Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science

Springer Biographies

RICHARD TAIBI Springer Biographies More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13617 Richard Taibi

Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science

123 Richard Taibi Temple Hills, MD USA

ISSN 2365-0613 ISSN 2365-0621 (electronic) Springer Biographies ISBN 978-3-319-44517-5 ISBN 978-3-319-44518-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44518-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016949123

© Richard Taibi 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

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This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland This book is dedicated with love to my wife Margaret whose encouragement during the long process of writing this book has been much appreciated Preface

Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science was to be a centennial history of the American Meteor Society (AMS), from 1911 to 2011. However, when I investigated the AMS’ historical papers and myriads of related published documents, I realized that there was an intriguing saga that deserved to be told. Instead of the centennial history, I decided to pursue the emergent story by focusing on a biography of its founder, Dr. Charles P. Olivier. A professional astronomer, I wondered why Olivier invited amateur astronomers to be his colleagues in a research project. When I learned that the amateurs’ observational contributions to meteor science were so substantial, it seemed just that they receive biographies too. So, biographical inquiries about them were added to the research plan for a history that spanned the years 1911–1936. The book’s outline became more complicated in the course of tracing Olivier’s career history; research revealed a fascinating schism in the professional astronomical community. It needed to be described to provide context for his career. So, the book’s plan now included Olivier and AMS members’ biographies plus a story about the fissioning astronomical profession. That is how the AMS’ history, originally an uncomplicated centennial one, became more complex even though shortened by 75 years. I believe the resulting story will interest readers of astronomical history and of science in general. Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science is filled with biographies and some description of my background to write them follows. Before retirement, I practiced clinical and forensic psychology which required inquiries into people’s histories. Biographical investigation was a fundamental aspect of my trade. It was natural for me to use the same skill set to learn about the figures in this book. I knew astronomers’ lives were fascinating, having been introduced to them by Joseph Ashbrook’s monthly column, Astronomical Scrapbook, in Sky and Telescope magazine. Opportunities to write brief biographies of Charles Olivier, for the Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers and the AMS’ Web site, convinced me that I shared Ashbrook’s enthusiasm for chronicling professional astronomers’ careers. I became fascinated by amateurs’ life stories; the first biographies I wrote were of Edwin F. Sawyer, a Boston meteor and variable star observer and Lewis

vii viii Preface

Swift the comet discoverer. Then in 2012 I began a blog, Skywatchers as a “test-bed” for writing biographies of forgotten amateur astronomers; it was where I practiced describing key incidents in the careers of citizen scientists that made contributions to astronomical knowledge. With this writing background, it was a natural progression to this book which showcases Professor Olivier’s career from 1899–1936 and along with his scores of amateur astronomers’ who volunteered to produce the data he analyzed and published. The reader will see that the second half of the book contains AMS members’ biographies. These were separated from the narratives about Olivier and the AMS’ exploits in the first half of the book in order to preserve continuity of the historical account. Placement in the book’s last half should not be interpreted to suggest that the amateurs’ roles were secondary to the AMS saga. All of them devoted three or more years’ effort to AMS research projects and, in fact, contributed the results which filled Dr. Olivier’s meteor publications. These meteor-watching volunteers, active from 1911–1936, have in most AMS reports been identified only by their initials and family names, but here are portrayed in detailed biographies. Professional psychology and writing biographies were not my only preparation to write Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science. I have been an amateur astronomer for most of the past 60 years. I have watched lunar and solar eclipses, drawn the moon and planets’ surfaces seen through telescopes, timed disappear- ances of stars behind the dark edge of the moon, and spent 1,000 hours recording more than 9,000 meteors. Like the amateurs in Olivier’s day, and their successors today, I have reported my observations’ results to professional astronomers. I have drawn on my observational experiences while writing Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science and I hope I have successfully described what it is like to be under a dark starry sky patiently watching for “shooting stars.” Research preparation for this book has occupied the past 15 years and continued even as I wrote it in the last five. I have spent days prowling for information at three university libraries, at an observatory’s archives, and at the Library of Congress. I learned a great deal about AMS observational methods and campaigns by studying observers’ reports filed in the AMS’ archives. I devoted many hours to perusing Olivier’s early monographs and the historical vignettes he included in his columns in Popular Astronomy. Invaluable insights about Charles Olivier’s life came from interviews with his daughters and other family members. Olivier’s former graduate student assistants and senior AMS members who knew him personally provided further insights about him. Finally, conversations with adult children of the 1930s era observers gave me fascinating information about their fathers’ lives that was not available anywhere else. The contents of this book have been enriched by all of these resources. Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science may serve as your introduction to gravitational (or dynamical) astronomy, one whose accomplishments are not properly celebrated today. Meteor science is a branch of gravitational astronomy because meteors travel about the sun in orbits and a scientist needs to understand how the planets’ gravitational fields influence those orbits. Gravitational astronomy is the oldest branch of scientific astronomy begun by Isaac Newton, Gottfried Preface ix

Leibniz, and Pierre-Simon Laplace in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is the one that predicts when a comet like Halley’s is expected to return to our sky, and its mathematics pinpointed the sky location where the planet Neptune was discovered, it also guided mankind’s exploration voyages to the moon and has sent robot rovers to land on the surfaces of a comet, an asteroid, and the planets Venus and Mars. If Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science helps acquaint the reader with this unfamiliar and under-appreciated branch of astronomy, it will have served a useful purpose.

Camp Springs, MD, USA Richard Taibi Acknowledgements

I have been fortunate to have the assistance of many people during the protracted process of writing this book. First and foremost, I wish to thank the American Meteor Society’s, Executive Director, Prof. David D. Meisel Ph.D., for permitting me to have an extended loan of the Society’s archival records. Those records gave me an irreplaceable perspective on Charles Olivier’s cordial relationships with the many citizen scientists who were his colleagues in data gathering. Michael Morrow filled many voids in my archives of AMS publications and Karl and Wanda Simmons provided additional perspectives on AMS history by donating many early copies of Meteor News. I benefitted from the advice and counsel of the following meteor watching colleagues while writing biographies of our comrades from years gone by: Mark Davis, George Gliba, Robert Lunsford, Paul Martsching, Alastair McBeath, Norman McLeod, Ruthie Moore, Michael Morrow, David Swann, and William Watson. The following people gave generously of their time by allowing me to interview them. They provided invaluable insights about their relatives’ careers, all of whom were important figures in AMS history: For Dr. Olivier: Elise Ferris and Harrison Ferris, D.D.S., Alice and Arnold Edmund Hayes, Jr., H. Cabell Maddux, Jr., and F.W. Smith For J.D. Williams: Frances Williams Fitzpatrick and Paul H. Williams For Claude H. Smith: Donald H. and Gladys Smith. The following people, institutions, and organizations kindly permitted me to use pictorial and graphic material from their archives: Jim L. Crawford, Philip Feller, and Edward Oravec Thomas A. Lamb and Professors Joel Weisberg and John W. Weiss, Carleton College Timothy Horning, University of Pennsylvania

xi xii Acknowledgements

Kelli Burnham and Judith Hill, Maine Media Today, Inc. for Portland Evening Express Jay Anderson, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and Deborah Thompson and Renata Koziol, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Lake County (Illinois) Discovery Museum, Curt Teich Postcard Archives The following people furnished me with historical documents, publications, and reports which provided important context to understand the accomplishments of AMS observers: Michael Saladyga, Archivist, American Association of Variable Star Observers Timika Hoffman-Zoller, University of Chicago Reference Staff, Harvard University Archives Seiichi Sakuma, Japan Rachael Woody, Linfield College, Oregon Gene Hanson, Milwaukee Astronomical Society Catherine Francoeur, Prince George’s County (Maryland) Public Schools The following archivists and librarians helped me ferret out hard-to-find background information about AMS members: Margaret M. O’Bryant, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Charlottesville, Virginia Robert S. Cox, American Philosophical Society Karen Osburn, Geneva (New York) Historical Society Teresa Sutter, Latin School of Chicago Evonne L. Morris, Lee College, Texas Michelle Sweetser, Marquette University Walter Gable, Historian, Seneca County, New York Prudence Doherty, University of Vermont Blaine Elkie, Waterloo Library and Historical Society, Waterloo, New York Staff members at, Baldwin County (Alabama) Historical Society Chippewa County (Wisconsin) Genealogical Society Fairhope (Alabama) Museum of History Foley (Alabama) Public Library Jacksonville (Florida) Genealogical Society West Florida Genealogy Branch Library, Pensacola, Florida I apologize to historians and archivists who I have failed to thank. Special thanks are due to Thomas R. Williams, Ph.D. whose knowledge of American professional and amateur astronomers and their organizations were of frequent help to me. In particular his pioneering efforts to publicize the roles of amateur astronomers encouraged me to do the same for those amateurs who contributed so much to the American Meteor Society’s scientific results. Contents

Part I Olivier and Meteor Astronomy 1884–1936 Virginia ...... 3 Fortunes of War and Peace ...... 3 Charles William Pollard ...... 3 George Wythe Olivier...... 4 Katharine Roy Pollard Olivier...... 6 George Olivier’s Career After the War ...... 8 The Lost Cause Psychology ...... 9 Virginia’s Astronomer...... 10 Ormond Stone and Gravitational Astronomy ...... 11 Classical Astronomy ...... 12 Classical Astronomy as a Scientiﬁc Style ...... 12 Some of Ormond Stone’s Accomplishments ...... 14 Educator and Mentor of Future Prominent Men ...... 15 Virginia’s Leander McCormick Observatory...... 16 Young Charles ...... 17 Life in Charlottesville Circa 1890 ...... 17 First Meteor Watch ...... 18 The 1899 Leonid Meteor Shower ...... 18 Leonids and Other Meteor Showers ...... 18 The 1899 Leonid Shower ...... 19 Postmortem ...... 22 Damage to Public’s Trust in Professional Astronomy ...... 22 Portrait of the Young Man as an Astronomer ...... 23 A Research Plan Conceived in High School ...... 24 Astronomical Activities in High School ...... 25 Astronomical Work During Undergraduate School ...... 25 Graduate School Years 1905–1908 ...... 27 Sojourn at Lick Observatory ...... 30 Assigned Duty: Comet Photography ...... 32

xiii xiv Contents

Double Stars ...... 33 Mira ...... 33 Meteors...... 34 Summary of a Hectic Internship ...... 34 Sad News ...... 35 Doctor of Philosophy ...... 35 Nature of an Orbit ...... 36 Charting the Sky Position of a Meteor Shower Radiant Is More Difﬁcult Than Charting a Comet’s ...... 36 A First Reform for Meteor Science: Criteria for a Meteor Radiant ...... 36 Another Reform ...... 37 175 Orbits...... 37 His Career’s Meteor Results ...... 38 Why Did Meteoric Science Become a Lifelong Passion? ...... 38 References ...... 39 Enrollment Began ...... 41 Starting Out ...... 41 Astronomy, the University, and Professor Olivier ...... 41 First Academic Post ...... 42 Friends at McCormick Observatory ...... 43 McCormick Observatory Colleagues...... 44 In Summary ...... 50 Society for Practical Astronomy ...... 50 Society for Practical Astronomy and How the American Meteor Society Began...... 51 First Amateur Members of the Hybrid SPA-AMS ...... 53 American Astronomical Society ...... 57 Early History of the AAS ...... 57 The Luminous Meteor Committee ...... 58 Charles P. Olivier, the AASA, and the American Meteor Society ...... 60 Chairman Olivier’s Program ...... 62 Setting the Agenda for Future Meteor Research ...... 64 R.K. Young’s Gnomonic Star Maps ...... 67 Maps and Publicity ...... 67 Rewards from Enlisting the Assistance of AAS Members ...... 69 Academic Colleagues Contributed ...... 69 Summary ...... 71 American Association of Variable Star Observers...... 71 Introduction—AAVSO’s Origin ...... 71 Simultaneous Memberships...... 71 Olivier’s Invitation to AAVSO Members ...... 74 AAVSO Members Responded ...... 75 Some AAVSO Members Join the AMS ...... 76 Dr. Olivier Returned the Favor ...... 77 Contents xv

The Weather Bureau ...... 79 Predecessor of the Weather Bureau...... 79 Signal Corps Observers Reported Meteors ...... 79 Scientific Advisor to Corps’ Chief Signal Officer ...... 80 Cleveland Abbe and Meteor Science at the Weather Bureau ...... 80 Monthly Weather Review as a Platform for Meteor Studies ...... 81 Abbe’s Support for the AMS ...... 82 Hydrographic Office of the US Navy ...... 83 Introduction...... 83 Brief History of the Hydrographic Office ...... 84 Matthew Fontaine Maury, Lt., US Navy: Visionary First Director of Hydrographic Office ...... 84 The Hydrographic Office Aids the AMS...... 85 New Members Join the American Meteor Society, 1915–1918...... 87 Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1915–1918 .... 89 Statistical Summary of the 1915–1918 Membership ...... 89 Roster of Members ...... 89 Key and Abbreviations ...... 90 Outcomes from Olivier’s Membership Efforts 1911–1918 ...... 94 References ...... 95 The First Assignment ...... 99 Trans-Atlantic Controversy ...... 99 Criticism from England...... 99 Olivier’s Retort ...... 101 Help from Two Senior Colleagues ...... 101 The Best Olivier Could Manage ...... 102 Status of the Controversy in 1914...... 103 W.F. Denning, A.S Herschel, and the Stationary Radiant Concept ...... 104 Denning: In the First Rank of Observational Astronomers ...... 104 Denning’s Meteor Career ...... 105 Alexander Stewart Herschel (1836–1907) ...... 107 The Herschel–Denning Collaboration ...... 107 Olivier’s Analysis of Factors that Created Erroneous Radiants ...... 108 Olivier Used Informed Approach to Reduce His Own Meteor Plots ...... 110 First Assignment: Discredit Stationary Radiants ...... 110 Olivier’s Earliest Application of Stringent Radiant Definitions ...... 110 Results of the AMS’ First Assignment: 126 Parabolic Orbits ...... 111 Aligning Professional Astronomy Behind Stringent Radiant Definitions .... 113 Meteor Committee’s Radiant Criteria Recommendations ...... 114 1920 Monograph: “349 Parabolic Orbits” ...... 115 Arguments Against SRs ...... 116 Arguments Against SRs in Meteors (1925)...... 117 AMS Report 1919–1925 (1929) ...... 118 xvi Contents

Not Persuaded by Olivier’s Arguments and AMS’ Findings Against SRs (1911–1925) ...... 119 Top Achievers 1914–1925 ...... 120 Top Achievers in 349 PO ...... 120 Top Achievers in AMS Report for 1919–1925 ...... 121 References ...... 121 Postwar Years 1919–1929...... 123 Challenges for Olivier and the American Meteor Society ...... 123 Olivier’s Wartime Years ...... 123 Olivier Urged Observers to Resume Meteor Work After Their War Duties ...... 124 Downturn in Membership ...... 124 Career and Family Demands as Reasons Why AMS Membership Declined 1921–1925 ...... 125 Realm of the Director ...... 136 So, Why Did AMS Membership Decline in the Early 1920s? ...... 136 Leadership Style also Had a Role ...... 140 Rise of Astrophysics in US Astronomy ...... 141 Astrophysicists’“Family Trees” ...... 141 Astrophysicists Struggled to Find the Relevance of Meteoric Astronomy ...... 146 In Summary, How Would Astrophysicists Study Meteors?...... 147 Membership Roster 1919–1929 ...... 148 Statistical Summary of the 1919–1929 Membership ...... 148 Description of the 1919–1929 Roster ...... 150 Advances Made by the American Meteor Society 1919–1929 ...... 155 Astrophysical Discoveries as a Competitor to Meteor Science ...... 155 Organizational Advances: Improved Communication with Members and Other Amateur Astronomers...... 156 Olivier’s Public Lectures...... 157 Amateurs Return to Meteor Work...... 157 How AMS Members’ Meteor Data Were Used ...... 159 Radiants ...... 159 Meteor Rates...... 161 Telescopic Meteor Magnitudes ...... 162 Long-Enduring Meteor Trains...... 164 Meteor Heights ...... 165 Fireballs ...... 166 Members’ Productivity 1919–1929 ...... 169 References ...... 170 1930s—The Best of Times ...... 173 The Best of Times During the Worst of Times...... 173 The Depression Years in the USA ...... 173 Contents xvii

Meteor Astronomy Appealed to the General Public ...... 174 Academics Adopted Meteor Astronomy ...... 175 Olivier Was Overwhelmed by Reported Data ...... 175 The Man at Midlife...... 176 Home ...... 176 Loved Ones ...... 176 The Observatory Director’s Lifestyle ...... 180 Rest and Recreation in the Old Dominion ...... 183 Religious and Political Convictions...... 184 The Astronomer at Midlife ...... 184 Double and Variable Star Research Work...... 184 Professional and Graduate-Level Astronomers’ Attitudes Toward Meteoric and Stellar Astronomy ...... 189 Presentation of Meteor Results to Professional Organizations ...... 191 Formal Honors Awarded...... 192 “Neighbors” ...... 192 Organizing Flower Observatory Staff for the Leonids ...... 194 Stafﬁng and Work at Flower Observatory 1930–1936 ...... 195 Observatory Staff and Leonid Shower Research 1930–1936 ...... 195 Hiring Human Computers Doris Wills and Clarence Cleminshaw ...... 196 Summary in a Metaphor ...... 198 Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1930–1936 .... 198 Statistical Summary of the 1930–1936 Membership ...... 199 Description of the 1930–1936 Roster ...... 201 How the Meteor Quest Was Won ...... 213 How Olivier Instructed American Meteor Society Members ...... 213 Regional Groups: Coordination at a Distance ...... 214 Summary ...... 223 What the American Meteor Society Accomplished ...... 223 Introduction...... 223 “Out” with an Old Research Objective ...... 224 “In” with New Research Objectives for the AMS in the 1930s ...... 225 Plan for This Chapter ...... 225 New Radiants Determined 1930–1936 ...... 226 Meteor Heights ...... 227 Long-Enduring Trains (LETs), a Shift of Dr. Olivier’s Priorities ...... 230 Telescopic Meteor Observations ...... 232 Meteor Rates...... 232 Fireball Observations ...... 236 Fireball Reports 1930–1936 ...... 236 Members’ Innovations...... 238 New Developments...... 241 Chapter Summary ...... 242 Citizen Scientists Caught Meteor Fever ...... 243 xviii Contents

Olivier’s Publicity Efforts and Results ...... 243 Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing in the 1930s ...... 244 Olivier’s Publicity Efforts and CG’s Results 1930–1934 ...... 244 Crowdsourced Fireballs...... 246 Summary of the 1930s Chapter...... 246 References ...... 247 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad ...... 251 Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA ...... 251 C.C. Wylie and Midwest Meteor Association: Challengers from the Midwest ...... 251 Cosmological Issues as a Rationale for Reticle Use ...... 259 Dr. Thomas C. Poulter and His Antarctic Meteor Program...... 260 Harvard College Observatory Meteor Programs ...... 262 Society for Research on Meteorites...... 268 Summary ...... 270 Outside the USA: A Survey of Meteor Astronomers and Organizations .... 270 Introduction...... 270 Argentina ...... 270 Belgium ...... 271 Canada ...... 272 Czechoslovakia ...... 273 England...... 274 Estonia ...... 275 France ...... 275 Germany ...... 276 Italy ...... 280 Japan...... 281 New Zealand...... 281 South Africa ...... 281 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ...... 282 Olivier’sInﬂuence Abroad ...... 282 References ...... 283 Summing Up ...... 287 Summing Up: Olivier at Midlife ...... 287

Part II The Stalwarts’ Biographies The Stalwarts ...... 291 Who Were the Stalwarts? ...... 291 Comparison of Stalwarts with Other Active AMS Members...... 291 Examining Chronological Age Issues ...... 292 Stalwarts’ Occupational Data ...... 293 Other Reasons the Stalwarts Continued in Meteor Work ...... 293 Contents xix

Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918 ...... 297 N.P. Ball...... 297 Grace H. (Bingham) Bessey ...... 298 Donald Brooks ...... 301 F.J. Carr ...... 304 Robert M. Dole...... 306 Family and Early Life...... 306 Early Meteor Watches and Variable Star Work ...... 308 Variable Star Observations ...... 309 Career with the Weather Bureau ...... 309 Dole’s Support for Olivier’s Goals ...... 310 A Lifetime of Contributions to Meteor Astronomy ...... 312 Kathleen M. Hempel...... 313 H. I. Johnson ...... 315 John Koep (1898–1949) and Philip Trudelle (1897–1966) ...... 316 Summary ...... 319 G.F. Kronenberger (1885–1926), R. Lambert, and W. Pattison...... 320 Lincoln Lapaz...... 321 Howard H. Martin (1889–1944) and John Whitaker Crain (1887–1953) ... 324 Personal History ...... 324 Meteor Observation Career ...... 325 J.M.T. Partello ...... 326 Meteor Career ...... 327 J.L. Peters ...... 328 T.K. Tomkins ...... 329 References ...... 330 Enrolled 1919–1929...... 337 Vincent Anyzeski ...... 337 F.L. Bradley ...... 338 Robert Brown ...... 339 Sterling (1901–1945) and Mildred (1906–?) Bunch ...... 340 J.J. Conboy, Jr...... 342 B.C. Darling ...... 343 Mrs. W.H. Edwards ...... 344 C.B. Ford ...... 345 A.J. Klapperich ...... 345 A.S. Lawrence ...... 346 J.H. Logan ...... 346 F.F. Marsh ...... 347 R.A. McIntosh ...... 348 Oscar E. Monnig...... 351 Miss V.J. Niebuhr...... 354 A.L. Peck ...... 355 Blakeney Sanders ...... 356 xx Contents

R.C. Shinkfield ...... 357 F.W. Smith ...... 358 I.L. Thomsen ...... 359 Miss M.E. Trimmier ...... 360 Goodrich Watkins ...... 362 B.S. Whitney ...... 363 References ...... 364 Enrolled 1930–1936...... 371 Russell Anderson ...... 371 L.E. Armfield ...... 372 Introduction...... 373 Early Years ...... 373 Armfield’s Astronomy Career ...... 374 Intensified Activity in 1934...... 375 1935: Milwaukee Hosted Drs. Shapley and Olivier ...... 377 1935: The Year the Wisconsin and Missouri Regions Joined Forces ...... 378 AAAA “Notes” in Astronomical Discourse and the MAS Bulletin ...... 379 1936–1937: Armfield’s Final Years of AMS Involvement ...... 380 Unfortunate Events ...... 380 Legacy in Wisconsin...... 381 Other Aspects of Armfield’s Life in Wisconsin ...... 382 Armfield’s Later Life Story...... 382 L. Arslanian ...... 383 Stewart R. Baker...... 384 James L. Black ...... 384 Edward F. Bowman ...... 385 Milton L. Braun ...... 385 Herbert A. Burns ...... 388 E.E. Friton ...... 389 Murray Geddes ...... 393 K.E. Gell ...... 395 J.W. Graham...... 396 Gordon Green ...... 397 Edward A. Halbach...... 399 Family History ...... 399 Making of an Engineer ...... 400 Astronomy: A Scientific Pastime ...... 401 Variable Stars ...... 402 Meteors and Technology...... 402 Academic Career at Marquette University...... 405 The Professor Married ...... 405 Scientific Work During Solar Eclipses ...... 405 More Participation in Scientific Aspects of Astronomy...... 407 Another Service to Amateur Astronomy ...... 408 Contents xxi

Employment After Marquette University ...... 408 Volunteering After Retirement ...... 409 William L. Holt ...... 409 Hideo Inouye ...... 410 Mary L. Jewett ...... 413 Jack T. Kent ...... 414 Texas A&M Astronomer...... 415 Mohd. A.R. Khan ...... 416 George P. Kirkpatrick ...... 419 J.H. Kusner...... 421 Louise M. Larrabee...... 423 Joseph Leerman ...... 427 Eppe Loreta ...... 428 R.W. Miller...... 432 Stuart L. O’byrne ...... 433 P.O. Parker ...... 436 J. Fraser Paterson ...... 438 W.J. Persons ...... 439 Frank Preucil ...... 442 Hope S. Pruett ...... 444 J. Hugh Pruett...... 446 Family Background and Early Life ...... 446 AMS’ Needs and Personal Interests Coincide ...... 447 Educator and Publicist ...... 448 “Act as a Local Director or Leader” ...... 449 An Appreciation ...... 450 G.W. Ridley ...... 451 J. Wesley Simpson ...... 452 G. B. Skinner ...... 459 Claude H. Smith ...... 460 Comet Country… ...... 460 And Meteors Too ...... 460 Autodidact ...... 462 A Life in Central New York’s Lake District...... 462 H. Stackpole ...... 463 William R. Stone ...... 464 Octogenarian Meteor Watcher...... 465 Sally Urquhart...... 466 Paul S. Watson ...... 467 J.D. Williams and the Arizona Observers ...... 471 Biographical Sketch ...... 471 Arizona Meteors ...... 472 The Arizona Observers ...... 473 Williams’ Academic Career After the Leonid Epoch ...... 475 xxii Contents

Wartime Consultant ...... 476 Research ANd Development ...... 477 R.H. Wilson, Jr...... 478 References ...... 480 Appendix A: American Meteor Society Data Published After 1936 .... 483 Appendix B: Guide to Sources American Meteor Society Annual Reports ...... 485 Index ...... 489 About the Author

Richard Taibi is a retired clinical and forensic psychologist who has been an amateur astronomer for 58 years. In the last 32 years, he has specialized in recording and reporting (almost 10,000) meteor observations to national (American Meteor Society) and international (International Meteor Organization) meteor databases. He has published two astronomers’ biographies (one is Charles P. Olivier in Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Vol.2 and “Edwin Forrest Sawyer” in the IMO’s Journal in 2004), and since 2012, he has published eight biographies of amateur astronomers on his blog, Skywatchers. Taibi has intensively studied American astronomy and astronomers both professional and amateur since 2001.

xxiii Abbreviations

AAS American Astronomical Society AAVSO American Association of Variable Star Observers AMS American Meteor Society FO Flower Observatory h hour/hours JRASC Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada MNRAS Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society PA Pennsylvania PA Popular Astronomy s second/seconds SAO/NASA ADS http://www.adsabs.harvard.edu/ A search engine that (Astrophysics Data System) is very useful for locating journal articles web site SPA Society for Practical Astronomy SSDI Social Security Death Index UPenn University of Pennsylvania USC United States Census UVA University of Virginia VA Virginia

xxv Introduction

Charles Pollard Olivier (1884–1975) was mentored from boyhood to be an astronomer by University of Virginia’s observatory director, Professor Ormond Stone. Olivier’s family home was located two miles from the university’s McCormick Observatory and the young man was frequently inside its hemispheric dome being taught how to use the 33-foot (10 m.)-long telescope and related scientific accessories. As important as that technical education was, Stone taught Olivier something more fundamental for his future career: the nature of subject matter appropriate to Astronomical Science. Stone was a practitioner of classical astronomy that emphasized accurate measurement of celestial bodies’ sky locations (called astrometry) and the calculation of precise orbits in which stars, planets, and comets moved (called gravitational astronomy, or, celestial mechanics). Young Charles absorbed and adhered to Director Stone’s instructions, particularly about how an astronomer should conduct research in the science. Reform of bad science In 1900, meteor astronomy was in a woeful state. It had suffered inept practice: specious celestial mechanics. A prominent English amateur observer, W.F. Denning had energetically cataloged thousands of meteor radiants, but he had fostered an erroneous theory which violated celestial mechanical realities. He exaggerated how many weeks meteors could physically be expected to come from the same spot, a meteor “radiant,” in the sky. The result was that many of the long-enduring meteor displays Denning had cataloged were nonexistent: they could have no physical reality. Denning’s apparent disregard of orbital realities severely irritated Olivier’s scientific sensibilities. Just as intolerable to Olivier was the indifferent acceptance of this error by the era’s professional astronomers; none of them stepped forward to object to Denning’s work. Olivier knew that if meteoric astronomy was to enjoy the respect of competent astronomers, the field’s apparent disregard of gravitational astronomy had to be corrected. Dr. Olivier reformed meteor astronomy by advocating stringent observational practices which he described in professional papers and taught to members of the

xxvii xxviii Introduction

American Meteor Society (AMS). From the AMS’ founding in 1911 until 1930, he impugned published erroneous radiants using AMS members’ meteor path drawings. Olivier’s four AMS monographs, 1911–1929, contained observational evidence that the Orionid radiant, once claimed to be stationary was indeed in motion. He also demonstrated how imprecise radiant determinations failed to show movement in some radiants because their data masked the daily progression of the radiant in the sky. Olivier’s masterful textbook review of meteoric astronomy, Meteors, marshaled comprehensive mathematical arguments against the existence of stationary radiants. In addition, his position as President of the International Astronomical Union’s Meteor Commission offered the energetic and determined Olivier many opportunities to combat mistaken concepts and practices among his colleagues in other nations. Articles claiming that stationary and long-enduring radiants existed vanished from meteor publications by the end of the 1930s, if not earlier. The citizen scientists of the American Meteor Society Amateur meteor astronomers, members of Olivier’s Meteor Society, were essential to his struggle to reform meteor science. They were a diverse corps of people who represented many educational and occupational backgrounds in the United States and the world; they were women and men, teenagers and adults, high school and college students, farmers and engineers, store clerks and lawyers, tradesmen and professors, railroad men and librarians, housewives and teachers, and ministers and business owners. Scores of these citizen scientists enrolled in the Society from 1911 to 1936; they furnished the meteor counts and meteor drawings which were the sources of Olivier’s scientific papers. AMS members played an indispensable role in saving meteor science. Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science contains a listing of all 277 citizen scientists who collaborated with Dr. Olivier from 1911–1936. They are identified by their full names, age at first participation, their educational background or their occupation as revealed in the US censuses or other reliable sources. For the first time, an inquisitive reader is able to learn who these citizen scientists were, who formerly were only identified by initials and family names and by their hometown. Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science is also first to identify women amateurs who contributed observational data and to fully recognize them in the same fashion as their male counterparts. Almost 90 of these AMS members contributed meteor data for three years or more and are each the subject of a more detailed biography in Part II of Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science. The reader will discover familial, educational, marital, and occupational information about a cross section of United States citizens (and a few foreign ones) who dedicated many hours to careful astronomical data collection and who as a group significantly advanced astronomers’ knowledge about meteor streams during the early 20th century The relevance of meteor astronomy in the United States From 1900 to 1940, American professional astronomers were leaving classical astronomy to pursue astrophysical studies, even then discovering some of the Introduction xxix cosmos’ secrets. Because meteor astronomy’s goal is to determine meteor showers’ orbits, it is a branch of classical astronomy. As such it was a member of the general class’ diminishing stature among professional astronomers. For example, young professionals abandoned the gravitational study of double stars’ orbits to pursue the study of those stars’ physical compositions. Observatory directors were much more willing to hire astrophysicists than classical astronomers. Even at universities and observatories which employed classical astronomers, there were very few meteor scientists. Years before the 1920s, meteor astronomy was being de-emphasized by astronomical institutions’ scientists. However, Dr. Olivier’s persistent investigations and publication of meteor discoveries began to reverse colleagues’ aversion to the field. Dr. Olivier’s treatise Meteors and his AMS reports, published by the McCormick Observatory and Carleton College from 1911–1936 gradually won support for meteor science among many astronomy professors in the USA. In 1911, Olivier’s fellow graduate students at McCormick Observatory were his only observational collaborators. But, by the end of the 1920s, meteor investigations were started by astronomers in astronomy departments at three universities: Harvard’s Harlow Shapley and Willard J. Fisher as well as Iowa’s Charles Clayton Wylie and Iowa Wesleyan’s Thomas Poulter. By 1936, there were five meteor-investigating organizations: the AMS, the Midwest Meteor Society, the Byrd Antarctic Expedition’s meteor program, Harvard College Observatory’s at Cambridge, and a joint Harvard-Cornell program in Flagstaff, Arizona. In addition, excitement about meteor studies generated a new scientific field. In 1933, the Society for Research on Meteorites (SRM) coined a term, meteoritics, to name their new specialty which emphasized the recovery and chemical analysis of meteorites. American meteor astronomy, in 1936 included three traditional atmospheric meteor research programs, two others which hoped to confirm claims of interstellar meteors, and the SRM extended the meteoric field’s inquiry to meteoroids that reached the earth’s surface. The astronomers who led the five newer organizations all sought prominent roles in meteor science. But competition with Olivier’s AMS was not the only dynamic in the field, there was collaboration with it too. By 1936, college mathematics and astronomy professors in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin were active AMS members who fielded their students to map meteors during the 1930s’ Leonid showers. Meteoric science was in disrepute and an irrelevant oddity at American observatories in 1911, but it regained an importance during the 1920s and ‘30s that it had last enjoyed in the 19th century. Charles Olivier and his Meteor Society deserved much of the credit for it. Meteor science and public opinion In the early 1900s, meteor science had lost the general public’s trust. Meteor astronomers failed to warn the public that forecasting a meteor shower performance was an imperfect art and specifically that the 1899 Leonid meteors might not storm. Professionals were complacent and allowed newspapers to ramp up public expectations for a spectacle. When the Leonids fizzled, the public’s reaction ranged from severe disappointment to hostile outrage with astronomers. The public complained xxx Introduction of being misled. Meteor astronomers had a great deal of public relations repair to do after 1900. Dr. Olivier was acutely aware of the public’s disillusionment with meteor astronomy. So to minimize the chances of other public relations catastrophes, Olivier issued carefully nuanced announcements before the 1930s’ Leonid showers which emphasized uncertainty about whether the upcoming shower would be a grand spectacle. He reminded the public that the Leonids had failed at the turn of the twentieth century. In order to minimize misleading announcements from AMS members, Olivier only permitted his carefully rehearsed regional directors to act as his spokesmen in their localities. In news articles about the Leonid showers, Olivier adopted the role of the inquiring scientist who needed to collect data to be sure of his conclusions. He asked the public to become a corps of citizen scientists, to act as his collaborators, by making hourly counts of Leonid showers during the 1930s. In this way, the public had a role in deciding whether or not the Leonids had stormed and in helping Olivier analyze the shower’s output using data they contributed. Newspaper editors and their readers loved this arrangement and the public submitted thousands of observations for Olivier’s analyses and reports. In addition to securing useful information the “pro-am” arrangement was beneficial for public relations: if the Leonids put on a meager show, the public could blame the shower and not the astronomer who warned them of its fickleness. By his 50th birthday, in 1934, Charles Olivier had revived meteor studies in the USA and mentored their development in some nations abroad. American Meteor Society members and non-member citizen scientists had responded to Olivier’s calls for help. Their data filled hourly rate, meteor train, and fireball radiant catalogs published by Olivier. Considering the prominence of astrophysics in the media during the 1930s, the public’s endorsement of meteor science had saved it from obscurity and possibly total abandonment by the astronomical establishment.

Some Background: Meteors, Comets, and Their Orbits

Meteors are the visible incineration of meteoroids that are the debris from comets’ disintegration. An immediate complication of that statement is that in a very few cases minor planets (asteroids) are known to be the source of meteor showers. However, to simplify the following exposition, comets will be assumed to be meteors’“parent bodies.” A meteoroid’s life cycle As comets approach the sun on each of their orbits, a layer of the icy matrix forming them melts or “sublimes” and in so doing rock-and-metal particles are liberated into interplanetary space. The particle, called a meteoroid is sent, by the force of its gaseous ejection into an orbit similar to the originating comet’s. Over eons, because of planets’ gravitational influences and even the pressure of sunlight, the Introduction xxxi meteoroid’s distance from the parental comet may increase enormously, even to millions of miles (and kilometers) away from it. Eventually, the meteoroid’s orbit intersects the earth’s and if the earth and the meteoroid arrive at the same point in space at the same time, the meteoroid enters the earth’s atmosphere and vaporizes leaving a bright streak of light: a “meteor” or “shooting star.” Meteoroidal and cometary orbits So far as is definitely known in historical times, a comet’s orbit has not yet intersected earth’s at a time when both bodies occupied the same spot at the same time. Fortunately, comets have given the earth a wide berth recently. However, meteoroids’ orbits have intersected the earth’s. The cometary particles are so faint as to be invisible in the night sky, and it is only when the meteoroids collide with and burn in the earth’s atmosphere, as meteors, that astronomers learn of their existence and that an orbit existed that brought the meteoroid to a fiery end. Meteoroids in the earth-bound orbit can be thought of as the “piecemeal arrival” of tiny portions of the parent comet when they impact the earth’s air layer. When they arrive in large quantities over a short period of time, people experience them as a “meteor shower” which appears to come from a restricted area of the sky. Problem: determining a meteor shower’s orbit Comets’ orbits can be determined more definitely than meteoroids’ because comets are visible for days and weeks. Their visibility allows their positions in the sky to be measured, and from these, the comet’s orbit is calculated. In contrast, meteoroids vanish in tenths of a second when their orbits direct them into the atmosphere. Their brevity, as meteors, leaves astronomers scrambling to deduce the orbit they traveled. Meteors do not persist long enough for astronomers to accurately locate them against the starry sky background, like they can do for the comet. In Dr. Olivier’s era, before meteors could be captured on film, astronomers were forced to sketch meteors’ paths on star maps as accurately as they could. After an hour or so, the meteor streak sketches, when prolonged backwards on the map, suggested a converging point of emanation in the sky, called a radiant. In a sense, the radiant indicates the presence and sky position of a virtual “astronomical body,” defined by meteoroids, which was on a collision orbit with the earth. This piecemeal “body” is the only object whose sky position astronomers could measure like they did for a comet, in order to calculate the now-vanished meteoroids’ orbit. This makes the radiant a key data variable in determining the shower’s orbit. But the radiant-as-virtual-heavenly-body-solution only posed more questions. The first one was: How large a “spot” in the sky should be accepted as the meteor shower’s radiant? Should the radiant area be as large as the full moon? Should it be as large as the area covered by the constellation Orion? A second puzzle was to decide how many meteors per hour were sufficient to recognize that a radiant existed. In other words how much in-falling meteoroidal matter was needed to constitute the virtual astronomical body? xxxii Introduction

Then, meteor scientists were confronted with a third puzzle: how many days in a row should a single shower exist? In 24 hours, the earth moves almost 1,600,000 miles (2,600,000 km) further along on its orbit from the location it was at when the meteoroids’ orbit first intersected the earth. Astronomers had to question the dimensions in space that this mass of ex-cometary particles could reasonably occupy as they pelted the earth. Could meteoroids from one shower strike the earth’s atmosphere for many millions of miles of its orbit? How many days in a row could the same meteoroidal orbit intersect the earth’s orbit? How many days must elapse before the two orbits parted company? Could a meteor shower continue for many months in a row? Disputes between astronomers were created when each one asserted differing answers to the above questions. As detailed in this book the disputes lasted for decades. Dr. Olivier identified the source of these arguments in the first paragraph of a chapter concerning radiants in his book Meteors: “What appears the most simple is in fact very complicated…the lack of an exact definition of the word, and of a clear understanding of what properly constitutes a radiant, has introduced more false ideas and complicated or made useless more meteoric work than any other single difficulty met in pursuing the subject”. Part I Olivier and Meteor Astronomy 1884–1936 Virginia

Fortunes of War and Peace

Charles Olivier was born 19 years and one day after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Charles was born 50 miles north of Appomattox in Charlottesville, the site of the University of Virginia which had been a military hospital during the Civil War. He was born to parents who had suffered from severe wartime privations, including the combat death of a family member, and yet were resilient enough to rise to the top postwar social tier of the city. From their inﬂuential social position, they proclaimed the glorious past of antebellum Virginia. Their ﬁrst child, Charles, was a respectful boy who loyally accepted their racial, religious, and political views. These remained with Charles throughout his adult life. His identity, formed in childhood, was that of a white antebellum Virginian. Charles’ family history began with a wartime tragedy 20 years before his birth.

Charles William Pollard

The future meteor scientist was named for his maternal grandfather, Charles William Pollard (1825–1864). Charles and his wife, Frances Baylor Pollard (1822– 1868), sold their 250-acre Albemarle County farm shortly before his January 1863 induction into the Confederate Army. Not only were the Pollards worried that the onslaught of Union troops would destroy their home, they wanted to use the sale’s proceeds to provide ﬁnancial security for Frances and the Pollard children,

14-year-old Katharine (Kate) and 12-year-old Benjamin should Charles be disabled or killed in combat.1 Charles Pollard was assigned to the Albemarle Artillery, a battery commanded by 23-year-old Captain James Walter Wyatt who was, in turn, under the command of Lt. Colonel William Thomas Poage. Under Poage’s direction, Wyatt’s Albemarle Artillery fired its cannons on Union troops at the battles of Chancellorsville in May 1863, Gettysburg in July 1863, and at the Wilderness in May 1864. A month after the Wilderness battle, Poage’s batteries were fighting at Cold Harbor, east of Richmond, Virginia. Just before daylight on June 3, Poage’s impulsive commander, General Henry Heth, directed Poage to send Wyatt’s Albemarle battery to confront Union troops and prevent them from outflanking the Confederates. Alarmed, Poage warned Heth that Wyatt’s men would be unlimbering their cannons from horse teams, in full daylight and in plain sight of the fully prepared enemy. Despite Poage’s protest that the unit would be helpless, Heth insisted on the mission. As Poage foresaw, the Union troops unleashed a fusillade on the helpless battery. Wyatt’s unit suffered horrific losses. Wyatt was shot no fewer than 23 times and Charles Pollard was killed along with thirty more comrades.2 Following Charles’ death, Frances Pollard brought her children to live in Petersburg, Virginia, and had Charles’ body buried in the city’s Blandford Church cemetery. Frances and her children spent the war years in Petersburg while one of the city’s sons, George Wythe Olivier,3 fought elsewhere for the Confederacy.

