The Hunt for Vulcan
Page 17
“ ‘cannot fail but to be true’ ” Isaac Newton, The Principia (trans. Cohen and Whitman), 916.
“He was a secret alchemist” There is an enormous literature that has grown up around Newton’s alchemical research. Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs helped found the field, and her essay “From Newton’s Alchemy and His Theory of Matter” in Cohen and Westfall’s Newton: Texts, Backgrounds and Commentaries is a fine place to start. Others to consult include Karen Figala’s essay in Cohen and Smith’s The Cambridge Companion to Newton, and the materials gathered under the direction of William Newman at the website The Cymistry of Isaac Newton (http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/) among many, many others.
“the ultimate agent” Newton in the General Scholium to The Principia (trans. Cohen and Whitman), 940–43.
“ ‘very little interest’ ” Catalogue of the Portsmouth Collection of books and papers written by or belonging to Sir Isaac Newton, xix.
4. Thirty-Eight Seconds
“at the tip of his pen” François Arago, quoted in James Lequeux, Le Verrier, 50.
“ ‘the sagacity of Le Verrier’ ” Ellis Loomis, The Recent Progress of Astronomy, 50. Emphasis in the original.
“addressing Uranus” See, for example, Le Verrier, U.J.J. letter to the Ministry of Public Instruction in Institut de France, Centennaire de U.J.J. Le Verrier (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1911), 50.
“the obvious choice” The naming controversy is widely described. This account is drawn primarily from James Lequeux, Le Verrier, 52–53, which quotes George Biddell Airy’s letter referring to the astronomers of Northern Europe. See also Baum and Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan, 109–10.
“to ‘encompass in a single work’ ” Le Verrier to the Ministry of Public Instruction, in Centennaire, 51, translation in James Lequeux, Le Verrier, 62.
“yielded up Ceres and Pallas” For a discussion of Le Verrier’s work on minor planets, see Lequeux, Le Verrier, 72–75, on which this account depends.
“Le Verrier’s first brush with the asteroids” Le Verrier, “Sur l’influence des inclinaisons des orbites dans les perturbations des planètes,” 344–48, cited in Lequeux, Le Verrier, 72.
“the same cause” Le Verrier, “Considérations sur l’ensemble du système des petites planètes situées entre Mars et Jupiter,” 794.
“In the asteroid belt, though” Lequeux, Le Verrier, 74.
“ ‘a great number of other facts’ ” Poincaré, The Value of Science, 355.
“Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier, of course” Lequeux, Le Verrier, 61–65; 78–84. See also Robert Fox, The Savant and the State, 116–18.
“ ‘he showed little curiosity’ ” Joseph Bertrand, “Éloge historique de Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier,” 96–97. Translation by the author.
“ ‘as his slaves’ ” Camille Flammarion, quoted in Lequeux, Le Verrier, 128.
“abandoned the Observatory” The “young visitor” was Camille Flammarion, who met Le Verrier in 1858, and is quoted in James Lequeux, Le Verrier, 128. Daverdoing’s quote comes from texts gathered by a historian who organized the sale of Le Verrier’s books and papers. See Lequeux, Le Verrier, 130. Lequeux compiled the names of those who quit the observatory between 1854 and 1867 on page 135.
“all behaved properly” In 1860 Le Verrier would identify a previously undetected anomaly in Mars’s orbit, but that problem never attracted the kind of interest or concern to come from his close examination of Mercury.
“ ‘If the tables do not strictly agree’ ” Le Verrier, “Nouvelles recherches sur les mouvements des planètes,” 2, translated in N. T. Roseveare, Mercury’s Perihelion, 20.
“ ‘some inaccuracy in the working’ ” Ibid.
“With a good clock” Le Verrier made this point in “Lettre de M. Le Verrier à M. Faye sur la théorie de Mercure et sur le mouvement du périhélie de cette planète,” and the quality of transit information is discussed in Baum and Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan, 135.
“Le Verrier’s sums” Le Verrier, “Théorie et Table du mouvement de Mercure,” 99.
“just 38 arcseconds per century” This account relies heavily on the analysis in Roseveare, Mercury’s Perihelion, 20–24. Roseveare’s book is the best technical account of the story of Mercury’s precession from its first appearance as a problem to its final resolution.
