec. 1903, Hale G. E. to Adams W. S. , 12 Dec. 1903, YOA; Hale G. E. to Goodwin H. M. , 24 Dec. 1903, Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Hale G. E. , “The solar observatory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington”, Contributions Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, i (1905), 27–50.

[ Hale G. E. ], “Report of director of the solar observatory, Mount Wilson, California”, Carnegie Institution of Washington Year Book (Washington, 1905), 56–77.

Adams W. S. , “Sun-spot lines in the spectrum of Arcturus”, Astrophysical journal, xxiv (1906), 69–77.

Hale G. E. and Adams W. S. , “Photographic observations of the spectra of sun-spots”, Astrophysical journal, xxiii (1906), 11–44.

[ Adams W. S. ] to Hale G. E. , 16 July 1906, George Ellery Hale Papers, microfilm edition (Pasadena, 1968) (hereafter: HPM).

Hale G. E. and Adams W. S. , “Sun-spot lines in the spectra of red stars”, Astrophysical journal, xxiii (1906), 400–5; Hale G. E. Adams W. S. and Gale H. G. , “Preliminary paper on the cause of the characteristic phenomenon of sun-spot spectra”, Astrophysical journal, xxiv (1906), 185–213.

Adams W. S. to Hale G. E. , 15 Apr., 11 May 1909, HPM.

Adams W. S. , “Some results of a study of the spectra of Sirius, Procyon, and Arcturus with high dispersion”, Astrophysical journal, xxxiii (1911), 64–71.

Bowen I. S. , “Spectrographs”, in Hiltner W. A. (ed.), Stars and stellar systems, ii: Astronomical techniques (Chicago, 1962), 34–62.

Babcock H. D. and Babcock H. W. , “The ruling of diffraction gratings at the Mount Wilson Observatory”, Journal of the Optical Society of America, xxxxi (1951), 776–86.

Hale G. E. , “Annual report of the director of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory”, Carnegie Institution of Washington Year Book (Washington, 1913), 195–234; Merrill P. , “A plane-grating spectrograph for the red and infra-red regions of stellar spectra”, Astrophysical journal, lxxiv (1931), 188–200.

Liller W. , “Concave gratings for astronomical spectrographs and spectrometers”, Applied optics, ii (1963), 187–92.