George Wythe Olivier

Charles’ father, George W. Olivier (1842–1923), could trace his American forebears back in time to the second half of the eighteenth century.4

1Sources were as follows: (1) Mention of Pollard’s conscription was found in Hewitt, Janet B., editor, Virginia Name Roster L-Z, volume II of Confederate State Roster, p. 732. (2) Deed Book number 60, p. 443, in the Albemarle County Courthouse, Charlottesville, VA. The Pollard farm sold for 9900 dollars according to the Deed Book, although it did not specify in which government’s currency, USA or Confederate States’. This sum was the family’s ﬁnancial foundation and the source of future security and investment. 2The history of the Albemarle Artillery and Captain Wyatt came from : Sherwood, W. Cullen and Richard L. Nicholas, Amherst Artillery, Albemarle Artillery, and Sturdivant’s Battery, p. 174, H.E. Howard, Inc: Lynchburg, VA. The Albemarle Artillery’s fate was detailed in Poague, William Thomas, Gunner with Stonewall, (Monroe F. Cockrell, ed.), University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, Nebraska, 1957 and 1998. pp. 96–99. Poage’s book described the conﬂicts in which he and his subordinates fought and provided general historical background about the unit. 3George W. Olivier’s household was enumerated in the 1870 US Census: Dinwiddie County, Virginia, City of Petersburg, 5th Ward, p. 349. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC. Olivier was described as a bookstore clerk in 1870. 4Chalkley, Lyman. Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, Vol II, Genealogical Publishing Co. 1912. Fortunes of War and Peace 5

He joined Company A of the 12th Virginia Infantry when he was 19 years of age and he fought Union troops beginning in May 1862. George’s duties took him to the Second Battle of Manassas on August 30, 1862, to Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862; and, to Chancellorsville on May 1–4, 1863, where he was captured by Union troops and was made a prisoner of war for ten days. Because it was common practice, early in the War, to exchange war prisoners, George was repatriated to Virginia. It is unclear whether he had been wounded at Chancellorsville or was simply exhausted from battle, but he was treated at military hospitals in Richmond and Petersburg for several months. In October 1863, he joined his brother Warner’s artillery battery commanded by Captain Richard Gregory Pegram, a Petersburg native. The Olivier brothers fought together for the remainder of the war. Their duties took them to North Carolina brieﬂy, but the last ten months of the war, from June 1864 to April 1865, were spent defending Petersburg during the Union Army’s siege and bombardment of the city.5 The Oliviers’ Petersburg defense was intensely personal because their parents and sisters were city residents. They risked injury or death due to a constant rain of Union mortar shells throughout the city.6 Ironically, as much as the two young soldiers feared for their relatives’ safety in the battered town, it was a visit to the city that saved their lives on July 30, 1864. On that day, the Union Army, frustrated by the city’s refusal to surrender, resorted to a desperate measure to break through the Confederate entrenchments surrounding the city. It exploded an 8000 lb (3600 kg) mine that by chance was sited in a tunnel dug under Pegram’s artillery battery. When the mine was detonated, the earth erupted below the doomed Confederate artillerymen. More than 100,000 cubic feet (2800 m3) of clay shot 200 feet (61 m) into the air. Falling masses of earth crushed over 300 Confederate troops, including all those who had manned Pegram’s cannons, and many in infantry companies who had been stationed nearby. Two of Pegram’s cannons were launched into the air by the blast and landed among the Union troops’ entrenchments.7 The Oliviers almost certainly

5G.W. Olivier’s military service was found in Richey, Homer, ed., Memorial History of the John Bowie Strange Camp, United Confederate Veterans, Charlottesville, 1920, pp. 172–173. The brothers’ reunion in Pegram’s Battery was deduced from an undated newspaper clipping by Warner L. Olivier, “Roster of Pegram’s Battery,” Library of Virginia, Dept. of Confederate Military Records, Accession # 20322a, Richmond, VA. 6Scott, J. and E. Wyatt IV, Petersburg’s Story, A History, Petersburg, VA: Titmus Optical Company, 1960; reprinted Richmond, VA: The Dietz Press, 1998, Chap. 10: Ordeal of a City. 7The description of devastation came from four sources: The war of the rebellion: a compilation of ofﬁcial records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, vol. 40, Part I, pp. 787–793, Government Printing Ofﬁce, Washington, D.C., 1892. This can be found entirely online at, http:// cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ANU4519-0080. Trudeau, Noah Andre, The Last Citadel, Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864-April 1865, Little, Brown, and Co., 1991, Chap. 6, especially pp. 100 and 109. Also see Power, J. Tracy, Lee’s Miserables. Life in the Army of Northern Virginia, U of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC. 1991, pp. 135–139. More accounts of the carnage at the Crater are in: Wilkinson, Warren, Mother, May You Never See the Sights I 6 Virginia would have been killed had they not been on overnight leave to join their family for dinner on July 29; the mine was detonated before they were due to return to their unit.8 When General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia abandoned Petersburg on April 2, 1865, the Oliviers’ artillery company followed its retreat westward. Survivors of Capt. Pegram’s battery were nearby when Lee surrendered his army to General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House. Within two or three days after that, the Oliviers followed hundreds of other Confederate troops to surrender their weapons. Then, the Oliviers’ war was over and they walked home to Petersburg. In a brief account of his wartime experiences, George proudly stated that he never missed a single day’s duty in the last seventeen months of the war.9

Katharine Roy Pollard Olivier

Katharine Pollard (1848–1910), “Kate” as she was known to her family, was left the sole survivor and heir to the family estate after her mother died in 1868 and her brother Benjamin was killed by a runaway horse in 1877.10 Kate and George Olivier met in Petersburg and married on May 29, 1880, in Baltimore, Maryland,11 but decided, in 1881, to raise a family in Kate’s native Albemarle County.12 They settled just outside the University of Virginia’s main gate in what was then called University, Virginia. They built a large brick home at

(Footnote 7 continued) Have Seen. Harper and Row, NY. 1990. This book contains an 1887 picture of Union survivors standing in the Crater which conveyed the immensity of the bomb crater. 8Personal communication from H. Cabell Maddux, Jr., on July 21, 2002. Mr. Maddux was G.W. Olivier’s grandson and reported this piece of family history to the author. 9Richey, Homer, ed., Memorial History of the John Bowie Strange Camp, United Confederate Veterans, Charlottesville, 1920, pp. 172–173. 10Frances and Benjamin are buried in the same cemetery plot as is Charles William Pollard, in Blandford Church Cemetery, Petersburg, VA. Their dates of death are inscribed upon their headstones. Olivier family oral history provided Benjamin’s cause of death. 11Baltimore City Court of Common Pleas (Marriage Record), 1869–1882, pp. 380–381; Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. Also: Telephone interview with H. Cabell Maddux, Jr. (HCM) on October 14, 2002. Katharine’s name was inscribed “Kate” in the Marriage Record. 12George and Katharine are listed as numbers 386 and 387, respectively, in the List of Communicants of Christ Church. The source is The Parish Register, for 1881. Fortunes of War and Peace 7

1021 West Main Street.13 The building was designed with rental apartments for university faculty and visitors to the area. George supplemented their income as a freight agent14 at the University railway station and by operating a college book- store15 which, like the Olivier home, was purchased with the proceeds of the Pollard estate.16 Daughters of the Confederacy Meeting Minutes that Kate wrote reveals a woman who possessed excellent composition, grammatical, and spelling skills.17 She had evidently obtained a good education. Family stories said she was a lively, intelligent, and sociable woman who was reportedly sought out by University of Virginia students for Civil War history discussions.18 Family accounts are that, as a girl, she had become accustomed to having household servants perform the more laborious chores around the house, and she continued the practice of having domestic help the remainder of her life. Kate and George Olivier were in the upper social tier of Charlottesville society and in 1900 the Olivier household employed a 76-year-old African American woman, described

13Charlottesville city directories list George Olivier’s address as “1021 West Main Street,” beginning in 1895: Prout & Fyler’s Directory, Charlottesville, 1895. Charles P. Olivier described the home as a large brick one with apartments in a retrospective history he wrote: History of the Leander McCormick Observatory, circa 1883 to 1928; Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 11, p. 203ff. Additionally, the University of Virginia’s Special Collections Library holdings contains a Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, dated February 1920, which contains Sanborn’s surveys of Charlottesville’s buildings. The survey shows the Olivier home on West Main Street. The Map’s color coding indicated that the building was of brick construction, with a wooden porch. The building was two stories tall and the map scaling indicated the house was approximately 60 feet (18 m) long. 14George Olivier is listed as “agent Adams Express” in Prout & Fyler’s Directory, Charlottesville, 1895. 15Charlottesville city directories dating from 1888 to 1923 list George Olivier’s proprietorship of a bookstore. An 1898 directory identified it as “University Book Store:” Directory of Charlottesville, Virginia, Charlottesville, VA: Harris and Sharpe, Publishers (Charlottesville Printing Co.), 1898. 16Telephone interviews with Alice (Olivier) Hayes and Henry Cabell Maddux, Jr. on October 14, 2002. Ms. Hayes is Charles Olivier’s eldest daughter and Mr. Maddux is Olivier’s nephew. Both informants stated their belief that the Pollard inheritance is what paid for the bookstore and the Oliviers’ home. 17Katharine Olivier joined the Albemarle Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy, in April 1895. Kate remained a member until she died in 1910. Kate’s application stated, “I, Katharine Roy Olivier, apply for membership in the Albemarle Chapter, Daughters of the Confederacy in Virginia. I am the daughter of Charles W. Pollard of Charlottesville, VA, who belonged to Wyatt’s Albemarle Battery, Poague’s Battalion, A.P. Hill’s Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, (who was) killed at the battle of Cold Harbor June 3rd, 1864.” Source: Papers of the Albemarle Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy 1894–1965, Box 1, Membership Applications, “O” folder; in the Special Collections, Alderman Library, University of Virginia (Minutes 1908), accession #MSS 11331. 18Telephone interviews with Elise (Olivier) Ferris and H.C. Maddux, October 14, 2002. Ms. Ferris is Charles Olivier’s youngest daughter. And, Papers of the Albemarle Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Box 3, Minutes 1908–1914; in the Special Collections, Alderman Library, University of Virginia (Minutes 1908), accession #MSS 11331-a. 8 Virginia as a servant who cooked for the family.19 Kate and George knew many of the university professors, including Charles Scott Venable, who had been a junior officer in General Robert E. Lee’s staff. And, her social relationship with the university faculty was strengthened by marriages of female relatives to instructors and professors.20 Kate was an active participant in Confederacy memorial organizations. She joined the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1895 and she was regarded as an authority concerning Charlottesville men who had served in Confederate Army. Katharine was a member of an “Examining Committee,” which certified the names of University students and faculty who had died to defend the Confederacy. When names had passed the Committee’s scrutiny, they were cast in two bronze tablets that were affixed to the south entrance of the University of Virginia’s Rotunda building on May 23, 1906.21 Kate was elected Secretary of the Daughters’ Albemarle Chapter in 1908 and President shortly before her death in 1910. She was eulogized by a past President of the Albemarle Chapter, who remembered Kate’s “…unfailing enthusiasm, her unfaltering energy, her boundless love for the Southern cause, and her loyalty to those who fought for it.”22

George Olivier’s Career After the War

Soon after arriving in Charlottesville in 1881, the Oliviers became communicants at Christ (Episcopal) Church and in 1883, George was elected to the Church’s Vestry. The Oliviers met Ormond Stone, Director of University of Virginia’s McCormick Observatory who was a fellow church member and George served with Stone on the vestry.23 George became active in civic affairs in 1887 when he sought to have his neighborhood in University annexed by Charlottesville.24 George’s political activities culminated in a term as Charlottesville’s Mayor from 1904–1908. He was

191900 US Census for the household of George W. Olivier, residing in Charlottesville, Virginia. 20Interviews with Ms. Ferris and H.C.Maddux, October 14, 2002. And, Olivier, Charles P., History of the Leander McCormick Observatory ca. 1883–1928; Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 11, part 26, p. 203. 21The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Virginia), May 24, 1906, Patriotic Devotion of the L.C.M. A. 22Papers of the Albemarle Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Box 3, Minutes 1908–1914; in the Special Collections, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, accession #MSS 11331-a. 23Vestry Meeting Minutes, Christ Church: 1883–1901. The Minutes books are in holdings of the Special Collections Library, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. 24Schulman, Gayle M. and Frierson, Melinda B., “Shall We Become a City?”, in, Magazine of Albemarle County Historical Society, vol. 46, pp. 6–9. Also an obituary of G.W. Olivier in Confederate Veteran for June 1924, vol. 32, p. 234. Fortunes of War and Peace 9 apparently an activist mayor, because he attempted to build Charlottesville its own electric power-generating plant, and to eliminate a rabies threat posed by unmuz- zled dogs. He also played a role in ridding Charlottesville of saloons. Some members of the city were particularly glad to see the saloons’ ruinous inﬂuence removed, so that the University’s students would not be corrupted by alcohol.25 George was active in the Masons and he was constantly in contact with Charlottesville’s many Confederate veterans. In 1889, the veterans organized themselves in a local Camp (chapter) of the United Confederate Veterans. Several of them had prominent positions at the University. Two of the notables were Charles Scott Venable and John William Mallet. Venable had been an aide to General Lee before becoming a mathematics professor, a post he kept for 35 years. Professor Venable was elected UVA’s Faculty Chairman and in this position was credited with much of the growth and development of the University after the war. He played a major role in acquiring the 26-inch refractor telescope and dome for the McCormick Observatory. Mallet was a Professor of Chemistry who had been involved in testing ordnance and had advised the Confederate Army on ordnance production methods during the war.26

The Lost Cause Psychology

General Lee’s surrender brought cessation of military conflict, but it did not bring serenity to most white Southerners. Charlottesville residents were no exception; they struggled to recover from the emotional and economic ravages of the Civil War. They were traumatized by deaths of family members as well as by desperate living conditions that were the aftermath of war. Following Appomattox, white Virginians, and white Southerners in general, rationalized their defeat; they glori- fied antebellum Virginia as an idealized time and place that was worthy of their wartime sacrifices.27 That mythical past was called The Lost Cause. The Lost Cause

25Sources: (1) Charlottesville City Directories, 1904–5, 1906–7, and 1912–3. Hill Co., Richmond VA., in the holdings of Albemarle County Historical Society, Charlottesville, VA. Also there: (2) Kean, Jefferson Randolph, “Street Railways”, Magazine of the Albemarle Co. Historical Soc’y, vol. 38, p. 128; and (3) Maurer, David A., “Muzzle laws put canines in dog house,” a ‘Yesteryears’ column in the Charlottesville Daily Progress for 10/6/1991. And (4) an obituary of G.W. Olivier in Confederate Veteran magazine, June 1924, volume 32, p. 234. 26Sources: (1) Confederate Veteran magazine, June 1924, volume 32, p. 234; Richey, op. cit., p. 7; (2) Williams, Thomas R., Development of Astronomy in the Southern United States, 1840–1914, in Journal for the History of Astronomy, volume 27, 1996, pp. 29–35; (3) Magazine of Albemarle County Historical Society (MACH), 1990, volume 48, pp. 15–16; (4) MACH, 1963–4, volume 22, pp. 198 and 204–5; and (5) electronic mail communication with Germain J. Bienvenu, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA. The United Confederate Veterans Association Records are at LSU's Library, Mss. 1357. 27Psychologists identify this normal, non-pathological, thought pattern as “reducing cognitive dissonance.” Speciﬁcally, it resembles “effort justiﬁcation,” one paradigm of dissonance reduction. 10 Virginia mindset became a feature of most white Southerners’ beliefs and the Oliviers espoused it in Charlottesville. Growing up in George and Kate’s household, their children accepted the Cause as historical reality. Kate told young Charles about the grandfather whose name he shared and the Lost Cause for which he died. As a result, their respectful son remained proud of old Virginia and its wartime heroes, Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jonathan (“Stonewall”) Jackson, until his dying day.

Virginia’s Astronomer

See Fig. 1. Ormond Stone (1847–1933) was a mathematical prodigy: At age seven, in less than six weeks’ time, he twice solved all the problems in an arithmetic text. Stone breezed through a Chicago public school education and in 1866 introduced himself to Truman Henry Safford (1836–1901) the director of the city’s Dearborn Observatory. Safford accepted 19-year-old Stone as a student assistant. During studies at the University of Chicago, Stone accompanied Safford to observe a total solar eclipse in 1869. There he was introduced to astronomers from the United States Naval Observatory (USNO) who were also studying the eclipse. The following spring, Stone was appointed an assistant at the USNO where he served until 1875 when University of Chicago conferred an A.M. degree on him in consideration of his prior study and mathematical publications during his work at the observatory. While a staff member at the Naval Observatory, its director, Simon Newcomb (1835–1909), became impressed with his mathematical ability and recommended Stone for directorship of the Cincinnati Observatory in Ohio where Stone remained until the 1882 appointment at University of Virginia.28

(Footnote 27 continued) Experimental evidence conﬁrms that when people make a costly effort and still fail, in the case of the Confederacy suffer defeat, their estimation of the reason for it is greatly enhanced; “Of course my goal was extremely important, I exhausted myself to achieve it” might be one expression of this form of dissonance reduction. 28This brief biography is an amalgam taken from several sources: Matz, F., Ormond Stone, Popular Astronomy, volume 3, 1896, pp. 452–454; Teare, S., Stone, Ormond, in T. Hockey, Editor, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 2, New York: Springer, 2007, p. 1093; and Editors, Who Was Who in America, Volume 1 (1897–1942), Fifth Printing, Chicago, Illinois: Marquis Who’s Who, 1962, p. 1193. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory/ National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Astrophysical Data System (SAO/NASA ADS) contains approximately 100 references to Ormond Stone’s publications. They begin in 1871 and for the next four years Stone published articles in astronomical journals on such topics as ﬁnding the distance to a comet, his analysis of astronomer Franz Brunnow’s method of correcting a comet’s orbit, and another on correcting a planet’s orbit. Virginia’s Astronomer 11

Fig. 1 Ormond Stone. Image courtesy of Carleton College archives

Ormond Stone and Gravitational Astronomy

National convocations are often the opportunity for specialists to pause in their busy lives to reflect on the broader issues and fundamental truths that underlie their professional pursuits. So it was in August 1888 when 41-year-old Professor Ormond Stone addressed colleagues at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Mathematics and Astronomy Section in Cleveland, Ohio. Stone identified the central goal that his colleagues strove to attain: “No other hypothesis has been suggested which offers such direct and complete answers to most of the questions which relate to the origin, structure, and unity of the universe, as Newton’s law of gravity. It is but natural, therefore, that the majority of the problems which arise in regard to the motions of the solar system should have their origin in an effort to confirm that law.”29 Stone’s listeners were being asked to reflect on the nagging reality that two centuries after Newton deduced his law of universal gravitation30 there were still

29Stone, O., Motions of the Solar System, The Observatory, volume 11, 1888, p. 363. 30The law of universal gravitation was published in 1687 as part of Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. 12 Virginia solar system bodies whose motions disregarded it31 and astronomers did not know why. More importantly, however, Stone had reminded his audience that the measurements they made at the telescope eyepiece and all their ingenious mathematical derivations were fundamentally related to conﬁrming Newton’s masterstroke: That human beings were able to describe and predict celestial bodies’ motions by using mathematics. Stone and his colleagues were “gravitational astronomers” and they wanted to work out the last irregularities of the clockwork universe in which Newton and they all believed.

Classical Astronomy

Classical astronomy is comprised of two principal components: gravitational astronomy, also called celestial mechanics, and astrometry. Astrometry and gravitational astronomy are complementary disciplines by which classical astronomers have mapped the physical universe and calculated the orbits of heavenly bodies. Gravitational astronomers would not have been able to describe a celestial object’s motion, its orbit, unless the sky was divided into a system of meridians, like longitudes on a globe, passing through the celestial poles and by lines parallel to the celestial equator, like lines of latitude on the globe. The zero point of the celestial longitude system is called the “first point of Aries.” It is the position the sun occupies in front of the star background when it appears to move from the southern to the northern sky in March at what is called an equinox. The first point of Aries also occupies the zero degree of right ascension the first of the sky’s 24 major longitudinal divisions, each one called an hour of right ascension. The first point of Aries is also on the celestial equator, which is a projection of the earth’s equator directly above it onto the sky. Parallel to the celestial equator is the sky’s analogy to latitudes, each one called a degree of declination. Together, hours of right ascension and degrees of declination provide the sky coordinate system on which astronomers locate any object observed in the sky. The act of locating an object on the coordinate grid is the heart of the astrometric enterprise. Gravitational astronomers begin to deduce a celestial body’s orbit by using accurate astrometric measurements of its location and how it moved among these invisible coordinate system lines.

Classical Astronomy as a Scientiﬁc Style

Astrometry is at least two millennia old. Greek astronomer Hipparchus (circa 190 BCE-120 BCE) measured the positions of 850 stars and compiled them in what may have been the ﬁrst star catalog which listed the stars’ celestial coordinates and

31Aspects of Mercury, two comets and the moon’s orbits were identified specifically by Stone. Virginia’s Astronomer 13 magnitudes.32 Astrometrical improvements have continued since then, most importantly the addition of data concerning stars of the southern hemisphere which Hipparchus and numerous later northern hemisphere astronomers were not able to observe because the earth’s bulk intervened to the south of their latitude. The most recent and accurate catalog, published in 1997, was the result of a survey conducted by a satellite, named for Hipparchus.33 Star catalogs, of any era, are long tables of star names, their right ascensions and declinations, and their magnitudes. They are invaluable resources to observational astronomers because they are guides to the discovery of new objects such as stars which vary in brightness (variable stars and novae) and not listed in existing catalogs. Some astronomers devoted careers to reexamining cataloged stars, improving the accuracy of their positions, confirming and improving magnitude measurements, and measuring minute changes in the stars’ positions, called the stars’ proper motions. Cataloged stars are invaluable to gravitational astronomers because the identified stars’ listed positions allow comparison to moving objects’ (like planets, their satellites, asteroids, and comets) positions so that the objects’ rate and direction of motion can be recorded as used as data to calculate the objects’ orbits. Despite the usefulness of astrometric compendia to classical astronomers, star catalogs are numbingly boring and their purpose is impenetrable to non-specialist readers. Similarly, classical astronomers’ published positions of comets, asteroids, and planetary satellites are numerically cryptic and intended for colleagues’ use in orbital computations and not intended for the general public’s consumption. It was rare for one of the classical astronomers to write a popularization of their specialty for the public’s enlightenment. Their public announcements most often took the form of rising and setting times of solar system objects and times of upcoming solar and lunar eclipses. Walt Whitman’s poem, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer, described how disillusioned the poet was during a public lecture by one of the nineteenth century’s classical astronomers. Classical astronomers believed that their silent labors at the telescope and computations at their desks would mostly have increasing value to their successors in future decades, and they were content with this believing that this was how a science developed and matured. Classical astronomers were not primarily motivated to discover new objects, but they were scholars who preferred to add improved data to the science’s archives and to devise more sophisticated mathematical formulae to determine celestial objects’ positions, orbits, and distances.34 Ormond Stone was an astronomer of the classical school.

32Ridpath, I., Oxford Dictionary of Astronomy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 218. 33Ibid. 34See Lankford, J., American Astronomy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997, pp. 26–34 for a description of classical astronomers’ interests and pp. 40–48 for a description of their mindset. The present author’s description of classical astronomy and astronomers was greatly inﬂuenced by Lankford’s book. 14 Virginia

Some of Ormond Stone’s Accomplishments

Stone was highly regarded for his precise astrometric catalogs of southern nebulae and stars and for his elegant contributions to mathematical astronomy. He was also respected for his acumen in identifying promising young men who became the next generation of classical astronomers, mathematicians, and scientists in other ﬁelds. Stone began contributing to mathematical astronomy in the early 1870s when he was a USNO assistant observer. His publications appeared in Astronomisches Nachtrichten (AN), an international journal in which astronomers published the numerical data obtained from telescopic observations of stars, planets and satellites, comets, and asteroids. From 1874–1875, AN published Stone’s mathematical solutions for determining comet–earth distances and for correcting orbits of comets and planets.35 Articles under his name from 1876 to 1883 consisted of hundreds of precise measurements of the distance between the two components of double stars that he and Cincinnati Observatory staff members made using a telescope eyepiece-mounted measuring instrument called a micrometer.36 Still other of Director Stone’s articles were astrometric measurements of comets and asteroids’ sky positions.37 While Stone was in Cincinnati, in addition to the work already mentioned, he made contributions to an enormous star catalog that had been under development since he was in Chicago’s public schools. Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander (1799– 1875) and assistants, astrometrists at Bonn Germany’s observatory, had completed an ambitious star catalog named the Bonner Durchmusterung38 in 1863. The BD was printed with 37 charts that plotted the catalog’s stars. The BD listed and mapped 324,000 stars as faint as the 10th magnitude (40 times fainter than stars seen with the human eye) as far south as −2° of declination. Argelander’s successor, Eduard Schonfeld (1828–1891), continued the BD by cataloging and mapping 133,000 more stars to −23° of southern declination.39 Stone took advantage of the fact that Cincinnati was located at latitude south of Bonn’s in order to thoroughly survey the sky inaccessible to Bonn, to a declination of −24°. He

35Full titles of these papers can be found by entering “Ormond Stone” in the SAO/NASA ADS Web site’s search engine. The engine’s output is a reverse chronological list of Stone’s publications and biographical articles about him. 36The longest survey was, Stone, O., Micrometrical measurements of 1054 double stars observed with the 11-inch refractor from January 1878 to September 1879; Publications of the Cincinnati Observatory, volume 5, Cincinnati, Ohio: Board of Observatory Directors, 1879, pp. 1–152. 37Full titles of these papers can be found by entering “Ormond Stone” in the SAO/NASA ADS Web site’s search engine. The engine’s output is a reverse chronological list of Stone’s publications and biographical articles about him: search between the dates of 1876 and 1882. 38Loosely translated the meaning of “Durchmusterung” would be “an exhaustive or comprehensive listing.” 39A detailed history of the BD and Schonfeld’s addition is given in Joseph Ashbrook’s “How the BD was made,” in his Astronomical Scrapbook, an anthology collection edited by Leif Robinson, Boston, Massachusetts: Sky Publishing Corporation, 1984, pp. 427–436. Virginia’s Astronomer 15 began the project in Ohio but continued it when he took up the directorship of Virginia’s McCormick Observatory which was even further south than Cincinnati. Virginia’s McCormick 26-inch refractor was 15 inches greater in diameter than the Cincinnati Observatory’s. The larger lens allowed Stone and his assistants, graduate students in astronomy, to discover fainter objects than possible with the Ohio 11-inch. The Virginia astronomers used the telescope to ﬁnd and measure the positions of diffuse, mist-like objects that astronomers of that time called nebulae and which we now know to be vast galactic systems of stars.40 At the same time, Stone directed work on a Virginia Durchmusterung catalog of almost 6700 stars. The Durchmusterung and the catalog of southern nebulae were published in 1915, three years after Stone retired.41

Educator and Mentor of Future Prominent Men

Two biographers remarked about Ormond Stone’s interest in the education of young people.42 Before Stone began work with the USNO, he taught at two Midwestern high schools for three years, 1867–1869. He devoted the last ten years of his tenure at UVA to the improvement of Virginia’s educational system by serving as vice-president of the Virginia State Teachers’ Association.43 And, of course, during the 30 years as a Professor of Astronomy, he taught many of the University’s astronomy courses to undergraduates as well as his graduate students. However, even more impressive was the number of his grad students and observatory assistants who went on to prominent careers. Olivier believed Stone’s prescience was due to an instinctive sense of a student’s promise, and even more impressive was Stone’s ability to instill in him a desire to continue in a long-term scientiﬁc career. Thirty of Stone’s graduate assistants from 1888–1912 went on to careers in science and related academic or research ﬁelds of endeavor. Among the better-known, were Edgar Odell Lovett, who became President of Rice University, and Heber Doust Curtis who contested Harvard astrophysicist Harlow Shapley’s opinion about cosmology. Among Stone’s other achievers were two college

40“Nebulae” were later classified into new celestial categories, such as galaxies external to our galaxy the Milky Way, and gaseous clouds that were denizens of it. 41Stone O., Leavenworth, FP, Wilson, HC, Egbert, HV, Jones, J., Durchmusterung, −23 degrees, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 1, 1915, pp. 101–171. Immediately following in the same Publications volume is “Southern Nebulae 1887”: Stone, O., Leavenworth, F., Muller, F., and Parrish, NM., pp. 173–244. Ashbrook, op.cit., 1984, p. 436 mentions Stone’s Durchmusterung. 42Matz, F., Ormond Stone, Popular Astronomy, volume 3, 1896, pp. 452–454. The second person to make the comment was Olivier: see both of his papers cited under references. 43Editors, Who Was Who in America, Volume 1 (1897–1942), Fifth Printing, Chicago, Illinois: Marquis Who’s Who, 1962, p. 1193. 16 Virginia presidents, five astronomers, six professors of mathematics, and two professors of physics. In addition to these, five of Stone’s supervisees at Cincinnati Observatory were later selected for directorships at other observatories: Herbert Alonzo Howe (Denver), Francis Preserved Leavenworth (Minnesota), William Wallace Payne (Carleton College), Winslow Upton (Brown University), and Herbert Couper Wilson (Carleton College after Payne retired).

Virginia’s Leander McCormick Observatory

Stone arrived at the University of Virginia in 1882, shortly after George and Katharine Olivier built a home just outside the University’s main entrance and two years before the Oliviers’ son, Charles, was born. McCormick Observatory was built on a campus hilltop named after Thomas Jefferson, who founded the University of Virginia. Local lore had it that Jefferson intended the site to be for an astronomical observatory. Leander James McCormick (1819–1900), coinventor of a mechanical reaper that made him and his brothers Cyrus and William wealthy, was the philanthropist who paid for the facility’s telescopes, buildings, and clocks. McCormick was a native Virginian and he intended that the observatory’s largest telescope should have a larger lens than the 26-inch lens at the United States Naval Observatory (USNO). McCormick, in a competitive mood, wanted his native state to have a research instrument that was superior to the one at the USNO, often called the “National Observatory.” Optician Alvan Clark, the telescope’s manufacturer, succeeded in gratifying McCormick’s wish by making the objective lens a quarter-inch larger than the Washington one. The observatory and its telescope were objects of pride which symbolized Virginia’s place at the forefront of the other states. In 1882, a mere 17 years after Appomattox, the observatory was in operation when Director Stone arrived to take charge of it. At the time McCormick Observatory was built, refracting telescopes (ones with lenses in front, like a giant spyglass) alternatively called refractors were considered the optimal optical system for astronomical research. McCormick Observatory was similar to other observatories because it had a large principal instrument, the 26-and-a-quarter inch (66 cm.) and a few smaller refractors that were intended to fulﬁll supporting tasks of a routine nature. One of the latter refractors had a three-inch (7.6 cm.) lens mounted in a transit instrument that was used to time the passage of stars across the observatory’s meridian, the imaginary line passing from a point due north of the observatory’s horizon overhead to its south horizon point. Meridian transit telescopes were used to establish an observatory’s longitude, check clock time errors and measure a star’s right ascension, and declination. McCormick equipment also included a four-inch (10 cm.) refractor which may have been intended for instructional purposes. Olivier recalled becoming familiar with all three of these telescopes, along with their purposes and modes of operation. Young Charles 17

Fig. 2 Charles Pollard Olivier, circa 1894. The Olivier family home at 1021 West Main Street is seen behind Charles. Image courtesy of H. Cabell Maddux, Jr

Young Charles

See Fig. 2. George and Katharine Olivier started their family in the middle and late years of the 1880s. Their ﬁrst child, Charles Pollard, was born on April 10, 1884. Charles’ sister, Katharine Roy, was named after her mother and was born nearly three years after her brother, on March 14, 1887. A second daughter, Frances Courtenay, named for her maternal grandmother, died in infancy on June 21, 1889.44 Kate and George were avid readers and encouraged their children’s intellectual lives. The children also absorbed their parents’ vigorously expressed opinions about the valor of General Lee’s army and the sacriﬁces Virginia’s soldiers had made to preserve the Old Dominion’s idealized heritage. The Oliviers also taught their children a disdain for alcohol, adherence to the Episcopal Church, and a diligent work ethic.

Life in Charlottesville Circa 1890

In his history of McCormick Observatory, Charles Olivier described the social and economic state the university town was in during his childhood. Charlottesville was a small town of about 5000 people with about 3000 Whites and 2000 African

44Infant Frances’ birth date was found in: Cemetery Burial Listing for Maplewood Cemetery, City of Charlottesville, Dept. of Parks and Recreation, Charlottesville, VA. 18 Virginia

Americans. Olivier described most of the population, except the University’s small number of professors, as living in extreme poverty. Professors earned $3000 a year, an amount equivalent to about $80,000 (USD) in 2014, which made them seem wealthy to the townspeople. In comparison with the academics’ income, a well-paid store clerk made about $600 a year, similar in buying power to $15,000 recently. More typically, Olivier noted was a servant’s income of $120 a year, $3000 today. Nearly everyone was forced to raise some of their own food. The Olivier family lived at 1021 West Main Street, which at the time was a ﬁve-minute walk from the University of Virginia’s eastern entrance and two miles (3 km) from McCormick Observatory. The Oliviers were acquainted with several of the professors through church afﬁliation and due to marriages with some of Kate’s relatives. George Olivier and Ormond Stone were vestrymen in the local Episcopal Church and through this association the Oliviers developed a friendship with him. Stone was a frequent visitor to the Olivier home and in due course got to know their son. The astronomer became impressed with the boy and urged him to train in astronomy. Charles eagerly accepted Stone’s instructions in the use of the McCormick Observatory telescopes. By the age of 17, in the summer of 1901, Charles was living with Stone and his wife while employed at the observatory.

First Meteor Watch

Charles Olivier never informed his readers how he first decided to watch meteors. It is unclear whether it was his own idea, whether Professor Stone suggested it, or Stone only encouraged Olivier’s native interest. But, however he started out, watching meteors was typical of the way many young people begin a serious interest in astronomy. He was becoming capable of disciplined scientific study and just in time for one of the Leonid meteor shower’s three-times-in-a-century “storm” returns. He was 14-years-old for that first watch on November 14, 1898. That was the date Charles launched a lifelong career as a meteor astronomer.

The 1899 Leonid Meteor Shower

Leonids and Other Meteor Showers

The phenomenon we call meteor showers is produced by many individual meteors, or shooting stars, that occur during the span of a few days and emanate from a small area in the sky, called a radiant. Showers may last for a few or for many days, but occur annually on about the same calendar dates of the year. So, for instance, the Leonid shower (named because of its radiant in the constellation Leo) occurs The 1899 Leonid Meteor Shower 19 annually from about November 10 to November 23. Showers have a “maximum” which means that shower meteors arrive in the earth’s atmosphere in their greatest numbers per hour on a day or two during their annual return. In recent years, the Leonid maximum has been about November 17 or 18. The nights of a shower’s maximum are the ones people ﬁnd most interesting to watch because of the greater number of meteors and because shower meteors on the maximum tend to be the brightest. Why does an observer see such a meteoric display? Meteors are ﬁery streaks in the earth’s atmosphere that result when tiny solid particles thought to be stone and metal burn from friction with air molecules. The particles, called meteoroids, travel at speeds of miles (or kilometers) per second. They originated in the icy cores of comets and they were freed from the ice when the parent comet raced past the sun. The meteoroids assumed similar orbits to the comet’s and travel at about the same velocity the comet had in its orbital path around the sun. The meteoroids only strike the earth’s atmosphere if their orbits intersect the earth’s. Meteor showers occur annually because not all the meteoroids are consumed at one occurrence; more remain to collide with the earth for many years to come. Showers last for days because meteoroids orbit the sun in widebands, not in narrow ones and the earth needs time to pass through the band. In fact, the band’s width can be judged by how long the earth takes to pass through to “the other side” of it. In some years, the earth’s orbit intersects a denser band of comet debris, called a meteor trail, and the meteor shower is spectacular with hundreds or even thousands of meteors seen in an hour. Such a situation is called a meteor storm and the Leonid meteoroids put on an exhibition like this about every 33 years during recent centuries.

The 1899 Leonid Shower

Virginians were alerted to an expected Leonid storm and read about their astronomer’s effort to observe it:

The Times (Richmond, Virginia), November 15, 1899: LOOK OUT FOR THE METEORS- Prof. Ormond Stone Prepared to Make Comprehensive observations- Charlottesville, VA, Nov 14. To observe the meteoric display expected this week, Prof. Ormond Stone of the Leander McCormick Observatory of the University of Virginia, has established a line of six observing stations extending from a point north of Earlysville across the country to Scottsville. Each station is provided with at least two observers and a good photographic outfit, by means of which it is hoped that trails of the meteors may be secured on the sensitive plates. Ormond Stone hoped that the teams’ work would yield important information about the Leonids, like how numerous they were that “storm year” and their altitude when they first struck earth’s atmosphere. He selected the six teams’ sites along a north–south line so that if two teams recorded the same meteors, their height could be calculated and an empirical measure could be made of the atmosphere’s height above the earth’s surface. In 1899, four years before the Wright brothers’ 20 Virginia gasoline-powered airplane flew, meteor heights were the only way to investigate the extent of earth’s airy envelope. Stone’s 1899 Leonid expedition was Olivier’s debut on a scientific research team. Charles was stationed at the southernmost station as assistant to James Adair Lyon (1876-circa 1962)45 a senior graduate student at University of Virginia (UVA). Sixty-eight years later, Olivier recalled their experience,

The moon was about full, but our hopes were high. On the ﬁrst night, November 13, which was partly cloudy, the uncorrected rate (of meteors) was about 10 per hour, on November 14, with a clear sky, it dropped to 3 per hour. To our bitter disappointment, the predicted shower did not appear. As it had been widely publicized in the press, this gave meteoric astronomy a black mark from which it took a generation to recover. To his credit, 15-year-old Charles Olivier did not turn his back on meteor astronomy. But there were many people across America and Europe who did. A typical public reaction was one Virginia newspaper’s contempt for astronomers’ failure to deliver a sensational meteor storm:

Daily Press (Newport News, VA), Nov. 24, 1899- The esteemed Alexandria Gazette … voices the protest in the following language: ‘There have been many notorious fakes during the last few years, but unquestionably, the greatest of all was that recently perpetrated by the astronomers upon a gullible people in respect of shooting stars. The ‘Leonids’ will probably give the name to many of the fakes of future years.” The same newspaper expressed the privations the public endured while it kept its vigil,

Daily Press, Nov 17, 1899: THE STAR GAZERS-Watched ‘till the white morning for meteoric shower- GRIEVOUSLY DISAPPOINTED- The fact that the much-talked of star shower failed to materialize yesterday morning was a source of grievous disappointment to numerous people who have lost a good deal of sleep lately sitting up watching for the phenomenon… the fact remains that the star shower did not arrive. This is lamentable, for all classes and conditions of folk were looking for it, some of them at considerable inconvenience to themselves… The Virginian-Pilot’s review on November 22, 1899, was an indictment of the astronomical profession,

the Meteoric shower this year like that of 1866 was a failure which proves that though astronomers can safely calculate on the movements of celestial bodies in well-deﬁned orbits they are not yet fully up to the task of corralling a comet or the remains of one. All across the US reports were similar about the Leonids’ failure to storm. A good summary was in a New York City newspaper published the day after the storm was predicted:

45Lyon’s academic career is summarized on Tulane University’s Web site regarding its Department of Physics and his years as a Vanderbilt Fellow at University of Virginia are cited in Olivier, C.P., Ormond Stone, Popular Astronomy, volume 41, pp. 295–298. The 1899 Leonid Meteor Shower 21

New York Tribune, Nov 17, 1899, page 2- The Meteors not Seen Here- In other places the display yesterday morning was inferior to that of Tuesday and Wednesday- “At Princeton Wednesday night many students stayed out of bed until long after midnight…the fire bells rang at 1 am the hour at which, according to Dr. Johnstone Stoney, the English expert, the shower was expected to occur. Prof. Young set up his photographic instruments near his observatory to obtain views of meteors, but no photographs were taken of the few stray ones seen… A somewhat better story comes from Harvard. Fifty Leonids were noticed. The watchers at Flower Observatory, Philadelphia counted 102 faint meteors of which 69 came from Leo. In Chicago, thirty meteors were seen. At Denver, in a quarter of an hour, just before 2 am, 18 were observed. Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, reports twenty as the whole night’s record. Prof. Rees of Columbia…had little luck up to 2 am…when the sky cleared…in the following two hours several photographs were obtained. Fifty-nine meteors in all were counted in the morning. Only one of these was classed as of the first magnitude. None of the meteors sighted exploded, and few left trails. Across the Atlantic Ocean in England, the shower was no better, as reported in the New York Tribune, on November 17, 1899:

European Observations a Failure- London, Nov. 16- a few Leonids were seen from the Greenwich Observatory, although no photographs were secured…generally speaking, the European observatories proved a failure.’ The Tribune went on to report more outrage at the ﬁasco; a Newcastle newspaper was trenchantly indignant and frankly paranoid about England’s astronomers:

The whole thing has been very cleverly worked. The agency of the whole press of the United Kingdom has been enlisted in a grand attempt to delude the populace. Eminent astronomers have written pointing out exactly when and where the meteors may be expected to appear. Thousands of sober citizens who give no other sign of insanity have spent hours on succeeding nights in endeavouring to locate the exact spot in which the meteors would be seen, and have gone to bed with a bad temper, a cold in the head, and crick in the back of the neck. Meanwhile, no doubt, the comfortable bedrooms at Greenwich Observatory were rocking with the laughter of the men who had taken in a nation. However, buried in the avalanche of failure reporting, there were two reports of spectacular sky shows in Russia and Berlin,46 but as recently as 2013 it was not possible to conﬁrm them in an online news source.

46New York Tribune, on November 17, 1899, page 2, “Panic in Russia. Remarkable effect of the expected Meteoric Display- London, Nov. 16: In Russia the Leonid displays caused a popular panic in many places. It was believed that the end of the world had come. Churches were open all night long and hundreds of thousands spent three nights in the open air, fearing earthquakes and a general cataclysm…There was a rather brilliant display between 2 and 5 o’clock Thursday morning at Berlin.” A quick check, on October 11, 2013, of online information failed to reveal any scientiﬁcally conﬁrmed accounts of Russian or German meteor storms in 1899 and mention of them does not appear in current astronomical history publications. 22 Virginia

Postmortem

What went wrong? In fact, astronomers had been warned about the Leonids, albeit very shortly before the shower’s occurrence. On November 10, 1899, just six days before the predicted arrival of the Leonid storm, astronomer Dr. George Johnstone Stoney (1826–1911) alerted colleagues that the 1899 Leonids’ storm potential was in considerable doubt. His calculations showed that the meteoroids’ orbit had shifted, been ”perturbed,” by Jupiter’s gravitational inﬂuence so that the particles would arrive closest to earth on November 1647, but unfortunately they would pass 1,300,000 miles (2,100,000 km) inside, closer to the sun than, the earth’s orbit.48 So, the giant planet literally “stole the show.” The London Times published Downey’s notice to the public on November 14,49 but it was unfortunately too late to change the public’s expectations and the newspapers quoted above expressed the public’s outraged reaction.

Damage to Public’s Trust in Professional Astronomy

At the end of the nineteenth century, professional astronomers had, for two centuries, impressed the public with the accuracy of their predictions for solar and lunar eclipses and forecasts of the planets’ locations in the constellations. Precision came as a result of Isaac Newton’s development of celestial mechanics and mathematical analyses in his text Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) published in 1687.50 Each nation had national observatories, the United States’ Naval Observatory in Washington and Greenwich Observatory in England were the two that reﬁned the calculation of planetary location timetables, called ephemerides, and improved the precision with which stars’ celestial coordinates, known as right ascension and declination, were known. By the 1890s, the public believed that the Universe was a machine whose “gear

47The prediction was for “November 15, 18 h.” Owing to how astronomers numbered the hours of the day before 1925, (a day began at noon and ended the following noon) a non-astronomer would have needed a translation of the prediction to 6 a.m. on the 16th. 48Editor, The Leonids of 1899, Observatory, volume 22, 1899, p. 434 ff.; and Payne, W.W., The Failure of the Leonids in 1899, Popular Astronomy, volume 8, 1900 (January), pp. 15–17. In 1925, Olivier retold the reasons for the failure: Meteors, pp. 39–40. For a recent explanation of the meteoroid-miss, and a comprehensive treatment about how meteor trails intersect earth’s orbit, see Jenniskens, P., Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets, Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008, especially pp. 157–159. 49See Observatory article and Payne articles in endnote 4. 50Ridpath, I., A Dictionary of Astronomy, Oxford, UK and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 375: Principia. The 1899 Leonid Meteor Shower 23 works” were well known and astronomers’ predictions could be relied upon for their accuracy. The failure of the 1899 Leonids to storm was a huge shock to this assumption. Apparently, the Universe had some secrets which it had not yet divulged to Science and that idea was deeply troubling to many members of the public interested in astronomy. Average citizens were not the only class of people who became impatient with meteoric astronomy after the debacle in 1899. Writing 26 years later, in his textbook, Meteors, Dr. Olivier wrote about the failure’s impact on the astronomical profession:

Certainly meteoric astronomy has never since in America recovered its proper place in the attention of professional astronomers as a class, and only recently in Europe have trained men of great ability again begun to turn serious attention thereto, with a very few honorable exceptions who labored during twenty years in an almost neglected ﬁeld.51 Of course, there were astronomers like Stoney who only became more intrigued and investigated further as to the reasons for celestial events that did not occur “on schedule” or as predicted. Surely deeper analysis would disclose the Universe’s secrets? This rhetorical question may have occurred to Charles Olivier and it may have motivated the 15-year-old to pursue a career in gravitational astronomy, sometimes called “celestial mechanics.” He would try to understand the “machinery” involved in meteor showers and perhaps reclaim some respectability for meteoric studies.

Portrait of the Young Man as an Astronomer

Charles Olivier was not an autobiographer by temperament, and in particular, he published very little about his early life experiences and nothing about life with his parents. Readers have to rely on his sketch about Charlottesville in his history of McCormick Observatory to glean ideas about circumstances in his hometown when he was a youth. Olivier’s family history had to be pried loose from the historical matrix that is Virginia’s Civil War records. Factors that account for his reticence may be the turn-of-the-twentieth-century fashion to be circumspect about personal matters and because he early adopted a writing style which scientists use that focuses on the data and not on the scientist. So, a student of Olivier’s life and career is left with his scientiﬁc writings and the impression that Olivier was his scientiﬁc work. Even so, the energy that young Olivier invested in his early astronomical work suggests the passion he would bring to his future career.

51Olivier, C., Meteors, Baltimore, Maryland: Williams and Wilkins, Co., 1925, p. 38. 24 Virginia

A Research Plan Conceived in High School

Charles Olivier was a high school student when he made the 1898 Leonid watch. He rated that return the second best he saw of the 1899 series of Leonid showers, second only to the 1901 return. Olivier spent four hours watching Leonids in 1898 and he counted 100 of them and another 20 meteors from unknown radiants, called “sporadic meteors.” His watch was not simply recreational stargazing. Instead, he sketched the path meteors made in the sky on a star map. To accomplish this, he needed to note where the meteors darted between stars and then reproduce their flights on the map; this is not an easy task because most meteors disappear in less than a half-second. Most likely, he emulated meteor-plotting procedures gleaned from an article published in Popular Astronomy (PA) published in 1893,52 by an English meteor observer widely regarded as the most accomplished in the world: William Frederick Denning (1848–1931). Olivier admitted that he did not think his sketches were accurate for the first three years of this work, but he made the effort and gained skill as he practiced. Why did Olivier want to devote three years developing meteor-plotting skill? From about 1835 to the 1890s, astronomers had searched for meteor radiants in order to identify new showers. An accurate meteor plot located a radiant and doing so was the preliminary to calculating a new meteor shower orbit. And if an observer only found a previously known one, at least he had the consolation that the observation confirmed an earlier discovery. Olivier aspired to join the ranks of a few expert European meteor observers who had plotted 5000 meteors and whose work had established the sky positions of meteor radiants during the previous 40 years.53 Beginning in 1898, Olivier’s intention was to compile a catalog of meteor orbits and by the end of 1910 he had sketched more than 6000 meteors toward the goal. However, he had not decided upon a research application for these orbits until 1904. When he did, it was one that would require much of his energy for the next 30 years.