5. A Disturbing Mass
“Nor did his fellow astronomers” He did face a public challenge in 1861, when Charles Eugène Delaunay, a long-standing antagonist, suggested that Le Verrier had simply lacked patience enough to work out some yet more precise theory of Mercury that would do away with problem. Le Verrier, rightly, dismissed the key objection to his use of observational data to correct the equations for Mercury—and he had the advantage of being right. See Lequeux, Le Verrier, 169.
“ ‘the mass sought’ ” Le Verrier, “Théorie et Table du mouvement de Mercure” (1859), 99, translation from Lequeux, Le Verrier, 102.
“ ‘a group of asteroids’ ” Le Verrier, “Lettre de M. Le Verrier à M. Faye sur la théorie de Mercure,” 382.
“ ‘It’s likely’ ” ibid.
“ ‘the area designated by M. Le Verrier’ ” Hervé Faye, “Remarques de M. Fay à l’occasion de la lettre de M. Le Verrier,” 384.
“ ‘this huge world’ ” Einstein, “Autobiographical Notes,” in Schilpp, ed., Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist, 5.
“An object leaps into view” Fontenrose, “In Search of Vulcan,” 156.
“He ‘broke his silence,’ ” Le Verrier, “Remarques,” 45.
“the two men set out” Ibid., 46.
“the last twelve miles” Brewster, “Romance of the New Planet,” 9.
“discovered the first intra-Mercurian planet” Moingo’s account of Le Verrier’s visit, with commentary, is retold in Brewster, “Romance of the New Planet,” 7–12.
“repeat its transits” Le Verrier reports his calculation in “Remarques,” 46. It is covered, with some discussion of its implications, in Baum and Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan, 156.
“very kind words for Dr. Lescarbault” The information on the response to the announcement of Lescarbault’s report of this phase of the intra-Mercurian planet-finding mania comes from the account in Baum and Sheehan, The Search for Planet Vulcan, 155–60.
6. “The Search Will End Satisfactorily”
“ ‘The singular merit’ ” “A supposed new interior planet,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2015 (1860):100.
“More practically” R. C. Carrington, “On some previous Observations of supposed Planetary Bodies in Transit over the Sun,” 192–94.
“Benjamin Scott” Fontenrose, “In Search of Vulcan,” 146.
“Rupert Wolf, a Zurich-based astronomer” Ibid., 147, Baum and Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan, 141.
“Wolf’s list caught the attention” J.C.R. Radeau’s report was discussed in an unsigned article, “A supposed new interior planet.”
“Radau published the results” Radau (misprinted Radan), “Future Observations of the supposed New Planet,” 195–97.
“the planet hunt performed by multiple observers” Unsigned, “Lescarbault’s Planet,” 344.
“the ‘blind economist’ Henry Fawcett,” “Transactions of the Sections,” 142.
“ ‘Mr Lummis, of Manchester’ ” Unsigned, “A Descriptive Account of the Planets,” 129–31.
“ ‘its sharp circular form’ ” Emphasis in the original.
“But for many others” Fontenrose, “In Search of Vulcan,” 147.
“By the mid-1860s” Unsigned, “A Descriptive Account of the Planets,” 129–32.
“an otherwise completely obscure M. Coumbary” Le Verrier, “Lettre de M. Le Verrier adressée à M. le Maréchal Vaillant,” 1114–15
“Le Verrier endorsed” Ibid., 1113.
“a group of four eclipse mavens” E. Ledger, “Observations or
supposed Observations of the Transits of Intra-Mercurial Planets,” 137–38. The “with the naked eye” emphasis is in the original.
“Benjamin Apthorp Gould had a perfect Boston pedigree” This capsule biography is drawn from Trudy E. Bell’s entry in the Biographical Dictionary of Astronomers, 833–36, Springer: 2014, online at http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-9917-7_534.
“Gould sent his findings” Benjamin Gould to Yvon Villarceau, September 7, 1869, in CRAS T69 (1869): 813–14.
“Not so fast, though” Ibid., 814.
“He persuaded fifteen other sky-watchers” William Denning, “The Supposed New Planet Vulcan” (1869), 89.
