11.5 Walter Adams
235
11.5 Walter Adams
Kapteyn’s collaboration with Walter Adams was severely damaged in the years
of the First World War. In 1915, they had still collectively investigated the
radial velocities of stars, based on the Mount Wilson program of measurements
of such velocities. Now we have seen before that Kapteyn made an effort to
arrange for promising young astronomers on Mount Wilson to spend some
time there; not only his own students, like Pieter van Rhijn or Adriaan van
Maanen, but he also mediated on behalf of Karl Schwarzschild from Potsdam,
for young astronomers like Ejnar Hertzsprung. Another example was Arnold
Kohlschütter, who came to work with Adams.
Adams saw Kapteyn’s long manuscript about the northern helium stars and
took offense at two issues in it. First, he felt he was being unfairly treated
by Kapteyn’s exclusive use of Lick radial velocities in this way, according to
Adams, ignoring his observations. Of course Adams had a point here; after all,
his telescope was bigger and with careful work he would obtain better results.
Secondly, he was struck by the formulation ‘Kohlschütter’ or ‘Kohlschütter–
Adams’ that Kapteyn had used, which gave Kohlschütter all the credit for
discovering the relationship between the width of spectral lines and the intrinsic luminosity of stars, and downplayed the role of Adams. Adams wrote a
letter to Kapteyn on this subject in June 1917 in which he complained in no
uncertain terms. He reproached Kapteyn for being too accustomed to working with subordinates and therefore forgetting how to treat those who work
independently. And Adams reminded him of how, when Kapteyn still visited
Mount Wilson, he had repeatedly pointed out systematic effects, which he had
only later put on more solid ground together with Kohlschütter.
Kapteyn was also sometimes rather hot-tempered and haughtily wrote to
George Hale; he resigned again as Research Associate on Mount Wilson. In
turn, he accused Adams of misconduct. The work that had appeared as Kapteyn
& Adams in 1915, had been continued independently under the agreement
to publish the result jointly. But despite this Adams had published his part
under his own name. Kapteyn also mentioned to Hale how he personally had
seen that Kohlschütter performed the work in question independently, while
Adams now presented it as largely his own.
Through the mediation of Hale and especially Seares, the case was eventually settled. Frederick Seares rewrote the text in Kapteyn’s article, which was
published in three separate issues in 1918. Kapteyn was probably not quite
correct in his evaluation of the situation. He indeed often reacted disproportionately strongly when he felt that the credit for a discovery was in danger of
being wrongly taken from him or from someone else, and in this case he felt
235
11.5 Walter Adams
Kapteyn’s collaboration with Walter Adams was severely damaged in the years
of the First World War. In 1915, they had still collectively investigated the
radial velocities of stars, based on the Mount Wilson program of measurements
of such velocities. Now we have seen before that Kapteyn made an effort to
arrange for promising young astronomers on Mount Wilson to spend some
time there; not only his own students, like Pieter van Rhijn or Adriaan van
Maanen, but he also mediated on behalf of Karl Schwarzschild from Potsdam,
for young astronomers like Ejnar Hertzsprung. Another example was Arnold
Kohlschütter, who came to work with Adams.
Adams saw Kapteyn’s long manuscript about the northern helium stars and
took offense at two issues in it. First, he felt he was being unfairly treated
by Kapteyn’s exclusive use of Lick radial velocities in this way, according to
Adams, ignoring his observations. Of course Adams had a point here; after all,
his telescope was bigger and with careful work he would obtain better results.
Secondly, he was struck by the formulation ‘Kohlschütter’ or ‘Kohlschütter–
Adams’ that Kapteyn had used, which gave Kohlschütter all the credit for
discovering the relationship between the width of spectral lines and the intrinsic luminosity of stars, and downplayed the role of Adams. Adams wrote a
letter to Kapteyn on this subject in June 1917 in which he complained in no
uncertain terms. He reproached Kapteyn for being too accustomed to working with subordinates and therefore forgetting how to treat those who work
independently. And Adams reminded him of how, when Kapteyn still visited
Mount Wilson, he had repeatedly pointed out systematic effects, which he had
only later put on more solid ground together with Kohlschütter.
Kapteyn was also sometimes rather hot-tempered and haughtily wrote to
George Hale; he resigned again as Research Associate on Mount Wilson. In
turn, he accused Adams of misconduct. The work that had appeared as Kapteyn
& Adams in 1915, had been continued independently under the agreement
to publish the result jointly. But despite this Adams had published his part
under his own name. Kapteyn also mentioned to Hale how he personally had
seen that Kohlschütter performed the work in question independently, while
Adams now presented it as largely his own.
Through the mediation of Hale and especially Seares, the case was eventually settled. Frederick Seares rewrote the text in Kapteyn’s article, which was
published in three separate issues in 1918. Kapteyn was probably not quite
correct in his evaluation of the situation. He indeed often reacted disproportionately strongly when he felt that the credit for a discovery was in danger of
being wrongly taken from him or from someone else, and in this case he felt