52Denning, W., Shooting stars, how to observe them and what they teach us. A series of articles in Popular Astronomy, volume 1, September 1893 to June 1894. But the source about plotting is pp. 67–71 in the volume. Page 68 has direction to use “a perfectly straight rod or wand” to trace a meteor’s sky path in order to accurately chart it. This advice was a ﬁxture in all of Olivier’s future advice to AMS members. 53He noted in his dissertation: “So far as I have been able to ﬁnd from records, Corder, Denning, Heis, and Zezioli are the only four observers who have each observed over 5000 meteors.” Olivier, C., 175 Parabolic Orbits and other results deduced from over 6200 meteors; Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, N.S. Vol. 22, Part 1, 1911, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, p. 5. Portrait of the Young Man as an Astronomer 25

Astronomical Activities in High School

Young Charles was an active amateur astronomer during his high school years. His publications show that from 1898 to 1901, Olivier made 15 meteor watches, 12 of them in 1900, during which he perfected his meteor-plotting skills. During those years, he spent a total of 38 h observing and recorded a total of 597 meteors. Perhaps to encourage Olivier to pursue astronomy as a career, Professor Stone invited him to come on a ﬁeld expedition at the end of Olivier’s junior year. The teenager accompanied McCormick Observatory staff to Winnsboro, South Carolina, in order to observe a solar eclipse on May 28, 1900. Although Olivier was not given an active role, the young amateur was undoubtedly thrilled to watch Stone’s observatory assistants, his graduate students, operating four refractor telescopes, one of them 40 feet long. The long telescope produced a large image of the eclipsed sun so that when photographed important solar features would be more clearly seen. Olivier recalled that the weather was perfect for the event and “the photographs secured showing the (Sun’s) corona and prominences were excellent…Stone had every reason to be pleased with the expedition’s success.”

Astronomical Work During Undergraduate School

Charles Olivier entered the University of Virginia (UVA) in September 1901 and he continued his program of meteor plotting all of his undergraduate years. More conﬁdent of his ability, Olivier published the results of his watches in PA.54 Olivier included the watches’ star maps showing the paths of observed meteors and in each report he cited radiants’ coordinates that he found from plots of three or more meteors. An indication of his growing observational sophistication was a watch he organized on October 18, 1904, which was held from two stations with the assistance of two other students. Their objective was to plot the same meteors as seen from the two separate sites. Olivier reported that they were successful in their “simultaneous observation” and that he expected to calculate the meteors’ heights in the atmosphere.55 1904 was also the year he decided upon a purpose for his archive of star map plots. He had become aware that W.F. Denning’s claims of non-moving, stationary meteor radiants were highly improbable and Olivier decided upon a research plan

54Olivier, PA, vol 9, 1901, pp. 525–526; vol. 10, 1902, pp. 555–557; vol. 11, 1903, p. 581; and vol. 12, 1904, pp. 680–681. 55Olivier, CP, PA, vol. 12, 1904, pp. 680–681. Author Taibi does not know if results were ever published. 26 Virginia to disprove Denning’s assertion.56 He continued meteor plotting for the next several years until the accumulated data could be analyzed and written up into an organized refutation. During his undergraduate years, September 1, 1901, to June 1, 1905, Olivier watched and plotted meteors on 36 nights, for a total watch time of 114 h during which he recorded 1739 meteors. Close examination of the PA meteor reports revealed that Olivier was a member of the McCormick Observatory staff while he was a high school student. Olivier’s byline for each meteor report was “Leander McCormick Observatory, University of Virginia.” Beginning the summer of 1901, Director Stone paid Olivier $30 a month from a grant given to Stone by Harvard College Observatory Director Edward Charles Pickering (1846–1919). Olivier’s role was to assist Stone in measuring the magnitudes (brightnesses) of certain stars on charts in a recently published work by Father Johann Georg Hagen (1847–1930), Director of Georgetown College’s Observatory. The target stars were called “standard stars” by which other stars’ magnitudes could be determined. In practice, Olivier’s task involved using an optical device, a “Pickering photometer” attached to the 26-inch (66 cm) refractor to measure a series of 14–16 standard stars in selected regions of Hagen’s charts. This employment was Olivier’s ﬁrst experience as a professional, that is, as a paid astronomer. His work in the observatory building also provided a unique perch for his meteor watches as he noted in a 1902 article for PA, “the place of observation was …the lower slit of the dome of the great 26-inch equatorial (refractor) and (later on in the watch) the top of the dome.”57 Stars whose magnitudes were measured by comparison with the standard stars were “variable stars,” ones whose light was not constant. Variable stars’ magnitudes gradually dimmed and then rose again in a cyclical manner over some period of days, weeks, or months. Astronomers had become interested in precisely measuring the ﬂuctuating magnitudes of “variables” since the middle of the nineteenth century and Harvard’s Professor Pickering was at the center of a systematic effort to study them. Olivier’s introduction to variable stars prompted him to select one to monitor as a personal project. It was, and still is, popularly called “Mira” in the constellation Cetus, and it was frequently watched by amateur astronomers because, at its brightest, it was usually visible with the unaided eye. Olivier began to watch Mira in July and August 1901 and much more intensively in 1904 when he followed the star’s rise to maximum light over the course of 16 evenings in February and March.58 In 1904, his senior year at UVA, Olivier began to use the McCormick 66-cm telescope to measure the distance between the two components of double stars.

56Olivier, C.P., Meteors, Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1925, p. 96. It may be that an 1878 article by George Lyon Tupman (in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), volume 38, 1878, p. 115 ff) suggested this topic to Olivier; see Meteors, pp. 95–96. 57Olivier, CP, Perseid Meteors, August 1902, PA, vol. 10, 1902, p. 557. 58Olivier, C.P., o Ceti (Mira), Astronomical Journal, volume 25, 1908, pp. 197–198. Portrait of the Young Man as an Astronomer 27

Double stars are a gravitational unit and they orbit around a common center of mass, called a barycenter. Olivier’s goal was to concentrate his work upon stars that were south of the celestial equator because they are inaccessible to European observatories’ telescopes due to the Europeans’ high northern latitudes. Compared to those on the “Continent,” McCormick Observatory in Virginia was “southern” in latitude and therefore, the southern stars were high enough in the sky to permit accurate observations. The young astronomer was obliged by the Observatory’s variable star program to conﬁne double star work to moonlit nights when the bright sky forced suspension of programmatic work.59

Graduate School Years 1905–1908

Olivier was accepted for graduate work at UVA’s astronomy program and was named a Vanderbilt Fellow for all of his graduate education, 1905–1911.60

A Second Solar Eclipse

Just before fall 1905 classes began Olivier volunteered to be a member of the US Naval Observatory (USNO) expedition at Daroca Spain to observe and photograph a total eclipse of the sun. The Superintendent of the USNO, Rear Admiral C.M. Chester, permitted him to join the station directed by William Snyder Eichelberger (1865–1951) a USNO staff astronomer. Olivier arrived in Valencia Spain on August 4, 26 days before the eclipse. He assisted in the erection and adjustment of various astronomical instruments from August 7, when he arrived at Daroca until the day of the event. While in Spain, he took the opportunity to observe the Perseid meteor shower on August 9–11, during which he plotted a total of 190 meteors that included 141 Perseids. Olivier was assigned to make observations with two optical instruments during the eclipse on August 30. One of these was a photometer, an instrument designed to measure the sky’s brightness at predetermined distances from the totally eclipsed sun. The second, a polarimeter, measured the orientation of the sun’s light waves, before and after totality, at times speciﬁed by a US Weather Bureau scientist, F.H. Bigelow. Olivier’s assignments allowed him about one and a half minutes61 during

59Olivier, C.P. and R.E. Wilson, Observations of double stars, Astronomische Nachrichten, volume 177, 1908, p. 33. 60Minutes of the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, Volume 8, Part 1, June 1903- November 1908., handwritten notes p. 49 and typed version p. 68. See also Olivier, C.P., Ormond Stone, PA, volume 41, 1933, pp. 296–297 where Olivier’s years of Vanderbilt support are listed. 61A NASA Web page regarding the August 30, 1905, solar eclipse describes the geographical place located near Daroca was where the eclipse’s total phase was longest, 3 min and 46 s. In Olivier’s report he stated, “…two minutes after the beginning of totality, I immediately went 28 Virginia totality to note details of the sun’s corona and the location and movement of clouds around the eclipsed sun. He recorded his impression that the total phase was “an exceedingly light one. Ordinary print could be read and (his) notes could be written without difﬁculty.”62 Olivier’s Daroca experience was signiﬁcant for another important reason; there, he met Dr. Samuel A. Mitchell (1874–1960) who was engaged in a spectrographic investigation of the sun during totality. Their meeting was congenial and nine years later, when Mitchell became Ormond Stone’s successor at McCormick Observatory, he offered Olivier a staff position.

Life on Mt. Jefferson

Shortly after his return from Spain, Olivier began his ﬁrst year, called a “session,” of graduate school and he experienced the rigors of an apprentice astronomer’s life. His Vanderbilt Fellowship paid only $35 per month for living expenses during the 10-month session. It also provided for a room on the Observatory’s property and free tuition for graduate coursework. A Fellow’s lifestyle on the Cbservatory’s mountain was uncomfortable. His room was a spartan one, Olivier recalled, “bedrooms in the cottages were unheated and life resembled that of early frontier days, particularly in winter.” Their groceries were delivered to their rooms at the beginning of the week and Fellows made two of their daily meals in their rooms but dinner was provided on campus.

Director Stone’s Final Years

The Vanderbilt Fellows were unhappy with Director Stone. They noticed that after 1900, Stone seemed indifferent to astronomical research and while he claimed to be observing variable stars the Fellows knew that he was doing so in a desultory manner, if at all. They nicknamed Stone, “Twinkle.” One Fellow, Ralph E. Wilson, wrote a derogatory poem in which he sniped that “everybody works but Twinkle… everybody works…but Ormond Stone.” Olivier believed that Stone had abandoned research pursuits because he was fearful that any new work would be criticized by professional colleagues and this would ruin his reputation for flawless past work. So the young men were sorely dissatisfied with the director who was not pushing the boundaries of the field and making a good reputation for the observatory.

(Footnote 61 continued) outside…” to observe the spectacle. Source, accessed on October 19, 2013: http://eclipse.gsfc. nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle1901/SEgoogle1905Aug30Tgoogle.html. 62Olivier, C.P., Report on the Solar Eclipse of August 30, 1905, Publications of the United States Naval Observatory, Second Series, Volume 10, in two parts. Date: June 7, 1924, Publication: Serial Set Vol. No. 8293; Report: H. Doc. 282. Source: Genealogybank.com database concerning Charles P. Olivier’s mention in public documents. Portrait of the Young Man as an Astronomer 29

Apparently too, Professor Stone was overcome by social anxiety when teaching a group so that his class presentations were disjointed and confusing. However, Olivier discovered, if Stone was consulted individually his mathematical and observational teachings were clear and helpful. Many years later, Olivier realized that Stone’s energies were going to improving primary education and social services in the Commonwealth and he realized that Stone had been doing com- mendable work albeit not in astronomy. Professor Stone retired to a farm near Manassas, Virginia, in 1912; the year after Olivier received his Ph.D. Stone died in 1933; he was struck by a telephone utility truck while walking on a road near his farm.

Astronomical Work

Director Stone gave little direction to his graduate assistants, leaving them to adopt their own research programs. “The assistants all being ambitious, turned to something they thought of immediate value, namely the measurement of double stars, particularly those south of the celestial equator,” Olivier recalled about those days. Indeed, Charles Olivier was describing himself because he published a list of southern double stars he measured during 1905–1906.63 From 1907 through 1909, Olivier64 wrote or coauthored65 three double star reports for Astronomische Nachrichten (AN) a publication that featured the results of astronomers’ observational work. The second and third papers were coauthored by Fellows who were junior to Olivier66 making him the leader in the research effort. Ralph Elmer Wilson (1886–1960), Stone’s poet-critic, and William Newton Neff (1888–1973) collaborated with Olivier at the eyepiece of the 66-cm telescope, with one man making the actual measurements through the refractor and another man recording the results from the filar micrometer the device used to measure very small angular distances like those between close stars. Olivier, by himself and in collaboration with Wilson and Neff, was responsible for measuring 351 double stars from 1904–1909. Most of these stars were “southern” and were measured at magnifications between 560 and 2000 using the 66-cm refractor. While doing this work, Olivier discovered 15 double stars that were not previously found by other astronomers.67 These doubles were the first entries in an Olivier catalog to which the tyro astronomer would add later discoveries.

63Olivier, C.P., Observations of southern double stars, Astronomische Nachrichten (AN), volume 174, 1907, pp. 209–218. 64Ibid. 65Olivier and Ralph E. Wilson, Observations of double stars, AN, volume 177, 1908, p. 33 and Olivier, Wilson and W.N. Neff, Observations of double stars, AN, volume 182, 1909, p. 253. 66Olivier, C.P., Ormond Stone, PA, volume 41, 1933, pp. 296–297. 67Olivier and Ralph E. Wilson, Observations of double stars, AN, volume 177, 1908, p. 33 and Olivier, Wilson and W.N. Neff, Observations of double stars, AN, volume 182, 1909, p. 253. 30 Virginia

Olivier continued his self-directed program of meteor observation from 1905– 1908 during which he concentrated on three meteor showers that provided the greatest number of meteors: the Perseids in August, Orionids in October, and Leonids in November. In selecting these showers, he insured an efﬁcient use of his time. Being a graduate student who had assigned observatory responsibilities, his time was at a premium and it would be a decided advantage to maximize the number of meteors plotted in the fewest nights possible. The August, October, and November showers met these efﬁciency requirements. From August 1905 to December 1908, Olivier plotted 831 meteors during 49 h of meteor watches performed on 19 nights. In addition to his two personal projects, double star measurement and meteor watches, and the McCormick reference star measurement work assigned to all the observing assistants, Olivier continued a third personal project: his records of the rise and fall of Mira’s magnitudes around its maximum. From February 1905 until December 1908, he made 86 magnitude estimates of the variable star’s magnitude.68

Master of Arts in Astronomy

On June 12, 1908, the UVA Minutes of Meetings of the Academic Faculty recorded: “Mr. Charles P. Olivier, B.A. …(was) accepted as an applicant for the M.A. Degree on the basis of the following four graduate courses: M.A. Mathematics, M.A. Practical Astronomy, M.A. Observational Astronomy, and M.A. Physics.”69 Being awarded the Master of Arts was only an academic milepost on Olivier’s way to the Ph.D. The next phase in his training took him to Lick Observatory in California where he would learn from some of the USA’s foremost research astronomers.

Sojourn at Lick Observatory

By 1909, with a recently earned masters’ degree, Charles Olivier had learned as much as Ormond Stone could teach him. The McCormick telescope had provided the young astronomer with the means to do publishable research and Olivier had established a reputation as an emerging professional with his meteor, double star, and variable star publications. But McCormick’s collegial and instrumental resources were not able to take Olivier to the “next level” in astronomy. For that, he needed to learn from and work with the profession’s leading savants at a premier

68Olivier, C.P. Omicron Ceti (Mira), Astronomical Journal, volume 25, 1908, pp. 197–198; and Astronomical Journal, volume 27, 1911, p. 32. 69Minutes, volume 3, 1908 op. cit., p. 51. Sojourn at Lick Observatory 31 research observatory. In 1909, California’s Lick Observatory was the best institution for advanced training in astronomy. Lick Observatory began operation in 1888. Its largest refractor has a 36-inch (91-cm.) objective lens70 and the steel tube which carries it and shelters the focused light beam is almost 58 feet (18 m) long. The telescope is supported by a mechanical mounting that allows it to be pointed at any position in the sky and which moves it to compensate for earth’s axial rotation, so that a target star’s image is “stationary” in the telescope’s ﬁeld of view. The Lick telescope and its mounting weigh 25,000 lb (11,400 kg) and are so well engineered that they can be moved by an observer, unaided, when he needs to shift it to a new position in the sky.71 Before Olivier arrived at Lick in 1909, the telescope had been used to discover a new moon of Jupiter in 1892, the ﬁrst since Galileo spied its four brighter moons in 1610, and to discover new double stars and measure the separation between many known star pairs. The telescope had also been used with an instrument called a spectrograph72 attached to it in order to ascertain how fast stars were approaching or receding from the sun. The astronomers who had accomplished these feats, Edward Emerson Barnard (Jupiter’s moon), Robert Grant Aitken (double star work), and William Wallace Campbell (star motions), were made famous by their work and collectively, with earlier colleagues, they had established Lick Observatory’s reputation as a leading astronomical research institution in the world. It is likely that Ormond Stone, who knew Campbell, recommended Olivier for the 18-month internship at Lick. In addition, one of McCormick Observatory’s Ph. D. alumni, Heber Doust Curtis (1872–1942),73 was on the Lick staff and may have agreed to have Olivier assist him. The reader may imagine Olivier’s elation at his good fortune to join the observatory’s brightest and most famous astronomers. However, not everyone shared his joy. A family account is that his mother, Katharine, was openly apprehensive about her son venturing so far from Virginia. She was reported to say that she feared she would die before he returned to Virginia and never see him again.

70An objective lens is the “front lens” on a telescope that resembles a spyglass, except that the astronomical telescope is much larger and needs a mechanical mounting in order for it to be used effectively. Astronomical objective lenses are composed of at least two lenses made of different glasses. Their differences, in how strongly they bend light, called refraction, compensate for the deﬁciencies in the way each lens alone refracts light. Together, the two lenses transmit light that is almost unaffected by false color as would occur if only one lens was used. 71Lick 36-inch Telescope Manual. http://mthamilton.ucolick.org/techdocs/telescopes/36inch/ index.html Accessed 10/25/13. 72A spectrograph contains a prism which is used to separate the component colors of white light into a spectrum. Examination of an object’s spectrum allows the astrophysicist to discover the chemical composition, temperature, and motion relative to the observer of an object in space. A camera in the spectrograph is used to record the spectrum so it can be examined and measured. When a camera is added to a spectroscope, the new device is called a “spectrograph.” 73Olivier, C.P., Ormond Stone, PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 297. A good biography of Curtis is by Marche, J.D. and R.P. Lindner, Heber Doust Curtis, in Hockey, T., et al. editors, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 1, New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 264–266. 32 Virginia

Assigned Duty: Comet Photography

After journeying to Mt. Hamilton, the Observatory’s site, Olivier was assigned to be H.D. Curtis’ assistant during Comet Halley’s 1909–1910 return to the inner solar system.74 Curtis and Olivier made a thorough photographic record of Halley’s appearance during its apparition using another 36-inch telescope, the Crossley Reﬂector,75 and several smaller wide-angle cameras. Curtis described his work with Olivier,

In the interval from September 12, 1909 to July 7, 1910, Halley’s Comet was photographed…on ninety-five nights, with a total of 370 negatives… (206 of which were by) the Crossley reflector…76 Curtis’ comment understates the intensiveness of their surveillance; on average, the two men photographed Comet Halley every third night during its 1909–1910 appearance. Olivier was credited by Curtis for supplementing Crossley telescope photographs with more images made with the Crocker Photographic Telescope,77 a portrait camera lens that was upgraded into a separately mounted photographic telescope. This large collection of photographs showed structural changes in the comet’s head and tail and was later used by another astronomer, Nicholas Theodore Bobrovnikoff (1896–1988), in an investigation into the effects of sunlight upon the development of cometary tails. In addition to his work with Curtis, Olivier joined a Lick Observatory graduate student, Paul Willard Merrill (1887–1961), to photograph a bright comet that appeared unexpectedly from behind the sun in January 1910. The two captured the comet on 21 photographic plates exposed between January 26 and February 1, 1910. Like the images of Comet Halley, the photographs of “Comet a 1910” showed fine details in the comet’s tail that changed daily.78

74Osterbrock, et al. 1988, op. cit., p. 211; and Olivier, C.P., Comets, Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins, 1930, p. 110. 75As the term “reflector” implies, the Crossley telescope used a mirror instead of a lens to gather light from the astronomical target object. 76Curtis, H.D., Photographs of Halley’s Comet Made at the Lick Observatory, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP), volume 22, June 1910, No. 132, p. 117ff. 77Curtis, H.D., Note on Photographs of Halley’s Comet, Lick Observatory Bulletin (LOB), volume 5, 1910, p. 183. This note was dated February 12, 1910. 78Merrill, P.W. and Olivier, C.P., Photographs of Comet a 1910, obtained with the Crocker Telescope, LOB, volume 5, 1910, p. 182. A biography of Merrill appears in Hockey, T. et al. 2007, op.cit, volume 2, pp. 770–772, by E. Dorrit Hoffleit. Sojourn at Lick Observatory 33

Double Stars

Robert G. Aitken (1864–1951) was an expert double star observer who in his career discovered and measured over 3000 double stars.79 Given Olivier’s demonstrated interest in measuring southern double stars at McCormick Observatory, it would seem likely that Aitken would supervise Olivier in double star work at Lick. However, he may not have. During Olivier’s Lick research internship, Aitken published three articles, “100 New Double Stars” from November 1909 to September 1910 and Olivier’s name does not appear in any as a junior author.80 If Aitken mentored Olivier, the fact has not appeared in print and the author is unaware that Olivier ever reported it in his publications.81 While at Lick, Olivier pressed on with his measurement of “southern” double stars. And, because Lick was further south of McCormick’s latitude, he was able to access stars that were further south too. Olivier began measuring double stars shortly after arriving at Lick Observatory, on July 20, 1909. He took a year-end break and resumed his measurements on February 6, 1910, and continued until September 26. While measuring the gap between the components of 260 double stars, Olivier discovered and measured 35 new pairs that had not been found previously by other astronomers. When the new discoveries were added to those he found in Virginia, Olivier had a total of 50 pre-Ph.D. ﬁnds to his credit.82

Mira

Mira’s returns to naked-eye visibility were not neglected while Olivier was at Lick. During 1909, he made a total of 35 magnitude estimates during February and the longer period of July to November. In 1910, he monitored it from July through September.83

79Lang, H.C. Robert Grant Aitken, in Hockey, T. et al. eds., 2007, op.cit, volume 1, pp. 21–22. 80Aitken, R.G., LOB, volume 5, 1909, pp. 166–168 and volume 6, 1910, pp. 62–64 and pp. 70–72. 81There is no personal correspondence between Olivier and Aitken in Olivier’s American Philosophical Society correspondence ﬁle. The only item present is a broadcast 1927 memo to all members of the International Astronomical Union’s Double Star Commission, to which Olivier belonged. An inquiry with the SAO/NASA search engine for “Olivier Aitken” revealed no joint publications: http://www.adsabs.harvard.edu/ accessed on 10/26/13. 82Olivier, C.P., Measures of 136 double stars, LOB, volume 5, 1910, p. 185 ff; and Measures of 159 double stars, LOB, volume 6, p. 76ff. Olivier reported 11 new doubles in the ﬁrst article and 24 in the second for a total of 35. 83Olivier, C.P., Maxima of Omicron Ceti (Mira), Astronomical Journal, volume 27, 1911, p. 32. 34 Virginia

Meteors

In addition to photographic comet patrols, measuring and serendipitously ﬁnding new double stars, and monitoring Mira, Olivier carried on the meteor-plotting project he had started in 1898. His dissertation topic, an examination of Denning’s stationary meteor radiant claim, had been accepted by faculty at University of Virginia. With Lick Director Campbell’s permission and encouragement, he used some of what little time remained after observational work, to calculate the orbits of his plotted meteors in preparation to write the dissertation. While at Lick, Olivier sketched 1900 meteors on star maps, almost one-third of the number analyzed in his dissertation. The air was so transparent and the sky so dark over the 4200-foot (1283 m.) high mountain peak that the most frequently observed meteors he saw were one magnitude (two and a half times) fainter than the most frequently observed meteors he was able to see on Mt. Jefferson in Virginia. Being able to plot fainter meteors meant being able to plot more per observing hour and this was a big advantage to the time-pressed Olivier. However, he did not always have the luxury of an uninterrupted meteor watch, especially in 1910. His notes are candid that 10 watches that year were “intermittent,” meaning that he snatched a few minutes’ watch in between other observational duties, such as on May 4, 1910:

On May 4…numerous meteors were seen in the southeast by Dr. Curtis and later by myself. During the half hour before dawn, at intervals when my assistance could be dispensed with, I was able to observe 9 meteors… His meteor statistics for 1909 were 16 meteor watches for a total of 41 h, resulting in 1077 meteors plotted. For 1910, he plotted meteors on 18 occasions, for 16 h and recorded 623 more meteors. Olivier was assisted by fellow grad students Merrill and Anna Estelle Glancy (1883–1975), one visitor, a Mr. Evenden, and by Dr. Sebastian Albrecht (1876–1957), a staff astronomer, all of whom counted a total of 360 Perseid and other meteors for him on August 10 and 11, 1909.

Summary of a Hectic Internship

Charles Olivier was in residence at Lick Observatory from July 1, 1909, to late December 1910. During that time he was formally supervised by H.D. Curtis of the Lick staff and assisted Curtis with a ten-month-long photographic patrol of Comet Halley. However, his projects did not end with the famous comet. Olivier joined Paul Merrill to photograph Comet a 1910, the unexpected, come-from-behind- the-sun one too. He measured the separation between the two components of 295 double stars and discovered that 35 of them had not been identiﬁed before. He continued to monitor Mira during its rise to maximum brightness and as it subsequently dimmed in 1909 and 1910. Finally he plotted the paths in the sky of Sojourn at Lick Observatory 35

1900 meteors during 57 h of watches while enlisting Lick students and staff to count another 360 meteors. When he was not engrossed with sky phenomena, he nearly completed all of the mathematical computations necessary for his dissertation which he earned from UVA in June 1911. During his time at Lick, Olivier had worked energetically and with determined singleness of purpose. He had been a sky-monitoring “machine” because there were many nights he did not allow himself to sleep.

Sad News

Charles Olivier was summoned home shortly after Christmas, 1910. His mother had died suddenly on December 27 and his father asked him to return home for her funeral.84 If the Olivier family story was true, about Kate Olivier’s fear she would never again see her son, she was sadly prescient.

Doctor of Philosophy

Most likely, Charles Olivier remained in Virginia following his mother’s funeral and wrote his dissertation. He earned the Ph.D. degree in Astronomy which was conferred on June 14, 1911, less than six months after his mother’s death.85 In the introductory paragraphs to 175 Parabolic Orbits and Other Results Deduced from over 6200 Meteors, he reported that about two-thirds of the meteors had been plotted at or near the McCormick Observatory and the remaining third at Lick Observatory where some of the staff had assisted him by counting about 300 meteors. A necessary part of a dissertation in the sciences is a detailed description of the empirical method used by the doctoral candidate to achieve his results. Olivier ﬁlled two pages describing how he plotted meteors on a star map and the methods he used to be certain of an accurate plot. His thoroughness was important because precise sketches resulted in ﬁnding a meteor shower’s radiant, which in turn, were the prerequisite to determine the shower’s orbit in space. And recall that determining orbits are the province and proof of being a gravitational astronomer. In a general sense, Charles Olivier’s dissertation was a demonstration of his competence as a gravitational astronomer, one worthy of assuming an academic post alongside his mentors and colleagues in the profession.

84Anonymous, Sudden death of Mrs. G.W. Olivier, The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Virginia), Tuesday, December 27, 1910, front page. 85The date of Olivier’s doctorate is listed in University of Virginia Catalog 1911–1912, under doctoral degrees conferred. 36 Virginia

Nature of an Orbit

Adefined (calculated) orbit informs astronomers where a shower of meteoroids moves in three-dimensional space around the sun. An object’s orbit is defined by numerical terms, called elements, that describe its shape and spatial orientation with respect to the sun. Said another way, the elements identify a specific gravitationally controlled pathway around the sun. Orbits are named for the objects that travel in them, e.g., Jupiter’s orbit, Comet Halley’s orbit, and the Leonid meteors’ orbit.

Charting the Sky Position of a Meteor Shower Radiant Is More Difﬁcult Than Charting a Comet’s

Unlike a comet which can be seen and its sky position measured for days, weeks, or sometimes months, meteoroids (that will become meteors) are invisible in space and vanish in a flash as soon as they collide with the earth’s atmosphere. Meteor astronomers using only their unaided eyes, as they did in Olivier’s day, did not have the advantage of making leisurely, deliberate measurements. The tiny body was gone before its sky position was precisely measured. So unlike the comet whose orbit can be confidently calculated from careful observations of a discrete body, the meteoroids’ radiant had to be inferred from hastily drawn sketches on a paper star map. To minimize the risk of an erroneous observation, astronomers drew as many of the meteors they saw as they could when they held a meteor watch. After an hour or more, the meteor drawings, prolonged backwards beyond their beginning on the chart, suggested a point of emanation in the sky: the “radiant.” The radiant was a virtual “astronomical body,” revealed by the incoming meteoroid-cum-meteor flashes. Its sky position was what astronomers measured, like they would a comet’s. Thus, the radiant was a key data variable to determine the shower’s orbit.

A First Reform for Meteor Science: Criteria for a Meteor Radiant

But the use of a radiant as a virtual heavenly body posed two more questions. How many meteors should be “required” to make a credible claim of a radiant’s existence? Further, how large a circle in the sky from which meteors came should be accepted as defining a radiant? On these questions, Olivier was more specific than William Frederick Denning, the English meteor astronomer, had been. Olivier was very conservative about the size of that angular circle: one half of a degree, the size of the full moon. And, for his dissertation he insisted that the radiant be defined by at least three meteors whose backward-projected paths fit within the full moon-sized circle. Doctor of Philosophy 37

Olivier believed his stringent definition corrected Denning’s practice of using ambiguously sized radiants which were often too liberal in size. In Olivier’s opinion, Denning’s use of “super-sized” radiants misled Denning into the belief that radiants were stationary, especially the October Orionid meteor shower’s. Unfortunately, Orionid radiants detected by Olivier, which he had accumulated since 1900, failed to demonstrate definite radiant movement as theory predicted. However, he noticed the predicted motion of radiants that were related to the Orionid one and which were nearby it. He offered those radiants as indirect and partial proof of his argument.86 Perhaps Olivier realized that his assertion was vulnerable to challenge, because he merely claimed in his dissertation’s results summary that “the Orionids do not seem to have a stationary radiant.” The author believes that Olivier’s inability to demonstrate a strong refutation may have influenced him to form a corps of skilled meteor plotters to help him make his case: the American Meteor Society (AMS).

Another Reform

W.F. Denning had claimed that many meteor showers existed for months. Olivier argued that this was an error that had its source in believing similar meteor plots made on widely separated nights indicated the existence of an actual radiant. Olivier pointed out that the earth’s orbital motion around the sun made this impossible. He urged that the practice of using radiants combined from several nights needed to stop and instead only one night’s meteor plots should be used to identify a radiant. The 27-year-old astronomer warned his colleagues against sloppy interpretation of meteor plots.

“It is my ﬁrm conviction that not following this (one night only) rule has led many previous observers to catalog hundreds of ﬁctitious radiants whose presence in our catalogs only hampers the future growth of meteoric astronomy”, “Olivier asserted”.87

175 Orbits

The dissertation’s title, 175 Parabolic Orbits, refers to those calculated from a subset of radiants he believed to be “good enough to justify the computations.” These orbits were listed with their elements and formed the ﬁrst installment of a much more extensive catalog that Olivier hoped to compile. He intended that the future catalog would only contain radiants made in accordance with the strict criteria he used in 1911 and in doing so put meteoric astronomy on a scientiﬁc

86Pages 17–19 of the dissertation. 87Page 8 of the dissertation. 38 Virginia foundation. When he created the AMS, one of its members’ earliest assignments was ﬁnding more of the “improved” meteor radiants.

His Career’s Meteor Results

In addition to his attacks upon erroneous radiants, Olivier displayed the results of his early observational career in the dissertation. A prominent feature of the dissertation was a table comparing Comet Halley’s orbital elements to elements Olivier had calculated from three Eta Aquarid meteor shower radiants found while at Lick Observatory in 1910. “The connection of (his) meteors with the comet is quite obvious,” Olivier stated. He claimed his results were more complete than those of an English professional astronomer, and Denning’s mentor, Alexander S. Herschel who had made the same claim in 1878. On the basis of having better data than did Herschel, Olivier claimed definitive “proof that Halley’s Comet and the Eta Aquarids are intimately connected.” A finding of this sort was quite important at the time. In 1911, astronomers were interested to find orbital similarities between known comets and meteor streams. From 1898 to 1910, while plotting meteors on sky maps, Olivier had made additional notes for several classes of meteor data, such as the number of meteors that appeared each hour, how bright the meteors were, how many had nonlinear paths, each meteor’s color, and how many had lingering “smoke” trains that lasted two seconds or more. They were a testament to how intense Olivier’s concentration must have been to record so many phenomena for each meteor. All of these data were summarized in his dissertation; he had arranged the numbers of each class in tabular form and discussed salient features of each one. Olivier’s early meteor data were the beginning of the AMS’ data archives. He added AMS members’ observations of meteor radiants, hourly rates, and data about long enduring trains to his original data. Thousands of meteor statistics accumulated over the years. Charles Olivier kept it all with him at every college or university in which he was a faculty member and on into retirement.

Why Did Meteoric Science Become a Lifelong Passion?

Dr. Olivier never answered this question himself. However, the motivation for his lifelong devotion to meteors invites speculation. The following factors may have combined to overdetermine Olivier’s choice. Perhaps the most fundamental reason was that meteors are a fascinating phenomenon. Watching them captivated Olivier as an adolescent. People have only to spend an hour watching the August Perseid meteors flash through a warm summer sky to sense how meteors connect the watcher to the natural world. Olivier offered some specific reasons to watch meteors, writing “…meteors offer the chance of Doctor of Philosophy 39 seeing something new and unexpected, perhaps a brilliant fireball, a long-enduring train, a serpentine path, or some other phenomenon of intense interest.”88 These wonders never ceased to captivate him. Secondly, as a classical astronomer who began his career when catalogs of meteor radiants were of professional interest, he wanted to contribute to the field, especially by adding radiants deduced by scientifically rigorous procedure and criteria. Olivier considered stationary radiants to be a blemish on meteoric astronomy’s scientific reputation. This stain compounded the damage done to the field by the 1899 Leonid debacle. In the author’s opinion, restoration of meteoric astronomy’s scientific credibility became Olivier’s analog to Confederates’ Lost Cause campaign. In the same way white Southerners recoiled from wartime defeat, Olivier was distressed by meteor astronomy’s embarrassments. Having listened since boyhood to Lost Cause rationalizations, Olivier was sensitized to meteoric astronomy’s degradation. Because of this, he was mentally primed to perceive it and ready to spring to meteor science’s defense and rehabilitation. White Virginians responded to the Confederacy’s humiliating defeat by glorifying wartime leaders and their exploits. Olivier responded to meteor astronomy’s shame by becoming its cham- pion. Fortunately for Olivier’s “client,” astronomical training provided effective tools he used to accomplish his goal: restoring meteoric astronomy’s reputation among colleagues and the general public. Even so, attaining the goal required Olivier to commit to a decades-long campaign; he labored the next 20 years of his life to accomplish it.

References

Fortunes of War and Peace

Goldﬁeld, D., Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History., Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2002, Chapter 1, especially pp. 20-21.

Virginia’s Astronomer

Olivier, C., Ormond Stone, Popular Astronomy, volume 41, 1933, pp. 295-298 Olivier, C, History of the Leander McCormick Observatory circa 1883 to 1928, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory of the University of Virginia, volume 11, part 26, Charlottesville, Virginia: The University, 1967, pp. 203-209 Goldﬁeld, D., Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History., Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2002, Chapter 1, especially pp. 20-21.

88Olivier, C.P., Report of the AMS for 1925, PA, volume 34, 1926, pp. 165–166. 40 Virginia

Portrait of the Young Man as an Astronomer

Olivier, C.P., 175 Parabolic Orbits and other results deduced from over 6200 meteors; Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, N.S. Vol. 22, Part 1, 1911, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, pages 5 and 20-21. Olivier, C., History of the Leander McCormick Observatory Circa 1883 to 1928, in Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 11, part 26, Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1967. Rendtel, J. and R. Arlt, Editors, Handbook for Meteor Observers, Potsdam, Germany: International Meteor Organization, 2009, pp. 123 and 160-163. See also: http://www.imo.net Olivier, C., 175 Parabolic Orbits and other results deduced from over 6200 meteors; Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, N.S. Vol. 22, Part 1, 1911, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. This is Olivier’s doctoral dissertation.

Sojourn at Lick Observatory

Osterbrock, D.E., J.R. Gustafson, and W.J. S. Unruh, Eye on the Sky, Lick Observatory’s ﬁrst century, Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1988, Chapters 4, 5, 8 and 11. Enrollment Began

Starting Out

This Chapter recounts Charles Olivier’s efforts, from 1911 to 1918, to enroll observers in a volunteer meteor research association, the American Meteor Society (AMS). It documents his outreach to existing astronomical and meteorological organizations whose members were potentially interested in meteoric astronomy and who possibly could be coaxed to join. Olivier had a very ambitious goal: no less than gathering scientific data on every meteor which fell over North America and its adjacent waters. He hoped that volunteer citizen scientists would accomplish a great deal, but to improve chances of achieving that goal, he asked members of all organizations with scientific interests related to astronomy to relay meteor observations their members happened to make in the course of official or academic activities. Charles Olivier had just been awarded a Ph.D. in astronomy in June 1911. His busy agenda began with finding a collegiate-level academic post to begin his career in academe. Once on a faculty, he intended to continue research in double star and meteor astronomy which he had begun at the University of Virginia’s Leander McCormick Observatory.

Astronomy, the University, and Professor Olivier

Mathematical (gravitational) astronomy had for centuries been an institution in universities and colleges. The science and universities were inseparable and mutually beneficial. Universities provided financial support and incentives of increased academic rank to astronomers whose research had advanced the science. In return, astronomers’ scientific accomplishments enhanced universities’ reputa- tions in academe.

Institutions of higher learning, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were charged with developing undergraduates’ moral–ethical behavior as well as their intellect. College and university professors accepted a quasi-parental role when biological parents sent their adolescents to be educated; professors were “in loco par- entis,” in place of the parents. Like parents, they were expected to mold an adolescent into a mature adult capable of leading a principled and productive lifestyle after graduation. In keeping with this philosophy, professors sought not only to impart speciﬁc information, but also to motivate students to expand humanity’s intellectual resources, to create new industries and products, but failing these, students should at the least become competent people who did not waste time foolishly. To accomplish all these objectives, professors often used pointed criticism in the classroom when students were lazy and failed to measure up to their academic or ethical standards.

“In particular, Professor Olivier believed in the therapeutic value of work: laziness was a fatal character ﬂaw. He mentioned his conviction on this issue in a 1935 letter, “It all helps to keep people busy in things of value and out of mischief, to say the least. After all, that is excuse enough for anything in my opinion.” After earning his doctorate and starting his academic career, Charles Olivier assumed the role students’ parents expected of him as a professor: perfecting their children’s character. He regarded his students as partially prepared for life and he used his inﬂuence as well as classroom instruction to encourage students’ character and intellectual development. Olivier pursued these goals when he was in the classroom and whenever he communicated with AMS members. He assumed his meteor volunteers to be approximately of college age and when he used AMS reports to teach members meteor astronomy, he was mindful of his mentoring role too; he regarded it as his responsibility to shape members into productive adults. With these motives in mind, Professor Olivier conducted the AMS like a university classroom and he regarded most people who came into contact with him as his students.

First Academic Post

Even before he was awarded a Ph.D. in June 1911, Olivier applied for a faculty position at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. He was appointed to begin that fall at the small all-women liberal arts college that adver- tised itself to have “Advantages equal to those offered by the best colleges for men.”1 The change from the all-male student body at UVA to Scott’s all-female one was no doubt a welcome change for the young professor.

1Source for his appointment: Full Text of Agnes Scott College Bulletin: 1912–1913: http://archive. org/stream/agnesscott19121913agne/agnesscott19121913agne_djvu.txt. Accessed 11/8/13. Olivier’s presence on the faculty is also recorded in the college’s Bradley Observatory faculty listing: Agnes Scott College, Bradley Observatory, Emeritus Faculty http://www.agnesscott.edu/ bradleyobservatory/faculty-staff/emeriti-faculty/index.html. Accessed 11/7/13. Starting Out 43

Agnes Scott College, during the years Olivier taught there (1911–1914), enrolled young women from Virginia south along the Atlantic seacoast to Florida and west through the Gulf states as far west as Arkansas. In 1912, enrollment was 178 and it rose to 208 the next academic year. The college’s administration intended to maintain a high instructor-to-student ratio so that faculty could give each student more attention.2 Professor Olivier participated in some of the college’s social life. He was mentioned as an “honorary member” of the Virginia Club, students who were Virginians and whose “favorite occupation was to show verbal loyalty to our State.” He was also asked to chaperone a “party of teachers and girls to Stone Mountain” Georgia, a shrine to the Confederacy which has a bas-relief sculpture of Confederate military heroes cut into the rock of a mountainside.3 The handsome young professor was likely a favorite with the female student body. Dr. Olivier’s teaching responsibilities were two: classes in descriptive astronomy and practical and theoretical astronomy. In the former class, a four-inch (10-cm) refractor was used in nighttime laboratory exercises to show the young women telescopic views of celestial objects that were prominent in the night sky at the time. The second course was more rigorous because it was more mathematical in nature. The college catalog promised, “Its completion will fully prepare a student for regular graduate work in Astronomy in any university.”4 Olivier no doubt felt most acutely the absence of an observatory-class telescope at Agnes Scott; the college did not get one until 1930.5 Despite the lack of research equipment, Olivier pressed on with a campaign to expand meteor research studies in the USA.

Friends at McCormick Observatory

See Figs. 1, 2. Charles Olivier remarked how well Ormond Stone was able to discern young men’s promise for careers in mathematics and astronomy. Stone encouraged their academic careers, as he had Olivier’s by awarding them Vanderbilt Fellowships so that they could study mathematical astronomy in preparation for professional astronomy careers. Three of these bright young men were Olivier’s contemporaries while all were under Stone’s tutelage at the Leander McCormick Observatory

(Footnote 1 continued) The claim about “advantages” was printed in the college’s 1912 annual yearbook, the Silhouette: Full text of “Silhouette (1912)” The 1912 Silhouette also contained the administration’s pledge to keep resident student enrollment to 300 or less. The year book was found at: http:// archive.org/stream/silhouette191200agne/silhouette191200agne_djvu.txt. Accessed 11/8/13. 2Ibid. and for 1913, the source is: Full Text of Agnes Scott College Bulletin: 1912–1913, op.cit. 3“Silhouette 1912,” op.cit. 4Agnes Scott College Bulletin: 1912–1913, op. cit. above, on p. 76. 5http://www.agnesscott.edu/bradleyobservatory/faculty-staff/emeriti-faculty/index.html. Accessed 11/7/13. 44 Enrollment Began

Fig. 1 Leander McCormick Observatory, on Mt. Jefferson at University of Virginia, circa 1915– 1928. This is how McCormick Observatory appeared when Charles Olivier and his friends were graduate assistants. Source Lake County (Illinois) Discovery Museum, Curt Teich Archives

(LMO): Palmer Hampton Graham, Thomas McNider Simpson, Jr., and James Brookes Smith. In 1942, Olivier recollected about starting up the American Meteor Society (AMS) and he commented, “(it was) started by me in 1911, and the ﬁrst members were a small group of personal friends.”6 They were Olivier’s observatory assistant colleagues: Graham, Simpson, and Smith. Just like Olivier, these three McCormick Observatory astronomers-in-training were rigorously trained in mathematics, observational methods with telescopes (practical astronomy) and were taught to compute orbits (Fig. 3).

