Jump to content

Edward Charles Pickering

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by SRMcGarvey (talk | contribs) at 17:28, 6 November 2020 (Condensing categories ~~~~). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For similarly named people, see Edward Pickering (disambiguation).
Edward Charles Pickering
ForMemRS HFRSE
Born(1846-07-19)July 19, 1846
Boston, Massachusetts
DiedFebruary 3, 1919(1919-02-03) (aged 72)
Cambridge, Massachusetts
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard
Known forspectroscopic binary stars
AwardsMember of the National Academy of Sciences (1873)
Henry Draper Medal (1888)
Valz Prize (1888)
Bruce Medal (1908)
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1886 and 1901)
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy

Edward Charles Pickering ForMemRS HFRSE (July 19, 1846 – February 3, 1919) was an American astronomer and physicist[1] and the older brother of William Henry Pickering. Along with Carl Vogel, Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary stars. He wrote Elements of Physical Manipulations (2 vol., 1873–76).

Education and Personal life

Pickering was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 19, 1846 to a distinguished, cultivated family consisting of his father, Edward Pickering and his mother, Charlotte Hammond.[2] Pickering was interested in the stars as a boy and constructed his own telescope with an age of 12.[3] He was educated at Boston Latin School, and then studied at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard, where he received his Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in 1865.[2] In 1874, Pickering married Lizzie Wadsworth Sparks, whose father was formerly the President of Harvard.[2] Mrs. Pickering died in 1906, and Edward died in 1919.[2]

Pickering enjoyed his work at the observatory, but he was also found of mountain climbing and bicycling in earlier days and later he was an interested spectator of football games. He was co-founder and first president of the Appalachian Mountain Club. He was also a lover of classic music. During the first world war he was busy trying to devise useful applications to win the war. The Pickering Polaris Attachment was a device for finding the range of guns.[4] In 1864 he married Lizzie Wadsworth Sparks, daughter of Jared Sparks, the historian and former president of Harvard College.[5][4]

Career and research

Soon after graduating from Harvard, Pickering taught physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[6] During the 10 years he was there, he created the first physics lab in America that was designed for students to publish their own findings and research.[7] Later, he served as director of Harvard College Observatory from 1877 to his death in 1919, where he made great leaps forward in the gathering of stellar spectra through the use of photography.

Pickering and the Harvard Computers, standing in front of Building C at the Harvard College Observatory, 13 May 1913

At Harvard, he recruited over 80 women to work for him, including Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Antonia Maury, and Florence Cushman. It was very unusual for such an accomplished scientist to work with this many women, but it has been said that "he became so exasperated with his male assistant's inefficiency, that even his maid could do a better job of copying and computing".[8] These women, the Harvard Computers (also described as "Pickering's Harem" by the scientific community at the time), made several important discoveries at HCO.[9] Leavitt's discovery of the period-luminosity relationship for Cepheids, published by Pickering,[10] would prove the foundation for the modern understanding of cosmological distances.

In 1882, Pickering developed a method to photograph the spectra of multiple stars simultaneously by putting a large prism in front of the photographic plate.[11]

In 1882 he started his appeals for international variable star observations. This was met with opposition, but eventually such a cooperation was realized in the Variable Star Section of the British Astronomical Association and the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). Pickering had a good relationship with the AAVSO and received a gold paper knife with precious stones.[3]

He also, along with Williamina Fleming and Annie Jump Cannon[12] designed a stellar classification system based on an alphabetic system for spectral classes that was first known as the Harvard Stellar Classification and became the basis for the Henry Draper Catalog.

In 1896, Pickering published observations of previously unknown lines in the spectra of the star ζ-Puppis.[13] These lines became known as the Pickering series[14] (or the Pickering–Fowler series[15]) and Pickering attributed them to hydrogen in 1897.[16][17] Alfred Fowler gave the same attribution to similar lines that he observed in a hydrogen-helium mixture in 1912.[18] Analysis by Niels Bohr included in his 'trilogy'[19][20] on atomic structure[21] argued that the spectral lines arose from ionised helium, He+, and not from hydrogen.[22] Fowler was initially-skeptical[23] but was ultimately convinced[24] that Bohr was correct,[19] and by 1915 "spectroscopists had transferred [the Pickering series] definitively [from hydrogen] to helium."[14][25] Bohr's theoretical work on the Pickering series had demonstrated the need for "a re-examination of problems that seemed already to have been solved within classical theories" and provided important confirmation for his atomic theory.[14]

