200
9 Mount Wilson
gave a special lecture in Washington for the Academy on the structure of the
Universe. He had to travel to America especially for this occasion—and be
back in time for the wedding of his daughter Henriette to Ejnar Hertzsprung.
In the same year he was awarded the very prestigious Catherine Wolfe Bruce
Gold Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for his contributions to
astronomy. He received this during his regular visit to California that year.
9.8 End of an Era
In January 1914 Kapteyn received a piece of very sad news: the death of his
great friend David Gill after a short but serious illness. The Kapteyns traveled
to London to assist the widow Gill as well as possible. Gill was buried in his
hometown of Aberdeen, but a memorial service was held in London at the
church of St Mary Abbots in Kensington. Kapteyn and many friends and staff
attended that service. David Gill has been crucial to Kapteyn’s work and the
latter wrote a long in memoriam, which was published in the Astrophysical
Journal, the leading American journal. Gill’s death was the end of an era.
In 1914 the First World War broke out and that marked the end of another
era: that of the annual visits to Mount Wilson. The Kapteyns happened to be
there when the war began and they had great problems returning to Europe.
It became a voyage in permanent danger because of German mines and submarines. With delay they reached the Netherlands. In a letter of January 23,
1915 to Frederick Seares Kapteyn wrote:
Our journey has been without any difficulty. We were stopped by a man of war
(English) when we were no more than a few hours out of New York. A couple
of officers came on board, but they only examined the ship’s papers. After that
we came unmolested to Portsmouth, where, after some hours waiting, we got a
pilot, who had to bring us safely from here up to near Harwich. We need him
not so much on account of the mines, the situation of which (as far as they had
not broken loose) was well known to our captain, but on account of the light
houses which partly were kept dark, partly had been displaces on purpose.
In Dover harbor we spent a night. The ship’s papers had been taken to the shore,
but even if they had not, our captain did not care to go by night. The permit
to leave reached us somewhat late the next morning, so that we could not land
at Rotterdam that same night, but had to lie ‘on stream’ off Hoek of Holland.
Altogether we lost about 2 days, but that was all.
Mrs. Kohlschütter had no trouble at all up to Rotterdam. We have not yet any
news of her and cannot say therefore how she fared at the border.
9 Mount Wilson
gave a special lecture in Washington for the Academy on the structure of the
Universe. He had to travel to America especially for this occasion—and be
back in time for the wedding of his daughter Henriette to Ejnar Hertzsprung.
In the same year he was awarded the very prestigious Catherine Wolfe Bruce
Gold Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for his contributions to
astronomy. He received this during his regular visit to California that year.
9.8 End of an Era
In January 1914 Kapteyn received a piece of very sad news: the death of his
great friend David Gill after a short but serious illness. The Kapteyns traveled
to London to assist the widow Gill as well as possible. Gill was buried in his
hometown of Aberdeen, but a memorial service was held in London at the
church of St Mary Abbots in Kensington. Kapteyn and many friends and staff
attended that service. David Gill has been crucial to Kapteyn’s work and the
latter wrote a long in memoriam, which was published in the Astrophysical
Journal, the leading American journal. Gill’s death was the end of an era.
In 1914 the First World War broke out and that marked the end of another
era: that of the annual visits to Mount Wilson. The Kapteyns happened to be
there when the war began and they had great problems returning to Europe.
It became a voyage in permanent danger because of German mines and submarines. With delay they reached the Netherlands. In a letter of January 23,
1915 to Frederick Seares Kapteyn wrote:
Our journey has been without any difficulty. We were stopped by a man of war
(English) when we were no more than a few hours out of New York. A couple
of officers came on board, but they only examined the ship’s papers. After that
we came unmolested to Portsmouth, where, after some hours waiting, we got a
pilot, who had to bring us safely from here up to near Harwich. We need him
not so much on account of the mines, the situation of which (as far as they had
not broken loose) was well known to our captain, but on account of the light
houses which partly were kept dark, partly had been displaces on purpose.
In Dover harbor we spent a night. The ship’s papers had been taken to the shore,
but even if they had not, our captain did not care to go by night. The permit
to leave reached us somewhat late the next morning, so that we could not land
at Rotterdam that same night, but had to lie ‘on stream’ off Hoek of Holland.
Altogether we lost about 2 days, but that was all.
Mrs. Kohlschütter had no trouble at all up to Rotterdam. We have not yet any
news of her and cannot say therefore how she fared at the border.