McCormick Observatory Colleagues

Each of the men held separate meteor watches, but occasionally they joined Olivier as leader in a coordinated observation. One of these collaborations was carried out when James Brookes Smith and Thomas McNider Simpson joined Olivier in simultaneous observations of the 1915 Perseid meteor shower. The three men watched Perseids from August 9 to 13, between midnight and 2 a.m. Olivier observed from Charlottesville; Simpson from Randolph–Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, and

6Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 50, 1942, p. 436. Friends at McCormick Observatory 45

Fig. 2 Vanderbilt Fellows Residence, Source Author’s photographic archives

Smith watched from Hampden-Sydney College, in a village of the same name, southwest of Richmond, Virginia. They hoped that some of their plotted meteors would prove to be the same Perseids and allow trigonometric calculation of the meteors’ heights.7 Hoping to measure more meteor heights, Smith joined Olivier in December 1915 in a second joint observation of the Geminid meteors. Six years after these two attempts, Dr. Olivier published the results: four of the 1915 Perseids had been observed simultaneously by Olivier and Simpson. Olivier asked that Simpson calculate the meteors’ heights from his position, just as Olivier

7Olivier, C., Observations of Perseids in 1915, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc, volume 27, 1915: 224–226. 46 Enrollment Began

Fig. 3 J. Brookes Smith’s meteor plots of Orionid meteors on October 18, 1914. The star map is one he copied from Winslow Upton’s Star Atlas (1896) onto tracing paper. The constellation Orion is located near the right edge of the lower portion of the map. Source Courtesy of the American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives

did from Charlottesville. In this way, one calculation was a “check computation” of the other and ensured that the observations and resulting meteor heights were accurate. Olivier declared measures of one Perseid’s height to be “splendidly consistent,” and one was “probably about correct” when the two obtained heights were averaged. However, two measures were ruined by observational errors. Results for the 1915 Geminid meteors were similarly mixed with one meteor’s height judged to be accurate, but a second’s only approximately correct when both observers’ height results were averaged. As University of Virginia (UVA) grad students, Graham, Simpson, and Smith earned their keep at McCormick Observatory by “…devot(ing) approximately half time to work of the observatory,” and in return, they were supported financially by a Vanderbilt Fellowship. “The Vanderbilt Fellows each received $35 per month for ten months in the year. They were graduate students and received in addition the remission of the University fees and living quarters on Observatory Mountain. In spite of the small emolument from the fellowships, they were much sought after,” explained Stone’s successor Samuel A. Mitchell. Thomas McNider Simpson, Jr. (1882–1965), must have been very bright and ambitious because he graduated Randolph–Macon College in 1901 at age 19. He began graduate studies at the UVA in 1901 and was a Vanderbilt Fellow from 1901 to 1905, the same years Charles Olivier was an undergraduate student. They were fraternity brothers in three fraternities at UVA. And, two archival letters from Simpson to Olivier, dated 1916 and 1918, made it clear that they had a cordial relationship based on similar interests. After he earned a master’s degree from UVA Friends at McCormick Observatory 47 in 1907, Simpson earned a doctorate in mathematics in 1917 at the University of Chicago. He enlisted in the American Expeditionary Force during World War I. In 1919, he returned to Randolph–Macon College as professor of mathematics, which he continued until 1960, and from 1939–1952 was dean there. In 1902, as a Vanderbilt Fellow, Simpson, was assigned to use the 26-inch (66 cm) McCormick telescope with an instrument called a photometer to measure the brightness of 14th magnitude stars. This duty was to fulfill McCormick’s role as part of a cooperative program coordinated by Edward C. Pickering at Harvard College Observatory. In another astronomical study, Simpson used the 26-inch Clark refractor to measure a comet’s changing positions during February and March 1903.8 He made one other AMS-related meteor watch, in addition to the 1915 collaborative study mentioned earlier. This was on August 9, 1916, when he saw five Perseids during an hour-and-55-min watch. Simpson’s report to Olivier concerning this watch suggests that it was to support another of Olivier’s efforts to measure Perseid meteor heights9(Fig. 3). James Brookes Smith (1885–1963) was most often cited as “J. Brookes Smith” and sometimes as “J.B. Smith” in the earliest AMS reports and Olivier’s longer monographs about Parabolic Meteor Orbits. Smith began his undergraduate studies at UVA in 1902, a year after Charles Olivier, and he received his B.A. degree in 1906. His full name appeared in a 1910 UVA course catalog listing him as an astronomy instructor during the years he was a Vanderbilt Fellow. In 1911, with his M.A. degree, Smith was appointed an assistant professor of mathematics at Hampden-Sydney College. He was a World War I veteran and after the war, he joined the life insurance industry, ultimately becoming an actuary. J.B. Smith was Olivier’s earliest collaborator when both were undergraduates in 1904. Smith counted Perseids for Olivier, from Charlevoix, Michigan on August 10 and 11, and these results were helpful in establishing the meteors’ hourly rates of fall.10 Smith, and another observer, plotted Orionid meteors on October 18 from Dudley’s Mountain, Virginia, a site that was eight miles distant from Olivier’sUVA

8Simpson, Thomas McNider, Observations of Comet 1902d (Giacobini), Astronomical Journal, volume 23, 1903; p. 104. 9Simpson’s vital statistics are from Virginia Gravestones, http://virginiagravestones.org/view.php? id=5321&printer_friendly=true. Graduated in 1901 from Randolph–Macon College, and later became math professor and faculty dean there, http://www.rmc.edu/Ofﬁces/president/inauguration/ regalia.aspx. Vanderbilt Fellow 1901–05 in (Olivier 1933). Doctorate in 1917, Mathematics Genealogy Project, http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=6054. All Web sites were accessed on 12/30 and 31/2011. Friendship and fraternity brother with Olivier: 1916 and 1918 dated letters to Olivier were addressed ‘Dear Charlie,’ and closed with ‘fraternally.’ Simpson’s two letters were found in a storage box marked ‘1910–1920’ in the AMS Archives. Charles Olivier and Simpson belonged to Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Simpson’s biographical facts and dates of faculty appointments are in his brief biography in Who Was Who in America, Volume IV, Chicago: Marquis Who’s Who, Inc., 1968; p. 866. 10Olivier, C.P., 175 Parabolic Orbits and other results deduced from over 6200 meteors; Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, N.S. Vol. 22, Part 1, 1911, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, p. 13. 48 Enrollment Began observation site. The two Michigan observers plotted 115 meteors, and 35 of them were serendipitously the same as ones Olivier plotted. Olivier published the trio’sfeat in Popular Astronomy (PA), and he hoped the effort would lead to determining the meteors’ real atmospheric paths, but the outcome of this project is unknown.11 The astronomical record shows that Smith was a Vanderbilt Fellow, a paid astronomer, from 1909 through 1915. As a duty of his fellowship, Smith participated in a second project coordinated by Edward C. Pickering. In this one, McCormick observatory fellows contributed magnitude (brightness) estimates of long-period variable stars especially at times when the stars were at minimum light and were not visible in smaller telescopes. Smith used the 26-inch to make 93 visual estimates during 1909–1911. Smith’s AMS meteor contributions were made from 1911 to 1915. While on Hampden-Sydney College’s staff, he plotted 1911’s Leonids and 1912’s Lyrid meteors. The 1911 and 1912 data appeared in the 126 Parabolic Orbits; Olivier’s ﬁrst meteor research memoir published following his dissertation. In addition to the collaborative study of the 1915 Perseids mentioned earlier, he observed the 1914 Eta Aquarids and Orionids, as well as the 1915 Geminids. The AMS’ Archives contains Smith’s meteor plots of the 1914 Eta Aquarids and Orionids. He used tracing paper to make star maps copied from astronomer Winslow Upton’s Star Atlas, showing how early meteor observers needed to prepare a star map for each watch in the years before printed maps were available for meteor plotting.12 Palmer Hampton Graham (1887–1984) was almost always mentioned as “P.H. Graham” in AMS reports and elsewhere. Graham earned a B.A. degree from Emory and Henry College in 1909 and was a McCormick Vanderbilt Fellow from 1911 to

11Olivier, C.P., Orionids at University of Virginia, PA, volume 12, 1904, pp. 680–681. 12Smith’s undergraduate years are documented in Directory of Living Alumni of University of Virginia, 1931: http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=2005_Q1/uvaBook/tei/boo2179313.xml; chunk.id=d28;toc.depth=1;toc.id=d9;brand=default. Smith’s given name, ‘James,’ his listing as UVA instructor and possessing an M.A., are from 1910 University of Virginia Record, dated February 1910, under “Ofﬁcers of Instruction and Administration” on p. 24. This information was found online at UVA’s Library site, http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=2005_Q2_1/ uvaBook/tei/; his Vanderbilt fellowship dates were from Olivier, 1933, p. 297, in References. Notice of his appointment at Hampden-Sydney College is from Notes of the American Mathematical Society, February 1911, p. 270, which was found at http://www.ams.org/bull/1911- 07-05/…/S0002-9004-1911-0205702.pdf. Smith’s variable star work is mentioned in Mitchell, 1935, volume 6, on p. 8. All Web sites mentioned here were accessible on 12/29/2011. Smith’s birth and death dates were found using Ancestry.com’s genealogical resources. His birthdate was found in the World War 2 Registration records (from National Archives data), using the name ‘J. Brookes Smith.’ His date of death (September 1963) was found under ‘James Smith’ in the Social Security Death Index, when the birthdate of March 11, 1885, was entered into the Ancestry search engine. Insurance industry occupational information was found in the 1920 and 1930 US Censuses, as well as the WW2 Registration. His signature on the Registration card suggests that he preferred ‘J. Brookes Smith’ as his identiﬁer. Ancestry.com data was accessed on 1/14/2012. Smith’s tracing paper star maps were found in an AMS Archives storage box marked ‘1910–1920. ’ Upton’s Star Atlas: Upton, Winslow, Star Atlas Containing Stars Visible to the Naked Eye. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1896. Friends at McCormick Observatory 49

1914. His work at the observatory overlapped one year with Olivier’s who finished his Ph.D. in 1911. After earning an M.A. from UVA in 1914, Graham stayed on through 1915 and was listed as a candidate for the Ph.D. degree, but did not earn one. Instead, he joined the faculty of Agnes Scott College as a professor of physics and astronomy in 1916. Graham interrupted his academic career in 1917 to join the American Expeditionary Force to fight in World War I. He was a second lieutenant in the Aviation Section of the Signal Reserve Corps from 1917 to 1918. After the Armistice in November 1918, he returned to Agnes Scott College, but left in 1920 when appointed a mathematics instructor at the Washington Square College of Arts and Science at New York University (NYU). The majority of Graham’s academic career was at NYU where he progressed from assistant professor to associate and finally a full professor of mathematics. He also served in administrative roles as Head of the Mathematics Department and acting dean for two multi-year appointments just before his retirement in 1953. Rounding out an impressive academic career, Graham authored texts in advanced mathematics, trigonometry, and analytic geometry while at NYU. Professor Graham died in San Mateo County, California, in 1984 at age 96.13

13Graham’s vital statistics are from Family Tree Maker at Genealogy.com and the dates came up after ‘Palmer H. Graham married Kathleen Knight’ was entered in the Google search engine. Family Tree Maker is at http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/. Graham is listed as number 3275 under ‘Descendants of John Decrabtre’. This site was updated on 7/8/2010 and was accessed on 12/22/2011. Graham’s A.B. degree from Emory and Henry College, in addition to having the M.A. from UVA: enter ‘p h graham astronomy Agnes Scott college’ into the Google engine and select from the options ‘Full text of Agnes Scott College Bulletin’ Catalogue 1916’ which is attributed to Archive.org (accessed 1/1/2012). In addition, Prof. Graham’s 1953 retirement announcement stated that he was an Emory and Henry College graduate in 1909 and that he earned his M.A. from UVA in 1914. Graham’s NYU retirement announcement was provided by NYU Archives at the Brobst Library at http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/arch. Contact Archives at university. [email protected]. Graham’s Fellowship years are mentioned in Olivier (1933). His candidacy for the Ph.D. is mentioned in University of Virginia Alumni News, volume 3, No. 5, p. 57 on 11/11/1914. The News was published by the Colonnade Club at UVA. Joining Agnes Scott College in 1916 was also veriﬁed in the same manner as his A.B. and M. A. degrees above. The document was from the Agnes Scott College Bulletin, Catalogue 1916– 1917, under the heading ‘Ofﬁcers and Instructors 1916–1917’. This information was accessed on 1/1/2012. Second Lieutenant in WWI information from, Air Service Journal, volume 1, 12/27/1917, p. 793. This source resulted from entering ‘lieut palmer h graham’ in the Google search engine. The information was on page, http://books.google.com/books?id=Zsc_AAAAYAAJ&pg= PA793&lpg=PA793&dg=lieut+palmer+h+graham&source=bl&ots=zeQagHRTBV&sig=r2ok1. Appointed to NYU in 1920, from Notes and News, American Mathematical Monthly, volume 27, No. 10 (October 1920), pp. 382–384, published by Mathematical Association of America; Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2972572. The text read, “Professor P.H. Graham, of Agnes Scott College, has been appointed instructor in mathematics in Washington Square College, NYU.” The description of Prof. Graham’s NYU career is taken from his retirement announcement in 1953, access to which was described above. 50 Enrollment Began

Graham’s contributions to astronomy were limited to his tenure at McCormick Observatory, 1911–1915. Like J. Brookes Smith before him, he was assigned to make visual estimates of variable stars’ magnitudes during 1911 and 1912, the ﬁnal years Ormond Stone directed McCormick Observatory. Graham used the Clark refractor to make more than twice as many magnitude estimates as Smith, 193 versus Smith’s 93. After Stone retired in 1912, Samuel A. Mitchell assumed the observatory’s directorship and inaugurated the use of photography to replace the visual studies made before him. During Graham’s last years at McCormick, 1914– 1915, Mitchell’s research program consisted of making stars’ parallax measurements from photographic plates obtained with the 26-inch Clark. Graham’s photographic work was credited in Mitchell’s article about the observatory’s ﬁrst parallax measures using photography.14 Later in 1921, Mitchell published a book-length monograph about the observatory’s parallax project, in which 260 stars’ parallaxes had been measured; in it, Graham was credited with making exposures of stars throughout 1914 and 1915.15 Graham’s meteor watching career was brief in comparison with the volume of observational work he completed for Directors Stone and Mitchell. His one meteor observation was of the 1911 Orionids; but Olivier scrupulously credited him in a 1913 AMS report and in Olivier’s monograph, 126 Parabolic Orbits.

In Summary

Dr. Olivier’s graduate school colleagues, Simpson, Smith, and Graham, helped him ﬁll out the AMS’ ranks and by providing some observational support from 1911 to 1916. In addition, professors Smith and Simpson’s collaboration with Dr. Olivier during the multi-site 1915 Perseid and Geminid programs were the ﬁrst such efforts conducted using Olivier’s standardized observational procedures.

Society for Practical Astronomy

In 1911, 27-year-old Professor Charles Olivier was intent on correcting the mistaken notion about stationary radiants which was accepted by many in the meteoric ﬁeld. He was eager to enlist volunteer observers in a program that would

14Mitchell, S. A. “Parallaxes of 260 Stars derived from photographs.” In Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 3, 1–695. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1921. This source was accessed on 11/9/2012 from, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1921PMcCO…2.. 157M. 15Mitchell, S.A. “Stellar Parallax Work at the McCormick Observatory.” In Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, 157–164. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1921. This source was accessed on 11/9/2012 from, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/ 1921PMcCO…3….1M. Society for Practical Astronomy 51 consistently use the stringent meteor observing procedures he had employed for his dissertation research. He began his search for observers by appealing to members of the Society for Practical Astronomy.

Society for Practical Astronomy and How the American Meteor Society Began

A Chicago teenaged amateur astronomer could have claimed credit for the first observing squad of what became the American Meteor Society. Thirteen-year-old Frederick C. Leonard (1896–1960) began the Society for Practical Astronomy (SPA) in 1909, and he publicized it in Popular Astronomy (PA) in August 1911 in hopes of developing it into an international organization. Leonard “…hope(d) to bind together in one strong society all of the astronomical amateurs in America and elsewhere…(to) encourage and help to promote amateur work in general.” Leonard’s goal was nothing less than forming a worldwide organization of actively observing amateurs who wanted to share their observations in the SPA’s journal, the Monthly Register, which Leonard edited.16 November 1911’s issue of Popular Astronomy contained a notice that Dr. Charles P. Olivier had agreed to lead the Meteor Section of the SPA. Popular Astronomy’s editor, Herbert C. Wilson noted Olivier’s credentials to lead meteor enthusiasts. “(Olivier’s) thesis was entitled “175 Parabolic Orbits and other results from over 6200 Meteors.” Having observed this large number of meteors himself, Dr. Olivier is well fitted to give practical advice to those who wish to begin the fascinating study of these mysterious objects.” Wilson concluded the announcement with the suggestion that amateurs who were interested in “systematic observation of meteors are urged to write Dr. Olivier and enroll as members of the Meteor Section.”17 At the same time as he assumed, leadership of SPA’s meteor section Olivier formed the American Meteor Society (AMS). He explained that he had “become convinced that the time had come for cooperation in the study of meteors in America and (was)…encouraged to make the attempt by several astronomers.” To invite observers, Olivier had sent letters to amateur and professional astronomers he believed might be interested in meteor studies. Olivier wanted to create an organization distinct from the SPA in which he could supervise members’ observational methodology so that it was in conformance with scientific principles. In 1913, in his first “Report of the AMS,” he acknowledged those who were SPA members, but he said that there were also “others” who had responded to his solicitation letters. Olivier outlined an ambitious agenda for AMS contributors. He promised them, “(w)hen we have secured several thousand observations, it is our purpose to publish the …results and their full discussion in a single paper, each observer receiving… full credit for his contributions. Meanwhile, brief reports…will be published at

16Leonard, F.C., Popular Astronomy (PA), vol. 19, pp. 455–456. 17Wilson, H.C., P.A., vol. 19, p. 586. 52 Enrollment Began

The American Meteor Society Bulletin No. 2

For the information of members the following tables have been constructed the first mostly from W.F. Denning’s results, with some corrections, the second and third copied from Das Meteorphaenomen by C(harles) Birkenstock. In Table 2 have been added notes relative to the showers’ appearances in 1913. Having eliminated the nights spoiled by moonlight, I recommend the dates mentioned for observations.

TABLE I Showers (No. days) Date of Max Hourly no. of In 1913, observe all meteors on this date QUAs 2 Jan 2 28 ------(no notes) Lyrids 4 Apr 18 7 Full moon useless to try. ETAs 8 May 4 7+ May 2 to 7, ? a.m. to dawn Del Aquari 3 July 28 27 July 27 to 30, mdnt to dawn Perseids 35 Aug 11 69 7/28 to 8/8 in am; 8/8-13, 10 p.m. to dawn Orionids 14 Oct 18 21+ Oct 25 to 28,11 pm-moonrise Leonids 3 Nov 14 21 Nov 14 after mdnt, but moon Full Andromedes 2 Nov 24 16 Nov 23 & 24, 8 pm to mdnt. Geminids 14 Dec 11 23 Dec 5 to 7, mdnt to dawn.

TABLE II Hourly numbers for the whole year for 6 pm rate listed was 3.8 Hour 78910111213141516 No. of meteors 4.6 5.6 6.8 8.2 9.8 11.5 13.1 14.4 15.0 14.8

TABLE III Hourly numbers for each month Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec 8.6 5.6 6.5 6.4 6.0 6.1 11.1 20.6 9.8 14.1 13.3 14.8

Tables II and III will give the observer information as to the number of meteors he can hope to see on a given date and at a given hour. For more detai led information see Popular Astronomy, Oct, 1911, pages 524, 525. Observers are strongly urged to attempt observations on as many of the dates mentioned as possible, since cloudy weather will surely spoil many of them. File this paper for further use. Charles P. Olivier, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia

Fig. 4 American Meteor Society Bulletin No. 2. Source Courtesy of the American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives intervals.” Olivier concluded his report by “extend(ing) a hearty invitation to all in America who are interested in meteors…” to write him in order to join the AMS. In the AMS’ earliest years, Olivier relied upon descriptive meteor shower information from European sources to share with volunteers. In late 1912, he furnished members with Bulletin Number 2, a listing of major meteor showers compiled by W.F. Denning but amended by him with suggestions about the best dates in 1913 upon which to make observations. Bulletin 2 also summarized hourly meteor rates compiled by a Belgian amateur meteor observer, Charles Birkenstock (Fig. 4). Society for Practical Astronomy 53

First Amateur Members of the Hybrid SPA-AMS

By March 1912, Olivier announced eight SPA Meteor Section members, including himself, to the rest of the SPA membership.18 When Olivier published 126 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams (126PO) in 1914, it was the “single paper” he had promised AMS’ participating observers. In it, he acknowledged the SPA, “because it was through being appointed Director of its Meteor Section that I have been able to secure the assistance of most of (AMS’) best observers…” He scrupulously insisted that credit for the SPA members’ work belonged to the SPA even when it appeared in AMS reports.19 The ﬁve observers who were originally SPA members and who were cited in 126PO were Nels Bruseth, Alan P.C. Craig, James W. Hanahan, E.A. McDonald, and Latimer J. Wilson. These men were observational generalists who, in addition to watching meteors, reported their observations of the zodiacal light, auroras, planets, and variable stars20 to other sections of the SPA concerned with those topics. Of this group, Latimer James Wilson (1878–1948) was best known because his visual and photographic planetary work was often published in PA. Leonard appointed him Director of the SPA Planetary Section because of the quality of his planetary drawings. During World War 1, he worked for the Eastman Kodak company improving techniques and materials for telescopic photography. Following the war, Wilson returned to planetary studies and during the 1920s applied his photographic expertise to them. Wilson made a brief meteor career debut in 1912 but then he went on a hiatus. He rejoined the AMS in 1929 anticipating the expected Leonid storms during the 1930s. He photographed the 1932 Leonids in collaboration with visual observers who hoped to be able to measure the meteors’ heights in the atmosphere. His last reported meteor watch was for the 1936 Perseids. During that campaign, he assumed leadership of the Kentucky–Tennessee meteor group and earned a commendation from Dr. Olivier for leading it when Sterling Bunch, its long-time leader, moved to another state.21 In appreciation, Olivier appointed him regional Director for Kentucky and Tennessee in 1937.

18Olivier listed members in a notice in Monthly Register of the Society for Popular Astronomy (MRSPA) in a letter dated March 28, 1912. Source: Leonard, F. and H. Levinson, Eds., MRSPA, Volume 4, No. 3, January and February, 1912, p. 20, List of Members of the Meteor Section. 19Olivier printed identical meteor reports in Monthly Register of the SPA and in Popular Astronomy, to ensure that SPA members received acknowledgment in their club’s journal. He continued this practice until the SPA disbanded during World War I. 20Nels Bruseth and Alan Craig were early members of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) which began as did the AMS, as a section of the SPA. Craig was the earliest AAVSO participant, in April 1912. By October 1, 1912 he had contributed 281 magnitude estimates and by October 1, 1913 he contributed 983 more. Nels Bruseth reported 84 variable star magnitude estimates in September 1913. Source for 1912: Olcott, WT, Annual Report of the AAVSO for the year ending October 10, 1912, PA, volume 20, 1912, p. 615; for 1913: Olcott, Annual Report for year ending October 10, 1913, PA, volume 21, 1913, p. 591. 21Olivier, Charles P. “Meteor Notes from the American Meteor Society.” Popular Astronomy, volume 45, 1937: 159. 54 Enrollment Began

GEMINID METEORS PLOTTED BY NELS BRUSETH

Fig. 5 Nels Bruseth plotted Geminid meteors on the night of December 12–13, 1914, from Los Angeles, California. His notation “14–16,” next to the date on the map, is the time period during which he plotted the meteors, i.e., 14 h to 16 h standard time on December 12. Bruseth’s times correspond to 2–4 a.m. Paciﬁc Standard Time on December 13. The circle in the top center of the map is the Geminid radiant revealed by Bruseth’s plots. The map is hand-copied from an unknown reference star atlas. Copying maps from published star atlases was a standard practice among observers until printed maps became available in 1915. Source Courtesy of the American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives

Wilson’s body of work was so highly esteemed that he was invited to become a member of the American Astronomical Society and the Societe Astronomique de France (the French Astronomical Society)22 (Fig. 5).

22A short biography of Latimer Wilson is in Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (Hockey, et al., 2007, volume 2, pp. 1226–1227; New York: Springer). Wilson’s work for Kodak, see: Wilson, L., Popular Astronomy, 1919, volume 27, p. 478; for an example of one planetary photographic study: Wilson, L J, Photographing Jupiter, Popular Astronomy, 1927, volume 35, p. 359; re: AMS membership: Olivier, CP, Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, 1929, volume 37, p. 467; re: photographing Leonids: Olivier, CP, Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, 1933, volume 41, pp. 337–338; re: 1936 Perseids: Olivier, CP, Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, 1936, volume 44, p. 502; being regional director: Popular Astronomy, volume 46, p. 154. Society for Practical Astronomy 55

Nels Bruseth (1886–1957), exemplified the diverse backgrounds from which SPA meteor observers came. Bruseth was a US Forest Service Ranger whose 35-year career was spent in his native state of Washington. His life’s work as a naturalist and recorder of local Native Americans’ folklore was memorialized when a state park was named in his honor. One biography described Bruseth as “an amateur painter, anthropologist, photographer, geologist, and musician,” and in addition, he was an author of newspaper articles and an ethnographic book in 1926. His observational work for the AMS began in 1913, continued through 1914 and 1915, and ended in 1916 when he began his Forest Service career. One technique Dr. Olivier used to encourage high performance from AMS members was to select a year’s star performer and praise him lavishly in the AMS’ annual report published in Popular Astronomy. Bruseth was the first AMS member to receive this special attention. “It is with special pleasure that attention is called to the splendid record of Mr. Nels Bruseth of Silvana, Washington,” Olivier enthused. “In the eight months of 1913 that he was a member he has sent in observations of 540 meteors made on 23 nights of regular work and many other nights of intermittent work,” the AMS Director reported. Bruseth continued his prodigious observational rate in 1914 and he recorded 340 out of a total of 540 meteors reported in 1914, for 63 % of the AMS’ 1914 data. Bruseth reported another 140 meteors in 1915, the last year he contributed data.23 Alan Philip Carson Craig (1898–1959) lived in rural Riverside County, California, where his father owned and operated a fruit farm. Craig’s adolescent years were spent doing chores on the farm, but in 1918, he moved to Long Beach, California, where he worked as a machinist’s assistant for a shipbuilding company. He returned to the Corona farm in 1920. Ten years later, he was managing an oil company in San Bernardino, California. Alan Craig died at age 61 in Orange, California. Craig watched meteors in 1912 and 1913 when he was 14 and 15 years old. His meteor watches were frequent in 1912: He observed Delta Aquarids, Perseids, Orionids, and Leonids. His contributions dwindled in 1913, only watching the Perseids. After 1913, his name was missing from the lists of AMS observers for ten years. But, during the two-year period 1923–1924, he made a final contribution to the AMS: magnitudes of 11 meteors he saw while engaged in telescopic work.24 While

23Online sources document Nels Bruseth’s life. His vital statistics: www.nwhikers.net/forums/ index.php. Once at this site, go to the ‘Pacific NW history’ link and then enter ‘Bruseth’ in the search box. This site was accessed on 11/29/2011. Bruseth’s biography is on University of Washington’s Special Collection library site: http://digital.lib.washington.edu/findingaids/view? docId=BrusethNels0228.xml. It was accessed on 11/7/2012. In re: Bruseth’s 1913 meteor total, Olivier’s and the author’s counts differ. The author’s count is 556 meteors accumulated over 33 observation sessions. Olivier appears to have labeled as “intermittent work” the nights when Bruseth observed less than a full hour and for nights when clouds were present. The author’s count was made from data in 126PO, pp. 459–460. Bruseth’s data for 1914 and 1915 are cited in Olivier, 349 Parabolic Orbits, in endnote above. The statistic “63 % of AMS’ 1914 data” was also computed from data in Olivier, 349 Parabolic Orbits. 24Olivier, Charles P. “Report of the American Meteor Society for 1923 and 1924.” Popular Astronomy, volume 33, 1925: 240–243. 56 Enrollment Began he watched meteors for the SPA, he was the Director of its aurorae, gegenschein, and zodiacal light section and he exemplified SPA members’ enthusiasm for making reports about several astronomical subjects. In a 1913 SPA report in PA,Craig published Bruseth, McDonald, and his own zodiacal light reports for 1912–1913.25 James Wilson Hanahan (1859–1947) was a Winnsboro, South Carolina, attorney, who practiced before South Carolina’s Supreme Court as early as 1882 and was still litigating there as late as 1913. AMS reports indicate he was an active observer only during the 1912 Perseids. Articles in the SPA’s Monthly Register and PA show that he had an interest in star clusters, nebulae, and the zodiacal light as well as meteors. He appears to have maintained an astronomical interest into late life because when he was 70 he sent PA’s zodiacal light reporter the details of observations he made in 1913.26 Edwin Archibald McDonald (1859–1936) was a Presbyterian evangelist and missionary in Mexico, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico. He graduated from Iowa State College in 1882 and became an ordained minister in 1898. About 1906 he was assigned to Isabela, Puerto Rico and it was from there that he reported meteor watches of the 1913 Delta Aquarids and Perseids. He saw 153 meteors during the seven nights he watched for Perseids in August 1913. Besides meteors, he observed Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter in 1910 and the zodiacal light on 28 dates in 1912 and 1913. In addition to being a productive naked eye observer, he was an advocate for placing a large telescope at Puerto Rico’s southerly latitude. Although he had an

25Alan Craig’s WW1 draft registration revealed his full name, birth date, residence, and occupation in 1918. All this information was found in Ancestry.com’s online database, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918, Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2005. Ancestry’s online data came from US Selective Service System, World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918, Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), M1509. His registration location was Los Angeles County, California; Roll: 1531190; Draft Board 1. Data about his life in 1910, 1920, and 1930 also came from Ancestry.com’s online database, but originally from the US Censuses at NARA. His date and place of death were also found in Ancestry.com which obtained its data from the State of California, California Death Index, 1940–1997, Sacramento, CA: State of CA Dept. of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics. All Ancestry.com data was accessed on 1/14/2012. Alan Craig’s zodiacal light report was in Craig, Alan P.C., Annual Report…Section for the study of Aurorae…in the SPA; Popular Astronomy, 1913, volume 21, pp. 600–606. His telescopic meteor work was mentioned in: Olivier, Charles P., Report of the American Meteor Society for 1923 and 1924, Popular Astronomy, volume 33, 1925, p. 241. It is also available at http://adsabs.harvard. edu/full/1925PA…..33..240O. 26James Hanahan’s career is documented in the following sources. (1) Reports of Cases Heard… by the Supreme Court, volume 16, List of Attorneys; 1883, Columbia, SC: R.L. Bryan Co, Google eBooks.; (2) The Southeastern Reporter, volume 79, 1914, St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co., Google eBooks; (3) Monthly Register of the SPA, Listed members of Nebula Section, volumes 4– 8, Chicago: SPA; and (4) Glanville, W.E.; Zodiacal Light Observations, Popular Astronomy, volume 37, 1929, pp. 493–4; at the http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/ site. All the foregoing online sources were available on 8 Nov 2011. Hanahan’s full name, birth date and date of death were given in his death record, which was accessed on the Ancestry.com Web site on 1/16/2012: South Carolina Death Records, 1821–1955, Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2008. The original source was State of South Carolina, South Carolina Death Records, Columbia, South Carolina from the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Society for Practical Astronomy 57 optical telescope in mind, his notion anticipated the Arecibo 1000-foot radio telescope which began operation in Puerto Rico in 1963!27 To summarize SPA members’ contributions, Bruseth, Craig, Hanahan, McDonald, and Wilson reported a grand total of 1,308 meteors in the years 1912– 1913. Their work comprised 46 % of the AMS’ data for the years 1911–1913, and 57 % of its data for 1912–1913.28

American Astronomical Society

It was crucial for the AMS’s success to have the American Astronomical Society (AAS) as an ally because its members were Dr. Olivier’s professional colleagues and they were the established professional astronomical community in the USA. AAS policies, its members’ opinions, and their informal relationships wielded considerable inﬂuence about the types of astronomical research that would be pursued and how monetary resources would be allocated to research. As a practical matter, AAS members had considerable inﬂuence over the production of meteoric data. Most were academics who directed students’ classroom activities and assigned nighttime laboratory exercises which could include meteor observations. In addition, the professors presented lectures to the general public and if they chose, could suggest public and amateurs’ participation in meteor observation. The AAS’s leadership and membership’s support for the AMS were crucial if the AMS was to thrive. Dr. Olivier worked hard to earn colleagues’ respect and secure their support.

Early History of the AAS

The AAS was a successor organization to an earlier assemblage of astronomers and astrophysicists, the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America (AASA).

27E.A. McDonald’s history came from the following sources. (1) Rev. E.A. McDonald (obituary), Ames Daily Tribune and Times, Ames, Iowa, Saturday, June 6, 1936, online on the IAGenWebProject; (2) The Presbyterian Ministerial Directory, 1898, volume 1, Edgar Sutton Robinson, editor, Cincinnati: Armstrong and Fillmore; (3) 105th Annual Report of Home Missions, Presbyterian Church in the USA General Assembly, 1907, New York: Presbyterian Church; (4) McDonald, EA, Observations of the Planets in Porto Rico, Popular Astronomy, 1911, volume 19, pp. 189–190; and (5) Craig, APC, Annual Report of the Section for the Study of Aurorae, etc., Popular Astronomy, 1913, volume 21, pp. 600–606. Discovering his birth year and full name was the result of a long search on Ancestry.com’s online database: both were found in the Mack family tree listings, to which he was related by marriage to Susan Elizabeth Smith. 2846 % of AMS data: The total number of meteors observed 1911–1913 (2817) was used to calculate this statistic. This total is listed on p. 460 of 126PO (also known as Olivier, C., 126 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, pages 457–475. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1914). 57 % of AMS data: This statistic was derived from the grand total number of meteors seen by SPA members (=1308, as in the text above), minus 102 ‘miscellaneous’ meteors seen by Bruseth and Craig on p. 460 (1308 − 102 = 1206); and this result, 1206, was divided by the total number of meteors reported by all 1912–1913 observers cited in 126PO (=2121): 1206/2121 = 0.56.9 %. 58 Enrollment Began

Just as the earlier organization’s name implies, classical astronomers and the new astrophysicists decided in an organizational meeting, held at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1898 to form a society in which they could exchange research results and engage in collegial bonding. That meeting was preceded by one the previous year held at Williams Bay, Wisconsin, when the Yerkes Observatory’s 40-inch refractor was dedicated. Young George Ellery Hale (1868–1938) was the organizational and promotional genius who conceived of the organization that became the AASA. He promoted and arranged the 1897 and 1898 meetings and his political and diplomatic skills enabled him to persuade older and more influential colleagues like astronomer Simon Newcomb (1835–1909) and astrophysicist Edward Charles Pickering (1846–1919) to back the concept.29 The AASA’s first formal meeting was held at Yerkes Observatory in early September, 1899 and Simon Newcomb, the best-known American astronomer was elected President. Two Vice Presidents, both astrophysicists, including Hale, were elected. The Secretary and Treasurer were classical astronomers. Four councilors were elected but only one, Ormond Stone, was a classical astronomer, the other three were astrophysicists. The mixed composition of the AASA is important to understand because it reflected a tension between the two “astronomies” that was to persist throughout the organization’s and professional astronomy’s history. Even so, astrophysicists dominated the first leadership team and this indicated Hale’s intention that astrophysics would be preeminent in twentieth century astronomy.30

The Luminous Meteor Committee

Simon Newcomb retired as the AASA’s President at the end of 1905 and Edward C. Pickering of Harvard College Observatory succeeded him and continued in the post until he died in 1919. During his administration, Pickering created committees of astronomical specialists so that they could standardize their practices. The ﬁrst formed was the Luminous Meteors Committee (LMC), established in 1908. “Luminous meteor” was the terminology used in the nineteenth century for what today is simply called a meteor, and it stemmed from classical times when any phenomenon occurring in the atmosphere, such as rain or lightning, was called a “meteor.” The LMC Chairman was Cleveland Abbe (1838–1916) who was trained in the USA and in Europe as an astronomer, but became a specialist in meteorology and who pioneered weather forecasting in the USA31. Other Committee members were Henry Allen Peck (1863–1921), a Syracuse University astronomer who collaborated with Abbe on ﬁreball studies32; and William Lewis Elkin (1855–1933),

29AAS Meetings before there was an AAS: the pre-history of the society’ Osterbrock, Donald E., in The AAS’ First Century, David H. DeVorkin ed., Washington, D.C.: American Astronomical Society; pp. 3–16. 30Ibid., pp. 16–19. 31Much more about Abbe is written in the next chapter about the Weather Bureau. 32Who Was Who In America, volume 1, Chicago: AN Marquis Co; 1943, p. 952. American Astronomical Society 59 a Yale astronomer who before becoming a meteor specialist had a highly regarded career in astrometry.33 Dr. Elkin’s work, conducted from 1893 to 1909, was remarkable because he was the first astronomer to use an equatorially mounted photographic apparatus specifically designed to locate shower radiants, determine meteors’ heights in the atmosphere, and provide data to calculate meteors’ orbits and velocities. The accuracy of some of Elkin’s results was impaired by an insufficient baseline between sites where equipment was operated and because of some mathematical and photographic measurement problems. But his use of photography was an immense advance over naked eye methods used on the cusp of the twentieth century.34 In 1909, the LMC35 produced a report in which it “proposed for serious consideration” that a cooperating group of “astronomers, meteorologists, and physicists” in the USA and Canada should work toward the development of a series of photographic stations, perhaps 100 miles apart, in which meteors within 45° of the zenith could be photographed. The committee cited several earlier photographic techniques used in the USA and Europe that could become part of an established network of meteor cameras in order to determine meteor velocities. Abbe’s report closed with a suggestion that “a year or two” be dedicated to finding the cheapest photographic devices and most accurate methods that could be employed in a prototype. Further, Abbe urged the AASA to designate the LMC members as the experts in these matters and who, in addition, would raise the funds necessary for the experimentation mentioned in the proposal.36 In 1910, the LMC report to the AASA mentioned a “photographic apparatus” would be completed soon. And in 1915, Chairman Abbe reported that the renamed Meteor Committee was ready to employ the Eastman Kodak Company to manufacture a “photographic meteorgraph.”37 Unfortunately, despite the reported progress, no operational product was ever produced (Fig. 6).

33The Pickering Years, David H. DeVorkin, in The AAS’ First Century, David H. DeVorkin ed., Washington, D.C.: AAS; pp. 24 and 27. 34Olivier, C., Results of the Yale Photographic Meteor Work, 1893–1909, Astronomical Journal, volume 46, No. 1061, 1937, pp. 41–57. 35In 1909 the LMC had additional members: EC Pickering, his brother William H. Pickering and Edward Emerson Barnard. 36Progress Report of the LMC, to the AASA, dated August 17, 1909; by Cleveland Abbe, Chairman. From the Charles P. Olivier (CPO) correspondence ﬁle of the American Philosophical Society (APS). 37AAS Meetings, to December 1920, Brant Sponberg, Edited and expanded by Paul Routly. http:// had.aas.org/aashistory/7meetings.html. Select #18 on the Web site to access this source. Accessed September 23, 2012. 60 Enrollment Began

Fig. 6 This image is of William Lewis Elkin’s photographic device for recording meteor trails. Elkin was awarded a grant from the J. Lawrence Smith Fund of the National Academy of Science for its construction by Warner and Swasey. The use of an English equatorial mounting allowed exposures to continue even when the cameras crossed the meridian. The cameras followed the stars by means of a weight-driven clock drive. Elkins began work with the device by photographing 1894s Perseid display. This remained the most sophisticated meteor-dedicated photographic apparatus for several decades. Source Image courtesy of Carleton College Archives

Charles P. Olivier, the AASA, and the American Meteor Society

In 1911, the same year he earned a Ph.D. in astronomy, Charles P. Olivier’s name appeared in the organization’s membership list published in a report about its December meeting in Washington D.C.38 Soon after joining the AASA, Olivier began to earn his place in the astronomers’ professional association. In November 1913, when Olivier was assistant professor of physics at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, he received a letter from Philip Fox, the AASA’s Secretary. Fox

38Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, Popular Astronomy, volume 20, 1912, p. 131. American Astronomical Society 61

Fig. 7 Portrait of attendees at the 19th meeting of the AAS in 1916. Thirty-two-year-old Charles Olivier is in the top row, fourth from the right. This is the meeting at which he became Secretary of the Meteor Committee. Phillip Fox is in top row, ﬁrst on the right. Henry N. Russell is just below Fox. President Edward C. Pickering is in the front row, ﬁfth from the right. Frank Schlesinger is the man just above Pickering’s left shoulder. Samuel A. Mitchell is the man diagonally to Pickering’s upper left. Joel Stebbins is in the second row, fourth from the left, with a dark mustache and goatee. Source Image courtesy of Carleton College Archives informed Olivier that he had been appointed by President Edward C. Pickering “as a local committee” to arrange for the Society to meet in Atlanta one month later, at the end of December 1913. Fox asked Olivier for information about hotel lodgings for the members as quickly as Olivier could manage to get it. Olivier did as he was directed and the AASA met in “a classroom of the Georgia Technical College (and) in the parlors of the Piedmont Hotel.”39 Pickering was in Atlanta, but because he was also President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and scheduled to address that organization, he could not be present for AASA meetings. Evidently, the Society’s proceedings went well and a poster session that was held was described as “a pleasant feature” of the meeting. Olivier worked hard at short notice to make arrangements, but only 12 members were able to attend because “…Atlanta seemed

39In 2012, the author made several phone calls to Atlanta institutions of higher learning. There is no Atlanta college known by this name and no present metropolitan Atlanta college’s online history mentions “Georgia Technical College” as an earlier name. In particular, a historian at Georgia Institute of Technology, “Georgia Tech,” denied that GIT was ever known as “GTC.” The Piedmont Hotel was demolished in 1966: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmont_Hotel. Accessed September 23, 2012. 62 Enrollment Began rather remote…” to astronomers who were mainly located in the northeast USA or the Midwest40 (Fig. 7). Despite Olivier’s efforts on the AASA’s behalf and the AMS’ growing number of meteor observations reported in 191441, Olivier had not yet been inducted into the Luminous Meteor Committee. For some unknown reason, the LMC had not yet embraced Olivier and his three-year-old AMS. It would take another two years for the newly renamed American Astronomical Society to acknowledge Olivier and the AMS’ accomplishments. In 1916 Olivier and his Society were formally accepted as reputable contributors in meteor matters and worthy of recognition by the AAS. Olivier announced, in Popular Astronomy, that “the American Astronomical Society, recognizing the value of the American Meteor Society’s work, appointed (Olivier) Secretary of its Meteor Committee. This was done to show its appreciation and…its ofﬁcial sanction…”42 The shift to a still more inﬂuential AAS role came when Acting Secretary Joel Stebbins informed Olivier that he had been appointed Chairman of the Meteor Committee by President Edward Pickering, in a letter dated November 6, 1917. Olivier’s American Meteor Society was now an accepted institution of American astronomy.43

Chairman Olivier’s Program

In 1919, two years after being named Chairman of the Meteor Committee, Dr. Olivier, delivered the Committee’s report to the AAS’ 23rd meeting at Ann Arbor, Michigan. His report was a clear and frank assessment of then-current meteoric astronomy and what the AAS and practitioners of meteor science would need to do in the future to achieve more precise results. He began the report with a statement about what had been achieved.

Practical work in meteoric astronomy may be divided roughly into two parts, ﬁrst those problems that can be satisfactorily solved by methods now in use which do not require instrumental help, second those which require photography, used in connection with

40Philip Fox to CPO, dated November 11, 1913, APS correspondence ﬁle; and AASA, Report of the 16th Meeting, Popular Astronomy, volume 22, 1914, p. 129. 41126 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams (126 PO), Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, 1914; Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia. 42Olivier, C., The American Meteor Society in 1916; Popular Astronomy, volume 25, 1917, p. 166; and AAS Meetings, to December 1920, 19th Meeting, Brant Sponberg, Edited and expanded by Paul Routly. http://had.aas.org/aashistory/7meetings.html. To access this reference, click on “19” for Meeting 19, after you have obtained the Web site. Then, read the description of events at the meeting. Accessed September 19, 2012. 43Joel Stebbins to CPO, APS’ C.P. Olivier Correspondence ﬁle, Philadelphia, PA. Olivier also reported his promotion in Report of the American Meteor Society, PA, volume 26, 1918, pp. 191– 192. American Astronomical Society 63

specially devised instruments. Many problems of the first kind have of late years been fairly well taken care of by the American Meteor Society. At least definite progress has been made toward their solutions in some cases. Then, he made an unambiguous declaration about the need for photographic means to improve the field’s knowledge of meteoric parameters, such as meteor orbits and velocities.

Problems of the second kind can only be satisfactorily attempted by men trained in astronomy. It has been proved quite deﬁnitely that no human skill is great enough to settle some of the problems, using mere eye estimations of path and mental estimates of time. It cannot be urged too strongly that until instrumental means are employed for both these data, accurate orbits, heights of appearance and disappearance (and) real velocities…will never be obtained, except with rough approximation…Such being the case, it is well to frankly admit we have little accurate knowledge about meteor orbits.44 At this point in the report, Olivier reminded the AAS about the meteorgraph that Cleveland Abbe had mentioned in his 1915 report to the Society.

Hence the need of better means of observing. The only instrument devised to date, so far as your committee knows, which would probably be satisfactory, is that invented by the late Prof. Cleveland Abbe. It is recommended that competent persons examine the drawings for the instrument, and if they prove acceptable, that two be made and placed at some regular observatory, in the hands of persons who will actually use them and report results. It will be necessary to secure the funds for their construction, but this difficulty could probably be overcome.45 Despite Olivier’s proposal, no meteorgraph was ever built and deployed. Before World War 2, funding for scientific equipment was not easy to obtain, oftentimes only available through a professor’s university and even then a request may not have been granted because the institution’s endowment or donor sources were insufficient. Sometimes funds could be obtained from the National Academy of Sciences’ funds, like the J. Lawrence Smith fund for astronomers, but the grant-seeker faced competition from colleagues and when a competitor was high ranking in the profession, prospects were dim indeed.46 Presumably the meteorgraph was doomed by scenarios of this kind.

44Olivier, C., Report of the Committee on Meteors, Popular Astronomy, volume 28, 1920, pp.13– 14. 45Ibid., p. 14. 46A passage in Popular Astronomy reveals how Frank Schlesinger was able to obtain development money for a research device and for his research at Yale Observatory. Very likely, his prominence in the AAS and the National Academy of Sciences aided his requests for funds. “…we are constructing in our shops at New Haven a third measuring engine suitable for these (photographic parallax) plates, which we expect to be ready for use by January, 1931. This engine is being constructed with the help of a grant from the National Research Council, and the plates at New Haven are being measured with the help of grants from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and from the Watson Fund of the National Academy of Sciences.” (Schlesinger, F., Reports of Observatories 1929–1930; Yale University Observatory, Popular Astronomy, volume 39, 1931, p. 272.) 64 Enrollment Began

Dr. Olivier’s 1919 Report to the AAS included two appeals to the professional astronomy community for assistance in recruiting more visual observers for the AMS. He asked AAS members in contact with amateurs to “call the attention of amateurs to the desirability of helping out…by joining the AMS.” He also asked astronomy instructors whose courses included laboratory exercises to assign visual watches of meteor showers to students and to retain the records made during them. His second appeal was to “persons engaged in comet seeking and variable star work” who used low-power telescopes to record the magnitude and directions of meteors observed and report them to him at AMS headquarters.

