134
7 Star Streams
By the way, Schwarzschild is best known for his derivation of the ‘radius’ of
a black hole from Einstein’s theory of General Relativity of 1915. He published
his calculations just before his death in 1916. He is also the father of Martin
Schwarzschild (1912–1997), who worked mainly in Princeton and formulated,
among other things, the theory of the structure and evolution of stars during
their later stages.
7.4 Further Travels in America
Kapteyn was one of the first Dutch scientists, certainly the first astronomer,
to attend scientific meetings in the United States, at least an astronomer with
such a prominent status. By the way, he was not the only Dutchman who was
invited to the congress in St. Louis. The other one was the plant physiologist
and geneticist Hugo de Vries (1848–1935) of the University of Amsterdam.
Dutch science was still strongly focused on Germany and the United Kingdom;
Dutch astronomers published as mentioned above mainly in the Astronomische Nachrichten of the (German) Astronomische Gesellschaft, and usually in
German. It was around this time that Kapteyn strongly developed an AngloSaxon orientation. He was aware that Amerindian astronomy was booming,
and from 1902 onward he published more and more in American journals. 3
Of course, the CPD was already in English at the time, but more remarkable
is that the Publications of the Astronomical Laboratory at Groningen were in
English, while the Annals of the Sterrewacht Leiden continued to be published
in German until Willem de Sitter became a professor there.
Kapteyn was involved in a second meeting while he was in St. Louis. George
Hale was building a large solar observatory on Mount Wilson near Los Angeles, and organized a meeting in St. Louis to coordinate solar research. Knowing
that Kapteyn had already been invited to St. Louis by Simon Newcomb, Hale
wrote to Kapteyn whether he would like to attend that second meeting as a representative of the Netherlands Academy of Sciences. He also invited Kapteyn
to visit the Yerkes Observatory at Williams Bay near Chicago during his trip
to the United States. George Hale was the director there, but would be in
California at the time; deputy director Edwin Brant Frost (1866–1935) would
be host to Kapteyn. It turned out later that Kapteyn had asked Hale, who
had built the largest refractor telescope in the world at Yerkes—i.e. with a lens
as the objective (40 in. or about 1 m in diameter) and not a mirror—about
the optimal focal length to measure parallaxes and proper motions. The letters
from Kapteyn and Hale crossed. The Kapteyns indeed visited Williams Bay.
3 Kapteyn’s last article in the Astronomische Nachrichten dates from 1910, but that was written in English.
7 Star Streams
By the way, Schwarzschild is best known for his derivation of the ‘radius’ of
a black hole from Einstein’s theory of General Relativity of 1915. He published
his calculations just before his death in 1916. He is also the father of Martin
Schwarzschild (1912–1997), who worked mainly in Princeton and formulated,
among other things, the theory of the structure and evolution of stars during
their later stages.
7.4 Further Travels in America
Kapteyn was one of the first Dutch scientists, certainly the first astronomer,
to attend scientific meetings in the United States, at least an astronomer with
such a prominent status. By the way, he was not the only Dutchman who was
invited to the congress in St. Louis. The other one was the plant physiologist
and geneticist Hugo de Vries (1848–1935) of the University of Amsterdam.
Dutch science was still strongly focused on Germany and the United Kingdom;
Dutch astronomers published as mentioned above mainly in the Astronomische Nachrichten of the (German) Astronomische Gesellschaft, and usually in
German. It was around this time that Kapteyn strongly developed an AngloSaxon orientation. He was aware that Amerindian astronomy was booming,
and from 1902 onward he published more and more in American journals. 3
Of course, the CPD was already in English at the time, but more remarkable
is that the Publications of the Astronomical Laboratory at Groningen were in
English, while the Annals of the Sterrewacht Leiden continued to be published
in German until Willem de Sitter became a professor there.
Kapteyn was involved in a second meeting while he was in St. Louis. George
Hale was building a large solar observatory on Mount Wilson near Los Angeles, and organized a meeting in St. Louis to coordinate solar research. Knowing
that Kapteyn had already been invited to St. Louis by Simon Newcomb, Hale
wrote to Kapteyn whether he would like to attend that second meeting as a representative of the Netherlands Academy of Sciences. He also invited Kapteyn
to visit the Yerkes Observatory at Williams Bay near Chicago during his trip
to the United States. George Hale was the director there, but would be in
California at the time; deputy director Edwin Brant Frost (1866–1935) would
be host to Kapteyn. It turned out later that Kapteyn had asked Hale, who
had built the largest refractor telescope in the world at Yerkes—i.e. with a lens
as the objective (40 in. or about 1 m in diameter) and not a mirror—about
the optimal focal length to measure parallaxes and proper motions. The letters
from Kapteyn and Hale crossed. The Kapteyns indeed visited Williams Bay.
3 Kapteyn’s last article in the Astronomische Nachrichten dates from 1910, but that was written in English.