ProfHeinrich Christian SchumacherFRS(For)FRSE (3 September 1780 – 28 December 1850) was aGerman-Danishastronomer and mathematician.
Schumacher was born atBramstedt, inHolstein, near the German/Danish border. He was educated atAltona Gymnasium on the outskirts ofHamburg. He studied in Germany atKiel,Jena, andGöttingen Universities as well asCopenhagen. He received a doctorate fromDorpat University inRussian Empire in 1807.[1]
From 1808, he was adjunct professor of astronomy in Copenhagen. He directed theMannheim observatory from 1813 to 1815, and then in 1815 was appointed Professor of Astronomy in Copenhagen and Director of the Observatory.[2]
From 1817 he directed the triangulation of Holstein, to which a few years later was added a completegeodetic survey ofDenmark (finished after his death). For the sake of the survey, Schumacher established theAltona Observatory atAltona, and resided there permanently.[2] He cooperated withCarl Friedrich Gauss for thebaseline measurement (Braak Base Line) in the villageBraak near Hamburg in 1820.
He was elected a Foreign Fellow of theRoyal Society of London in 1821, and a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh in 1822.[3]
Schumacher was chiefly occupied with the publication ofEphemerides (11 parts, 1822–1832) and of the journalAstronomische Nachrichten (founded by himself in 1821 and still being published), of which he edited thirty-one volumes.[2] In 1827 he was elected member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and in 1829 he won theGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Schumacher was elected a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1823[4] and a Foreign Honorary Member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1834.[5] Hisportrait now hangs in the Development Office ofthe Royal Society.
He died inAltona on 28 December 1850. He was buried in the Heilig Geist Kirchhof (Holy Ghost Church) in Altona. The site is now marked by a stone memorial.
In 1812 he married Christine Madelaine Schoon.
Their son,Richard Schumacher (1827–1902), was his assistant from 1844 to 1850 at the conservatory at Altona. Having become assistant toCarlos Guillermo Moesta (1825–1884), director of the observatory atSantiago, in 1859, he was associated with theChilean geodesic survey in 1864. Returning in 1869, he was appointed assistant astronomer at Altona in 1873, and afterwards atKiel.[2]
Schumacher's nephew,Christian Andreas Schumacher (1810–1854), was associated with the geodetic survey ofDenmark from 1833 to 1838, and afterwards (1844–1845) improved theobservatory at Pulkowa.[2]
In 1935 the Moon crater Schumacher was named in his honour.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Schumacher, Heinrich Christian".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 383.