Pickering is credited for making the Harvard College Observatory known and respected around the world, and it continues today to be a well-respected observatory and program.[26]

Honors and awards

His awards and honors include:

The following are named in his honor:

(all jointly named after him and his brother William Henry Pickering)

Publications

  • (1873–76) Elements of physical manipulation New York: Hurd & Houghton OCLC 16078533
  • (1882) A plan for securing observations of the variable stars Cambridge: J. Wilson and Son OCLC 260332440
  • (1886) An investigation in stellar photography Cambridge: J. Wilson and Son OCLC 15790725
  • (1891) Preparation and discussion of the Draper catalogue Cambridge: J. Wilson and Son OCLC 3492105
  • (1903) Plan for the endowment of astronomical research Cambridge: Astronomical observatory of Harvard College OCLC 30005226
  • Pickering, EC (1912). "The Allegheny Observatory In Its Relation To Astronomy". Science. Vol. 36, no. 927 (published Oct 4, 1912). pp. 417–421. Bibcode:1912Sci....36..417P. doi:10.1126/science.36.927.417. PMID 17788756.

Personal life

Pickering enjoyed his work at the observatory, but he was also found of mountain climbing and bicycling in earlier days and later he was an interested spectator of football games. He was co-founder and first president of the Appalachian Mountain Club. He was also a lover of classic music. During the first world war he was busy trying to devise useful applications to win the war. The Pickering Polaris Attachment was a device for finding the range of guns.[3] In 1864 he married Lizzie Wadsworth Sparks, daughter of Jared Sparks, the historian and former president of Harvard College.[33][3]