“Vulcan obstinately refused” Denning reported the negative results for 1869 in The Astronomical Register, vol. VII, page 113. He proposed his plans and reported results for 1870 in the same journal, vol. VIII, pages 78–79 and 108–9; he announced the 1871 effort in vol. IX, page 64.
“Princeton’s Stephen Alexander” The New York Times (unsigned), May 27, 1873, 4.
“Vulcan could be elusive,” C. A. Young, “Memoir of Stephen Alexander: 1806–83,” read before the National Academy, April 17, 1884, “Vulcan” online at http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/alexander-stephen.pdf.
“Rupert Wolf passed word” This is a paraphrase of Wolf’s letter published in The Spectator and reprinted in Little’s Living Age, vol. 131, issue 1690 (November 4, 1876), 318–20.
“New Vulcans kept turning up” Fontenrose, “In Search of Vulcan,” 149.
“ ‘Our text books on astronomy’ ” “The New Planet Vulcan,” Manufacturer and Builder (unsigned), vol. 8, no. 11 (November 1876), p. 255.
“ ‘Vulcan may possibly exist,’ ” “Vulcan,” The New York Times (unsigned), Sept. 26, 1876, 4.
“ ‘Vulcan exists’ ” Ibid.
“he identified five observations” Le Verrier, “Examen des observations qu’on a présentées à diverses époques comme appartenant aux passage d’une planète intra-mercurielle (suite). Discussion et conclusions.” CRAS T83 (1876), 621–24 and 649.
“The headline writers would be disappointed” Scientific American 36, 25 (December 16, 1876), 390. The information in this section draws heavily on the sources Robert Fontenrose assembled for his “The Search for Vulcan,” listed on pages 148–50.
“Thus Le Verrier hedged his bets” Le Verrier, “Examen des observations…” CRAS T83 (1876), 650.
“Le Verrier said nothing more” Baum and Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan, 180.
“He did accept communion” Lequeux, Le Verrier, 304.
“The end came” Baum and Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan, 181.
7. “So Long Eluding the Hunters”
“ ‘The country at that time’ ” All the details of Edison’s arrival in Rawlins and the encounter at the hotel come from Edison’s own account: “Edison’s Autobiographical Notes,” consulted at the Carbon County Museum. The passages on his Wyoming trip have been quoted elsewhere. See, e.g., Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin, Edison: His Life and Inventions (New York: Harper Brothers, 1929), Chapter Ten.
“ ‘not one of the “badmen” ’ ” University of Wyoming historian Philip Roberts notes that this incident likely didn’t take place on Edison’s first night in town despite Edison’s own recollections to the contrary. See “Edison, The Electric Light and the Eclipse,” in Annals of Wyoming 53, 1 (1981), 56.
“The federal government had funded” Baum and Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan, 195.
“the element helium” Helium would be isolated on Earth a decade later by the great Scottish chemist William Ramsay.
“ ‘at the point selected’ ” Simon Newcomb, “Reports on the total solar eclipses on July 29, 1878, and January 11, 1880,” 100.
“At its height” Baum and Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan, 201.
“Newcomb’s men found” Newcomb, “Reports on the total solar eclipses on July 29, 1878 and January 11, 1880,” 100.
“As the days passed at Separation” Baum and Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan, 201–2. The pattern of cloud buildup comes from Newcomb, “Reports on the total solar eclipses on July 29, 1878 and January 11, 1880,” 111.
“ ‘the sun rose clear and bright’ ” Baum and Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan, 202.
“Dust swiftly shrouded the sky” Newcomb, “Reports on the total solar eclipses on July 29, 1878, and January 11, 1880,” 102.
“The desperation move worked” W. T. Sampson, “Reports on the total solar eclipses on July 29, 1878, and January 11, 1880,” 111.
“playing host to two new observers” Ibid.
“Newcomb’s own telescope” Newcomb, “Reports on the total solar eclipses on July 29, 1878, and January 11, 1880,” 102.
“the gaps between leaves” Aristotle, the western founder of observational natural science, mentioned the effect in Book XV of Problemmata Physica. Properly, of course, that’s the first surviving record of the phenomenon in the western scientific canon.
“his eyes adjusted to a sky grown strange” Newcomb, “Reports on the total solar eclipses on July 29, 1878, and January 11, 1880,” 101; 104.
