Simon Newcomb | |
|---|---|
 Newcomb c. 1905 | |
| Born | (1835-03-12)March 12, 1835 Wallace, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Died | July 11, 1909(1909-07-11) (aged 74) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Citizenship | American |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (BS, 1858) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, includingAnita andJosepha |
| Awards | Copley Medal(1890) Bruce Medal(1898) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy Mathematics |
| Academic advisors | Benjamin Peirce |
| Doctoral students | Henry Ludwell Moore |
| Signature | |
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Simon Newcomb (March 12, 1835 – July 11, 1909) was aCanadian–Americanastronomer,applied mathematician, andautodidacticpolymath. He served as Professor of Mathematics in theUnited States Navy and atJohns Hopkins University. Born inNova Scotia, at the age of 19 Newcomb left an apprenticeship to join his father in Massachusetts, where the latter was teaching.
Though Newcomb had little conventional schooling, he completed a B.S. at Harvard in 1858. He later made important contributions totimekeeping, as well as to other fields inapplied mathematics, such aseconomics andstatistics. Fluent in several languages, he also wrote and published several popular science books and ascience fictionnovel.
Simon Newcomb was born in the town ofWallace,Nova Scotia. His parents were John Burton Newcomb and his wife Emily Prince. His father was an itinerant school teacher, and frequently moved in order to teach in different parts of Canada, particularly in Nova Scotia andPrince Edward Island. Through his mother, Simon Newcomb was a distant cousin ofWilliam Henry Steeves, a CanadianFather of Confederation. Their immigrant ancestor in that line was Heinrich Stief, who immigrated from Germany and settled inNew Brunswick about 1760.[1]
Newcomb seems to have had little conventional schooling and was taught by his father. He also had a shortapprenticeship in 1851 to Dr. Foshay, a charlatanherbalist in New Brunswick. But his father gave him an excellent foundation for the youth's future studies. Newcomb was apprenticed to Dr. Foshay at the age of 16. Their agreement was that Newcomb would serve a five-year apprenticeship, during which time Foshay would train him in using herbs to treat illnesses. After two years Newcomb had become increasingly unhappy and disillusioned, as he realized that Foshay had an unscientific approach and was a charlatan. He left Foshay and broke their agreement. He walked the 120 miles (190 km) to the port ofCalais, Maine. There he met a ship's captain who agreed to take him toSalem, Massachusetts, where his father had moved for a teaching job.[2] In about 1854, Newcomb joined his father in Salem, and the two journeyed together to Maryland.
Newcomb taught for two years in Maryland, from 1854 to 1856; for the first year in a country school in Massey's Cross Roads,Kent County, then for a year nearby inSudlersville inQueen Anne's County. Both were located in the largely rural area of theEastern Shore. In his spare time Newcomb studied a variety of subjects, such as political economy and religion, but his deepest studies were made in mathematics and astronomy.
In particular he readIsaac Newton'sPrincipia (1687) at this time. In 1856 Newcomb took a position as a private tutor close toWashington, DC. He often traveled to the city to study mathematics in its libraries. He borrowed a copy ofNathaniel Bowditch's translation ofPierre-Simon Laplace'sTraité de mécanique céleste from the library of theSmithsonian Institution, but found the mathematics beyond him.[3]
Newcomb independently studied mathematics and physics. For a time he supported himself by teaching before becoming ahuman computer (a functionary in charge of calculations) at theNautical Almanac Office inCambridge, Massachusetts, in 1857. At around the same time, he enrolled at theLawrence Scientific School ofHarvard University, graduating with aBSc in 1858.[3]
Newcomb studied mathematics underBenjamin Peirce, who also often invited Newcomb to his home.[4] Newcomb's biographer Brent said in his 1993 book that Newcomb developed a dislike of Peirce's son,Charles Sanders Peirce and was accused of the "successful destruction" of C. S. Peirce's career.[5] In particular,Daniel Coit Gilman, president ofJohns Hopkins University, was said to have been on the point of awardingtenure to C. S. Peirce, before Newcomb intervened behind the scenes to dissuade him.[6] Brent says that about 20 years later, Newcomb similarly influenced theCarnegie InstitutionTrustees to deny a Carnegie grant to C. S. Peirce. This prevented Peirce from publishing his life's work. The grant was supported byAndrew Carnegie,Theodore Roosevelt,William James, and others, who wrote to support it.[7] Newcomb's motivation has been speculated to have been that, despite his being "no doubt quite bright", "likeSalieri inPeter Shaffer’sAmadeus he also had just enough talent to recognize he was not a genius and just enough pettiness to resent someone who was". Additionally "an intensely devout and literal-minded Christian of rigid moral standards", he was appalled by what he considered Peirce's personal shortcomings, making intolerable to Newcomb the fact that he had been reliant on the patronage of the father of a man he considered contemptible.[8]