References

  1. ^ "PICKERING, Edward Charles". The International Who's Who in the World. 1912. p. 856.
  2. ^ a b c d Metcalf, Joel H. (1922). "Edward Charles Pickering (1846-1919)". Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 57 (18): 502–506. ISSN 0199-9818.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Cannon, Annie J. (1919). "Edward Charles Pickering". Popular Astronomy. 27: 177. Bibcode:1919PA.....27..177C. ISSN 0197-7482.
  4. ^ a b Cannon, Annie J. (1919). "Edward Charles Pickering". Popular Astronomy. 27: 177. Bibcode:1919PA.....27..177C. ISSN 0197-7482.
  5. ^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
  6. ^ Daintith, John. (1999) A Dictionary of Scientists. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  7. ^ Plotkin, Howard (1978). "Edward C. Pickering and the Endowment of Scientific Research in America, 1877-1918". Isis. 69 (1): 44–57. doi:10.1086/351932. ISSN 0021-1753. JSTOR 230607. S2CID 143532997.
  8. ^ Rossiter, Margaret W. (1980). ""Women's Work" in Science, 1880-1910". Isis. 71 (3): 381–398. doi:10.1086/352540. ISSN 0021-1753. JSTOR 230118. S2CID 143706974.
  9. ^ The 19th century women who catalogued the cosmos, Michelle Starr, Cnet News, March 7, 2016
  10. ^ Miss Leavitt in Pickering, Edward C. "Periods of 25 Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud" Harvard College Observatory Circular 173 (1912) 1–3.
  11. ^ Bunch, Bryan H. and Hellemans, Alexander (2004) The History of Science and Technology: A Browser's Guide to the Great Discoveries, Inventions, and the People Who Made Them, from the Dawn of Time to Today. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
  12. ^ "Annie Jump Cannon -". www.projectcontinua.org. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  13. ^ Pickering, E. C. (1896). "Stars having peculiar spectra. New variable stars in Crux and Cygnus". Harvard College Observatory Circular. 12: 1–2. Bibcode:1896HarCi..12....1P. Also published as: Pickering, E. C.; Fleming, W. P. (1896). "Stars having peculiar spectra. New variable stars in Crux and Cygnus". Astrophysical Journal. 4: 369–370. Bibcode:1896ApJ.....4..369P. doi:10.1086/140291.
  14. ^ a b c Robotti, Nadia (1983). "The Spectrum of ζ Puppis and the Historical Evolution of Empirical Data". Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences. 14 (1): 123–145. doi:10.2307/27757527. JSTOR 27757527.
  15. ^ Lakatos, Imre (1980). "Bohr: A Research Programme Progressing on Inconsistent Foundations". In Worrall, John; Currie, Gregory (eds.). The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes. Cambridge University Press. pp. 55–68. ISBN 9780521280310.
  16. ^ Pickering, E. C. (1897). "Stars having peculiar spectra. New variable Stars in Crux and Cygnus". Astronomische Nachrichten. 142 (6): 87–90. Bibcode:1896AN....142...87P. doi:10.1002/asna.18971420605.
  17. ^ Pickering, E. C. (1897). "The spectrum of zeta Puppis". Astrophysical Journal. 5: 92–94. Bibcode:1897ApJ.....5...92P. doi:10.1086/140312.
  18. ^ Fowler, A. (1912). "Observations of the Principal and other Series of Lines in the Spectrum of Hydrogen". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 73 (2): 62–63. Bibcode:1912MNRAS..73...62F. doi:10.1093/mnras/73.2.62.
  19. ^ a b Hoyer, Ulrich (1981). "Constitution of Atoms and Molecules". In Hoyer, Ulrich (ed.). Niels Bohr – Collected Works: Volume 2 – Work on Atomic Physics (1912–1917). Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Company. pp. 103–316 (esp. pp. 116–122). ISBN 978-0720418002.
  20. ^ Kennedy, P. J. (1985). "A Short Biography". In French, A. P.; Kennedy, P. J. (eds.). Niels Bohr: A Centenary Volume. Harvard University Press. pp. 3–15. ISBN 978-0-674-62415-3.
  21. ^ Bohr, N. (1913). "On the constitution of atoms and molecules, part I" (PDF). Philosophical Magazine. 26 (151): 1–25. Bibcode:1913PMag...26....1B. doi:10.1080/14786441308634955.
    Bohr, N. (1913). "On the constitution of atoms and molecules, part II: Systems Containing Only a Single Nucleus" (PDF). Philosophical Magazine. 26 (153): 476–502. Bibcode:1913PMag...26..476B. doi:10.1080/14786441308634993.
    Bohr, N. (1913). "On the constitution of atoms and molecules, part III: Systems containing several nuclei". Philosophical Magazine. 26 (155): 857–875. Bibcode:1913PMag...26..857B. doi:10.1080/14786441308635031.
  22. ^ Bohr, N. (1913). "The Spectra of Helium and Hydrogen". Nature. 92 (2295): 231–232. Bibcode:1913Natur..92..231B. doi:10.1038/092231d0. S2CID 11988018.
  23. ^ Fowler, A. (1913). "The Spectra of Helium and Hydrogen". Nature. 92 (2291): 95–96. Bibcode:1913Natur..92...95F. doi:10.1038/092095b0. S2CID 3972599.
  24. ^ Fowler, A. (1913). "Reply to: The Spectra of Helium and Hydrogen". Nature. 92 (2295): 232–233. Bibcode:1913Natur..92..232F. doi:10.1038/092232a0. S2CID 3981817.
  25. ^ Bohr, N. (1915). "The Spectra of Hydrogen and Helium". Nature. 95 (6–7): 6–7. Bibcode:1915Natur..95....6B. doi:10.1038/095006a0. S2CID 3947572.
  26. ^ Clark, David H. and Clark, Matthew D. H. (2004). Measuring the Cosmos: How Scientists Discovered the Dimensions of the Universe. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press.
  27. ^ Anon (2019). "Membership FAQ". Nationalacademies.org. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Archived from the original on 2018-03-05.
  28. ^ Archibald, Raymond Clare (1936). "The Youngest Member Elected to the National Academy of Sciences". Science. 83 (2158): 436–437. doi:10.1126/science.83.2158.436-a. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17820127.
  29. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter P" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 7 April 2011.
  30. ^ "Miscellaneous". Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Part 1. Smithsonian Institution, Board of Regents. 1890. p. 192.
  31. ^ "Henry Draper Medal". National Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
  32. ^ "Edward Charles Pickering | ORDEN POUR LE MÉRITE". www.orden-pourlemerite.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-08-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  33. ^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edward Charles Pickering.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Pickering, Edward Charles".
Obituaries
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Charles_Pickering&oldid=987380110"