Setting the Agenda for Future Meteor Research

In 1921, Professor Olivier listed the problems that meteoric astronomy needed to solve. These not only shaped the AMS’ program but also the research agendas of future North American university programs for the next 50 years,47 1. To determine accurate velocities of meteors, 2. To determine accurate radiant points, 3. The connection of given streams with known comets, 4. To determine accurate heights of appearance and disappearance in the earth’s atmosphere, 5. To study meteor trains, especially to secure accurate velocities and directions of their drifts, 6. To secure spectroscopic information about meteors, 7. To secure telescopic data on the physical appearance of meteors, 8. To study the distribution of all meteors according to the month, day, and hour, 9. To secure data as to apparent velocity, magnitude, color, etc., and 10. To study the connection between meteors, ﬁreballs, and meteorites.48 Solving Problem 2 was central to resolving the debate about the existence of stationary radiants and was of primary interest to Dr. Olivier for the following ten years. He would ask AMS members to plot the paths of shower meteors in an effort to demonstrate radiants’ movement. During the same decade, Olivier would ask Weather Bureau and Hydrographic Ofﬁce personnel, as well as AMS members, to provide data relevant to Problems 4 and 5. In pursuit of Problem 7, Olivier would ask the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) members to devote some of their energies to providing meteor magnitude data while they monitored stars with their telescopes.

47Olivier sent a copy of the ten-point list to AAS President Frank Schlesinger in a letter dated August 18, 1920. So, Olivier’s priority list for meteor research was in his hands before calendar year 1921. 48Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams (and Report of AMS for 1914–1918), Publications of Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, 1921, pp. 224–225. American Astronomical Society 65

Fig. 8 The above two excerpts are from a letter mailed to Dr. Olivier by Nels Bruseth dated August 28, 1913. Top excerpt Mr. Bruseth’s comments about using a star map not speciﬁcally designed for meteor plotting reveal the frustrations with which observers contended. Bottom excerpt Winslow Upton’s Star Atlas (1896) was a gnomonic map but as Bruseth’s letter reveals was not easily available to observers (Bruseth’s letter was found in an AMS Archives letter storage box, labeled ‘1910–1920’). Source for both: Courtesy of the American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives

Data collection for Problem 9 was accomplished when members completed a detailed data sheet in which an observer supplied magnitude, velocity, and color data for each observed meteor. AMS members also furnished the data for Problem 8 which Olivier used to compile hourly meteor rate tables. The tables were published in the 1960s and 1970s after decades of data collection. Problems 1, 3, 6, and 10 needed professional astronomers’ attention and required decades of work to attain results that professionals could accept as reliable. However, making an association between a comet and a meteor stream was sometimes achieved by naked eye observation alone, as happened in 1916 when two Wisconsin amateurs’ meteor plots helped Dr. Olivier make the connection between a meteor shower and Comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke49 (Figs. 8, 9).

49Olivier, C., The American Meteor Society in 1916, PA, volume 25, p. 165. 66 Enrollment Began

Fig. 9 AAS ADDENDUM 1: American Meteor Society Bulletin 3 Courtesy of the American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives American Astronomical Society 67

R.K. Young’s Gnomonic Star Maps

Before 1915, meteor watchers plotted observed meteors on star maps copied from available star atlases. Unfortunately, not all atlases used a map projection appropriate for this purpose. Excerpts (above) from Nels Bruseth’s letter to Dr. Olivier, dated August 28, 1913, exempliﬁes the frustrations such star maps created for AMS observers. In an attempt to help observers compensate for inappropriate maps, Dr. Olivier wrote a detailed set of instructions to be followed by giving explicit directions about meteor path plotting. (See AAS ADDENDUM 1: AMS Bulletin 3, especially item 8.)50 But, in 1915, Dr. Reynold Kenneth Young (1886–1977), a Canadian member of the AAS, developed star maps using the gnomonic or central projection.51 Maps of this type allow drawing a straight line so that it accurately represents the actual path the meteor took on the sky. Drawing a meteor’s path on any other map projection introduces errors that lead to the erroneous deduction of the meteor radiant. Even using the appropriate star maps, Young urged Olivier to alert AMS members about a plotting error that could be made if an observed meteor’s path crossed the boundaries of adjacent maps. In such a case, care was needed when the meteor’s path was extended backward toward its radiant on the adjoining map.52 Dr. Young’s ﬁrst set of 13 maps depicting the northern sky were published in the January 1915 issue of Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (JRASC). A second article containing 20 maps was published later in 1915, and the additional seven maps extended coverage to the southern sky.53

Maps and Publicity

By May 1915, Dr. Olivier had used a portion of a grant from the J. Lawrence Smith Fund of the National Academy of Sciences to purchase sets of the 13 northern sky maps. (See AAS ADDENDUM 2 for a comparison of Young and the AMS’ charts.) Olivier published an article in Popular Astronomy, on May 4, 1915, in which he described the value of meteor observing and promised each amateur contributing data full credit for work sent to him at Leander McCormick Observatory. Olivier furnished instructions about how to record meteor data in the article. Further, he

50Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams (and Report of AMS for 1914–1918), Publications of Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, 1921, p. 209. 51Olivier and Young met while they were graduate student Fellows at Lick Observatory in 1910. Lick Bulletins authored by Olivier and Young bear dates from January to October, 1910 and show that the men were in residence at Lick during the same year. Lick Observatory Bulletins, volumes 5 and 6, Berkeley California: The University Press, 1910; pp. 182 and 185 of volume 5 and pp. 66, 73, 75 and 76 of volume 6. 52Letter to CPO from Reynold K. Young in AMS Archives. 53A Gnomonic Star Atlas, JRASC, volume 9, 1915, pp. 7–10 plus 13 maps; and A Meteor Star Atlas, Publications of Dominion Observatory, volume 2, 1915, pp. 159–164 plus 20 maps. 68 Enrollment Began promised to send meteor data record blanks to interested amateurs at no cost and to provide a set of Young’s maps for ten cents. Olivier promised free maps to AMS members who “have sent in a fair number of observations…”54 Two months after Olivier’s article in PA, the McCormick Observatory’s Director Samuel A. Mitchell wrote a similar article for the July 1915 issue of Scientiﬁc American. Mitchell’s article, directed to a readership of generalist science hobbyists, probably also resulted in inquiries from people who were not PA subscribers.55 Amateurs’ responses to Olivier and Mitchell’s articles were rapid and intense. By September 1915, “not less than 100 people (wrote) asking for maps, information, etc., most of them signifying their intention of observing in accordance with (AMS directions),” Olivier reported in an issue of PA. In the same article, he listed 21 people who had in fact submitted meteor observational results.56 When he reported the society’s progress during 1916, Olivier listed the names of 42 data-providing AMS members. The observers’ list included three women foreshadowing future participation by a number of women citizen scientists.57 Olivier’s efforts had paid off; the AMS no longer was a small cadre of amateur meteor devotees and it had emerged as an entity independent of the Society for Practical Astronomy whose members it had shared. Dr. Olivier was quick to send record forms and Young’s star maps to the southern hemisphere. A letter from Bernhard Hildebrandt Dawson (1890–1960), a double and variable star astronomer at La Plata, Argentina, thanked Olivier for sending him a supply of the AMS materials during the summer of 1915.58 Dawson was an early AMS contributor, having sent data he secured on August 1, 1913, when he recorded 46 meteors during a 2-h-and-25-min watch from Argentina.59 Dawson also sent meteor data in February and March 1914 and a last time in July 1916.60 Olivier was especially grateful for data from the southern hemisphere where he always had few contributors. Olivier had obtained 2000 sets of the gnomonic maps for distribution. Edwin Brant Frost (1866–1935), who had hosted Olivier at Yerkes Observatory in 1913, learned of this supply and asked Olivier to send ten sets of star maps so that he would have them on hand for students and summer observers at the observatory in 1917.61 Olivier also received a request for the maps from Ernst Julius Opik (1893–1985) in 1923, when Opik was at the Astronomical Observatory at Tartu, Estonia. Opik became a prominent meteor researcher in the 1930–1950s time period.

54Olivier, C., Meteoric Astronomy, Popular Astronomy, volume 23, 1915, pp. 356–360. 55Mitchell, S., Systematic Observation of Meteors, Scientific American, volume 113, July 10, 1915, p. 48. 56Olivier, C., Results of Meteor Observations for July and August, 1915, PA, volume 23, pp. 567–568. 57Olivier, C., The American Meteor Society in 1916, PA, volume 25, 1917, pp. 163–166. 58Bernhard H. Dawson to CPO, May 5, 1916, APS Correspondence file of CPO. 59Olivier, C, Report of the American Meteor Society, Popular Astronomy, volume 22, 1914, p. 91. 60Olivier, C, 1921, op.cit., pp. 226–232. 61EB Frost to Charles P. Olivier, letter dated November 2, 1917, APS correspondence file of CPO. American Astronomical Society 69

Rewards from Enlisting the Assistance of AAS Members

Dr. Olivier’s campaign of publicizing the AMS’s role and offering low cost or free observational materials, as well as urging colleagues to press students and amateurs into the AMS ranks, paid him dividends in meteor data. From 1914 to the end of 1918, AMS members had contributed 22,008 observations62 (Table 1): The tabulated data above, contributed by a total of 66 AMS members, were summarized and discussed in Olivier’s 70-page monograph entitled 349 Parabolic Orbits, which was subtitled, Report of the AMS for 1914–1918. This memoir was also a compilation of several publications that Olivier had published in Popular Astronomy and elsewhere during the report period. Its results included another criticism of the stationary radiant claim and the data reduction techniques that Olivier believed led to it. As he had done in his dissertation, Olivier insisted upon the one-night procedure for ﬁnding radiants, but he liberalized his radiant criteria by accepting radiants obtained under limited circumstances on three consecutive nights.63

Academic Colleagues Contributed

Not only did AMS members contribute meteor records, but so did AAS members, either their own observations or by relaying data from students or members of the public. Dr. Olivier welcomed any source of meteoric data and seemed intent on capturing all possible sources for his database. Contributions from two influential AAS members exemplify this point. Frank Schlesinger, the AAS President who succeeded Pickering, relayed a June 1930 fireball report that he received from an astronomy graduate student at Yale, where Schlesinger was Department Chairman. The student, who was in New Haven, Connecticut, saw a blue-green fireball that remained stationary for 20 s before disappearing. Olivier wrote to Schlesinger that he was delighted to receive a second

Table 1 Meteor 1914 540 meteors observations submitted by 1915 5003 AMS members (1914–1918) 1916 10,184 1917 4231 1918 2050 Total 22,008

62Olivier, C, Annual Report of the American Meteor Society for 1918, Popular Astronomy, volume 28, 1920, pp. 15–16. 63Olivier, C, 1921, op. cit., pp. 205–209. 70 Enrollment Began report of the same fireball, seen from Leonia, New Jersey. Both the Connecticut and New Jersey observers gave sky coordinates for the fireball, thus permitting Olivier to calculate its endpoint over Leonia and its height in the atmosphere.64 A second example was in 1922, from famed astrophysicist Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957), of Hertzsprung–Russell diagram fame. The fact that America’s then-leading astrophysicist would take the initiative to record a meteor display and report it to Olivier illustrates how effective Olivier had been in presenting meteors as a serious topic for his colleagues’ consideration.65 Russell happened to witness a rare Lyrid shower rate outburst on April 21, 1922, and wrote Olivier immediately after seeing it. Russell was touring in Greece at the time and noticed the display while out for an evening walk. He watched closely for two short periods between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. local time. From 9:20 to 9:40 he and his wife counted 35 meteors. From 9:55 to 10:10, he counted 28 meteors of which 26 belonged to a radiant he noted was “some eight degrees southwest of Vega.” He recalled seeing one first magnitude meteor, several of the second magnitude, and the remainder brighter than the fourth magnitude. He added “the brighter ones left distinct trails, lasting for half a second to a second.” Although Russell did not plot the meteors on a star map, he estimated that the radiant was approximately five degrees in diameter.66 Russell’s report was seconded by two observers at Drake Observatory in Des Moines, Iowa, who reported two nights of enhanced Lyrid activity on April 21 and 22, 1922. Dr. Olivier took note of both reports in his AMS annual report for 1922. In 1935, Olivier expanded on the two observations, commenting that the display on the 21st was “…the best display of Lyrids recorded since…April 23, 1803. Further, Olivier explained that the declining rates seen by Russell on the 21st and the steadily decreasing rates the Iowans saw on April 21 and 22 indicated that the “… the maximum was over early in the night (for Europe) of April 21 (1922).”67

64Frank Schlesinger (FS) to Charles P. Olivier (CPO), letter of June 25, 1931; CPO to FS, dated November 9, 1931, APS correspondence File for Charles P. Olivier; Olivier, CP, Meteor Notes, PA, volume 39, 1931, p. 605. 65Olivier wrote a thank you letter to Russell as evidenced by a letter from Russell on June 23, 1922. The letter was in the American Philosophical Society’s Olivier letter files. Apparently Olivier attempted to lure Russell into an investigation of stationary radiants. Russell responded, “As to the question of stationary radiants, I may look into the matter someday, but I have really too much on hand at present to justify excursions into new fields. (However) I am decidedly of the opinion that further observational evidence is necessary before we can be sure of their reality. You have done admirable work in pointing out the unsoundness of Denning’s methods.” 66H.N. Russell to CPO, letter dated April 21, 1922, APS file of CPO’s correspondence. 67Olivier, Report of the AMS for 1922, PA, volume 30, p. 174; Report of the AMS for 1919–1925, Publications of the L. McCormick Observatory, volume 5, 1929 and 1935, pp. 17 and 25. American Astronomical Society 71

Summary

By 1930, Dr. Olivier had earned a place of respect in the American Astronomical Society, because of his service to the organization, his advocacy for meteoric research and because of his effective leadership of the AMS.68 He and the AMS had become important to the AAS, and he had engaged the membership’s attention about meteors as a legitimate subject for research (Figs. 9, 10).

American Association of Variable Star Observers

A Brief History of Variable Star Observers and the AMS to about 1940

Introduction—AAVSO’s Origin

Just as Frederick Charles Leonard’s Society for Practical Astronomy (SPA) had a meteor observer’s section, the SPA had a Variable Star Section (VSS) for which Leonard invited William Tyler Olcott (1873–1936) to be director in 1911. While directing the VSS, Olcott simultaneously founded his own organization, the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) on October 10, 1911. Olcott remained with the SPA until 1913 when he left to concentrate his efforts on the AAVSO. When he resigned, many of the VSS observers abandoned the SPA with him, perhaps because of a perception that the AAVSO was associated with professional astronomers, like Edward Pickering at Harvard College Observatory.69

Simultaneous Memberships

The AAVSO had, even in 1912, many energetic and productive amateur astronomers who contributed a great number of magnitude estimates of variable stars. But amateurs seldom have an undivided passion for a single subject of astronomical

68Dr. Olivier was also an expert in double star and long-period variable star research and published scientiﬁc papers in both topics. He was a member of the International Astronomical Union’s Double Star Commission. 69Williams, Thomas R. and Michael Saladyga, Advancing Variable Star Astronomy (AVSA), 2011, New York: Cambridge University Press; pp. 23 and 27. The author wishes to acknowledge Drs. Thomas R. Williams, past President of the AAVSO and Michael Saladyga AAVSO’s archivist, for providing invaluable historical information about the AAVSO during the preparation of this chapter. 72 Enrollment Began

Fig. 10 a AAS ADDENDUM 2: comparison of young’s and ams charts. R.K. Young’s Map 10, as published in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Compare this map detail with the version adapted for use by the AMS on the next page. This map image is courtesy of the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. b AAS ADDENDUM: comparison of young’s and ams charts. This AMS version of Map 10 has been slightly modiﬁed to allow AMS members to make observational notes on the right margin. Source Courtesy of the American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives American Association of Variable Star Observers 73

Fig. 10 (continued) observation and they often join several different contemporaneous organizations. This was true of the amateurs in the years after 1911 and several were members of both the AAVSO and the AMS. An interesting example was none other than Frederick Leonard. Frederick Leonard did not appear to harbor any animosity toward Olcott and became an AAVSO member in 1914. Leonard contributed magnitude estimates to it in 1914 and 1916, even while he led the SPA’s VS Section, which Olcott had 74 Enrollment Began deserted in1913.70 Leonard also allied himself with Dr. Olivier’s meteor organization and was listed as an AMS member in 1915, while Olivier was still head of SPA’s Meteor Section. Leonard contributed meteor plots on August 6 and 9, 1915, while visiting Olivier at the McCormick Observatory in Virginia.71 Three more examples of amateurs with multiple memberships are worth mentioning. The first two were Alan P.C. Craig and Nels Bruseth; both of whom were in the first cohort of SPA Meteor Section and AMS observers. Craig reported meteors to Olivier in 1912 and 1913. At the same time, he belonged to the SPA/VS and AAVSO, under Olcott’s leadership from 1912 to 1914. Craig contributed 1700 variable star magnitude estimates to Olcott. Bruseth plotted meteors for the SPA and AMS from 1913 to 1915, and he reported 374 magnitude estimates to Olcott’s AAVSO during 1913 and 1914. The third amateur with simultaneous memberships was Howard O. Eaton, an early member of the AAVSO who continued in its membership for many years. He contributed meteor plots to the AMS brieflyin August 1915. Craig, Bruseth, and Eaton were, respectively, the AMS and AAVSO’s first, second, and third “dual members,” that is, amateurs who not only were members of both organizations, but who contributed data to each during the same year.72 Trial affiliations with one or more meteor and variable star societies were rife in 1911–1915 as observers tried out contemporaneous organizations for the most satisfying “fit” of their interests with the amateur organizations’ programs.

Olivier’s Invitation to AAVSO Members

Perhaps noting amateurs’ tendency to “roam,” Dr. Olivier participated in at least one SPA convention in order to raise his and the AMS’ visibility among the SPA’s amateur astronomers. He presented a talk to the second SPA convention in August 1915 to support its mission and perhaps in the hope that he could attract more of the SPA’s data-producing amateurs to the AMS.73

70Williams and Saladyga, AVSA, p. 23 and AAVSO annual reports for years ending 1915 and 1916: PA, vol. 23, p. 616; and vol. 24, p. 601. 71Olivier, 349PO/Report of the American MS for 1914–1918; Publications of Leander McCormick Observatory, vol. 2, 1921, pp. 203 and 226. 72‘Dual member’ is the author’s concept and neither the AMS nor the AAVSO used this term or made efforts to identify such members. For simplicity, the author is omitting reference to the SPA in this deﬁnition, even though that organization existed during the years Craig, Bruseth and Eaton belonged to the AMS and AAVSO. Sources for Craig and Bruseth were: Olivier, 126 Parabolic Orbits; and Olcott; Annual Reports of the AAVSO for 1912, 1913 and 1914, PA, vols.20–23. Sources for Eaton: Ann’l Rep of the AAVSO for the year ending 1916; PA, vol. 23, p. 616; and Olivier, 349 Parabolic Orbits/ AMS during 1914–1918, Publications of the L McCormick Obsy, vol. 2, Charlottesville VA: UVA; 1921; pp. 203 and 226–227. 73Williams and Saladyga, AVSA, p. 22. American Association of Variable Star Observers 75

Dr. Olivier made an appeal to AAVSO members too. By December 1917, he had been named Chairman of the AAS’ Meteor Committee and as Director of the AMS, Olivier was in a prestigious position to appeal to the AAVSO for assistance. He asked the AAVSO’s members to assist him in an investigation of the faint meteors they happened to see while making magnitude estimates of variable stars. In June 1920, Olivier contacted the AAVSO’s Council, its policy making and ofﬁcer-selecting body. George Waldo, Jr., reported Olivier’s contact in a report about the Ninth Annual Meeting in November 1920. Mr. Waldo reported to AAVSO members, “The Secretary read a communication from Professor C.P. Olivier of the U. of VA, Charlottesville, VA, asking for the cooperation of the AAVSO in observing telescopic meteors. The communication pointed out that the very nature of the work of observing variables made it possible to render real service with no additional effort in this respect, the members being able to locate with great precision the position of any meteor that swept across the ﬁeld of their instrument and also to estimate its magnitude with a fair degree of exactness. It was recommended by the Council that the members undertake to report any observations thus made, and a vote to that effect was passed unanimously.”74

AAVSO Members Responded

Several AAVSO members responded promptly and enthusiastically to their Council’s recommendation. Nine variable star observers (VSOs) reported 46 telescopic meteors from late 1920 through 1921.75 True to his promise, Olivier thanked the VSOs and the AAVSO; “it is (because of) the kind cooperation of (the AAVSO) that we are able to report so many telescopic meteors for 1921.” He added, “In addition to the magnitudes, which were the data most desired, in many cases observers sent in careful notes of the paths, velocity and appearance of these telescopic meteors.”76 Many of 1921s telescopic observers contributed data for several years. Reverend Tilton Bouton (1856–1948) reported a total of 68 telescopic meteors from 1920 to 1932. Leslie C. Peltier (1900–1980) contributed from 1921 until 1933 for an

74George Waldo, Jr; the Ninth Annual Meeting of the AAVSO, PA, vol. 28, 1920, pp. 623–624. And Dr. Michael Saladyga, AAVSO archivist, in an email to the author, dated 3/19/2012, reported that AAVSO headquarters had received a “… plea for meteor observations to be sent to AAVSO observers.” as early as June 1920. The ‘plea’ may have taken the form of AMS Bulletin 1 which Olivier addressed to the organization’s members. Saladyga is coauthor of the definitive centennial history of the AAVSO, Advancing Variable Star Astronomy, Cambridge U Press, 2011. 75The nine were T.C.W. Bouton; Chandra, R.G.; McAteer, C.Y.; Olcott, W.T.; Peltier, L.C.; Peters, J.L.; Suter, R.O., Jr; Vrooman, H.W.; and Watson, P.S. Professional astronomers belonging to the AAVSO contributed another 34 meteors: Alden, H.L.; Campbell, L.; and Young, Miss A.S. UVA astronomers Mitchell, S.A. and Olivier contributed another 8 meteors, for a grand total of 88. 76Olivier, Report of the American Meteor Society for 1920 and 1921, Popular Astronomy, volume 30, 1922, pp. 153–155. 76 Enrollment Began aggregate of 517 telescopic meteors. An Indian AAVSO member, Radha Gobinda Chandra (1878–1975), reported 101 during an observational career of 1921–1938.77 Dr. Olivier carefully collected the AAVSO’s telescopic contributions and published a summary, perhaps the first of its kind, in his 1929 monograph of AMS members’ data. He summarized magnitude data from 796 meteors, submitted by 18 amateurs from the AAVSO and five professionals between 1919 and 1925. Leslie Peltier and Leander McCormick Observatory astronomers each contributed three-eighths of the meteor magnitudes in the study. Olivier’s analysis of meteors ranging from the eighth to the 13th magnitudes led Olivier to believe that “… there are nearly equal numbers of telescopic meteors of each magnitude, beginning at about 8 magnitude, and that there is no decided increase such as we find in the numbers of stars and ordinary (naked eye) meteors as we go to fainter magnitudes. This result was totally unexpected, yet being based upon 796 meteors certainly deserves serious consideration…” Drawing upon his own experience, Olivier opined, “the writer has never been able wholly to convince himself that telescopic meteors…are a class just as near as naked eye meteors. Is it possible that some such telescopic meteors are really comparable in mass with ordinary meteors, but many times as distant (and therefore dimmed to fainter magnitudes)?” In response to his own rhetorical question, he tentatively concluded, “If so, it would extend our atmosphere to heights not now believed…” This was an astonishing realization in an era, circa 1935, when the upper boundary of earth’s atmosphere was unknown.78

Some AAVSO Members Join the AMS

The monthly appearance of Meteor Notes in Popular Astronomy (PA), beginning December 1926, and Dr. Olivier’s repeated entreaties to the AAVSO for telescopic meteor observations, persuaded several VSOs to join the AMS’ naked eye meteor watches. The approaching Leonid meteor storm predicted to occur in the early 1930s no doubt also inﬂuenced the VSOs to participate in a scientiﬁc analysis of Leonid results as members of the AMS. For one or both of these reasons, dual membership in the AAVSO and AMS increased after 1926. The author’s study of both organizations’ memberships from 1919 to 1935 revealed intermittent dual membership from 1919 to 1926. However, dual membership became stably established, occurring in each succeeding year, from 1927 to 1935. The mean number of dual members 1919-1926 was one, and from 1927 to 1935, the mean number was eight. Although dual membership numbers stabilized 1927–1935, it never surpassed 13 per year, and its percentage of the total AMS membership only averaged 21 % during the same years.

77The data cited came from Olivier’s Annual Reports of the AMS for the years 1920–1947 in PA. 78Olivier, Report of the AMS for 1919–1925, Publications of Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 5, pp. 45–49. This monograph was ﬁrst published in 1929 but the online version on the SAO-ADS Web site was a later edition published in 1935. American Association of Variable Star Observers 77

Fig. 11 J.L. Peters (1903–1988). Peters was a dual member of AMS and AAVSO. This image is from a group portrait of attendees at the 9th Annual Meeting of AAVSO on November 6, 1920. Seventeen-year-old Peters was ﬁrst an AMS member and in 1920 made variable star magnitude estimates as a member of the AAVSO. Most dual members were under 30 years of age and many, like Peters, were less than 20 years old. Source The image is from Popular Astronomy courtesy of Carleton College Archives

The AAVSO Addendum at the end of this section about the AAVSO provides more statistical details and the sources of it (Fig. 11). Even though the percentage was small, a few of the dual members had an important data-producing role which greatly aided Dr. Olivier during the 1930s Leonid epoch. VSOs like L.E. Armﬁeld, and J. Wesley Simpson contributed telescopic meteor data and led groups of amateur meteor observers who contributed a great deal of naked eye data to the AMS. Sterling Bunch and Oscar E. Monnig’s Texas observers contributed thousands of meteor records in the 1930s too. So the AAVSO members were a triple bonus for the AMS: in their own right, they provided telescopic and naked eye meteor data, but they were also leaders of groups of naked eye observers. And, at the time he joined the AMS as a 15 years old in 1928, no one could have guessed that dual member Clinton B. Ford would make a substantial ﬁnancial bequest to the AMS after his death in 1992.

Dr. Olivier Returned the Favor

The AAVSO–AMS history was not simply a “one-way street,” with only the AMS beneﬁtting. Dr. Olivier and some AMS members assisted the AAVSO, in what was a mutually beneﬁcial relationship between the two organizations. Olivier was elected by AAVSO members to become a member of its Council and he served in this role from 1935 to 1939.79 While serving, in 1936, AAVSO

79Olivier is listed as an AAVSO member who contributed VS estimates in 1931: Campbell, Leon, Monthly Report of the AAVSO, PA, volume 39, 1931, p. 347. 78 Enrollment Began

President and HCO Director Harlow Shapley consulted with Olivier about the appointment of two VSOs to the chairmanship of AAVSO programs: L.E. Armfield to a Nova Search program and L.H. Matthias as chair of a photographic program.80 In addition, Dr. Olivier contributed to VS research during and after his directorship of Flower Observatory (1929–1954). Olivier and his staff pursued three programs related to variable stars. The Observatory’s 18-inch refractor was used for observations of faint long-period variable stars, to determine the light curves of eclipsing variable stars, and for the determination of positions and magnitudes of comparison stars in the variable stars’ fields. Comparison stars’ positional and magnitude data allowed the construction of variable star field charts, and in 1960, Olivier aided the AAVSO by permitting it to copy these charts. In 1961, he sent additional charts to the AAVSO for it to reproduce. The entire contribution of data provided the basis for the development of many new AAVSO star field charts, allowing hundreds of new variable stars to be added to the AAVSO observing program.81

AAVSO ADDENDUM—dual members 1919–1935 Year No. dual memberships Total no. AMS membersa Percentage (dual/total) 1919 1 7 14 1920 3 13 23 1921 2 10 20 1922 1 7 14 1923 0 2 0 1924 0 5 0 1925 2 6 33 1926 0 13 0 1919–1926 Mean percentage of dual memberships = 13 1919–1926 Mean no. dual memberships = 1.1 1927 4 17 24 1928 5 23 22 1929 8 37 22 1930 7 36 19 1931 8 40 20 1932 8 50 16 1933 10 77 13 1934 13 48 27 1935 9 34 27 1927–1935 Mean percentage of dual memberships = 21.1 1927–1935 Mean no. of dual memberships = 8.0 aThe author does not count professional astronomers who afﬁliated with the AMS in the ‘total number of AMS members.’ In a similar way, ‘dual members’ only are counted if they were amateur astronomers.

80Councilorship: AVSA, p. 347; membership as prerequisite to Councilorship: email to RT from TRW, dated 3/18/2012; and consultation with CPO by HS: APS letter; HS to CPO, 1/27/1936. 81Williams and Saladyga, AVSA, p. 225 and Olivier, CP; Report on the Department of Astronomy and the two Astronomical Observatories during the directorship of Charles P. Olivier;’ typewritten document dated 1952 March 9, p. 4. The Weather Bureau 79 The Weather Bureau

Predecessor of the Weather Bureau

In the late 1840s, the Smithsonian Institution’s first Secretary, Joseph Henry, conceived of, and fielded, a far-flung group of weather observers whose duty was to make daily telegraphic reports of weather conditions across the continental USA.82 Henry’s goal was detect storm systems approaching from the Midwest that threatened the larger population centers of the eastern states. Some progress was made in organizing the effort before the Civil War, but it was suspended during hostilities. The project was revived in 1870 and Henry’s organizational plan was given by Congress to the US War Department’s Signal Corps to operationalize. Signal Corps enlisted personnel were trained in weather observation, dispersed to many Army garrisons around the nation, and ordered to make daily weather reports to headquarters near Washington, D.C.

Signal Corps Observers Reported Meteors

In late 1872, the War Department’sOffice of the Chief Signal Officer (CSO) began to publish the Monthly Weather Review (MWR) which contained weather summaries from across the continental USA. Beginning in 1874, weather observer reports about meteoric phenomena appeared monthly in the Review. Many of the reports were comprehensive but merely descriptive accounts of fireballs that lacked details that would have made them scientifically useful. However, the first scientific determination of a fireball’s atmospheric path and altitude was published in the Review in 1886 by Johann Georg Hagen (1847–1930). Father Hagen was a Jesuit priest and astronomer at College of the Sacred Heart in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. He used seven observers’ sightings as the basis of his analysis of a brighter-than-full-moon fireball seen on January 16, 1886.83

82Millikan, Frank Rives., Joseph Henry: Father of the Weather Service. Joseph Henry Papers Project. https://siarchives.si.edu/sites/default/ﬁles/pdfs/jhpp/JHP_Father_of_the_Weather_Service. pdf. Accessed February 22, 2016. 83Monthly Weather Review (MWR), volume 14, pp. 23 and 85–86. Hagan is best known as the author of a star atlas for variable star observations, Atlas Stellarum Variabilium, used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. A brief biography and extended discussion of his atlas is in Williams and Saladyga, Advancing Variable Star Astronomy, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge U Press; 2011, p. 16ff. 80 Enrollment Began

Scientiﬁc Advisor to Corps’ Chief Signal Ofﬁcer

The CSO recognized the need for scientific oversight of the Corps’ storm monitoring duty and in 1871, hired Cleveland Abbe (1838–1916) as the Corps’ scientificdirector. Abbe had trained as an astronomer, but devoted himself to meteorology when he became convinced that accurate astronomical observations could not be made until local atmospheric variations and their image distortions were understood. Abby began this meteorological specialization when he was the Director of Cincinnati Observatory in 1869. He developed a method for synthesizing many locations’ weather descriptions into coherent statements of “weather probabilities” or general predictions about imminent weather conditions in the eastern USA. His first two decades of work for the Signal Corps were a continuation of the work begun in Cincinnati84 (Fig. 12).

Cleveland Abbe and Meteor Science at the Weather Bureau

In 1891, Abbe and the Corps’ weather duties were transferred to the Department of Agriculture’s new ofﬁce, the Weather Bureau. A year later, Abbe was given

Fig. 12 Cleveland Abbe. This portrait was made circa 1900. The image is courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

84Heidorn, Keith C. The Weather Doctor (Web site:) “Weather People and History, Cleveland Abbe: Ol’ Probabilities of the U.S. Weather Bureau.” http://www.islandnet.com/*see/weather/ history/cabbe.htm copyright 2001. On the Weather Doctor site, locate and click on ‘Weather People and History” link. Then on that page, click on “Cleveland Abbe” on left sidebar. Accessed February 22, 2015. The Weather Bureau 81 editorship of the Review. Increasingly, under his direction, the journal published more weather observers’ summaries of meteor displays and descriptions of fireballs.85 Abbe took a personal interest in gathering fireball data, using postcard correspondence with Weather Bureau personnel to seek precise data about fireballs’ appearances and paths.86 As time passed, Abbe delegated fireball studies to astronomers more familiar with the work. In 1906, Henry Allen Peck (1863–1921), a Syracuse University mathematician and astronomer, agreed to assist Abbe by analyzing fireball reports, finding their ground paths and calculating their orbits.87 Peck analyzed the paths of fireballs seen in 1873, 1906, and three seen in 1907 using data from weather observers and members of the public.88 Peck’s articles foreshadowed similar detailed analyses that Charles Olivier published beginning in the 1920s. Olivier used Abbe’s postcard inquiry method to investigate fireballs’ paths even though this approach attracted critics, which required his defense during the 1930s.

Monthly Weather Review as a Platform for Meteor Studies

As the Review’s editor, Abbe collected diverse meteorological topics from a myriad of observational and published sources. The MWR often contained abstracts or whole research articles by other meteorologists. Abbe reprinted articles describing meteor observation methods, and in his own articles, he speciﬁed the sorts of information that made meteor reports useful to an astronomer. He gave other scientists a platform to expound upon their work, especially the importance of meteor trains as the only available means to measure winds at extreme altitudes. William Harkness (1837–1903), Director of the US Naval Observatory gave readers “Hints to Observers of Shooting Stars.” This 1899 article described how an observer should perform a meteor observation and today’s observers would still ﬁnd it useful.89 In a March 1907 article, Abbe requested the Bureau’s observers to report

85Abbe’s career path was found in Who Was Who in America, volume 1, fifth printing 1962, Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co; p. 1. Another biography is by Nathan Reingold in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, American Council of Learned Societies, New York: Scribners, 1970 edition; Volume 1, p. 6. 86Many examples of Abbe’s postcards are in the AMS Archives in a storage box labeled ‘AMS 1898–1907.’ 87Abbe, Cleveland; Bright Meteors; MWR, volume 35, p. 120. A short biography of Henry Allen Peck is in Who Was Who in America, volume 1, 1897–1942, Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co, 1943, fifth printing 1962, p. 952. A special memorial edition of Syracuse University’s Syracuse Daily Orange was published on November 18, 1921 praising Dr. Peck’s character and contributions to the University. Several articles give some biographical information. The University Archives does not contain any of Peck’s papers or correspondence. 88Peck, H.A; MWR, volume 35, 1908, pp. 121–123, 447–449, and 508–510; and volume 36, 1909, pp. 142–144. 89Harkness, William, MWR, vol. 27, 1899, pp. 9–11. 82 Enrollment Began meteor paths’ precise locations among the stars or to note their beginning and end points with reference to buildings or landmarks so that the paths could be recon- structed.90 And, an article about meteor trains appeared written by atmospheric physicist Charles Christopher Trowbridge (1870–1918)91 entitled “The Importance of Systematic Observation of Persistent Meteor Trains.” In this article, Trowbridge, who specialized in the study of meteor trains, described how an enduring meteor train was caused in the same manner as the emission of light following an electrical discharge through gas in a glass tube. In the article, Trowbridge advised observers of the train features that observers should report in order to further understanding the high-altitude atmospheric phenomenon.92 All of the preceding topics remained noteworthy for decades after they were written and Professor Olivier frequently impressed his American Meteor Society observers with their importance.

Abbe’s Support for the AMS

Three years before the AAS gave Dr. Olivier a place in its Meteor Committee, Cleveland Abbe welcomed Olivier’s Society as a useful contributor to meteor studies. In a 1913 issue of MWR, Abbe informed Weather Bureau personnel, “We are…pleased to know that Prof. Charles P. Olivier…has in fact organized the American Meteor Society…He desires to extend a hearty invitation to all who are interested in this subject, either because of its astronomical or its meteorological importance, and we hope that many will respond.”93 In 1914, Abbe permitted Olivier to post a notice in MWR describing the goals of the American Meteor Society (AMS) and to invite Weather Bureau personnel to join it. Olivier was aware that some Bureau members had been watching meteors and used the opportunity to offer, “We would be very glad to secure any unpublished meteor records of any year whatever and to undertake their discussion and reduction.”94 At least two Bureau observers, Robert M. Dole and Howard H. Martin, decided to accept Olivier’s invitation and to donate data they had accumulated on their own initiative, to the AMS database. Abbe published Olivier’s manual, “Directions for Observing Meteors,” in 1915. These were the same standard observation instructions issued to AMS members and by publication in the Review, Abbe endorsed 31-year-old Olivier’s program and his observational methodology 95

90Abbe, Cleveland; Bright Meteors, MWR, volume 35, March 1907, p. 120. 91A brief biography of Trowbridge is in Who Was Who in America, Volume 1, 1897–1942, Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co, 1943, ﬁfth printing 1962, p. 254. 92Trowbridge, C.C., MWR, volume 37, January 1909, pp. 11–13. 93Abbe, C., To Observers of Meteors: MWR, volume 41, January 1913, p. 162. 94Olivier, CP, American Meteor Society, MWR, vol. 42, November 1914, p. 623. 95Olivier, CP, Directions for Observing Meteors, MWR, vol. 43, June 1915, pp. 263–264. The Weather Bureau 83

After Abbe’s death, Olivier praised him, writing that he was “always willing and glad to help younger men forward by all means in his power.”96 Abbe was consistently supportive as Olivier started his career in 1911, and in 1942, Olivier confided that he was one of the “younger men” that Abbe had encouraged. “I was under very deep obligations (to Abbe) for valuable assistance and advice in my early work on meteors,” Olivier revealed. In return for his support, Abbe literally and metaphorically bequeathed the role of America’s meteor astronomer to Olivier. In a reminiscence Olivier reported, “After the death of Professor Cleveland Abbe… several large envelopes filled with papers dealing with (meteors and fireballs) were turned over to me.” During World War 2, Olivier often mined the contents of those envelopes to analyze and publish the old fireballs’ parameters. And adopting Abbe’s interest in meteor trains, Olivier frequently emphasized the importance and relevance of meteor trains to understanding air currents at extreme altitudes.97 In his last year of life, 1916, Abbe gave Olivier space in MWR to report the “Work of the AMS, 1914–15.” This was the last AMS annual report appearing in the Review, but in it, Olivier publicized AMS observers’ meteor results and repeated his invitation to Weather Bureau observers to join him.98

Hydrographic Ofﬁce of the US Navy

Introduction

Dr. Olivier’s goal was to capture information about all meteoric phenomena whether they were seen from land or sea sites. Altogether, AMS members, professional astronomers, variable star observers, and Weather Bureau observers comprised a comprehensive land-based meteor monitoring cadre for Olivier. All that remained for worldwide sky monitoring was for Olivier to secure a sea-based observer corps. The US Navy’s Hydrographic Office (HO) was a logical governmental service to approach because recording meteorological and navigationally related astronomical events was required of Navy ships and their observations were preserved in the Hydrographic Bulletin (HB). The HB published sightings of myriads of fireballs and meteors all of which Olivier was eager to collect for the American Meteor Society’s (AMS) archives for eventual analysis and publication. Very briefly, hydrography is concerned with describing and measuring various aspects of river and marine environments: currents’ strength and directions,

96Olivier, CP; Obituary Notice: Fellow Cleveland Abbe; Monthly Notices Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), volume 77, February 1917, pp. 290–292. In another gesture of support of young Olivier’s career, Abbe recommended that Olivier be named a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letter from C. Abbe to A.S. Eddington, dated December 13, 1913 (in the Olivier correspondence ﬁle of the American Philosophical Society). 97Olivier, Meteor Notes from the AMS, Popular Astronomy, volume 50, 1942, pp. 265–267. 98Olivier, CP, ‘Work of the AMS, 1914–15’ in MWR, volume 44, 1916, p. 326. 84 Enrollment Began prevailing wind directions and strength, hurricanes and waterspouts that pose a risk to mariners, and navigational hazards (such as wrecks, reefs, and shallows). Also relevant to the maritime weather environment, were unusual and dramatic astronomical events, such as meteor showers and ﬁreballs that were observed from aboard ships.