“ ‘from my previous experience’ ” Watson, “Reports on the total solar eclipses on July 29, 1878, and January 11, 1880,” 119.
“he ran over to Newcomb” Ibid., 120.
“Newcomb later confirmed” Newcomb, “Reports on the total solar eclipses on July 29, 1878, and January 11, 1880,” 105.
“he had no doubt about ‘a’ ” Watson, “Reports on the total solar eclipses on July 29, 1878, and January 11, 1880,” 120.
“as the Laramie Weekly Sentinel put it” Laramie Weekley Sentinel (unsigned), August 3, 1878, 3. Emphasis in the original.
“The news rocketed around the world” The Lockyer telegram and the London Times story both quoted in Baum and Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan, 209–10. Swift’s sighting is discussed in an unsigned item in the August 4, 1878, edition of the New York Times, page 1.
“Its first article” New York Times, July 30, 1878, 5.
“it published Watson’s claim” James Watson, New York Times, August 8, 1878, 5.
“ ‘The negative results’ ” New York Times, August 16, 1878, 5.
“Watson never confessed to any doubt” James Watson, quoted in Fontenrose, “In Search of Vulcan,” 153.
“In the beginning” Ibid., 151.
“He accused Watson” C. F. H. Peters quoted in an unsigned article, “The Intra-Mercurial Planet Question,” 597.
“Watson reacted” Watson “Schreiben des Hern Prf. Watson an der Herausgeber,” Astronmische Nachtrichten (1879) (95) 103–4, also cited in Baum and Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan, 220–21.
“chided Peters for his tone” “The Intra-Mercurial Planet Question,” 597–98. Italics in original.
“This western trip” Thomas Edison in the Cheyenne Daily Leader, July 19, 1878, quoted in Roberts, “Edison, The Electric Light and the Eclipse,” 55.
“he was a tenderfoot” Edison wrote up his recollections of his western trip in autobiographical notes composed in 1908 and 1909, consulted in the Carbon County Museum, Rawlins, Wyoming. The material in this section is drawn from those and the memoir of the Separation station agent, John Jackson Clarke, “Reminiscences of Wyoming in the Seventies and Eighties,” Annals of Wyoming, 1929, 1 and 2, 225–36. Clarke’s eclipse recollections are on pages 228–29.
“Edison picked out a silhouette” Clarke wrote that Edison fired four times and actually hit his target each time, which, as he wrote, “imparted another angle to the joke.” See Clarke, “Reminiscences of Wyoming in the Seventies and Eighties,” 229.
Part Two Interlude: “A Special Way of Finding Things Out”
“What we see now” The difference in temperature from the hottest (densest) and coldest (most rarefie
d) regions of the early universe was .0005 degrees Kelvin. See http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/CMB-DT.html.
“the smoking gun” Inflation has passed a number of observational tests, perhaps most important the match between prediction and the amount of mass the universe contains, and another on the particular pattern of fluctuations in the CMB.
“It brought one of inflation’s inventors to tears” See Andrea Denhoed, “Andrei Linde and the Beauty of Science,” The New Yorker, March 18, 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/andrei-linde-and-the-beauty-of-science.
“Several attempts are already under way” The POLARBEAR experiment has performed a separate measurement of B-mode polarization that supports a cosmic gravity wave interpretation, though not to the degree of confidence the BICEP team initially claimed. Other approaches include the SPIDER balloon-launched microwave telescope array and a third generation BICEP instrument that as of this writing is close to seeing first light (at microwave wavelengths, of course).
“ancient glow of the Big Bang” I stole this adjective from my colleague Alan Lightman, whose book on cosmology is titled Ancient Light. I follow the dictum “Amateurs borrow. Professionals steal.”—attributed to John Lennon, who lifted it from T. S. Eliot in a recursive embodiment of the idea. (Eliot’s version: “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal…”)
“ ‘a special method’ ” Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All, 5; 15.
“Every high school student” Online resource: https://quizlet.com/56822475/scientific-method-flash-cards/.
“a Coke-Mentos volcano” See, for example, science fair advice like this: http://www.sciencefairadventure.com/ProjectDetail.aspx?ProjectID=146. Further questions to be investigated: How much higher will a diet soda erupt compared to the same volume of sugared soda? What causes that difference?