In the prelude to theAmerican Civil War, manyUS Navy staff with Southern backgrounds left the service. In 1861, Newcomb took advantage of a vacancy and was hired as professor of mathematics andastronomer at theUnited States Naval Observatory, inWashington D.C. Newcomb set to work on the measurement of the position of theplanets as an aid to navigation, becoming increasingly interested in theories ofplanetary motion.[3]
By the time Newcomb visitedParis, France, in 1870, he was aware that the table of lunar positions calculated byPeter Andreas Hansen was in error. While in Paris, he realized that, in addition to the data from 1750 to 1838 that Hansen had used, there was earlier data documented as far back as 1672. But he had little time for analysis as he witnessed the defeat of French emperorNapoleon III in theFranco-Prussian War and the coup that ended theSecond French Empire. Newcomb managed to escape from the city during the ensuing rioting; it led to the formation of theParis Commune and engulfed even theParis Observatory. Newcomb used the "new" data to revise Hansen's tables.[3]
In 1875 he was offered the post of director of theHarvard College Observatory but he declined, having by now settled that his interests lay in mathematics rather than observation.[3]
In 1877 he became director of theNautical Almanac Office where, ably assisted byGeorge William Hill, he embarked on a program of recalculation of all the major astronomical constants. At this time he was elected to honorary membership of theManchester Literary and Philosophical Society, in 1887.[9]
From 1884 he also fulfilled a demanding role as professor ofmathematics andastronomy atJohns Hopkins University inBaltimore, continuing, however, to reside at Washington.[10]
WithA. M. W. Downing, Newcomb conceived a plan to resolve much international confusion on the subject of astronomical constants. By the time he attended a standardization conference inParis, France, in May 1896, the international consensus was that allephemerides should be based on Newcomb's calculations:Newcomb'sTables of the Sun. As late as 1950, another conference confirmed Newcomb's constants as the international standard.[3]
During the American Civil War, Newcomb married Mary Caroline Hassler on August 4, 1863. The couple had three daughters, and a son who died in infancy.[11] Mary Caroline Hassler's parents were US Navy Surgeon Dr. Charles Augustus Hassler and his wife. Her paternal grandfather wasFerdinand Hassler, the first Superintendent of theCoast Survey.[12]
Newcomb died inWashington, D.C., on July 11, 1909, ofbladder cancer. He was buried with military honors inArlington National Cemetery with PresidentWilliam Howard Taft in attendance.[3]
Newcomb's daughterAnita Newcomb McGee (1864–1940) became a medical doctor and founded theArmy Nurse Corps. She received theSpanish War Service Medal for her services during theSpanish–American War. For her later work in Japan, she was awarded the Japanese ImperialOrder of the Precious Crown, theJapanese Red Cross decoration, and twoRusso-Japanese War medals from the Japanese government. She was buried next to her father with full military honors.[13]
Newcomb's daughterAnna Josepha studied at theArt Students' League in New York.[14] She was active in the suffrage movement. In 1912, she organized the first Cornwall meeting in support of voting rights for women.[14] Josepha Newcomb marriedEdward Baldwin Whitney, who was the son of ProfessorWilliam Dwight Whitney and his wife, and the grandson of US Senator and Connecticut GovernorRoger Sherman Baldwin. He served as Assistant US Attorney General. Their grandsonHassler Whitney became a mathematician and professor.[15]
In 1878, Newcomb had started planning for a new and precise measurement of thespeed of light. He believed it was needed to account for the exact values of many astronomical constants. He had already started developing a refinement of the method ofLéon Foucault when he received a letter fromAlbert Abraham Michelson, a young naval officer andphysicist who was also planning such a measurement. Thus began a long collaboration and friendship. In 1880, Michelson assisted at Newcomb's initial measurement with instruments located atFort Myer and theUnited States Naval Observatory, then situated near thePotomac River. Michelson had left to start his own project by the time Newcomb arranged a second set of measurements between the observatory and theWashington Monument. Though Michelson published his first measurement in 1880, Newcomb's measurement was substantially different. In 1883, Michelson revised his measurement to a value closer to Newcomb's.[3][failed verification]
In 1881, Newcomb discovered the statistical principle now known asBenford's law. He observed that the earlier pages oflogarithm books, used at that time to carry out logarithmic calculations, were far more worn than the later pages. This led him to formulate the principle that, in any list of numbers taken from an arbitrary set of data, more numbers will tend to begin with "1" than with any other digit.[16]