Brief History of the Hydrographic Ofﬁce

The formation of the modern HO began in 1842 after an earlier Depot of Charts and Instruments supervised by a Board of Navy Commissioners was disbanded by an act of Congress that year. When it did so, Congress ordered the Depot to become a department of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography (BuO&H), under the command of Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806–1873). Between 1844 and 1854, BuO&H had a confusing list of informal titles: US Naval Observatory (USNO), the Hydrographical Office, the National Observatory, and the Washington Observatory. In 1854, the Secretary of the Navy decided that this confused entity should be given one name: the US Naval Observatory and Hydrographical Office. By 1866, the Hydrographic Office was administratively separated from the USNO. Dr. Olivier contacted the HO shortly after World War I.99

Matthew Fontaine Maury, Lt., US Navy: Visionary First Director of Hydrographic Ofﬁce

Maury was born on a Virginia farm in 1806, but due to a nearly fatal fall, he was deemed too frail to do farm work and was sent to a local school where his remarkable aptitude for learning was discovered. He joined the US Navy at age 19 in 1825 and by 1834 had served three sea duty assignments. He became an ofﬁcer, a lieutenant in 1836 after writing a text about navigation. However, after sustaining a leg injury in 1839 he made good use of a two-year convalescence during which he studied mathematical aspects of navigation and proposed several organizational reforms of Navy procedures. By 1842, when the Congress instituted administrative reforms of the Navy, Maury’s scientiﬁc and organizational aptitudes were rewarded: the Secretary of the Navy placed him in charge of the Navy’s Depot of Charts and Instruments. In this post, he supervised acquisition of telescopes for the Naval Observatory and

99Anonymous, Records of the Hydrographic Office (Record Group 37), Section 37.3 General Records of the Hydrographic Office 1754–1950 (History), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, D.C. from a NARA Web site accessed on February 22, 2016: http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/037.html#37.3. Hydrographic Office of the US Navy 85 supervised the production of excellent star catalogs. Historian Steven J. Dick wrote that Maury’s guidance produced a national observatory (the USNO) on a par with England’s and other European countries’. However, Maury’s most memorable contribution was in the hydrographic field. By enlisting the cooperation of as many as 1000 sea captains, who were asked to keep detailed logs about wind directions and ocean currents, Maury was able to compile wind and current charts which greatly reduced ships’ sailing time on long voyages, like on cruises to Australia. Maury’s charts also reduced the time ships spent on ocean trips between San Francisco and New York via Cape Horn. Maury is regarded as being a founder of scientific oceanography. Unfortunately, his reputation suffered greatly when after a 36-year career in the US Navy, he resigned in 1861 to join the Confederacy with a rank of commander in the Confederate States Navy. Nevertheless, his far-sighted direction of the Hydrographic Office helped it to develop into an indispensable service for mariners.100

The Hydrographic Ofﬁce Aids the AMS

In his annual report for 1923/1924, Dr. Olivier announced “the AMS now receives, through the courtesy of the Hydrographic Office… copies of all reports of bright meteors and fireballs sent in by ships’ officers.”101 And during 1923 and 1924, the HO sent Olivier 38 fireball reports. It is not clear if the referred reports were abstracted from the Hydrographic Bulletin or whether entire issues were sent to Olivier.102 A National Archives online finding aid described the HBs produced during the 1923–1954 time period as consisting of “weekly printed compilations of navigation information intended for timely distribution to mariners to aid in safe navigation. Included are notices of …ice conditions…currents, waterspouts, meteors and miscellaneous phenomena….”103 According to Dr. Olivier, the HO took more than a casual role in meteor data collection. He wrote, “To stimulate interest in meteoric work, the Hydrographic Bulletin for several years has been publishing … observations (of meteors), and as a

100Dick, Steven J., Matthew Fontaine Maury, in Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 2, New York: Springer, 2007, p. 750. 101PA, volume 33, 1925, pp. 240–241. 102The AMS Archive box marked “1920s” contained at least one typed 1923 report sent to Olivier by F.B. Bassett, Captain, US Navy; Hydrographer from the Hydrographic Office in Washington D. C. In addition, a handwritten fireball report, dated July 12, 1927, was first sent to “Govt Hydrographic Office, Washington, D.C.” by J.E. McGurk, 2nd Officer of the S/S Trinidadian and forwarded to Olivier was in the same Archives box. So it seems that there were multiple formats by which fireball data were sent to AMS Headquarters by the Hydrographic Office. 103NARA, Hydrographic Bulletins, 1889–1954 at http://research.archives.gov/description/ 1520434, accessed on October 12, 2012. However, this page was not available on February 22, 2016 and was removed from the Web site because NARA Web personnel change information displayed periodically. 86 Enrollment Began consequence their number is greater and accuracy higher.” In fact, in order to “… increase this interest (in meteors), the hydrographer, Rear Admiral W.R. Gherardi, US Navy, … requested (Olivier) to outline some of the methods by which the data secured by observers may be turned to scientific account, particularly in the matter of calculating the heights at which such objects appear and disappear.”104 Olivier explained the importance of those two heights: “When these have been determined, it becomes a relatively simple matter to calculate the length of path in the atmosphere and the average velocity.”105 Admiral Gherardi published Olivier’s nine-page mathematical exposition as a supplement to the Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean in November 1931.106 So, US Navy ships’ navigators had Olivier’s guide handy as they plied the North Atlantic’s waters, ready to use when fireballs were seen. Officers responded by furnishing 55 reports in 1927 and 59 in 1928.107 Their reports continued until World War 2 was declared; the reports were stopped because ships’ geographical positions had been routinely reported and doing so during wartime would have violated security. In addition to annual tabulations of the Navy’s fireball sightings, Olivier often quoted officers’ reports in his Popular Astronomy (PA) columns. Two such accounts are from the unexpectedly fine 1930 Leonid display seen by ships in the Caribbean Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. The first was a report Olivier received of an observation on November 16/17 from the ship:108

“… Am. S.S. Ohioan, (near Haiti), between 12:30 and 3:30 a.m. (Eastern Time) which reported ‘Countless meteors observed all over the eastern heavens but the greatest number appeared in the vicinity of Leo…At times the earth and the whole sky was illuminated… The most remarkable meteor of the shower …appeared at 2:50 a.m. in the Milky Way just above the Southern Cross…The coast of Haiti, 20 miles away, was visible as in daylight… This phenomenon appeared larger than the sun and was visible nearly a minute.” A second report was from the same morning as the Ohioan’s observation. An ofﬁcer of the American Steam Ship C.A. Canﬁeld, steaming in the Gulf of Mexico, informed Olivier that during a three-hour span,

“… about 150 meteors were bursting and zig-zagging across the heavens, leaving trails of fire. In some instances they lasted as much as two minutes before the sparks disappeared to the naked eye…” Olivier frequently found ships’ officers’ data of sufficient quality to enable him to compute fireballs’ heights and path lengths. He often devoted space in Meteor Notes, his PA column, to demonstrate fireball trajectory solutions using data from the HB. One early example was the final data computed for a fireball seen on June

104Olivier, Meteor Notes from the AMS, PA, volume 54, 1946, p. 141. 105Ibid. 106Olivier, Methods for Computing the Heights and Paths of Fireballs and Meteors: Supplement to the Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for 1931, Washington, D.C.: Hydrographic Ofﬁce, 1931. Dr. Olivier wrote that his formulas were “on the back of” the Pilot Chart. 107PA, volumes 33, 1925, p. 241; 36, 1928, p. 133; and 37, 1929, p. 176. 108Olivier, Meteor Notes, PA, volume 39, 1931, pp. 37 and 41. Hydrographic Ofﬁce of the US Navy 87

22, 1927, by two ships’ officers in the Caribbean. Using the data provided, Olivier found the fireball’s path to have been 50.72 km. (31.5 miles) long and its height at first visibility was 71 km. (44 miles) and at disappearance it was 18.5 km. (11.5 miles) above the Caribbean. Further, he was able to compute the latitude and longitude at which a meteorite, if any, would have splashed into the water. To demonstrate the astronomical application of the observations, Olivier concluded his report by declaring that the meteoroid giving rise to the fireball “was a permanent member of the solar system” and not one that came from interstellar space, as was often the belief about fireballs before 1950.109

New Members Join the American Meteor Society, 1915–1918

From 1911–1914, Dr. Charles Olivier depended heavily upon professorial colleagues whom he first met in graduate school to contribute observational data to the American Meteor Society (AMS). But, just as important were a small number of amateur observers from the Society for Practical Astronomy who kept the Society functioning during those early years. Table 2 illustrates the AMS’ tenuous hold on existence from 1911 to 1914. Dr. Olivier devoted 1914 and 1915 to developing products for meteor watchers in hopes of attracting new membership. In 1914, he published “126 Parabolic Orbits,” containing meteor data produced by AMS members during 1911–1913. He discussed these data at length and showed readers how the AMS turned contributed observational data into scientifically useful findings about meteor radiants. In 1915, Dr. Olivier, the Weather Bureau’s Cleveland Abbe, and the Leander McCormick Observatory’s Director Samuel A. Mitchell publicized the AMS in Popular Astronomy, the Monthly Weather Review, and Scientific American, respectively, and asked astronomy enthusiasts to join the AMS. Readers were informed that they would be given detailed observational instructions, data record forms and in 1915, copies of Dr. Reynold Kenneth Young’s gnomonic star charts upon which to record the meteor paths they observed. Prospective members were

Table 2 Annual AMS Year Membership number membership numbers during the Society’s ﬁrst four years 1911 3 (all were colleagues) of existence 1912 5 (3 amateurs and 2 colleagues) 1913 5 (3 amateurs and 2 colleagues) 1914 4 (1 amateur and 3 colleagues) Membership is separated by amateur or collegial identiﬁcation

109Olivier, Fireball of June 22, 1927, PA, volume 37, 1929, pp. 133–134. 88 Enrollment Began also promised that their data would be acknowledged in another long memoir, like “126 Parabolic Orbits” that would be published by an academic or scientific press. In 1915, readers’ responses were enthusiastic. In his discussion of summer 1915 meteor shower results, Olivier informed Popular Astronomy readers that, “…during the past two months not less than 100 people have written asking for maps, information etc., most of them signifying their intention of observing in accordance with (AMS procedures)…this makes a total of about 125 persons who are interested in the systematic study of meteors.” Olivier was gratified that the public response was so enthusiastic even though he recognized that most of the responders would not actually carry out meteor watches. Dr. Olivier nurtured membership growth and retention by publishing annual reports in Popular Astronomy. The annual reports often praised individual observers for a productive year and especially when their initiative advanced meteor knowledge. In addition, Olivier corresponded with members to answer their questions and he encouraged members to spend more time engaged in meteor watches. The AMS archives contain many letters from members to Olivier all of which declared enthusiasm for the AMS’ goals and earnest desires to be taught methods to improve the quality of their observations. Table 3 reports the number of data-contributing members from 1915 to 1922. The rosters for 1915 and 1916 showed the initial rush to join the AMS. By 1917, however, attrition had begun. Of course, the USA’s entry into the First World War (WW1) on April 6, 1917, played a role in this with many young men joining the war effort. And by 1918, only three AMS veterans of both 1916 and 1917 remained as members. The war’s effects were clearest in 1918 because, of the nine observers on the roster, one was a woman, five males were too young to serve in the military, and one man was too old. Indeed, Dr. Olivier, too, left the University of Virginia to serve on the scientific staff of Aberdeen Proving Grounds in July 1918. When he returned to academia in January 1919, he apologized to AMS members because involvement in war-related research made him “unable to give personal attention to meteor work” and “carry on the correspondence” necessary to maintain contact with members. During 1919 and 1920, he struggled to rebuild membership but did not achieve 1915–1916 levels.

Table 3 Numbers of Year Membership number amateur and professional astronomers on the AMS’ 1915 33 (30 amateurs and 3 professionals) roster 1915–1922 1916 38 (35 amateurs and 3 professionals) 1917 20 (19 amateurs and 1 professionals) 1918 9 (9 amateurs and 0 professionals) 1919 7 (7 amateurs and 0 professionals) 1920 14 (13 amateurs and 1 professionals) 1921 11 (10 amateurs and 1 professionals) 1922 9 (7 amateurs and 2 professionals) Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1915–1918 89 Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1915–1918

Statistical Summary of the 1915–1918 Membership

Dr. Olivier’s appeals to North American citizen scientists, requesting their participation in the AMS’ meteor observation program, resulted in 57 men and women enrolling during the 1915–1918 time period. The entire roster number was 61 when the four “veterans” from 1911 to 1914 membership were included as participants. It was possible to determine chronological ages of 54 of the 57 “newcomers,” i.e., the 1915–1918 Society entrants. Thirty-nine percent of the 54 were less than 20 years of age and when newcomers aged 20–25 were counted too, they accounted for 48 % of the 54. Doubtless the Society’s low dues requirement helped these younger people to enroll. Members lived in 21 of the 48 continental states, plus Washington, D.C. Five members were not US nationals: four were from Canadian Provinces and one from Argentina. Ninety-ﬁve percent of the membership was amateur astronomers. Fourteen percent were women. The 61 people on the roster were an occupationally diverse group. The largest subgroup, 30 %, was high school and college students. The rest of the membership was made up of low numbers (less than 10) of skilled trade workers, high school and college teachers, members of the professions, engineers and technicians, government workers, business people, and agricultural laborers.

Roster of Members

This roster consists of meteor observers whose names appeared in American Meteor Society annual reports published in Popular Astronomy magazine. They earned a listing because they submitted a meteor observation report that resulted from at least one night’s watch during the membership year and had paid the American Meteor Society’s (AMS) annual dues, typically a dollar (US). Dr. Olivier called those observers, “active members.” Others who paid dues but did not make and report observations were sent a letter from Olivier to “bestir themselves” and actually record meteors. Below, the author has modified Dr. Olivier’s published rosters by adding an indication of long-term active membership. Members who submitted meteor observations for three or more years have their names listed in bold type. The author selected three years as the “cutoff” criterion for this distinction because it seemed likely that by the third year the observers were genuinely devoted to making a scientific contribution. And by the third year, the observers had developed meteor plotting skills that made their data more accurate and therefore valuable to Dr. Olivier. However, the author decided to deviate from this “three-year rule” in the 90 Enrollment Began case of five AMS members who were highly productive during the two years they belonged to the Society. The Key below is a guide to help the reader identify these most diligent and long-term AMS members. Finally, biographies of these hardest working amateur observers appear in Part 2 of this book.

Key and Abbreviations

Bold = 3 years or more of data contributions. For the names in BOLD font, the location of a full biography is in Part 2. Most of these are in Chap. 9, “Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918.” Some exceptions are noted and the reader is directed to the biographies’ locations. Italics = 2 years of high productivity (a total of more than 1000 meteors or collaborative work) A (*) denotes a professional astronomer. The three men so designated in the roster were being paid to perform astronomical work at an observatory at the time of their citation in AMS reports. Remuneration for astronomical work is what distinguishes “professionals” from “amateurs” in this history.

Member Residence Years Biographical notesa Aldrich, Wichita, KS 1915, 1916 18 years old in 1915; a university Richard L. student Awde, Mrs. Watertown, NY 1916, 1917 43 years old in 1916; unknown Beatrice occupation, a widow Balch, Montclair, NJ 1915 52 years old in 1915; a Samuel W. mechanical engineer Ball, N.P. Colton, CA 1918–1922 55 years old in 1918; a nurseryman. See Chapter 9 Barnes, Wheaton, IL 1917 47 years old in 1917; a baker Robert M. (1870–1937) Bedford, John L Watertown, NY 1915, 1916 27 years old in 1915; a railroad conductor Bessey, Mrs. Pensacola, FL 1915, 1916 60 years old in 1915; a teacher in Grace 1918, 1920 a private school. See Chapter 9 Blencoe, Superior, WI 1915 40 years old in 1915; a David A. surveyor’s rodman Bostick, John Dallas, TX 1916 41 years old in 1916; a surgeon Benton in US Navy Brooks, D.B. Washington, DC 1915–1917, 16 years old in 1915; a high 1921 school student in 1915. See Chapter 9 Brubaker, Mrs. Hunter’s Valley, 1915 40 years old in 1915; a public Lula CA school teacher in 1910 (continued) Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1915–1918 91

(continued) Member Residence Years Biographical notesa Bruseth, Nels Los Angeles and 1915 Biography in SPA chapter Silvana, WA Burge, Olaf Wichita, KS 1916, 1917 15 years old in 1916; high school student Carr, F.J., Swanton, VT 1915–1917 22 years old in 1915; an assistant 1927 town clerk in 1920 and an AAVSO member. See Chapter 9 Carreau, Wichita, KS 1916 50 years old in 1916; an optician Napoleon who aluminized Clyde Tombaugh’s telescope mirrors Chiles, E.G. Cleburne, TX 1916 53 years old in 1916; a retail fuel merchant Cole, C.S. Pocono Pines, PA 1915 51 years old in 1915; an “agent” in 1883 Crain, John Denton, TX 1916 29 years old in 1916; a Weather Whitaker Bureau observer who collaborated with H. H. Martin. See Chapter 9 Crombie, Athelstan, Que 1915 42 years old in 1915; a minister William T.B. Crownﬁeld, Brooklyn, NY 1916 14 years old in 1916; a high Frederic school student *Dawson, La Plata, Argentina 1916 25 years old in 1916; Astronomer Bernhard H at Cordoba Astronomical Observatory Dole, R. M. Raleigh, Chicago 1915 was 31 years old in 1915; a Weather and Maine 1st year in Bureau observer whose meteor AMS career started in 1899. See Chapter 9 Doolittle, Alfred Washington, DC 1915, 1916 44 years old in 1915; a high Abel school biology teacher and later a biologist Dunlop, Kelwood, MB 1916 24 years old in 1916; a laborer on Alexander R. father’s farm Eaton, Madison, WI 1915 19 years old in 1915; a college Howard O. student and AAVSO member Fankhauser, Sioux City, IA 1916 24 years old in 1916; an assistant Albert G. weather observer US Weather Bureau Foster, F.A. Detroit, MI 1917 Unknown, except that (s)he observed with Lonyo below Gaines, E. Norwood, OH 1918 Unknown Gannon, E. Brooklyn, NY 1916 41 years old in 1916; a housewife Anna Grace, Gerald Wichita, KS 1916 13 years old in 1916; a high school student (continued) 92 Enrollment Began

(continued) Member Residence Years Biographical notesa Hamer, Staunton, VA 1915 22 years old in 1915 and an Frederick C. insurance agent Hempel, Elkader, IA 1917–1922 27 years old in 1917; helped keep Miss K M her parents’ house. See Chapter 9 Johnson, Hingham, MT 1915–1917 17 years old in 1915; a high Harold I. school student. See Chapter 9 Koep, John Chippewa Falls, 1915–1921, 17 years old in 1915; a high WI 1927 school student. See Section 10 Kronenberger, New York, NY 1916–1918 31 years old in 1916; a teacher, G.F. later a college professor. See Chapter 9 Lamb, R. C. Franklyn, KY 1915 A 65-year-old woman in 1915. Unknown occupation Lambert, Newark, NJ 1915, 1916 18 years old in 1915; a student. Raymond Biography with Kronenberger’s in Chapter 9 La Paz, Wichita, KS 1915–1918, 18 years old in 1915; a student in Lincoln 1924, 1930s ’15; later an astronomer/ meteoriticist. See Chapter 9 Larkin, John Croton on Hudson, 1915 46 years old in 1915; a lawyer NY *Leonard, Charlottesville, VA 1915 19 years old in 1915; Frederick C. McCormick Observatory intern; he cofounded Society for Practical Astronomy and later an astronomer/meteoriticist Lifﬁton, Miss Lachine, Que. 1915, 1916 18 years old in 1915; unknown Doris occupation Lonyo, L. Detroit, MI 1917 Unknown: Lillian Isabel was born in 1894 and her brother Louis George in 1904. Either one could have been the meteor observer Ludeman, Wichita, KS 1915, 1916 17 years old in 1915; a student Clarence and helped on family farm. A LaPaz associate Martin, Howard Ft. Worth, TX 1916, 1917 27 years old in 1916. He was a Homer Weather Bureau observer who collaborated with J.W. Crain for meteor heights. See Chapter 9 McPherson, Wichita, KS 1915, 1916 17 years old in 1915; a high William L. school student Merriam, Miss Hartford, CT 1915 30 years old in 1915; a teacher Helen Newman, Frederick, MD 1916 19 years old in 1916; a college Parsons N. student; lawyer in 1930 (continued) Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1915–1918 93

(continued) Member Residence Years Biographical notesa *Olivier, Charlottesville, VA AMS’ founder Charles P. Partello, J.M. Inglewood, CA 1915–1917, 61 years old in 1915; Colonel, T. 1920, 1921 US Army. See Chapter 9 Pattison, Walter Wilmette, IL 1917, 1918 14 years old in 1917; became a university professor of Spanish literature. Biography with Kronenberger’sinChapter 9 Peters, J.L. Holliston, MA 1917–1922, 14 years old and a high school 1924 student in 1917. He was an AAVSO member too. See Chapter 9 Post, Emil New York, NY 1916 19 years old in 1916; a college instructor in 1920 and a mathematics professor in 1940 Rasmussen, M Amsterdam, NY 1915, 1916 38 years old in 1915; landscaping business Simpson, Richmond, VA 1915 33 years old in 1915. Thomas McN. mathematics professor who was trained by Ormond Stone. Biography in Friends At McCormick Observatory Smith, Hampden-Sydney, 1915 30 years old in 1915; a J. Brookes VA mathematics professor who was trained by Ormond Stone. Biography in Friends At McCormick Observatory Taulbut, Mission City, BC 1916 42 years old in 1916; a farmer Anthony S. and member of Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc Tomkins, T.K. Glenside, PA 1917, 1920 35 years old in 1917; a 1920s and commercial designer. See 1930s. Chapter 9 Trudelle, Philip Chippewa Falls, 1916, 1917 18 years old in 1916; a high WI school student. Bio with John Koep’sinChapter 9 Werhun, Hamton Station, 1915, 1916 15 years old in 1915; a clerk; Wolodymyr W. SK married in 1923 Wohlwend, Knoxville, TN 1915, 1916 48 years old in 1915; a truck Henry farmer Young, Donald Wichita, KS 1916 18 years old in 1916; a student at Fairmont College in 1916 aMembers’ ages and occupations derived from many Ancestry.com sources including the 1920 and 1930 US Censuses 94 Enrollment Began Outcomes from Olivier’s Membership Efforts 1911–1918

In 1915, professors Olivier, Mitchell, and Abbe’s published appeals to citizen scientists to join the American Meteor Society (AMS) were greatly rewarded. Undoubtedly, Olivier’s offers of Dr. Young’s gnomonic star maps and his meteor record forms to actively participating amateurs were enticing inducements. As a result, 1915’s total number of active members ballooned to 33 (30 amateurs and 3 colleagues) compared to 4 (1 amateur and 3 colleagues) in 1914. Offering the observational tools to willing observers produced a 1915–1918 combined membership that was nearly eight times that of 1911–1914 (60 vs. 8). Olivier had found the “bait” to attract productive “fish.” Of course, Olivier’s many new participants contributed correspondingly more meteor hourly counts and plots on maps, than did members in the Society’s early years. From 1915 to 1918, AMS members contributed more than 21,000 meteor observations, compared to 3200 provided by members during 1911–1914, an almost sevenfold increase over the founding members’ total. By the end of 1918, AMS observers had made more than 24,000 observations using a single format of recording materials and in conformance with standardized observational procedures. By 1920, AMS members’ meteor plots on star maps resulted in a total of 650 meteor orbits, an aggregate from Olivier’s reports published in 1911, 1914, and 1920. Dr. Olivier reported that meteor orbits he had calculated (“deduced”) from radiants on members’ meteor maps were made in conformance with standards he had described to the American Astronomical Society in 1917 and published on page 221 of “349 Parabolic Orbits,” his 1920 research report. He believed that these criteria were in keeping with sound gravitational astronomical theory. The newer radiant criteria were more liberal than the standards he used for his 1911 dissertation: four meteors from a larger, two-degree diameter circle were now required to define a radiant if they occurred within a four-hour period on one night. In addition, he allowed three meteors on one night to be sufficient for a radiant, if two more were observed the following night at about the same time of night as the three the night before. Even with having liberalized the radiant definitions over six years, Olivier believed that the 650 deduced orbits were less liable to error than if they had been the result of observations made by observers using their own radiant procedures and without standard star maps and record-keeping formats. The radiants resulting from standardized materials and procedures were crucial to Olivier’s research plan. Many observers found the radiants, but they were Olivier’s “discovery” too. Olivier’s methods made it possible to gather many more radiants than he could have found himself, but they were made in the same manner that he would have done. He had “mass produced” 650 radiants that would show movement against the sky background in refutation of Denning’s stationary claim. Olivier’s active AMS members had begun to expunge the stationary radiant error that he was intent on removing from meteor catalogs. Outcomes from Olivier’s Membership Efforts 1911–1918 95

Helpfulness with ﬁnding radiants was the chief outcome from observers during the ﬁrst seven years of the AMS’ existence. By 1918, Olivier had received modest cooperation with a request he had made for magnitudes of meteors seen by amateur and professional astronomers during variable star observations. Fourteen-year-old Alan Craig, a Society for Practical Astronomy/AMS (and AAVSO) observer, reported 43 telescopic meteors’ magnitudes in 1912. The AAVSO’s Harry C. Bancroft, Jr., reported eight in 1916 and Olivier’s McCormick Observatory colleagues contributed 22 the same year. The largest contribution came from Olivier’s loyal McCormick colleague, Harold Lee Alden, who by 1918 reported over 100 magnitude estimates made with Virginia’s 26-inch refractor.

References

Friends at McCormick Observatory

Mitchell, S., H. Alden, et. al., Observations of 204 Long Period Variables made between 1902-33 with the 26-inch Refractor of the McCormick Observatory, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 6. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1935, pp. 1-198 Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society, Popular Astronomy(PA), volume 21, 1913; pp.89-91. Olivier, Charles P. 126 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1914, pp. 457-475. Olivier, C. 349 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1920 (and 1921), pp. 200-268 and especially pp. 264-265. Olivier, C., Ormond Stone, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 41, 1933, pp. 295-298

Society for Practical Astronomy

Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society, Popular Astronomy (PA), Volume 21, 1913, pp. 89-91. Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society (for 1913), PA, Volume 22, 1914, pp. 90-91. Olivier, C., 126 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1914, pp. 457-475. Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, Part 7, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1920; pp. 226-229.

American Astronomical Society

Olivier, C., 126 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2; Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia, 1914. 96 Enrollment Began

Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits, Report of the AMS for 1914-1918, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, 1921. Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1919-1925, Publications of the L. McCormick Observatory, volume 5, 1929 and 1935; pp. 1-49.

American Association of Variable Star Observers

All AMS sources below were authored by Charles P. Olivier and were published in Popular Astronomy(PA) Notice to the American Meteor Society, volume 27, 1919, p. 122 The following articles share the title stem ‘Report of the American Meteor Society for (year)’ 1919, volume 28, 1920, pp. 153-4 1920, volume 29, 1921, pp. 137-8 1920 and 1921, volume 30, 1922, pp. 153-5 AMS Sources for the year… 1922, volume 31, 1923, pp. 172-175 1923 and 1924, volume 33, 1925, pp. 240-3 1925, volume 34, 1926, pp. 165-9 1926, volume 35, 1927, p. 287 1927, volume 36, 1928, p. 133 1928, volume 37, 1929, p. 176 The following AMS sources are entitled ‘Meteor Notes’ or ‘Meteor Notes from the AMS,’ and they are the Annual Reports for (year) 1929, volume 38, 1930, pp. 174-7 1930, volume 39, 1931, pp. 149-152 1931, volume 40, 1932, pp. 94-7 and supplement pp. 163-5 1932, volume 41, 1933, pp. 110-3 1933, volume 42, 1934, pp. 154-7 1934, volume 43, 1935, pp. 178-180 1935, volume 44, 1936, pp. 213-4 AAVSO sources are from Annual Reports of the AAVSO in Popular Astronomy 1919: Eaton, HO; volume 27, 1919, p.691 1920 Eaton, HO; volume 28, 1920, p. 555 1921 Walker, Arville D; volume 29, 1921, pp. 590-1 and Eaton, HO; PA, volume 30, 1922, p.582 1922 Eaton, HO; volume 30, 1922, pp. 582 and 660 1923 Eaton, HO, volume 31, 1923, p.617 and Eaton HO, PA, volume 32, 1924, p. 656 1924 Eaton, HO; volume 32, 1924, p.656 1925 Campbell, Leon; volume 33, 1925, pp. 563 and 619 1926 Campbell, Leon, volume 35, 1927, pp.61-2 1927 Anonymous, volume35, 1927, pp. 584-5 1928 Anon., Annual Report for the year ending Oct. 1928, volume 36, pp. 618-9 1929 Campbell, L, volume 37, 1929, pp. 596-7 and vol. 38, 1930, p. 110 1930 Campbell, L; volume 38, 1930, p. 616 and volume 39, 1931, pp. 53-4 and 101 1931 Campbell, L, volume 39, 1931, pp. 603-4 and volume 40, 1932, pp.45, 109. 1932 Campbell, L. volume 40, 1932, pp. 644-5; 1933 Campbell, L. volume 41, 1933, pp. 576-8; 1934 Campbell, L; volume 42, 1934; pp. 332, 390-1, 463-4, 592-3 and volume 43, 1935, pp. 59-60 and 115-6. 1935 Campbell, L. volume 43, 1935, pp. 237-8, 305-6, 453, and 593-4 New Members Join the American Meteor Society, 1915–1918 97 New Members Join the American Meteor Society, 1915–1918

Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society, Popular Astronomy, Volume 21, 1913, p. 90 Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society, Popular Astronomy, Volume 22, 1914, p. 91 Olivier, C., Results of Meteor Observations for July and August, 1915, Popular Astronomy, Volume 23, 1915, pp. 567-568. Olivier, C., 126 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1914, pages 457-475. Olivier, C., Notice to the American Meteor Society, Popular Astronomy, volume 27, 1919, pp.122-123. Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, Part 7, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1920, pp. 226-239. Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society for 1919-1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 5, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia; 1929 and 1935, pp. 8-14.

Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1915–1918

Olivier, Charles P., 349 Parabolic Orbits, Report of the AMS for 1914-1918, Publication of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, 1921, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; pp. 203-204.

Outcomes From Olivier’s Membership Efforts 1911–1918

Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society, Popular Astronomy (PA), Volume 21, 1913, pp. 89-91. Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society, PA, Volume 22, 1914, pp. 90-91. Olivier, C., 126 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1914, pp. 457-475. Olivier, C., Results of Meteor Observations for July and August, 1915, PA, Volume 23, 1915, pp. 567-568 Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society in 1916, PA, Volume 25, 1917, p. 164 Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society in 1917, PA, Volume 26, 1918, p. 199 Olivier, C., Annual Report of the American Meteor Society for 1918, PA, Volume 28, 1920, p16 Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, Part 7, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1920; pp. 201-229. The First Assignment

Trans-Atlantic Controversy

By the end of Agnes Scott College’s spring semester in 1913, its Professor Olivier had been away from practical astronomy for two years. The small liberal arts college for women had no observatory or large telescope such as Olivier had at his disposal when at the University of Virginia (UVA). To refresh his observational skills and familiarize himself with the use of a large refracting telescope, he volunteered to be a summer observer at Yerkes Observatory which housed the world’s largest refractor. The Yerkes telescope had an objective lens of 40-in. (1.02 m) diameter and was being used by some of the world’s foremost observational astronomers, Edward Emerson Barnard (1857–1923), for one (Fig. 1). Olivier’s summer at Yerkes proved to be a fortuitous one for his career. While there he renewed an acquaintanceship with Samuel Alfred Mitchell (1874–1960), whom he had met in 1905. Mitchell had just accepted UVA’s offer to direct the Leander McCormick Observatory beginning in September, 1913. Olivier indulged Mitchell’s curiosity and answered many questions about the Virginia observatory. In the small social circle of astronomers and their families at Yerkes, Olivier became friendly with Mitchell and his wife and the couple helped him pass the summer pleasantly. In early 1914, Mitchell offered Olivier an assistant professorship on the McCormick Observatory staff at his alma mater. Olivier returned to Charlottesville, his hometown to begin the observatory position in the fall of 1914.

Criticism from England

About the same time that Olivier readied himself to travel to Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, the much-respected English amateur astronomer, W.F. Denning (1848– 1931) penned an article critical of Olivier’s 1911 dissertation ﬁndings. The June

Fig. 1 This portrait was made in July 1914, two months before Charles Olivier assumed an Assistant Professorship at the University of Virginia and a staff position at the Leander McCormick Observatory. Courtesy of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia

1913 issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) contained “Observations of the Orionids” in which Denning made several criticisms of Olivier’s 1911 dissertation, in particular how Olivier determined radiants. Denning was especially critical of the young Virginian’s tiny radiant areas whose locations the Englishman believed should have been mathematically averaged into “a good mean radiant from all the meteors.” Denning believed that Olivier’s small radiants, deﬁned by three meteors, were “ﬁctitious outliers” of a central stationary radiant Denning “knew” existed from his own observations. Denning cited seven of Olivier’s dissertation radiants which he claimed were “closely surrounding the Orionid radiant… (and) really form one shower…and should be considered as such.” Denning insisted if Olivier had averaged the seven radiants’ sky positions, their mean (average) position would have been precisely one he found appropriate. The older observer relied on his own extensive observational experience, buttressed by other European observers’ to assert the existence of “one real radiant point existing in the sky” and refused to accept that Olivier’s “minor intersecting points in the radiant area of a rich shower” were the data that should be sought in meteoric astronomy. Trans-Atlantic Controversy 101

Olivier’s Retort

Of course, Professor Olivier was well-prepared academically to reject Denning’s criticisms. He was soon to become a faculty member of the University of Virginia and its course catalogs for 1914–15, and for each succeeding academic year until 1924–25, listed him as instructor for two courses: Spherical and Practical Astronomy and Celestial Mechanics (gravitational astronomy).1 Expertise in these subjects qualiﬁed him to determine meteor orbits, as well as other astronomical bodies’. Olivier smarted from several of Denning’s criticisms of Olivier’s dissertation. The 29-year-old wrote a retort to MNRAS and mailed it on August 21, 1913, while still at Yerkes Observatory. However, the paper was returned to him in early September by the Royal Astronomical Society’s Secretary, Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944) who was an astrophysicist and Director of Cambridge University’s Observatory. Eddington’s reason was that any paper submitted for publication in MNRAS needed sponsorship by a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). He added that he could have sponsored Olivier’s article but noticing that “the paper is deﬁnitely controversial—a personal controversy—it is well that a Secretary should not appear to take sides” against a Fellow, like Denning. Eddington’s evaluation of Olivier’s response was seconded by a RAS Assistant Secretary, W.H. Wesley, who commented that he and fellow Secretaries “consider some of your criticisms (of Denning) rather severely expressed.” Together they asked if Olivier “could see (his) way to modify some… remarks with a view to toning them down.” Although they urged Olivier to modify his comments, neither Eddington, Wesley or the others intended to bar Olivier’s response to Denning from publication in MNRAS. Eddington indicated a remedy for Olivier: the American should ask a fellow he knew to sponsor his paper.2

Help from Two Senior Colleagues

Olivier found two sympathetic American RAS Fellows to sponsor his article to Monthly Notices: Cleveland Abbe and Edward Barnard. Abbe was more active than Barnard in counseling Olivier how he should view Denning’s comments and by suggesting ways in which Olivier could react in his MNRAS reply to Denning. Abbe observed,

1The course catalogs are archived in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. 2Letter from Eddington to Olivier, dated September 9, 1913; and letter from W.H. Wesley to Olivier, dated September 29, 1913. Source: Courtesy of the American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives. 102 The First Assignment

On looking over the article by Mr. Denning…you must not regard this as a personal attack. I see no indication of any personal feeling in the matter. He simply…shows that he himself can draw very different conclusions from those that you were led to. It is simply a case of the oldest and most experienced observer talking to the youngest and most enthusiastic of all…I can only hope that you have acknowledged some of the points that Mr. Denning makes and have replied to one or two others in defense of your own conclusions.3 Abbe conﬁded a concern in a letter to Barnard that Olivier’s “strong expostu- lations” to Denning would create such an “acrimonious contest” between the two men that the MNRAS would “decline to publish any further discussion between these two authorities on meteors.” He hoped that Olivier would “err on the side of mildness” in revising his rejoinder to Denning. Abbe urged Barnard to add any suggestions for moderation to his own in advice to Olivier. In an effort to help Olivier appreciate Denning as a fellow astronomer, Abbe sent his younger colleague a biographical sketch of the old Englishman, adding his opinion that if the two meteor observers had had a chance to correspond before the crisis, they may have been able to avoid it. When it actually came to signing a cover letter signifying sponsorship of Olivier’s ﬁnal article to RAS Secretaries, Barnard insisted that Abbe alone be the one to do it.4

The Best Olivier Could Manage

Young Professor Olivier made the modiﬁcations to his article that he could, but when published in the November 1913 number of MNRAS his prose still crackled with indignation. The ﬁrst paragraph of reply to Mr. Denning’s “Observations of the Orionids” began uncompromisingly:

…the word “error” as used by Mr. Denning simply means that my results differ from his own. The more my conclusions differ, the greater the ‘errors.’ The reasons why some of my results radically contradict his own are due chieﬂy, I believe, to the fact that my methods of reduction were the more rigorous of the two. As an example, Olivier lectured Denning about the proper way to compare radiants found in different years. The professor instructed his older colleague that when he compared radiants he should have selected those detected at a similar hour of the night, preferably exact to a hundredth part of a day. Further, Olivier wrote that the right ascension and declination of the two radiants and their derivative orbits should be very similar, to a tenth of a degree. Finally, the two radiants should have been found when the earth was at the same point in its orbit each year. This orbital position is represented by an angular quantity called the longitude of the

3Letter from Abbe to Olivier, dated October 9, 1913. Source: Courtesy of the American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives. 4Letter from Abbe to Barnard, dated October 15, 1913 and a letter from Abbe to Olivier dated October 24, 1913. Source: Courtesy of the American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives. Trans-Atlantic Controversy 103 meteoric apex. Olivier concluded the tutorial by stating that doing all these com- parisons was the method “which furnishes the only accurate way of comparing the results…” This phrase was an indirect attack on Denning’s uncritical combination of widely separated nights’ radiants into one long-enduring one, an incorrect practice that Olivier deplored. Olivier was also offended by Denning’s advice that he would have obtained resultsmorelikeDenning’s if Olivier had used more meteors to deﬁne radiants instead of only three or four. In an example, Denning cited seven of Olivier’s dissertation radiants, each found by up to30meteors,pointingouttheywerein “excellent agreement” with an Orionid radiant in the center of Olivier’sset. Denning insisted that if Olivier had taken the mean position of these seven and “included as Orionids all (radiant) positions within ten degrees (20 full moon diameters) or so of the well-established center of the radiant” Olivier would have had a result that “nearly agreed” with Denning’s. Olivier retorted, “If my work, or that of anyone else, was so inaccurate that radiants up to 20 degrees apart must be combined to get a mean position, then the work would not be worth discussion.”

Status of the Controversy in 1914

In general, the men quarreled about what was most crucial to meteor science. Denning argued that major meteor showers’ radiants that had been agreed upon for decades were the criteria against which a junior observer’s radiants and observational skill should be judged. Contrariwise, Olivier insisted that careful meteor plotting established a real radiant whether it coincided exactly with one of Denning’s radiants or not. Further, Olivier contended that his method would reveal radiants in motion on the sky background as earth moved in its orbit, something that Denning’s methods did not do. The two men were doomed to argue at cross-purposes, Denning believing in an “established reality” and Olivier in his stringent empiricism informed by gravitational astronomy. Their disagreement over appropriate methods of inquiry left each man feeling disrespected and criticized by the other. Their rancor reverberated from one side of the Atlantic to the other. It lasted for two decades as they struggled to persuade the greater astronomical community that their arguments were correct. This struggle was the context in which Professor Olivier enrolled amateur astronomers in the American Meteor Society. He assigned them to do the night work necessary to discredit stationary radiants. 104 The First Assignment W.F. Denning, A.S Herschel, and the Stationary Radiant Concept

The stationary radiant (SR) concept was developed and defended by two English meteor researchers, William Frederick Denning (1848–1931), an amateur astronomer and Alexander Stewart Herschel (1836–1907) a professional astronomer who was a son of John Herschel and a grandson of William Herschel. Denning and A.S. Herschel made substantial contributions to meteoric science, and in the case of Denning, to many other branches of practical astronomy.

Denning: In the First Rank of Observational Astronomers

Denning was not only a meteor investigator; he was an extremely versatile astronomical observer whose celestial studies encompassed most solar system objects and some in deep space too. He was not merely content to observe but was also a prolific reporter of what he saw and a teacher of methods whereby others could emulate him. It is astonishing to consider the list of objects Denning watched and reported about in amateur and professional astronomical journals. A list of his articles published between 1877 and 1901 contained the following telescopic subjects: comets and comet seeking, Jupiter’s markings, its Red Spot, its rotation period, and Jovian satellite transits; lunar eclipses in 1885 and 1888, Mars’ rotation, Mercury, nebulae he discovered, the Andromeda Galaxy Nova in 1885, Saturn, sunspots, the Trapezium stars in M42 and Venus. When meteors were the subject, the same 1877–1901 list contained the following contributions: telescopic meteors, methods of meteor observation, two-station observations of meteors from 1888 to 1898, fireballs, 60 “Meteor Notes” in the journal Observatory, details of many major annual meteor showers, and finally stationary radiants. Denning’s articles also included his three long catalogs: Catalogue of bright meteors observed at Bristol 1877–1889, (published in 1890); Catalogue of 918 Radiant Points seen at Bristol, (1890); and General Catalogue of radiant points of meteor showers, fireballs, and shooting stars observed at more than one station, (1899).5 In another observational domain, Denning made four comet discoveries: 72P/1881 T1 (Denning-Fujikawa), C/1890 O2, C/1891 F1, and one D/1894 F1 which has not been recovered since its discovery. Denning provided an excellent

5Royal Society of London (compiler), Catalogue of Scientiﬁc Papers, 4th series (1884–1900), Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Reprint Corp., 1968., pp. 560–565. Altogether, 273 of Denning’s astronomy-related articles were compiled in this catalog spanning the years 1878–1901. As impressive as this output was, Denning published still more articles before 1878 and after 1901: e.g., The Royal Society of London’s catalog for 1874–1883 lists 48 of Denning’s observational reports. W.F. Denning, A.S Herschel, and the Stationary Radiant Concept 105 model for comet searchers: he discovered the 1891 comet while he served as Director of the British Astronomical Association’s (BAA) Comet Section!

Denning’s Meteor Career

W.F. Denning decided to specialize in astronomy when he was 17 years of age, in 18656 and he began to study meteors in 1872.7 The frequency and length of his watches increased so that between 1876 and 1878 he claimed to have “observed 3749 of these bodies in 386 h of work.” The object of doing so, he wrote was, “to discover as many new systems as possible and to get the radiant points with accuracy.” One result of this diligence was being able to confirm the predicted movement of the Perseid meteor radiant during the course of the 1877 shower. Prior to his reported observation, no astronomer had been able to demonstrate the night to night shift of a shower radiant.8 It is a historical irony that the man who is so identified with stationary radiants would be the first to detect radiant motion. Denning continued making and reporting meteor watches for the next two decades and as a result became as well-known a meteor expert to the general public as to astronomers. H.G. Wells in a chapter of War of the Worlds entitled “The Falling Star,” acknowledged Denning’s celebrity when he identified “Denning, (as) our greatest authority on meteorites (sic)…”9 Professional astronomers, in their articles and textbooks, referred general readers to him as an expert in meteoric matters. Herbert Alonzo Howe, Professor of Astronomy at University of Denver, referred college students to Denning’s several part series of articles in Popular Astronomy as a primary source of information about meteor showers and observational methodology.10 And in 1904, William Wallace Payne, Professor of Astronomy at Carleton College wrote, “The leading authority in this branch of astronomy in the world at the present time is undoubtedly W.F. Denning of Bristol, England. His observational work and writings respecting every important feature of

6Beech, M., An Astronomer’s Life; In Quest of Meteors, Chap. 1, p. 5 published by author; and Phillips, Theodore Evelyn Reece, Rev., William Frederick Denning Obituary, Observatory, Volume 54, no 689, 1931, pp. 277. 7Beech, M., W.F. Denning- The Doyen of Amateur Astronomers, WGN, Journal of the International Meteor Society, Volume 26, 1998, pp. 22. 8Ibid. 9Wells, H.G., War of the Worlds, 1898. Wells used the incorrect term “‘meteorites” instead of “meteors.” 10In his textbook’s section “How to Observe a Meteoric Shower”, Howe, by way of a footnote, directed students to articles by “W.F. Denning in Popular Astronomy 1893”. Howe, Herbert Alonzo, Elements of Descriptive Astronomy, a text book. Boston: Silver, Burdett and Co., 1897, p. 221. 106 The First Assignment every major meteoric stream are eagerly sought by all observers in America and very much used for guidance and instruction.”11 Denning’s accomplishments earned him directorship of the British Astronomical Association’s Meteor Section from 1899–1900. It was while he was Director that he published General Catalogue of the Radiant Points of Meteoric Showers (1899). The Catalogue was a compilation of 4367 radiants which he and many other observers had discovered in the preceding decades. Denning intended it as an authoritative and definitive reference which future observers could rely upon to determine whether a ‘newly’ found radiant had already been identified and, if so, the degree to which the later observer had made an accurate determination of the radiant’s sky coordinates. Denning believed that no fewer than 50 radiants were active “on any and every night of the year” and further, “…the great majority of these displays are not confined to limited periods, but extend their activity over several weeks, and in many cases over several months.”12 The Catalogue was the zenith of Denning’s career as a meteor investigator and it was regarded, even by critics of the stationary radiant concept, like Charles P. Olivier, as an important reference. Olivier was unqualified in his praise, “(Denning’s) General Catalogue of the Radiant Points of Meteor Showers”… still remains the only one of its kind (as of 1931) and is a work of lasting value. The labor necessary for its compilation must have been immense… and his data will furnish indefinitely one of the richest mines for the theoretical investigator.”13 Even after Denning’s retirement from active observations and despite attacks upon the credibility of SRs by Olivier, Denning’s writings and his accomplishments as an observer preserved his reputation. In recognition of past work, he was named the first President of the International Astronomical Union’s Commission 22 on Meteors, and he served in office from 1922 until 1925.14 The United States’ meteor observers owed Denning a debt of gratitude for a series of informational articles he wrote for Popular Astronomy in 1893 and 1894.15 In these articles American astronomy hobbyists learned about the annual meteor showers that Denning had watched and written about for decades. It is quite

11Payne, W. W., Important Astronomical Work in Progress, Popular Astronomy, 1904, volume 12, p. 48. 12W.F. Denning, General Catalog of Meteor Showers, etc., Memoirs RAS, vol 53, p.203–204. 13Olivier, C.P., Obituary, Observatory, volume 54, no. 689, 1931, pp. 282–3. 14F.T.M. Stratton, General Secretary of the International Astronomical Union, informed Charles Olivier, on August 9, 1925, that he had been elected to serve as President of Commission 22 in the aftermath of W.F. Denning’s resignation. Olivier accepted the post in a letter to Stratton dated November 19, 1925. Both letters are contained in the Olivier correspondence collection of The American Philosophical Society. 15Denning, W., Shooting stars, how to observe them and what they teach us, (A series of articles in) Popular Astronomy, Volume 1, September 1893 to June 1894. Pp. 34-38, 67-71 [p 68 has direction to use a “a perfectly straight rod or wand” to trace a meteor’s sky path in order to accurately chart it]; 97–102; 147–151; 208–211 [This article was about “Radiation and Duration of Meteor Showers”]; 267–272; 296–299; 345–348; and 438–440. W.F. Denning, A.S Herschel, and the Stationary Radiant Concept 107 possible that young Charles Olivier learned how to observe and chart meteors by reading them. Dr. Olivier wrote a generous appreciation of Denning’s lifetime contributions in the journal Observatory. Denning’s American critic wrote,

Perhaps the most valuable single contribution to meteoric astronomy by Denning was his never-ceasing interest in the actual observation of all kinds of meteoric bodies…During the two decades from 1890 to 1910 systematic observational work was generally conﬁned to few…During this score of years, when most professional astronomers paid scant attention to meteors, Denning worked and wrote without cessation. The inspiration of his example reached further than he ever suspected, and meteoric astronomy, among English-speaking peoples especially, owes him a permanent debt of gratitude…Not only England but the world has lost one of the few great meteor observers. His name deserves to be remembered for all time as one of the pioneers, and his example of enthusiastic work up the very end of a long life…should be an inspiration to all who work in this branch of astronomy.16

Alexander Stewart Herschel (1836–1907)

Alexander Herschel was in the third generation of the famous Herschel family that had, between William (1738–1822) and his son John (1792–1871), discovered hundreds of new double stars and nebulae in the northern and southern hemi- spheres’ skies. Alexander’s great aunt Caroline (1750–1848) discovered eight comets and her brother William, Alexander’s grandfather, discovered Uranus in 1783. Alexander was born in South Africa while his father, John, investigated and mapped southern skies from Cape Town. At age 30, A.S. Herschel became a university physics professor following experimental work he had done with a binocular-mounted spectroscope which he used visually to examine meteors’ light. He discovered the spectral signatures of sodium and magnesium with the apparatus. He was a member of the British Association’s Luminous Meteors Committee (LMC) and charted the paths of many meteors that appeared in the LMC’s lists of meteors and their radiants.

The Herschel–Denning Collaboration

Correspondence between the two men began in 1872 when Herschel was 36 and Denning was 24 years old. The men’s relationship was carried on in the mail from 1872 to 1900 but despite their long-term collaboration, they never met face to face. The correspondence revealed that Herschel was Denning’s mentor and he offered continual encouragement to Denning in his meteor work. Denning was not trained

16Olivier, C., 1931, op. cit., pp. 282–283. 108 The First Assignment in gravitational astronomy so Herschel assisted Denning by explaining the complicated mathematical issues involved in their mutual interest. Denning first mentioned his conviction that many radiants remained fixed in the sky over long time periods in an article published in 1878. He followed it with an 1879 article cataloging 222 stationary radiants.17 Denning based his belief in the radiants on his own archive of observations; no previous or contemporary observer had advanced such an opinion. Their correspondence revealed that Herschel not only accepted Denning’s claim but advanced two theories about the manner in which stationary radiants were possible. Herschel’s final explanation was a complicated concept that required a stream of meteoroids to be ejected from nearby stars. Herschel claimed that stationary radiants’ meteors were created when the ejected bodies collided with a ring of matter that he hypothesized to be surrounding the earth. Not only did he advance this theory but he defended it in 1899 before other astronomers at a special meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society dedicated to evaluate arguments for stationary radiants. In summary, Herschel’s letters show that he was doubly helpful to the SR viewpoint; he encouraged the tireless Denning in his observations and assertions that the SRs existed, and he used his professional influence in an attempt to defend the theory and persuade fellow academically trained astronomers. Denning’s arguments for SRs became increasingly vulnerable to attacks from mathematically sophisticated astronomers after Herschel’s death in 1907. Herschel’s death left SRs defenseless against the AMS data and scientifically driven critical arguments presented by Charles Olivier beginning with Olivier’s 1911 dissertation.

Olivier’s Analysis of Factors that Created Erroneous Radiants

“The writer has no hesitation in affirming that, in his opinion, the lack of an exact definition of the word (radiant), and of a clear understanding of what properly constitutes a radiant, has introduced more false ideas and complicated or made useless more meteoric work than any other single difficulty met in pursuing the subject.”—Charles P. Olivier, Meteors, 1925 By 1911, SRs had been an article of belief among many astronomers for about three decades. Denning’s meteor reports and repeated interpretations in favor of fixed radiants were persuasive to amateur astronomers and Herschel’s academic arguments gave professional astronomers reasons to suspend disbelief even if they were still skeptical about Denning’s claims. SRs had achieved credibility or at least tolerance in astronomy.

17Denning, WF, Suspected repetition, or second outbursts from radiant points; and on the long duration of meteor showers. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), volume 38, 1878, pp. 111–114; and Denning, A Catalogue of 222 stationary meteors, MNRAS, volume 39, 1879, pp. 406–424. W.F. Denning, A.S Herschel, and the Stationary Radiant Concept 109

Charles Olivier intended to persuade astronomers that SRs’ did not exist but his efforts would take years to achieve success. In fact Olivier focused on this project from publication of his dissertation in 1911 to about the time of Denning’s death in 1931.18 He needed years to amass contradictory data and published arguments against SRs; they could not be invalidated quickly by one meteor report or theoretical argument. Olivier’s task was nothing less than overturning the meteor paradigm that existed in the first three decades of the 20th century. In 1917, Olivier seized the opportunity afforded him by his new role as the APA’s Chairman of the Meteor Committee to reframe the radiant conflict by proposing specific criteria to define a radiant.19 He prefaced his argument for a specificdefinition by posing two rhetorical questions:

…how large an area of the sky could we possibly consider as belonging to the radiant area of a stream and over how long an interval of days, or greater units of time, can we consider meteors, which appear to radiate from the said area, to belong to the said radiant? In order to clarify the optimal “area of the sky” that should deﬁne a radiant, Olivier listed several physical forces and processes that inﬂuence a meteor’s motion through the air:

These are, in order of magnitude, the velocity caused by the force due to the sun’s attraction plus the original velocity of the body when it came within the sphere of the sun’s attraction, velocity of the earth itself in its orbit, that due to the earth’s attraction (also called zenith attraction), and the small aberrational component due to the fact that the earth rotates on its axis daily. Next, he pointed out that even after as little as an hour’s passage, the true radiants of two separate groups of parallel meteors will differ because

…the earth has revolved on its axis 15 degrees; hence the radiant is (higher or lower in the sky at the end of the hour than it was at the beginning). Therefore, the zenith attraction and diurnal aberration terms will be slightly different. Also in one hour the earth has (travelled a small amount of its distance around the sun). Therefore, at any given place the direction from which the (earlier) meteors came must have changed by an amount resultant (from all the changes just mentioned)…In other words, the radiant after an hour’s time cannot be absolutely the same point in the sky… Academically unprepared for Olivier’s scientiﬁc approach to radiants, the hap- less Denning clung to observational expertise as his defense when he was actually being challenged on the use of unscientiﬁc reduction methods.

18Olivier reported that he ﬁrst became “greatly interested” in the SR issue in 1904 when he was a 20-year-old junior classman at University of Virginia: Meteors, p. 96. 19Olivier, CP, Report of the Committee on Meteors, Popular Astronomy, Volume 26, 1918, p. 18. 110 The First Assignment

Olivier Used Informed Approach to Reduce His Own Meteor Plots

By 1900, Olivier, probably with guidance from Ormond Stone, had begun making a practice of plotting meteors and reducing the radiants using stringent criteria. The next chapter is about the research campaign that Olivier mounted to discredit SRs.

First Assignment: Discredit Stationary Radiants

Olivier’s Earliest Application of Stringent Radiant Deﬁnitions

Olivier reported, in his book Meteors that he ﬁrst became “greatly interested” in the stationary radiant (SR) controversy in 1904 when he was a 20-year-old junior classman at University of Virginia (UVA). By 1911, when he wrote his dissertation, he had amassed 6200 meteor plots of which 5000 were his own. His radiant reduction methods for these were, in part,

The methods of observing have evolved with increasing experience, but from 1900 on they have not changed greatly…meteors beginning at a greater distance than 30 degrees from the radiant were never given much weight…for the strong streams such as the Leonids and Perseids, the radiants could frequently be determined by meteors within 10 degrees…short paths near the radiant are most useful in its determination, both because of their nearness and also their low apparent velocity, which permits of the most accurate plotting… The physical appearance of meteors, such as color, apparent velocity, etc., while all very useful in assigning a given meteor to the proper radiant, can scarcely ever be held as conclusive evidence that it does belong to any given radiant. Also numerous meteors of the principal streams differ very much from the average member of that stream. This point is to be especially noted in view of the statement often found that a meteor belongs to a given stream because it looks like the average member of it, though its direction was frequently very poorly determined or perhaps not at all… Radiants have been found by projecting the plotted paths backwards. In regard to those for which parabolic elements have been computed this rule was followed. At least three major paths on projection just meet within a circle of not more than 0.5 (one-half) degree in diameter. Any other well-observed meteor whose projected path comes within one degree of the center is accepted and given due weight. Any other meteor whose projected path comes within two degrees of the point may be used, but would be given little weight. An absolute rule has been made that under no conditions have meteors observed on more than one night been used to determine any radiant. It is my firm conviction that not following this rule has led many previous observers to catalogue hundreds of fictitious radiants whose presence in our catalogues only hampers the future growth of meteoric astronomy. (Sentences in bold are the author’s emphasis.) The dissertation contained a thorough disputation of one SR claim that Denning had made: a reported radiant near the stars alpha and beta Persei was long enduring First Assignment: Discredit Stationary Radiants 111 and stationary from January to November each year. Using the observational method summarized above, and for radiants he and a few McCormick and Lick colleagues trained by him had collected, he demonstrated: (1) Only four of his radiants fit within the nine degree by ten degree sky area Denning claimed to contain the alpha–beta Persei radiant and all of these were observed in August. “In no other month have I been able to confirm the existence of a radiant within these limits,” Olivier stated. (2) Olivier’s four radiants and another four, by an Italian observer using criteria similar to Olivier’s, fit in Denning’s putative radiant box, but when orbital elements were computed for the radiants, the figures showed “that all eight orbits can refer to the same stream is an obvious and mathematical impossibility,” Olivier exulted. In a second refutation of a specificSR’s reality, Olivier disputed Denning’s claim that the Orionid meteors had a SR. Using his own stringently defined Orionid radiants, Olivier was able to show that the radiants progressed eastward in the sky as theory predicted, in contradiction to Denning’s claim. Olivier believed that Denning’s SR resulted from his use of combined observations producing radiants in a large and ill-defined “radiant” region. Olivier commented, “In an area ten degrees in diameter a radiant could have considerable motion and still be ‘fixed,’ if we put such wide limits to what we choose to call a radiant.” Even though Olivier’s arguments against Denning’s Orionid and alpha–beta Persei SRs were strong, he seemed to overreach when he claimed in the “condensed summary of results” section of the dissertation: “Stationary radiants appear to be rare if they exist at all.” Perhaps aware that was too sweeping a claim, he spent much of his energy during the ensuing twenty years buttressing these early arguments against SRs and to support this sweeping statement. Much of the data Olivier used in the campaign came from SPAMS/AMS members who were “assigned” to find meteor radiants in conformance with Olivier’s meteor plotting methods.

Results of the AMS’ First Assignment: 126 Parabolic Orbits

When Dr. Olivier assumed directorship of the Society for Practical Astronomy’s Meteor Section (SPAMS) and simultaneously founded the American Meteor Society (AMS), it was his intention to reduce the two organizations’ meteor plots with the same methods and restrictions which he had applied to the plots forming the basis of his dissertation. In 1914, he published “126 Parabolic Orbits” (126PO) a monograph which summarized the meteor work done by SPAMS and AMS members 1911–1913, using his dissertation’s methods. The 126 orbits were the second installment, after the 175 orbits listed in his dissertation, in a new radiant list 112 The First Assignment that was free of combined observations and other errors in many of the nineteenth century catalogs. Amateur astronomers in the AMS contributed 41 % of the radiants that Olivier deemed “probably fixed with enough accuracy to justify the computation of (the 126) parabolic orbits.” Nels Bruseth contributed the largest number of amateur data, with 28 % (35 plots) of the 126 orbits. Alan Craig, James Hanahan, Edwin McDonald, and Latimer Wilson furnished a total of 13 % (17). Among the professional astronomers contributing, Olivier furnished 50 % (63) and Bernhard Dawson, Palmer Graham, and James B. Smith supplied a total of 9 % (11) to account for the entire 126 orbits. Ever direct in his exposition, Olivier announced on the second page of 126PO, “One of the chief problems of meteoric astronomy is that of stationary radiants.” Prominent among 126PO’s reduction reforms which he announced, was “under no circumstances were meteors seen on different dates or in different years ever combined to secure a radiant…In conclusion our results, reduced separately for each date, show almost no evidence of stationary radiation and so far as they go may be considered to disprove its existence.” Whether a reader believed Olivier’s complete dismissal of SRs was justified by the 126 orbits in the paper, it was clear that because of his reduction methodology the orbits were as he wrote, “the most valuable results” obtained in meteoric astronomy since two earlier ones in the nineteenth century: Giovanni Schiaparelli’s in 1871 and George Lyon Tupman’sin 1873. Olivier used a small number of 126PO’s data to make a specific refutation of one SR. Continuing his attack on Denning’s claim that the Orionids had a SR, he presented seven of the 126 orbits “whose basic radiants show an approximately increasing longitude, from date to date, to permit their being grouped together.” He asserted that “to the unprejudiced reader there can no longer be any doubt about the fact that the Orionid radiant does slowly shift its position.” In what Olivier might have considered 126PO’s final argument against the reality of SRs, he presented a conceptual explanation of how SRs were impossible. He wrote, “Because the earth moves forward one degree per day in longitude, while each meteor stream has also its own motion in space, hence it is evident that the radiant for this stream must depend for its apparent position in the sky upon where the orbits of earth and meteor stream intersect. When both are in motion, the apparent radiant …can not have the same position in the sky for successive nights.” After the 1914 publication of 126PO, Olivier compiled and reduced AMS members’ meteor plots made during the years 1914–1918 in preparation for the next exhaustive analysis of AMS data and another attack upon the credibility of SRs. But he also took another approach to eradicating SRs; he used his position as Meteor Committee Chairman in the American Astronomical Society to seek professional endorsement of stringent radiant reduction and make it the American establishment’s methodological procedure. He was in an ideal position to attack SRs on an organizational level as well as a procedure of practical astronomy. First Assignment: Discredit Stationary Radiants 113

Aligning Professional Astronomy Behind Stringent Radiant Deﬁnitions

American Astronomical Society met at Albany, New York in August 1917. Its Meteor Committee, chaired by Dr. Olivier submitted a brief report for publication with summaries of other papers presented at the meeting. Olivier had consulted with committee members about the exact scientificdefinition of a meteor radiant. More precisely, the committee listed a series of operational definitions specifying the number of meteors required to emanate from a restricted sky area during specified periods of time. Most likely the list was Olivier’s work, but the committee’s members were also listed as its authors: Edward Emerson Barnard, William Lewis Elkin, William J. Humphreys, Forest Ray Moulton, Henry Allen Peck, and William H. Pickering. The definitions were read to the entire body of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and adopted. Olivier believed that

Holding to (the Meteor Committee’s) rather rigid definitions should in future: stop publication of fictitious radiants depending upon a few meteors scattered over long intervals, of which several old catalogues …contain many cases; make it possible to study the question of the motion or fixity of a given radiant point, with some degree of precision…bring about the application of uniform rules to the work of all observers…and place the whole question (of radiant motion) upon a scientific basis.20 But in addition, the Committee in its report to AAS members recommended,

That a systematic effort be made to place all branches of meteoric astronomy upon a satisfactory scientific basis. This last can best be effected by prompt criticism, on the part of professional astronomers, of any work published on the subject which obviously lacks scientific accuracy…21 This blunt recommendation was made by Olivier who believed professionals had allowed meteor studies to become unscientific because they neglected to police investigators’ methodological practices. Two years earlier, he commented,

…Meteoric astronomy has so far been largely handed over to amateurs-men who have not been familiar with the reduction of observations, as carried on in regular observatories. Work is freely being published, in the leading astronomical journals, on meteors, which if it referred to any other branch of the science would never see print. This is due to the indifference of the average professional astronomer to this class of work, and not until scientiﬁc and rigorous methods of reduction are introduced here as in other departments of astronomy will this trouble cease.22 However, amateur meteor observers did not escape Olivier’s criticism either. He pointedly commented that some amateurs, presumably Denning among them, were

20Olivier, C., Meteors, 1925, pp. 90–92 and Popular Astronomy, volume 26, 1918, pp. 18–20. 21Olivier, C., Popular Astronomy, volume 26, 1918, p. 19. 22Olivier, C., Mr. A. King’s Catalogue of Radiant Points of Shooting Stars, 1898–1915, Observatory, volume 39, August 1916, p. 334. 114 The First Assignment

“…men who are among the very best of meteor observers, but who choose to overlook completely the theoretical side of their work.” Thirty-two-year-old Assistant Professor Olivier did not ﬂinch in assigning blame for the scandalous state of meteoric astronomy to his colleagues and to the most prominent amateurs then recording meteors.

Meteor Committee’s Radiant Criteria Recommendations

It will be recalled that Olivier wanted to define a radiant in terms of area in the sky and permissible time intervals to judge whether a meteor belongs to one specific radiant. The Committee’s first criterion addresses both issues squarely,

1a. A radiant shall be determined by not less than four meteors whose projected paths all intersect within a circle of two degrees in diameter and which are all observed within a period of at most four hours on one night, by one observer. Interestingly, the Committee was willing to consider a radiant deﬁned by observations over two consecutive nights,

1b. By three meteors on one night and at least two on the next night seen during the same approximate hours of Greenwich Mean Time, and all ﬁve intersecting as described above. The Committee further deﬁned the conditions under which a radiant could be considered stationary,

2a. A radiant shall be considered stationary for the period covered by observations when it fulﬁlls (1a) for four consecutive nights and does not shift its position to an appreciable extent. “Appreciable” was deﬁned too,

3a. A radiant shall be considered in motion or at rest when on examining successive maps of the same observer this radiant shall have moved to an appreciable extent, which from the accuracy of the observations can be considered unmistakable, or in the second place has kept the same position, the conditions being the same.23 The Committee went on to deﬁne how a radiant detected in one year could be conﬁrmed a year later; and also how a comparison of radiants in different years should be based upon the earth’s orbital position, called the meteoric apex24 rather than upon the dates of the radiants.

23Olivier, C., Meteors, pp. 90–91 and Popular Astronomy, Volume 26, 1918, pp. 18–20. These sources contain the recommendations in their entirety. 24In Meteors, p. 56, the meteoric apex is deﬁned as “the point toward which the earth is directed in its motion around the sun” This point was measured in degrees of longitude along the ecliptic. Today, the practice is to use another quantity, “solar longitude”, also known as “heliocentric longitude,”s the position of the earth on its orbit which it occupies on a particular day and time as measured in degrees from the March equinox. First Assignment: Discredit Stationary Radiants 115

Olivier’s ultimate goal, to be achieved by requiring all meteor astronomers’ adherence to the Committee’s radiant speciﬁcations was:

Number 5:) No radiant shall be included in our future catalogues which do not fall within (the Committee’s) conditions. Olivier never published an “American Meteor Society radiant catalog” in a single volume format but it could be said to exist in the radiant lists in the long monographs he published 1911–1929. In these, he shared with the astronomical community the radiants and orbits he had deduced from AMS members’ meteor plots.25

1920 Monograph: “349 Parabolic Orbits”

Professor26 Olivier’s next monograph which addressed the SR issue was 349 Parabolic Orbits (349PO) . This long paper was a multi-year report about AMS members’ results for the years 1914–1918. In it, Olivier reduced 22,000 meteor plots in conformance with the Meteor Committee’s 1917 radiant determination rules, especially being careful to use criteria 1a and 1b, cited above. However, Olivier seemed to be wary of overconﬁdence. He fretted,

The writer expresses great doubt as to whether the majority of the so-called radiants found in various lists have any real existence. He is quite willing to admit that some in his own publications, including the present one, doubtless will fall under this criticism, though he made great efforts to discard the uncertain ones… Olivier’s doubts began in the middle of the monograph’s span of years. Early on, for the years 1914 to mid-1916, he computed parabolic orbits for all competently plotted radiants sent to him. These he listed in 349PO’s Table II. However, by mid-1916, concerns about the several errors observers could make induced him to list plotted meteors in radiant format only, in the paper’s Table IV. The latter table’s radiants, for 1916–1918 were graded “good, fair, or uncertain” based upon how carefully the member recorded meteors on his or her map. Olivier evaluated his observers as being poor in ability, for instance, if their plotted meteors failed to show a Perseid radiant during the maximum of the August meteor shower when Perseid meteors ﬁlled the sky. An observer’s radiant who failed that particular test had his or her map thrown in the trash. Olivier was more conﬁdent of the reality of a

25Is there a definition difference between “reduce” and “deduce?” Olivier used “reduce” and “deduce” interchangeably. Whichever term is used the procedure is the same: radiants result from meteor plots on star maps and orbits are calculated from radiants. 26I am using the title “‘professor” for two reasons. The most concrete one is that in fact Olivier’s entire professional career was as a college and university professor. The second reason is clearest when he addressed the SR issue and argued his opposition to it with mathematical, astronomical, and scientific objections. In the SR conflict and in his approach to colleagues, Olivier’s identity was that of the academic professor, and he was adept at wielding the authority that the role had. 116 The First Assignment

Table IV radiant if he was able to identify an orbit from an earlier year in Table II which had the same date, hour of the night, right ascension and declination, and meteoric apex. His point was that the doubly found radiants and orbits gave more evidence of reality because they were found two times, i.e., had an occurrence in more than one year, suggesting an annual recurrence. Once-occurring radiants might not have been annual ones. He reassured the reader, “… much care was taken in selecting each of the radiants printed in these tables, it is probable that the majority have a real existence. More than this it would be unwise to claim.” It is interesting to see the evolution of his thinking and practice as a consequence of experience. However, even with misgivings, he used the AMS’ well-reduced radiants in 349PO to make judgments about the motion or ﬁxity of radiants.

Arguments Against SRs

Professor Olivier found radiants in 349PO which strengthened his argument against the existence of a long-enduring and stationary radiant in the alpha and beta Persei region which he first examined in his dissertation. He pointed out that only five of the 696 radiants in Table IV “are found within five degrees (of the radiant Denning identified)” and they were seen in the interval of August 17 to September 3. Olivier emphasized that 349PO’s radiants were observed on 301 days of the year, and it was only during the brief interval that any radiants were found close to the SR that Denning alleged; these facts undermined Denning’s claim that the radiant was active throughout the year. In 349PO, Professor Olivier continued his dispute with Denning who insisted that the Orionid radiant was fixed at right ascension 91.2 degrees and declination +15.2 degrees. Olivier examined radiants from star maps upon which AMS members Donald Brooks, Lincoln LaPaz, Clarence Ludeman, William McPherson, John Koep, and Raymond Lambert had independently marked meteors in 1916. None of their radiants were consistent with the sky position Denning cited. Olivier also presented Orionid radiants from maps he had marked in 1914, 1916, and 1917; once again none of the radiants were close to Denning’s SR. Olivier concluded his remarks about the Orionids by repeating his contention that the Orionid radiant moves eastward during the shower. He observed,

“While there are without doubt inconsistencies” in eastward progression among the AMS radiants just mentioned in the paragraph above, “it seems impossible to deny that in general these observations show an increase in the right ascension of the radiant from day to day. Therefore they confirm those previously made by the writer personally and his conclusions that the Orionid radiant moves…” However, he admitted, “In justice to others, it should be said that the question is a most difficult one, and, with the present inherent inaccuracy of meteor observations, one on which the last word has not been written. Only photography can probably give the definitive answer.” First Assignment: Discredit Stationary Radiants 117

Arguments Against SRs in Meteors (1925)

Meteors was a scholarly book which was the product of Olivier’s sabbatical research in the United States Naval Observatory’s library during 1923 and 1924. In the chapters where he discussed radiants and disproofs of SRs, Olivier addressed academics like himself who were mathematically sophisticated and competent readers of German and French astronomical texts. Except to repeat the points he made about the alpha–beta Perseid and Orionid radiants in 126PO and 349PO, the book was not a discussion of AMS members’ results. Befitting a professor who should not adopt a doctrinaire position about con- tentious issues, Olivier was willing to critically examine his radiant definitions, and to review other astronomers’ theoretical considerations of the conditions under which SRs could exist. As in 349 PO, he questioned the reality of some of the stringently defined radiants he had reduced from AMS maps, including his own. “More mature judgment forces the admission that many of these 1200 radiants (listed in 349PO)… were based upon too few meteors to be absolutely safe.” Olivier was referring to the three to five meteors specified in the 1917 Meteor Committee’s requirements 1a. and 1b., and admitted they were possibly attributable to chance alignments. Just as Denning had cautioned radiants based on too few meteors might not be reliable pointers to a real radiant. However, Olivier was quick to qualify the self-criticism:

However, the great care in reduction, and the refusal to accept large radiant areas, and observation… of more than one night mostly outweighed this error of judgment… Conﬁdence therefore is felt that at least one-half of these 1200 radiants represent one or more appearances of real streams, and the writer will feel amply rewarded if the future proves this estimate not to be too high. Chapter 10 in Meteors was concerned with the question “Do Stationary Radiants Exist?” He reviewed the theoretical considerations of several astronomers who assessed the theoretical possibilities of and potential location of SRs. Some of them found that some SRs are possible in restricted sky areas, like radiants in the ecliptic (where most solar system bodies orbit the sun) and for short periods of time. These “low inclination” orbits were “found” by mathematical calculations. However, Olivier pointed out that none of Denning’s SRs were found among the calculated locations. Olivier summarized much of the academicians’ writings by writing,

On the basis of everything that has been pointed out, the writer’s present opinions upon the whole subject are as follows: There is no doubt that for radiants near the ecliptic approximately stationary radiants may exist for considerable periods of time (italics are the author’s). But so far no satisfactory theory has ever been advanced for radiants with high latitudes and that are supposed to be stationary. 118 The First Assignment

AMS Report 1919–1925 (1929)

This report was the third, and last, multi-year analysis and report of AMS members’ work that Dr. Olivier compiled. As he did in 126PO and 349PO, Olivier surveyed the reduced data resulting from 8600 observations members made during the seven years covered by the report. He found three sources of contradiction to the SR concept. The first was an article in MNRAS, by Alphonso King which contained a summary of available reports about the Geminid meteor shower’s radiant locations during the shower’s visibility. King concluded that the data conclusively proved the radiant to be in motion each day of the shower.27 The second demonstration of radiant motion came from AMS members’ meteor plots of the Eta Aquarid shower for the years 1910–1925. This shower is a challenge for northern hemisphere observers to monitor and record because it can only be seen for about an hour before morning twilight makes it impossible to see meteors and the background stars. Nevertheless, the multi-year data showed a small daily eastward displacement of the shower’s radiant, as theory demanded. Olivier’s third refutation involved his oldest dispute with Denning: the Orionid meteor shower radiant. Olivier gave damaging arguments against the two claims Denning made about the Orionids’ radiant: (1) it was centered at celestial coordinates of right ascension 91.2 degrees and a northern declination of 15.2 degrees and (2) the radiant did not move against the star background throughout its duration of about a month. Denning’s second claim was the most crucial for Olivier to disprove because it defied a theory about how radiants were predicted to drift as the earth traveled in its orbit. A stationary radiant, if one could be found suggested that the earth had encountered a meteor stream which had truly unusual characteristics that would need an extraordinary explanation, such as the one advanced by Alexander Herschel. However, the implication of such an explanation is that it strained credulity and might violate laws of gravitational astronomy. To dispose of the first of Denning’s claims about the Orionids, Olivier cited a Harvard photographic observation which showed three shower meteors projecting backward to a sixth-of-a-degree circle that was centered at 94.1 degrees of right ascension and 15.8 degrees of northern declination. Because the Harvard radiant was found from a photograph, there was no question of erroneous or prejudiced meteor plotting. It was an objective finding that on October 20, 1922, the Orionid radiant was displaced from Denning’s “established” radiant by 2.9 degrees of right ascension and six tenths of a degree of declination. Even if Denning’s radiant coordinates were accepted, the Harvard photograph showed it had moved. But Olivier had much more data to show Orionid radiant movement. He mined AMS meteor plots for the years 1920–1925 furnished by AMS members, N.P. Ball, Sterling Bunch, F.T. Bradley, and Robert M. Dole as well as his own. Olivier filled four pages of the 1919–1925 report describing everyone’s work. One man, Dole

27King, A., MNRAS, Volume 86, 1926, pp. 638–641. First Assignment: Discredit Stationary Radiants 119 made heroic efforts in 1922 and 1924. His map sketches on 10 nights in 1922, showed the positions of a total of 352 Orionids. Two years later, Dole was on task for 11 more Orionid watches. Once again, the entire mass of AMS data showed movement in the Orionid radiant during the shower’s period of visibility.

Not Persuaded by Olivier’s Arguments and AMS’ Findings Against SRs (1911–1925)

Olivier mentioned, in Meteors, that as of 1924, the British Astronomical Association’s Meteor Section (BAAMS) had adopted the AAS Meteor Committee’s stringent 1917 radiant definitions.28 However, a review of articles by the Directors of the BAAMS indicated that, if so, observers continued to find evidence of stationary radiants for the Orionids and a minor shower in Aries. About the latter shower, Professor Olivier responded by writing a didactic article in MNRAS which presented orbital calculations as well as AMS observations that undercut the likelihood of a long-enduring radiant. The Olivier–Denning Orionid controversy persisted after years of dispute. During the years 1922–1925, BAAMS observers continued to find radiants for the Orionids that agreed with Denning’s cataloged sky position for the stationary Orionid radiant. For example, in 1923, when Olivier published McCormick Observatory data with a clear demonstration of the Orionid radiant’s motion, BAAMS Director Prentice countered with his own observations which showed “support (for) the stationary character of the shower with centers at (Denning’s positions)…” Prentice apologized for a lengthy discussion of his radiants but he did not want Olivier’s article to give the impression that “the proof of the radiant’s motion is complete.” Plainly, acceptance of Olivier’s methods would come slowly. But it never came for Denning. At the age of 82, he wrote in a letter to the editors of the Observatory, “Not only Orionids but many other streams at different times of the year exhibit repetition or a stationary aspect of radiation of similar kind to the Orionids…Thus the (August) Perseids yield many meteors in September, October, and November…Last year there fell a …fireball Orionid…on December 27…” The meteor expert’s letter was dated January 14, 1931 and he died five months later on June 9th.29 Two decades of Olivier’s efforts had failed to persuade him that SRs were fallacious.

28Page 92. The author could not ﬁnd a conﬁrmatory statement from the BAA Meteor Section’s Director, J.P.M. Prentice in his report about the Meteor Section’s activities for the year October 1, 1924–September 30, 1925. Prentice’s report was brief and only mentioned that poor weather had interfered greatly with observations and that the Section would continue with visual work “on the lines hitherto followed.” Prentice, J., Meteor Section in Report of the Council on the Work of the Session, October 1, 1924–September 30, 1925, Journal of the British Astronomical Association (JBAA), Volume 35, 1925, p. 298. 29Denning, W., Autumnal Meteors, Observatory, Volume 54, 1931, p. 272. 120 The First Assignment

In what may have been a welcome surprise to many, Olivier wrote a generous appreciation of Denning’s career despite the years of contention between the two men. It read, “While (Olivier) totally disagreed with (Denning) on his ideas of so-called stationary radiation, yet even here the opinion may be hazarded that it was certain methods of reduction, and not observational errors that led to his conclusions. In any case, his work along this line deserves close and respectful study, and the last word has not been said upon this difﬁcult subject.30

Top Achievers 1914–1925

When Professor Olivier wrote the American Meteor Society’s multi-year reports, he gave full credit to the Society’s members for their work. All who submitted meteor data were named and their hometowns mentioned. If they were especially productive, for example, submitted more meteor sketches on star maps than most of their fellows, Olivier made it a point to describe their accomplishments. The following young men were the AMS’“top achievers” in terms of meteors observed and reported to Olivier. Their contributions furnished the data Olivier analyzed in 349 Parabolic Orbits (349PO), published in 1920, and updated in 1921, as well as in the AMS Report for 1919–1925, published in 1929 and 1935. Biographies of the members who were amateur astronomers appear in Part 2 of this work and can be found in Chaps. 9 and 10.

Top Achievers in 349 PO

This report for 1914–1918 discussed two categories of meteor results: orbits and radiants. Orbits were calculated for radiants plotted 1914 to midway in 1916. Radiants were deduced from meteor plots made mid-1916–1918.

Orbits 1914–1916

Professor Olivier calculated 349 parabolic orbits based upon his reduction of 61 AMS members’ meteor plots made 1914–1916. Listed below are the four members whose meteor plots furnished ten percent or more of the 349 orbits. The young men were responsible for two-thirds of the meteor plots Olivier deemed worthy of having parabolic orbits computed.

30Olivier, C., Letter, published in: Observatory, Volume 54, 1931, pp. 282–3. Top Achievers 1914–1925 121

AMS member Total orbits = n Percent of total = n/349 (%) LaPaz, Lincoln 84 24.1 Trudelle, Phillip 59 16.9 Koep, John 57 16.3 Brooks, Donald 35 10.0 Total 235 67.3

Radiants 1916–1918

Listed below are the three members whose meteor plots furnished ten percent or more of the 696 radiants determined in 349PO. Similar to the table of orbits above, only a small number, three men were responsible for two-thirds of the creditable results.

AMS member Total no. of radiants = n Percent of total = n/696 radiants (%) Koep, John 194 27.9 Brooks, Donald 174 25.0 Trudelle, Philip 90 12.9 Total 458 65.8

Top Achievers in AMS Report for 1919–1925

Dr. Olivier identiﬁed 320 radiants from 8600 meteors observed. There were three AMS members (out of a total of 24 listed in the Report) who contributed 10 % (32) or more of the meteor plots: Nathaniel Porter Ball (47 plots), Robert Montgomery Dole (103), and Dr. Olivier (38). These three sets of meteor plots amounted to 59 % of the grand total of 320.

References

Beech, Martin, The Herschel-Denning Correspondence: 1871-1900; in Beer, P. and A. E. Roy, editors, Vistas in Astronomy, Volume 34, Oxford UK: Pergamon Press, 1991, pp. 434-447 Beech, M., William Frederick Denning in T. Hockey, ed., et al, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 1, New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 290-292 Cook, A. and J. Prentice, Observations of the Epsilon Arietid Radiant in 1921, MNRAS, Volume 82, 1922, p. 309 122 The First Assignment

Denning, W.; Observations of the Orionids, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), Volume 73, 1913, pp. 667-668. Olivier, C., 175 Parabolic Orbits… deduced from over 6200 meteors, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, N.S., volume 22, part I, Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1911, pp. 5-8, 14-19, 22, 23, 35 and 89. Olivier, C., Reply to Mr. Denning’s ‘Observations of the Orionids,’ MNRAS, Volume 74, 1913, pp. 37-40. Olivier, C., 126 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams , Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, 1914, p. 461 Olivier, C.P., 349 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams and other results and Report of the AMS for 1914-1918, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, 1920 and 1921, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; pp. 242-262. Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams and other results and Report of the AMS for 1914-1918, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, 1920 and 1921, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; pp. 200-266 Olivier, C., Orbits of the Epsilon Arietis Meteors, MNRAS, Volume 83, 1922, pp. 87-92. Olivier, C., The Orionids, The Observatory, Volume 46, 1923, pp. 17 ff. Olivier, Charles P., Meteors, Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1925, p. 56 Olivier, C., History of the Leander McCormick Observatory circa 1883 to 1928, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory of the University of Virginia, volume 11, part 26, Charlottesville, Virginia: The University, 1967, p. 207. Olivier, C., Meteors, Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1925, pp. 82-96 Olivier, C., Obituary, Observatory, Volume 54, no. 689, 1931, pp. 282-283 Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1919-1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 5, Part 1, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA, 1929 and 1935, pp. 1-49, but especially, pp. 25-27 and 36-40. Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1919-1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 5, Part 1, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA, 1929 and 1935, pp. 18-24. Prentice, J., Radiant of Orionids, The Observatory, Volume 46, 1923, pp. 47-49 Postwar Years 1919–1929

Challenges for Olivier and the American Meteor Society

After the American Meteor Society’s (AMS) dramatic membership increases in 1915 and 1916, when active membership rose to 30 and 35, respectively, the Society’s membership declined to 19 during 1917 as many young men joined the military after the USA declared war on the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) that same year. Membership rosters slumped even more, to nine in 1918 and even further to seven in 1919. In a retrospective account about the McCormick Observatory’s history, Professor Olivier recounted that in 1917 all of the University of Virginia’s students and faculty joined a wartime training center on the campus under the direction of a retired US Army cavalry officer. Students were organized into 12 cadet companies and the faculty into a separate one. Olivier stated that after their preliminary training, “hundreds of these (men) entered officers’ training camps and secured commissions” in the military. Similar transformations of young and older academics at other American campuses must have taken place too. The AMS’ low 1919 roster number suggests that soldiers discharged after the Armistice in November 1918 were not yet sufficiently recovered from wartime trauma to quickly resume astronomical pursuits.

Olivier’s Wartime Years

Charles Olivier related how his multiple efforts to join the military were frustrated when he failed to qualify for induction due to some unspecified physical requirements that he could not pass. He remained on the McCormick staff during 1917 and most of 1918 while Samuel Mitchell hired three young women as assistants to replace the observatory’s male staff members who were in uniform. Olivier’s only consolation was that he was the first American astronomer to report a brilliant nova, a bright flaring of a faint star, in the constellation Aquila in June 1918. Even though he

© Richard Taibi 2017 123 R. Taibi, Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science, Springer Biographies, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44518-2_4 124 Postwar Years 1919–1929 cautioned journalists that a European may have made an earlier report and therefore could claim prior discovery, American newspapers persisted in crediting him. Even though he was denied a combatant’s role, Olivier’s astronomical training proved to be important to the US Army. In July 1918, he was called to do military service as a member of the Scientiﬁc Staff of Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. His commander was Forest Ray Moulton who before a wartime commission as a Major, was head of University of Chicago’s astronomy department and author of a well-regarded celestial mechanics textbook. Moulton assigned Olivier to solve a problem related to range-ﬁnding for anti-aircraft artillery. Olivier believed that his experience determining the atmospheric heights of meteors made him an ideal investigator for the problem. His assignment completed, Dr. Olivier was discharged from the US Army in January 1919.

Olivier Urged Observers to Resume Meteor Work After Their War Duties

In a notice to AMS members published by Popular Astronomy (PA) in its January 1919 issue, Dr. Olivier commented that the precedence of war work had been an appropriate reason for decreased meteor work. However, with the war ended, Olivier asserted that “it is perfectly right to call the attention of people interested in all kinds of scientiﬁc work to the need of at once doing their part in the advancement of science in America.” With those appeals to members’ scientiﬁc and patriotic motivations, he asked them to make 1919 a record year for the number of meteor reports submitted. For his part, Olivier informed members that he hoped to return to his usual duties at the University of Virginia within a few weeks. He informed them that until his return, McCormick Observatory’s director, Samuel Mitchell would promptly respond to members’ requests for star maps and record blanks needed to record their observations. Olivier also stirred members’ enthusiasm for meteor science by announcing that he expected to publish a monographic summary of members’ work for the years 1914–1918. He published two more brief reports in early 1920 in which he implied the larger one’s publication was imminent. True to his word, “349 Parabolic Orbits” was published late in 1920. Olivier’s brief communications in PA and “349’s” appearance attracted new members to the Society, so that 13 people were active members in 1920, an increase of 86 % compared to 1919’s roster.

Downturn in Membership

Unfortunately, this inﬂux of amateur astronomers soon ebbed, and during the next few years, 1921–1925, there was a severe decline in membership, reduced observational activity, and near absence in astronomical journals. Challenges for Olivier and the American Meteor Society 125

Table 1 Number of amateur 1915: 30 1919: 7 1923: 2 1927: 17 astronomers who were AMS 1916: 35 1920: 13 1924: 5 1928: 23 members 1915–1930 1917: 19 1921: 10 1925: 6 1929: 37 1918: 9 1922: 7 1926:13 1930: 36 “Membership” refers to amateur astronomer members; all known professionals have been excluded from the totals for each year. Sources for AMS amateur membership statistics are in the References at the end of the chapter

During those years, Professor Olivier was engaged in building his academic career and improving his standing in the astronomical profession. During most of this period, Olivier was unable to devote much time and energy to nurturing the AMS as an organization or to seeking additional members. This chapter provides the context for the period 1921–1925 in which membership declined signiﬁcantly; detailed below are some of the responsibilities and opportunities that distracted Olivier from membership building (Table 1). The reader’s attention is directed to membership numbers for the years 1921– 1925 above. Membership decreased markedly after two “comeback” years: 1920 and 1921. These were years when 349PO was distributed to members, and the public was made aware that the memoir was available as a membership beneﬁt. Note that especially by 1923, the AMS had only two amateur astronomer members. The Society was in trouble; amateurs were not joining it.1

Career and Family Demands as Reasons Why AMS Membership Declined 1921–1925

University Instruction

Olivier was a department of astronomy faculty member at the University of Virginia (UVA) from 1914 until 1928. During these years he taught four different astronomy courses. One of these was a course that had been dropped by the astronomy department because students had lacked interest in it. Olivier was able to stimulate interest in the topic and taught the course. In addition, Olivier reported, “I have worked… an average of 11 months per session…Thus while most faculty members receive 12 months’ pay for nine months’ work, I have done actually 11 months’

1AMS member Nathaniel Porter Ball commented “It seems as if the branch of Meteoric Astronomy is progressing very lamely, which is certainly a shame as it seems to me that these small members of our solar system (and perhaps of others) are the only ones who even visit us and much might be learned from a long and proper study of them.” Letter to CPO from NPB, dated June 30, 1921, from an AMS Archives box labeled “1920s.” 126 Postwar Years 1919–1929 work for my salary…”2 His diligence, in the university’s classrooms and at the observatory, merited him promotion from assistant to associate professor in 1922.3

Duties as Staff Astronomer at McCormick Observatory

Being on an observatory’s staff meant that an astronomer would be assigned to conduct telescopic observations that promoted the observatory director’s research program. Director Samuel A. Mitchell’s program was the photographic measurement of stars’ parallaxes, their distances from the sun. Olivier reported that as of October 1926, he “…personally measured 177 (stars’) parallaxes out of the 749 to date, being about 24 %. This branch has brought greatest international recognition to the Observatory.”4 Olivier was recognized for his role by being listed as a junior author in at least two published studies, with Mitchell as the senior author.5 Olivier’s hard work and loyalty were recognized by Mitchell who named him senior astronomer and left him in charge of operations at McCormick Observatory during the two months a year Mitchell was away.

Meteor Research Collaboration…

Advancing meteor science was one of Dr. Olivier’s research objectives in the 1920s, but he viewed the AMS as only one means of accomplishing it. Much of his time was accounted for by being involved in his own and other colleagues’ research in meteoric astronomy.

…with Yale

Olivier was asked to consult on the results of others’ research. A time-consuming example was data secured by Yale University Professor W.L. Elkins’ photographic meteor program. In early January 1922, 67-year-old Elkin informed Frank

2Olivier, C.P., To the President of the University of Virginia, a letter, circa October 1926, p. 1. 3University Board orders…new professors are elected, Richmond Times Dispatch, April 30, 1922, page 2: “Faculty promotions…approved by the Board: Dr. Charles P. Olivier to associate professor of astronomy.” 4Olivier, C.P., To the President of the University of Virginia, a letter, circa October 1926, p. 3, AMS Archives box marked “1920s.” 5Mitchell, S.A., C.P. Olivier, and H.L. Alden, Trigonometric Parallaxes of the Brightest Stars, Popular Astronomy, volume 31, 1923, pp. 328–331; and, Mitchell, S.A., Olivier, C.P., Alden, H. L., Trigonometric Parallaxes of 440 Stars Determined by Photography with the 26-Inch Refractor, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 4, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; 1927, pp. 1–289. Challenges for Olivier and the American Meteor Society 127

Schlesinger, chairman of Yale’s Astronomy Department, that he was in poor health. Elkin doubted he would be able to complete data reduction of the 16-year collection of meteor data he had gathered, 1893–1909. In their conversation, Elkin suggested that if Olivier were willing to complete the data analysis and submit it for publication, Elkin would turn over the study’s data to the Virginian.6 Schlesinger relayed the invitation, and McCormick Director Mitchell agreed to allow Olivier time to do the work. Olivier responded enthusiastically to Elkin’s offer.7 Olivier was excited to be able to work with meteor data gathered by a photographic method that did not suffer from observer bias and the errors inherent in visual meteor plotting. By the end of January 1922, Schlesinger sent Elkin’s data to Olivier8 and he began 14 months of laborious calculations and the preparation of a manuscript. Before Olivier was to present his results to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1923, he shared the manuscript with Schlesinger and Elkin. On April 18, 1923, Schlesinger informed Olivier that Elkin “…was considerably dis- turbed by the status of the work” and Schlesinger confided to Olivier that he was “surprised to see how lively an interest (Elkin) is now taking in (Olivier’s report).”9 Apparently alarmed by Olivier’s conclusions, Elkin reneged on his permission for Olivier to publish the analyses. Olivier was obliged to cancel his delivery of the paper to the NAS. Ultimately, Elkin demanded the return of the data from Olivier, which Olivier did in the first week of May, 1923.10 Initially frustrated and angry with Elkin, Olivier ultimately agreed with Schlesinger’s opinion that Elkin was too old and debilitated to be a fit object for anger and was more to be pitied.11 After a week’sreflection, Olivier was able to reframe his perspective on events. He wrote Schlesinger, “…

“… I personally feel greatly repaid by the full study of the methods (Elkin) used and having copies which will permit me to follow out the research myself…The time has not been wasted for me and I am very glad that I did the work anyhow. I also have to thank you in this connection for my name appearing on the programme of the National Academy…for which I am most grateful.”12 In 1937, after Elkin’s death, Olivier was able to publish his analysis of Elkin’s work.13

6Frank Schlesinger (FS) to C.P. Olivier (CPO), a letter dated Jan 24, 1922; Frank Schlesinger correspondence file at Yale University. 7CPO to FS, letter dated Jan 27, 1922, FS correspondence file. 8FS to CPO, January 31, 1922. 9FS to CPO, letter dated April 18, 1923, FS correspondence file. 10CPO to FS, letter dated May 14, 1923, FS correspondence file. 11CPO to FS, May 6, 1923, FS correspondence file. 12CPO to FS, May 14, 1923. 13Professor Elkin died in 1933. Olivier’s paper: Results of the Yale photographic meteor work, 1893–1909. Astronomical Journal, volume 46, issue 1061, 1937, pp. 41–57. 128 Postwar Years 1919–1929

…with Harvard

From 1924 to 1926, Olivier carried on extensive correspondence with Willard James Fisher (1867–1934) who was a research associate at Harvard College Observatory (HCO). Fisher, a physicist,14 had been analyzing Harvard’s photographic plates of meteor trains for possible clues about the upper atmosphere’s wind dynamics.15 In addition to their mutual interest in long-enduring trains, Olivier and Fisher frequently coordinated responsibility for analyses of ﬁreballs’ paths that occurred in the northeastern USA.