In 1891, within months ofSeth Carlo Chandler's discovery of the 14-month variation oflatitude, now referred to as theChandler wobble, Newcomb explained the apparent conflict between the observed motion and predicted period of the wobble. The theory was based on a perfectly rigid body, but Earth is slightly elastic. Newcomb used the variation of latitude observations to estimate the elasticity of Earth, finding it to be slightly more rigid than steel.[17]
Newcomb was anautodidact andpolymath. He wrote oneconomics and hisPrinciples of Political Economy (1885) was described byJohn Maynard Keynes as "one of those original works which a fresh scientific mind, not perverted by having read too much of the orthodox stuff, is able to produce from time to time in a half-formed subject like economics." Newcomb was credited byIrving Fisher with the first-known enunciation of theequation of exchange between money and goods used in thequantity theory of money.[18] He spoke French, German, Italian andSwedish; was an activemountaineer; and read widely. He also wrote a number of popular science books and ascience fictionnovel,His Wisdom the Defender (1900).[3] Newcomb was the first person to observe the geophysical phenomenonAirglow, in 1901.[19]
In 1888 Simon Newcomb wrote: "We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy."In 1900, hisElements of Astronomy was published by the American Book Company.
By 1903, however, his view had changed. In an article inScience, he wrote:
"What lies before us is an illimitable field, the existence of which was scarcely suspected ten years ago, the exploration of which may well absorb the activities of our physical laboratories, and of the great mass of our astronomical observers and investigators for as many generations as were required to bring electrical science to its present state."[20]
Newcomb is famously quoted as havingbelieved it impossible to build a "flying machine." He begins an article titled "Is the Airship Possible?" with the remark, "That depends, first of all, on whether we are to make the requisite scientific discoveries." He ends with the remark "the construction of an aerial vehicle ... which could carry even a single man from place-to-place at pleasure requires the discovery of some new metal or some new force."[21]
In the October 22, 1903, issue ofThe Independent, Newcomb made the well-known remark that "May not our mechanicians ... be ultimately forced to admit that aerial flight is one of the great class of problems with which man can never cope, and give up all attempts to grapple with it?",[22][23] He suggested that even if a man flew, he could not stop. "Once he slackens his speed, down he begins to fall. Once he stops, he falls as a dead mass." Newcomb had no concept of anairfoil. His "aeroplane" was an inclined "thin flat board". He therefore concluded that it could never carry the weight of a man.
Newcomb was particularly critical of the work ofSamuel Pierpont Langley, who claimed that he could build a flying machine powered by a steam engine, but whose initial efforts at flight were public failures.[24] In 1903, however, Newcomb was also saying,
"Quite likely the 20th century is destined to see the natural forces which will enable us to fly from continent to continent with a speed far exceeding that of a bird. But when we inquire whether aerial flight is possible in the present state of our knowledge; whether, with such materials as we possess, a combination of steel, cloth and wire can be made which, moved by the power of electricity or steam, shall form a successful flying machine, the outlook may be altogether different."[25]
Newcomb was not aware of theWright Brothers' efforts, whose work was done in relative obscurity (Santos-Dumont flew his14-bis in Paris only in 1906) and apparently unaware of the internal combustion engine's betterpower-to-weight ratio. When Newcomb heard about the Wrights' flight in 1908, he was quick to accept it.[26]
Newcomb favored the development of rotating wing (helicopters) and airships that would float in the air (blimps). Within a few decades, zeppelins regularly transported passengers between Europe and the United States, and theGraf Zeppelin circumnavigated the Earth.[27]
Newcomb was the first president of theAmerican Society for Psychical Research.[28] Although skeptical ofextrasensory perception and alleged paranormal phenomena, he believed the subject was worthy of investigation. By 1889 his investigations were negative and his skepticism increased. Biographer Albert E. Moyer has noted that Newcomb "convinced and hoped to convince others that, on methodological grounds, psychical research was a scientific dead end."[29]
Astronomy for EverybodyA number of astronomical, physical, and mathematical papers written between 1882 and 1912 are mentioned in"Astronomical Papers Prepared For The Use Of The American Ephemeris And Nautical Almanac".U.S. Naval Observatory. The Nautical Almanac Office. August 12, 2008. Archived fromthe original on March 3, 2016. RetrievedFebruary 24, 2009.
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