Writing Meteors

In addition to consultations and collaborations with peers, Professor Olivier carried out his own program of scholarly meteor research and writing. Olivier was granted a leave of absence from teaching at UVA and duties at McCormick Observatory from the autumn of 1923 through the spring term of 1924 so that he could conduct library research at the US Naval Observatory.16 His bibliographic review resulted in writing Meteors, which was published in 1925. Olivier was able to publish a second study while working in Washington, D.C.17 Harold Lee Alden, then at McCormick Observatory in Charlottesville, agreed to make simultaneous observations of Leonid meteors on November 14 and Geminid meteors on December 11 while Olivier plotted the same showers’ meteors from Washington. The two men were able to compute heights of seven meteor paths’ beginning and endpoints as well as their length in miles.

And the Continuing Debate About Stationary Radiants

William F. Denning, A. Grace Cook and J.P. Manning Prentice published the results of their meteoric watches during the same five-year period that kept Olivier busy on so many other fronts. The English observers reported finding stationary radiants consistent with Denning’s decades-old claims. Professor Olivier disputed their conclusions by printing contrary findings of his own as well as some by American Meteor Society (AMS) members. In addition, he reported a HCO photograph which

14Fisher denied being an astronomer and he is described as having a PhD in physics in Thomas Hockey, editor, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 1, Willard James Fisher, New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 368–369. Nevertheless, at Dr. Harlow Shapley’s recommendation, Fisher was appointed to the Meteor Commission by the American Section of the International Astronomical Union’s Executive Committee in 1924. 15Letter to CPO from Willard James Fisher, dated August 20, 1924, AMS Archives Box “1920s.” 16University Faculty changes are made, Richmond Times Dispatch, October 16, 1923, p. 7. 17Olivier, C.P., Calculations of the Heights of Meteors Observed by H.L. Alden and C.P. Olivier, Popular Astronomy, volume 32, 1924, pp. 591–595. Challenges for Olivier and the American Meteor Society 129 showed a radiant position that contradicted a sky position that Denning insisted was an established fact.18

And a New Challenge: International Meteor Committee19

Olivier’s prominence in meteor astronomy made him an obvious candidate for membership in the International Astronomical Union (IAU)’s Meteor Commission 22. In December 1924, the Executive Committee of the American Section of the IAU named Olivier chairman of its Committee on Meteors. He was tasked with coordinating the Committee’s proposals for meteor work that would be presented to the IAU’s triennial meeting in Cambridge, England, in 1925. The American Section was asked to summarize progress in meteor science made in the USA. Members were also asked to propose goals for future work in the ﬁeld and to suggest ways in which US meteor experts could cooperate in international efforts in the science.20 After the international meeting, Olivier was notiﬁed in mid-1925 that he had been elected to act as Commission 22’s President, following W.F. Denning’s resignation.21 Olivier accepted the presidency on the condition that other members accept his view that,

What we want is the truth; and if some of us have to acknowledge that a pet theory is wrong or needs modiﬁcation, the quicker we become convinced and admit our error the better, for science is not a personal matter but the search for the nearest approximation to the truth we can attain…The writer is strongly opposed to making the reports of the Commission a mere statement of work done in a few countries, but desires to use it as a means for advancing new ideas and theories.22 Olivier asked the 11 commission members to respond to his list of nine questions so that he would understand their views about the status of meteor science. Further, he explained doing so would enable him to write each a personal letter “to discuss speciﬁc points and ask for their advice and opinions.”23 Commission members from Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics24

18See, in this book, Section “First Assignment: Discredit Stationary Radiants,” under the heading, AMS Report 1919–1925 (1929). 19Professor Olivier’s advice about needed meteor work and requests for cooperation from the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in 1919 and 1921 have been previously described in the AAS section of the Enrollment Began chapter of this book. 20Stebbins, Joel, American Section of the IAU, Popular Astronomy, volume 32, issue 10, 1924; a reprint, p. 3. 21Letter from F.J.M. Stratton, General Secretary, IAU, to Olivier, dated August 9, 1925. Olivier correspondence ﬁle of the American Philosophical Society (APS). 22Letter from Olivier to Commission 22 members, dated November 19, 1925, Olivier’s APS correspondence ﬁle. 23Ibid. 24The USSR was formally dissolved in 1991 and was renamed Russia. 130 Postwar Years 1919–1929 responded. Olivier’s dogged correspondence efforts eventually resulted in a list of recommendations “for favorable action” to be considered at the 1928 Leiden meeting of the IAU. Among the recommendations were several that were similar to ones Olivier made to the AAS in 1919 and 1921, including, (a) the compilation of a new catalog of meteor shower radiants, “based…only upon reliable observations,” (b) to obtain the cooperation of variable star observers and comet hunters for the study of telescopic meteors, (c) the study of meteors by photography be continued, (d) to cooperate with meteorologists by the study of persistent meteor trains, and (e) to study the accuracy of naked eye observations by comparing the meteor plots of two or three observers working simultaneously.25

Double Star Research

Dr. Olivier had a second passion besides his devotion to meteors. “Double star work has always interested me very greatly and there is nothing that I would rather spend a lot of time on,” he wrote in 1927.26 He became well known in this ﬁeld and corresponded with other specialists. During the 1920s, Olivier corresponded with many double star experts, like Robert Grant Aitken (1864–1951), Georges-Achille van Biesbroek (1880–1974), and Robert T.A. Innes (1861–1933). In recognition of his discoveries, the American Section of the International Astronomical Union appointed him a member of its Commission 26, Double Stars, in 1927.27 Double star work involved remeasurement of known pairs to learn whether there were changes in the constituent stars’ separation from each other and whether one of the two stars had revolved around the pair’s center of gravity, called a barycenter. If either or both had occurred, they had implications for reﬁning the parameters of the pair’s orbit around each other. An additional attraction to examining the stars was the possibility of discovering a new one that earlier astronomers had missed. Such discoveries appealed to Charles Olivier. By the 1920s, improvements in photographic emulsions made it possible to measure double stars on photographic negatives which were exposed using a refractor. This method began to replace the classical visual method which required the astronomer to make measurements at the telescope eyepiece using an instrument

25Report of Commission des Etoiles Filantes (Commission 22, Meteors) to IAU’s Leiden assembly, dated March 9, 1928; from the A.P.S.’ Olivier correspondence file. 26Letter from Olivier to Frank Schlesinger, July 29, 1927, from the Schlesinger Correspondence file at Yale University. 27A letter from Harlow Shapley, chairman of the Executive Committee, American Section of the IAU to C.P. Olivier, dated September 26, 1927; from American Philosophical Society’s Olivier correspondence file. Challenges for Olivier and the American Meteor Society 131 called a filar micrometer. Dr. Olivier used both procedures in the course of his double star career. His earliest work was performed by visual means. Olivier reported to American Astronomical Society (AAS) colleagues that he had begun discovering “doubles” with the 26-inch McCormick telescope as early as 1906 and by 1923 had found 60 of them. In addition to this Virginia total he had found another 35 doubles using Lick Observatory’s 12-inch refractor when he was a graduate student there 1909–1910.28 But, by 1919–1920, Olivier had written a series of reports in which he had used the photographic method.29 He had measured double stars’ separations and orien- tations directly from photographic plates made with the McCormick 26-inch refractor. By October 1926, Olivier claimed, “I have discovered about 130 new double stars, and am largely responsible for the development of the photography of close pairs, it having been done successfully (at McCormick) on a large scale.”30

Marriage and Family

Assistant Professor Olivier met Mary Frances Pender (October 7, 1896–July 21, 1934) when she took summer classes at UVA. She was a granddaughter of William Dorsey Pender, a Confederate Major General who was mortally wounded during the battle of Gettysburg in 1863.31 Mary Frances became an orphan at the age of 1032 and was raised by her grandmother, Mary Frances (nee Shepperd) Pender, the General’s widow. Until the outbreak of World War I, they lived in France and the girl became ﬂuent in French. They returned to the USA and young Mary Frances earned a degree at Chicora College for Women in Columbia, South Carolina (SC), and she taught at Columbia High School for one or two years (Fig. 1).33

28Olivier, C., A revised list of the Olivier Double Stars, reported to the Twenty-ninth Meeting of the AAS, Popular Astronomy, volume 31, 1923, p. 247. 29Olivier, C.P., Measures of Double Stars on Photographs, in Report of the 23rd Meeting of the AAS, in Popular Astronomy, volume 27, 1919, pp. 664–665; Olivier, C.P., Measures of Double Stars on Parallax Plates, in Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 3, Part 2; 1921, pp. 679–695; and Mitchell, S.A and C.P. Olivier, Photographic Measures of Krueger 60 as a double star, Astronomical Journal, volume 32, No. 767, April 8, 1920. 30Olivier, C.P., To the President of the University of Virginia, a letter, circa October 1926, p. 3. Source: AMS Archives box marked “1920s.” 31Mary Frances’ vital statistics were found at a grave marker in the Olivier family cemetery plot located in Maplewood Cemetery in Charlottesville, VA. The author visited the site on Nov. 15, 2001. Mr. Jim Crawford, of Merritt Island, Florida provided William Dorsey Pender’s family genealogical information, in a 2002 letter. 32This information is from a genealogical chart, “Descendants of William Dorsey Pender.” Mary Frances’ father Samuel Turner Pender died in a railroad accident in 1897 and her mother Cora Marion (nee Downs) died in 1906. 33Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA), July 25, 1934, p. 3 and ‘Long Illness Fatal to Former Columbian’, Columbia State (Columbia, S.C.), July 25, 1934. 132 Postwar Years 1919–1929

Fig. 1 Mary Frances Pender (1896–1934). Image courtesy of Mr. Jim L. Crawford and the Pender family

Charles and Mary Frances were married on October 18, 1919, several months after he completed his assignment at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. When a daughter, Alice Dorsey, was born in December 1920, baby care and Charles’ demanding academic and research career made the couple’s family life hectic indeed (Fig. 2). The Oliviers had a welcome increase in Charles’ income and academic rank when he was promoted to associate professor beginning the fall 1922 term. For an academic year, until June 1923, it seemed like the Oliviers were going to enjoy the fruits of Charles’ hard work at the University and McCormick Observatory. Unfortunately, the death of Charles’ father, George Wythe Olivier on June 16, 1923, began another period of frenetic activity. Following his father’s death, Charles inherited responsibility for the Olivier Apartment Building in Charlottesville, originally the family home on West Main Street.34 Just three months later, Charles was granted an opportunity to research and write a book that would enhance his meteor astronomy career.

34Contrary to what is inscribed on the Olivier family grave marker, G. W. Olivier died on June 16, 1923. A brief obituary appeared in The Washington Post on June 18, 1923, p. 3, “Virginia Obituary.” Challenges for Olivier and the American Meteor Society 133

Fig. 2 Mary Frances Olivier, circa 1920. She is standing in front of the Olivier Family home at 1021 West Main Street in Charlottesville, Virginia. Image courtesy of Mr. Henry Cabell Maddux, Jr

In the fall of 1923, the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors granted Charles an unpaid year’s leave of absence to do library research for Meteors at the Naval Observatory in Washington. When he returned to Charlottesville, he was busy writing a scholarly treatise that when completed proved to be 272 pages in length. Frances joined in to help advance her husband’s career by proofreading the book. When Meteors was published in 1925, Charles prefaced it by thanking Frances, “who has aided me in every way in the preparation, criticism and correction both of the manuscript and the proofs” of the book.35 Charles and Frances’ second daughter, Elise Pender, was born in the same year that Meteors was published. Unfortunately, once again, the couple was not able to enjoy happy events for very long. In the mid-1920s, Frances began to suffer from a

35Preface, Meteors, Baltimore, Maryland: Williams and Wilkins Co., 1925, p. viii. 134 Postwar Years 1919–1929 severe illness which necessitated several extended and expensive hospitalizations.36 Frances’ frequent bouts of illness made it impossible for her to help Charles raise their daughters. Her two brothers and their wives agreed to raise the girls until she was able to resume their care.37 Unfortunately, her fragile health made that impossible for most of the next nine years. Alice and Elise returned to stay with Charles in late 1930 because Charles’ married sister Katharine Maddux made frequent trips to Philadelphia, where Charles’ new professorship was to help him with the girls. Alice and Elise regarded their Pender and Maddux aunts “as second mothers” and kept in touch with them until their aunts died.38

The Quest for a Full Professorship

In October 1926, frustrated about his career’s stagnation, Olivier respectfully requested the President of the University of Virginia to recommend him for a full professorship. “I am now 42 and ½ years old, (and) 20 of the past 25 years (were) passed at this university as student, instructor and a member of the faculty…” he wrote. He detailed in a four-page letter all of his service to and his achievements at the University. He mentioned how his early sighting of Nova Aquilae in June 1918, his contributions to the observatory’s internationally recognized parallax program, and the AMS’ achievements had all brought renown to the University. He also made the President aware that

“the National Academy of Sciences has given about $1000 to the Observatory for the publications and needs of the AMS. The award of this money to UVA was wholly due to my being here. More will be given when I ask for it from the same source. This society is the only one founded in the South in astronomy that has ever accomplished anything that has resulted in international recognition.” Olivier also remarked that when he gave papers and talks at colleges outside Virginia and published popular articles in the local and state daily papers, he enhanced UVA’s reputation by his association with it. Although he did not claim it outright, the ﬁnal paragraph of his letter strongly implied that he believed the University owed him promotion39:

I am the only Southerner who has ever been able to get anywhere in astronomy while remaining in the South. I have stayed here refusing larger salaries and without the least inducements. In all justice I feel that it is right to respectfully call this state of affairs to your

36Several letters in Olivier’s APS correspondence ﬁle and in Frank Schlesinger’s correspondence ﬁle at Yale University. More details were learned from Dr. Olivier’s daughters in the course of telephone interviews. The Olivier children requested that the exact nature of their mother’s illness not be disclosed. 37Frances’ brothers and her sisters-in-law were Shepperd and Harriet Pender, of Columbia, South Carolina, and William and Willie Pender, of Norfolk, Virginia. 38Telephone interview with Alice Olivier Hayes on October 14, 2002. 39Olivier, C.P., To the President of the University of Virginia, a letter, circa October 1926, four pages, AMS Archives box marked ‘1920s’. Challenges for Olivier and the American Meteor Society 135

attention, as my loyalty to Virginia and my love for my Alma Mater should not result in my being held back when all my contemporaries are advanced in rank. I have given the best years of my life to this University and I feel that I should be advanced at least as rapidly as men who are my juniors both in age and length of experience and service. Olivier was chagrined to have his well-argued and deserved request refused. In July 1927, he conﬁded to Frank Schlesinger, who until 1922 was President of the AAS, “I am inclined to think that I have stayed too long here…”40 In his reply, Schlesinger mentioned two opportunities that he knew of for Olivier’s advancement. But, Schlesinger had information that the University of Pennsylvania was

seriously considering the establishment of a worthy department of astronomy…The head of the department… would be expected to use the 18-inch refractor: it occurs to me that your interest in double stars would ﬁt in here very well…If you wish to consider this place let me know as soon as you come to this decision and I will very gladly write to the provost in your behalf.41 Two days after Schlesinger wrote him, at the end of July 1927, Olivier gratefully wrote Schlesinger that “I do not see how I could hope for a better (opportunity)…If you would be so good as to recommend my name for it, I would be under the greatest obligations to you.”42 By November 1927, Olivier had secured enthusiastic recommendations from William Wallace Campbell, then President of University of California at Berkeley, and Robert Aitken at Lick Observatory. On April 5, 1928, Josiah Penniman, Provost at University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), wrote Olivier that he was “delighted to learn of your acceptance of the offer made by the University and look forward with great pleasure to your arrival in Philadelphia as a member of our university faculty.”43 After receiving a letter from UPenn informing him of Olivier’s decision, UVA’s President Edwin Anderson Alderman wrote Olivier “It would be, personally, a great regret to me to have you sever your connection with this University, but opportunities such as this seldom come to American scholars.”44 Charles Olivier evidently agreed, and he became not only a full professor at UPenn but also the director of its Flower Observatory. He assumed his new responsibilities in the fall of 1928 after attending meetings of the IAU in Leiden, Netherlands, and the Astronomische Gesellschaft at Heidelberg, Germany.45

40CPO to FS, letter dated July 21, 1927, Schlesinger correspondence file at Yale University. 41FS to CPO, a letter dated July 27, 1927, Schlesinger correspondence file at Yale University. 42CPO to FS. Letter dated July 29, 1927, Schlesinger correspondence file at Yale University. 43Josiah H. Penniman to CPO, Letter dated April 5, 1928, from AMS Archives box “1920s.” 44President of UVA to CPO, letter dated April 6, 1928: AMS archives box “1920s.” Newspapers were given the announcement of Olivier’s new post at the end of April, 1928; for example: New U. of P. Astronomer; Prof. C.P. Olivier of Virginia will head Observatory and Department, New York Times, April 24, 1928, p. 24. 45Olivier, C., A report on the Dept. of Astronomy…during the directorship of Charles P. Olivier, photocopy of a typewritten document found by the author at Flower Observatory in 2001. The report was dated March 9, 1952. 136 Postwar Years 1919–1929

Realm of the Director

The director of the Flower Observatory not only was in command of its telescopes but was authorized to live in the director’s residence on the observatory’s campus. This residence had many rooms and an apartment for a caretaker. Dr. Olivier lived with his family no more than 100 yards (90 m) from the entrance door to the Observatory’s main telescope. That telescope was an 18-inch (0.45 m) refractor whose objective lens was judged to be one of the John Brashear’s ﬁnest. The light path from objective lens to observer’s eye was 315 inches (8.0 m/26.25 ft) in length. The 18-inch lens had served astronomy before its use in Pennsylvania; it was in use at Arizona Territory’s Lowell Observatory during a close passage of the Earth by Mars in 1894–1895. The Flower Observatory, its telescope, and residence had been formally inaugurated in 1897 with a speech by Simon Newcomb, who was at the time America’s foremost gravitational astronomer (Fig. 3). Nearby the “equatorial,” as large refractors were known in 1896 when the 18-inch telescope became operational, was another building containing three smaller telescopes. This second telescope shelter was between the residence and the equatorial’s observatory. A spectator who viewed the campus would no doubt be quite impressed with the trappings of scientiﬁc authority the director possessed. Just as Olivier had been instructed by McCormick Observatory Director Samuel Mitchell to examine photographs for stars’ parallaxes, now Director Olivier had the authority to require junior staff members and graduate students to follow his research programs. At last, Dr. Olivier had the power to move astronomical research and manpower in the directions he chose. It was very satisfying to be an observatory’s director! (Fig. 4)

So, Why Did AMS Membership Decline in the Early 1920s?

During the years 1921–1925, Professor Olivier contended with what for most people would be a bewildering number of life’s demands: academic duties, enticing scientiﬁc opportunities, professional responsibilities, and ﬁnally marital and family crises. For all these reasons, it is understandable that he might become inattentive to dwindling AMS membership or simply just not have the time to address the threat to his Society. But it was not like Professor Olivier to own his distractions as a cause. He did not publically admit his role in the predicament. Instead, he blamed some credible deterrents to long-term meteor work, obstacles to it presented by observers’ characteristics and by meteor work itself.

Professor Olivier’s Opinion

In January 1926, Professor Olivier reviewed AMS members’ performances in preparation to write the 1925 annual report. Challenges for Olivier and the American Meteor Society 137

Fig. 3 Dr. Olivier in the Flower Observatory. This photograph was taken in late 1928 or early 1929. Courtesy of the University Archives and Records Center, University of Pennsylvania

…One very serious fact must be faced…No scientiﬁc organization can possibly ﬂourish unless it can hold the interest of its members, particularly those who by ability and practice can best further its work…The reason (for attrition) is that most of these were young men, 138 Postwar Years 1919–1929

Fig. 4 Flower Observatory Campus. This image is of a photograph taken in 1897. Courtesy of Carleton College Archives

who, as their college work grew more intensive or after their graduation, were forced by lack of time to give up night work on meteors. But, he also recognized that meteor observers struggle with a frustration that makes meteor work less gratifying. He understood that the meteor observer’s reward experience was:

…different from that of the AAVSO (observer’s) for example. In (variable star work) a person can be sure to get results each and every night he works, and have something of value to contribute to astronomy. Observing meteors however, is a gamble; one may observe several hours and see so few that he becomes utterly discouraged. However, as compensation for enduring long waits, Olivier pointed out that meteor watches offered startling spectacles while at the same time they developed the watchers’ mental faculties,

…meteors offer the chance of seeing something new and unexpected, perhaps a brilliant ﬁreball, a long-enduring train, a serpentine path, or some other phenomenon of intense interest. Also the work undoubtedly trains an observer in quickness of judgment and accuracy in recording that is seen to an extent which practically no other branch of astronomy can equal for the same hours of training. Nevertheless, for Professor Olivier, it was quite natural to suspect young people’s character ﬂaws. Just as some of the young men in his university classes suffered from a lack of discipline and diligence, so too might amateur astronomers shirk meteor work when tasked to plot meteors for a few hours a night. Challenges for Olivier and the American Meteor Society 139

But when all allowances are made it seems very strange that with the immense number of people in this country, men and women, who have much leisure time, many with no regular occupation or hours of work…it is impossible to find a dozen in the whole United States who will actually work a portion of one night per month on meteors…46 To stem the ebbing tide, Olivier asked active AMS members to find fellow sky watchers to join the Society. However, even with recruiting efforts from members, Olivier was skeptical that many new members would be attracted by meteor work’s benefits alone. He believed that it was a rare person who had the esthetic and scientific sensibilities, as well as a hard work ethic, to become a meteor observer. These were the reasons why membership had become so low.

Another Factor’sInﬂuence on Membership…

Hours-long meteor watches that yield few meteors are discouraging; frustration has probably deterred many a budding watcher. But insufficient contact from AMS President Olivier was also a factor in the AMS’ near extinction between 1921 and 1925 (Table 2). Notice in Table 2 above that the AMS’ annual membership numbers fluctuate and the AAVSO’s are relatively constant, above 60 throughout the years listed. One factor which may explain this is that the AAVSO publicized members’ work in each issue of Popular Astronomy (PA) during these years. It had identified variable star observers (VSOs) by name and published their observational results every month beginning in 1912. In contrast, Professor Olivier did not begin the same monthly practice until the December 1926 number of PA when he accepted PA Editor Curvin Gingrich’s suggestion that he write “Meteor Notes.” At the time, Olivier predicted that monthly publication of Meteor Notes would be “…a step that will greatly add to the interest of the work with our members.” He belatedly admitted that asking AMS members to endure years of waiting for a

Table 2 AMS and AAVSO Year AMS AAVSO Year AMS AAVSO membership statistics for 1920–1929 1920 13 69 1925 6 68 1921 10 77 1926 13 74 1922 7 72 1927 17 75 1923 2 68 1928 23 78 1924 5 70 1929 37 61 AAVSO statistics: Campbell, Leon, Summary of Annual Reports, 1912–1930, Popular Astronomy, volume 38, 1930, p. 617. Sources for AMS statistics are cited in “References” at the end of this chapter

46Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1925, PA, volume 34, 1926, pp. 165–166. All of Dr. Olivier’s statements quoted on this page are abstracted from that Report. 140 Postwar Years 1919–1929 comprehensive AMS monographic report like 349PO made it difﬁcult to maintain interest in the science and the Society. He understood that AAVSO’s monthly report in PA increased members’ interest in variable stars and the organization. So, he hoped that his “Notes” would attract amateurs to meteor astronomy in the same way that a “Meteor Notes” feature in The Observatory encouraged meteor work in England.47 And it did. The steadily rising membership numbers from 1926 to 1929 are indications that Olivier’s decision to more frequently publicize meteor work and AMS members’ results increased the Society’s appeal to prospective observers and inﬂuenced them to join the AMS. A question will occur to many readers: Why did it take until late 1926 for Olivier to seek a greater presence in the media? This cannot be completely explained but may be partially answered by considering how life events documented in the preceding pages may have affected him. He was most likely preoccupied by real-life issues which pushed organization building out of his awareness, or if he was aware of the need, it became a secondary concern given life’s events.

Leadership Style also Had a Role

Dr. Olivier’s insistence on sole leadership of the AMS had consequences for the Society’s existence too. He was the AMS’ President and while he lived there was no other nationwide officer to assist him with the society’s maintenance.48 As a result, Olivier needed to steal time from professional and personal responsibilities in order to correspond with and encourage AMS members, as well as to publicize the Society. He could not do it all effectively during the Society’s “lean years” of 1921– 1925. In contrast, the AAVSO’s leadership was shared by a small number of organi- zationally savvy and dedicated amateur astronomers. Originally begun by one man, by 1919 the AAVSO benefitted from the talents and shared efforts of two or three officials.49 Sharing leadership and executive responsibilities among them allowed

47Olivier, C.P, Report of the AMS for 1919–1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 5, Part 1, Charlottesville, VA: U VA, 1929, p. 4. The English ‘Meteor Notes’ which appeared in The Observatory were ﬁrst written by W.F. Denning and later, Alphonso King. 48Olivier stated he was solely in charge of the AMS, and proud of the fact. In a letter to Frank Schlesinger on July 29, 1927 he wrote, “…my recent work on the AMS is bearing fruit in many ways. You will understand that the headquarters of that organization is in a sense “personal property” and will go with me whenever I make a change (in employment). The transfer of such an organization, in the eyes of the authorities of some universities would be quite an asset. Also it is a rather unique situation that a man can carry such a thing with him, records and all.” Letter was from the Schlesinger Correspondence ﬁle at Yale University. 49Williams, Thomas R. and Michael Saladyga, Advancing Variable Star Astronomy, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 59–60 and 66. Challenges for Olivier and the American Meteor Society 141 the AAVSO to consistently communicate with amateurs about the AAVSO’s mission and its results. Collectively, the AAVSO leadership had time to send members observing materials, receive their observations, compile them for monthly publication in Popular Astronomy, and correspond with members simultaneously.

Rise of Astrophysics in US Astronomy

About 1895, a shift in scientific emphasis had occurred among astronomers influential in professional US astronomy and it was well established during the 1920s and 1930s. The shift was from classical, “old” astronomy of position and orbits to the “new” astronomy: astrophysics. Many of the same American astronomers who were becoming influential in the AAS were also promoting an astronomy that was preoccupied with solar and stellar composition, the physical causes of stars’ variations in brightness, and the distances of nebulae50 from the sun. The “new astronomers,” astrophysicists, wanted to know the physical characteristics of objects in deep space, not just where they were. Astrophysicists were interested in celestial objects that were beyond the earth’s atmosphere. They were even more interested in objects that were light-years away like stars and the still mysterious nebulae. Meteors, appearing in the atmosphere, were too close to be of much interest to the far-probing scientists who melded physics with astronomy. After 1900, the study of meteors, a near-earth science, rapidly became passé in the deep space era.

Astrophysicists’“Family Trees”

US astrophysics began as spectroscopic studies of the sun, and the stars made by astronomers born in the early and mid-nineteenth century. They trained their students and contemporaries in this specialized observational technique.

Young’s First Family Tree

Charles Augustus Young (1834–1908) can be considered the scientiﬁc patriarch of one line of American astrophysicists, although George Ellery Hale, born a generation later than Young, had a powerful inﬂuence on Young’s students. At the risk of abusing the genealogical metaphor, Hale was the “godfather” of Young’s

50“Nebulae” is a term that has been replaced by “galaxies,” when vast island systems of stars, external to the Milky Way galaxy, are being discussed. Another class of “nebulae” are now understood to be huge clouds of interstellar gas with imbedded stars that have been created within them. This second type is found within galaxies. 142 Postwar Years 1919–1929

“descendants.” Hale was godfather in the sense that he deepened Young’s students’ understanding and practice of the new astronomy. This discussion considers Young ﬁrst and then reviews Hale’s contributions to American astrophysics. Then, the “descent tree” resumes and is traced through Henry Norris Russell and ends with Harlow Shapley. Eighteen-year-old Charles Augustus Young graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in 1853 and like many astronomers of his generation did not earn a higher degree. He taught physics and astronomy at Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio, from 1857 until he served in the Union Army for four months in 1862. He returned to Dartmouth in 1866 until lured away in 1877 by Princeton University’s enticement of a 23-inch refractor. Young’s research focused on visual spectroscopy of the sun and he was able to photograph, for the ﬁrst time, a solar prominence in 1870. Using his knowledge of Doppler shifting of spectral lines, Young was able to make an early measurement of the sun’s rotational velocity in 1876.51 He wrote a text about the sun, in 1881, which summarized his and others’ discoveries. Young’s mentorship and use of laboratory physics equipment to augment astronomical investigation produced well-trained future spectroscopists. Two of his students were Edwin B. Frost and Henry N. Russell.

The Godfather

C.A. Young’s students and American astrophysics, in general, were greatly inﬂu- enced by George Ellery Hale (1868–1938). In 1890, when he was a 22-year-old physics major at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he invented an instrument to photograph the solar surface using a single wavelength of light. He called his invention a spectroheliograph and he used it with improvements to do original studies of the sun. His formal education ended with a bachelor of science degree, but he was granted a professorship at the newly established University of Chicago where he continued his solar research. At age 24, he simultaneously cofounded Astronomy and Astrophysics52 and began to court elevator tycoon Charles Tyson Yerkes to pay for a refractor with a 40-inch-diameter lens that would bear Yerkes’ name. By the end of the nineteenth century, he had persuaded the profession’s elites

51Doppler shifting refers to changes in the positions of lines in the spectrum of moving objects. If an object approaches the observer, the lines shift toward the blue end of the spectrum, compared to the spectrum of the same object when it is at rest. Conversely, if an object moves away, the spectral lines shift toward the “other” end of the spectrum, the red end. Rotating bodies like the sun have an edge, or limb, that approaches the observer and so the limb’s spectral lines are blueshifted; the lines of the limb that is retreating from the observer are redshifted. An object like the sun would exhibit these phenomena, and Young discovered its rotation in this manner when he observed the sun spectroscopically. 52This journal was “split” into two in 1893. One was retitled the Astrophysical Journal, and the other was Popular Astronomy. The Astronomical Journal, a publication for classical astronomical articles, had been established in 1883. Source: Williams, T.R., Getting Organized: a History of Amateur Astronomy in the United States, Dissertation from Rice University, 2000, pp. 103–104. Rise of Astrophysics in US Astronomy 143 to endorse and found the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America (AASA). It was the milieu in which astrophysicists gained inﬂuence in the early years of the twentieth century. Hale’s skill in raising funds for telescopes provided larger apertures for astrophysical studies too: the 100-inch Hooker telescope in 1917 and ultimately the 200-inch Hale telescope at Mt. Palomar in 1948. A good argument could be made that Hale provided the professional organization and the scientiﬁc facilities to establish American astrophysics during the twentieth century.

First Generation

Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957) is the next figure in Charles Young’slineof astrophysical descent. Russell proved to be successful as a theoretical astrophysicist and as an influential member of the AAS, the successor organization to the AASA. Russell earned his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees at Princeton University. He was a skillful mathematician who devised a new way to calculate binary stars’ orbit around their barycenter while in graduate school. Surprisingly, his dissertation in 1900 was distinctly “old” astronomy, about the gravitational effects of Mars upon the asteroid Eros. However, while analyzing some stars’ parallax measurements, he noticed a correlation between stellar brightness and spectral class and when it became clear that Ejnar Hertzsprung had been independently working along similar lines, their Hertzsprung–Russell diagram emerged, in 1914, as an important astrophysical tool. Russell developed theories about stellar evolution and in collaboration with others discovered that hydrogen was the principal constituent of stars. Another advance was his application of quantum mechanics to understanding stellar spectra. Russell was adept at finding computational shortcuts to solutions of astrophysical problems and he confronted classical astronomy colleagues about the inefficiency of merely compiling long catalogs of data that might find an application in the future. Instead, he urged colleagues to select categories of data to be gathered that would solve an identified problem. Russell shared George Hale’s conviction that astronomy needed physics to advance a science of the heavenly bodies. He was invited by Hale to spend summers at Mt. Wilson Observatory from 1921 to 1941 in order to teach observatory assistants the application of physical concepts to astronomical research problems.

Second Generation

After Russell’s student, Harlow Shapley (1885–1972) was named director of the Harvard College Observatory in 1921, Shapley invited Russell to perform the same mentorship in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as he had done in California. Russell further promoted his philosophy about astronomical investigation by writing a two-volume text, Astronomy (1926 and 1927), with Raymond Dugan and John Q. Stewart; these texts were used for two decades and explained astrophysics to university students. Russell’s example, teaching, and influence are said to have 144 Postwar Years 1919–1929 changed the profession’s research paradigm, from classical astronomy’s whose goal was catalogs of precise information to an astrophysical one in which carefully chosen problems were investigated by insightful observational methods in the hopes that elegant physical theories would emerge. In addition to Russell’s great intellectual influence upon his professional peers, he wielded considerable control over their careers in another realm. In the eastern USA, Russell, Harlow Shapley, and Frank Schlesinger exercised great control over funding for astronomical research and made appointments to astronomy departments and observatory directorships. So, with Russell and Shapley’sinfluence, astrophysics had developed a secure place in the astronomical profession in the 1920s. Indeed, considering Russell’s dominance in the eastern USA, classical astronomers there may have felt uneasy about their research funding prospects and their career futures. Harlow Shapley began his doctoral study as Henry Norris Russell’s student at Princeton University after earning a bachelor’s (1910) and a master’s (1911) degree at University of Missouri under the supervision of Frederick Seares. Seares recommended Shapley to Russell, in part because Shapley produced work with “phenomenal industry.” Shapley produced a dissertation in two years (1913) about eclipsing binary stars’ orbits after he made 10,000 stellar photometric measures with the Princeton refractor. A serendipitous discovery was that the brightness variation of one class of variable star, the Cepheids, was not due to eclipses of one star by the other, as was previously believed. Instead, Shapley concluded the variability was due to the Cepheid’s expansion and contraction: It became brighter as it expanded and dimmed when it contracted. G.E. Hale hired the new PhD to work at Mt. Wilson in California, where he took the advice of Harvard College Observatory (HCO) astronomer Solon I. Bailey, to study Cepheid variables in globular clusters. Shapley devised a method to measure distances to the globulars based on Bailey’s and Henrietta Leavitt’s earlier work at HCO. By 1918, Shapley’s laborious calculations of the cluster Cepheids’ distances led to two astonishing discoveries: The Milky Way galaxy was on the order of 300,000 light-years in equatorial diameter, and its center was 60,000 light-years from the sun.53 Before Shapley’s work, the sun was thought to be central in the Milky Way, and the entire galaxy was thought to be about 10,000 light-years across. In April 1921, George Hale prevailed upon Harvard’s President to give Shapley an opportunity to prove he would be a capable HCO director. Shapley fulfilled the President’s expectations magnificently. He supported the completion of the Henry Draper Catalogue of Spectral Classifications and organized extensions of the survey so that 359,000 stars’ spectra were made available to other astrophysicists’ researches. In the early 1920s, the distance to a galaxy outside the Milky Way was

53Reﬁnements in measurement have determined that the Milky Way galaxy is about 100,000 light-years in diameter, and the sun is about 30,000 light-years from its center. Rise of Astrophysics in US Astronomy 145 poorly known. But Shapley’s 1924 work on the Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy neighboring ours, allowed him to make a distance estimate of 100,000 light-years. Shapley’s estimate vastly enlarged humanity’s conception of the universe’s size. Later, in 1932, Shapley and Adelaide Ames published a photographic survey which showed that the universe was larger still: There were 1246 galaxies irregularly distributed throughout it.astrophysicists Many future astrophysicists, Cecilia Payne-Gaposhkin, Peter Millman, Frank and Helen (Sawyer) Hogg, Carl Seyfert, Jesse Greenstein and Leo Goldberg among them, were HCO graduates whose work attained international respect.54

Young’s “Family Tree” Had a Second Branch

Another sequence of US astrophysicists, which began with Charles A. Young, descended through Edwin Frost and ended with Edwin Hubble. And, just as in the first line of Young’s scientific “descendants,” George Ellery Hale had a role. Edwin Brant Frost (1866–1935) obtained brief graduate training with Charles Young at Princeton. Frost’s training with Young and European astronomers at Potsdam Astrophysical Observatory prepared him to devote himself to spectroscopy. In 1898, George E. Hale hired Frost as a professor of astrophysics for the University of Chicago and assigned him to measuring radial velocities of stars using the 40-inch Yerkes refractor. The process whereby these velocities are determined begins when a moving star is photographed through a spectroscope. The resulting spectrogram reveals the star’s spectrum whose lines have shifted because of the star’s motion. When the spectrogram is compared to a spectrum of a stationary light source, the star’s velocity is found by measuring how much the light and dark lines in the “moving” spectrum have shifted in position compared to the same lines in the stationary spectrum. In addition, it is possible to tell whether the moving body is approaching or receding from the solar system. If the lines have “moved” toward the red end of the spectrum (“redshift”), the star is receding from the earth; if it moves toward the blue end, the star is approaching it. When Hale left Yerkes in 1903, Frost became director of the Observatory and its graduate school of astronomy. Among the students that Frost trained was Edwin P. Hubble. Frost supervised Edwin Powell Hubble’s (1889–1953) 1917 dissertation. The subject, a photographic investigation of galaxies,55 served notice that Hubble intended to learn more of their secrets. He was in competition with Shapley whose findings about the size of the Milky Way and the distance to the Small

54Gingerich, O., Harlow Shapley, in Gillespie, C., editor, Dictionary of Scientiﬁc Biography, volume 12, New York: Scribner’s Sons; 1975, pp. 345–352. 55Note that Hubble called the huge star systems “nebulae,” using the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century term. He preferred this term although Harlow Shapley’s choice, “galaxy” became the preferred one in the twentieth century. 146 Postwar Years 1919–1929

Magellanic Cloud showed how immense the universe was. Hale offered Hubble a position at Mt. Wilson in 1917, but Hubble delayed starting until 1919 in order to serve in the US Army during World War I. At Mt. Wilson in 1923, he used the 100-inch Hooker reflecting telescope to photograph M31, the Andromeda galaxy, and he discovered a Cepheid variable star in it. Using the method that Shapley had devised to determine distances using Cepheid stars, Hubble found that Andromeda was approximately 900,000 light-years56 distant from the sun.57 This distance was three times greater than Shapley’s estimate of the Milky Way’s diameter, and Hubble’s finding surely meant that Andromeda was a separate star system that was outside the Milky Way’sconfines. With a shock, astronomers realized that the universe had to have a much larger volume to contain the Milky Way and the distant galaxy too. Astonishing as that implication was, it was just a beginning, for Hubble became much better known for his 1929 demonstration that the further away a galaxy was, the faster it was receding from the sun and the Milky Way. After this discovery, mankind had a new conception of its universe: Not only were galaxies in motion, but also they accelerated to expand the visible universe’s frontier.

Astrophysicists Struggled to Find the Relevance of Meteoric Astronomy

The following four anecdotes suggest how1920s-era astrophysicists construed meteor science. (1) Dr. Olivier was grateful for Henry Norris Russell’s report of an unexpectedly strong Lyrid meteor display in April 1922. Perhaps hoping that Russell was considering devoting some attention to meteor studies, Olivier asked the “dean of astronomers” if this was so. Russell replied in a letter, “Iamglad that my observations of the April meteors were of some use…As to the question of stationary radiants, I may look into the matter someday, but I have really too much on hand at present to justify excursions into new ﬁelds.”58 (2) Harlow Shapley wrote Olivier that he and H.N. Russell met one day in 1928 and

56Refinements in measurement lead astronomers to believe, at present, that the galaxy is 2,300,000 light-years away. 57In addition to an account of Hubble’s discovery, the following pages give the reader an idea of the rivalry that existed between Hubble and Shapley: Christianson 1995, pp. 157–159. Note that Milton Humason (1891–1972), a colleague of Hubble’s, contributed significantly to the “expanding universe” research. 58Letter to CPO from HNR, dated June 23, 1922, from Olivier’s APS correspondence file. Rise of Astrophysics in US Astronomy 147

…talked all morning on meteors…I have incited him during the past month to examine astrophysically and theoretically the problem of the motion and behavior of meteors around stars. On the assumptions which he chooses to make with regard to the amount of material in space and the dimensions of meteors…he practically decided that meteors cannot get into normal stars at all; they are vaporized and beaten off by radiation…not especially helpful to the encouragement of meteor observing or study… Despite Russell’s dismissal of meteors’ signiﬁcance for stellar studies, Shapley offered Olivier encouragement. He wrote Olivier:

But this in no way diminishes my interest in a scientiﬁc attack on meteor problems, for a little accurate observing will go much further than volumes of theorizing. Hence I am glad to see that…you are able to keep …amateurs interested in… meteor work59

And true to his word, Shapley did encourage the study of meteors from a physical viewpoint in the 1930s. 3) On June 30, 1930, Greenleaf Whittier Pickard, inventor of the crystal antenna radio, wrote Professor Olivier and asked for the dates of the principal meteor showers. He also asked for the number of meteors per hour, the “hourly rate” these showers produced. Pickard had kept records about the quality of radio reception for dates in the years 1926–1929 and he was curious if he could find some statistical connection between the two databases.60 4) John Q. Stewart, Henry Russell’s coauthor of the text, Astronomy, wrote Olivier and asked him to send suggestions for the ways experimental physics could investigate meteoric and cometary phenomena. Stewart was pressed to develop a theme for a talk about problems in astrophysics he was to give to the American Physical Society on June 20, 1930. Professor Olivier suggested spectroscopic identifications of the elements vaporized during a meteor’s flight and in a comet’s spectra as two ideas.61

In Summary, How Would Astrophysicists Study Meteors?

Anecdotal examples 3 and 4 above suggest that physicists would consider the use of a detector, either a spectrograph to make direct measurements of meteors as they strike the atmosphere or radio receivers to explore correlations of meteor ionization with radio phenomena. Russell in examples 1 and 2 was not interested in theorizing about meteoroids’ orbits and quickly dismissed them as potential causes of stellar phenomena and therefore irrelevant to his interests. This tiny sample of astrophysicists’ thinking suggests that if they were inclined to study meteors, they would make instrumental investigations of meteors in the

59Letter to CPO from HS, dated November 14, 1928, from Olivier’s APS correspondence file. 60Letter to CPO from GWP, dated June 10, 1930, from Olivier’s APS correspondence file. 61Letter to CPO from JQS, dated May 20, 1930. Olivier’s note on Stewart’s letter indicated that Olivier scribbled his response to the letter on July 7, 1930. It is not clear when he mailed his response to Stewart. Olivier’s APS correspondence file. 148 Postwar Years 1919–1929 atmosphere rather than theorize about them out among massive stars or galaxies. However, in the 1920s, American astrophysicists did not consider meteoritic topics to be the most fruitful approach to investigate the nature of the universe. Rather, this rather obsolete subject, irrelevant to galactic topics, was left to classical astronomers like Dr. Olivier. Astrophysicists might have reasoned that only a specialist in gravitational astronomy would be interested in meteors’ orbits because orbits were what the “old school” sort of astronomer concerned himself with.

Membership Roster 1919–1929

The rate at which newcomers joined and observed for the American Meteor Society was very slow from 1919 to 1925 for reasons explained elsewhere in this chapter. However, beginning in 1927, the rate increased as Dr. Olivier publicized his Society monthly in Popular Astronomy, a journal of wide appeal to amateur and professional astronomers of that era. Increased participation of amateurs in meteor work demonstrated a belief that meteor astronomy was a relevant science even during the years when astrophysicists’ discoveries about the Milky Way and the expanding universe captured the public’s awareness. This era was when meteoric astronomy was regaining importance among citizen scientists.

Statistical Summary of the 1919–1929 Membership

The complete roster of names consisted of 78 active (meteor-observing) AMS members. It contained 13 members who were veterans from the Society’s 1911– 1918 cohort who continued to participate in AMS programs. In addition to them, 65 more citizen scientists afﬁliated with the AMS from 1919 to 1929. No member contributed meteor data for all 11 years. Most observed during only one year and stopped for unknown reasons. Ninety percent of the membership (70 of the 78) were amateur astronomers. Seventeen percent (13 members) were women. Six percent (5) of the membership were citizens of countries outside of the USA: two New Zealanders, one Australian, one Canadian, and one member from the UK. Seven men and one woman were designated “a professional astronomer” on the roster by an asterisk (*). These eight professionals comprised 10 % of the roster. They were as follows: Harold L. Alden, Leah Allen, Leon Campbell, W.J. Fisher, Michael Kovolenko, Lincoln LaPaz, Charles Olivier, and Paul Merrill. In this history, remuneration for astronomical work is what distinguishes “professionals” from “amateurs.” During the 11-year span of this roster, some members changed status from amateur to professional as they progressed educationally and as Membership Roster 1919–1929 149 opportunities presented themselves: LaPaz, and Thomsen. John Koep was brieﬂya paid observer in 1921 but then reverted to amateur status.

Newcomers 1919–1929

Of 65 active observers who joined the AMS during the years 1919–1929, only a third (21) afﬁliated by December 31, 1926. More than twice that number (44) joined between January 1, 1927, and December 31, 1929. Those three years were the ones Dr. Olivier’s monthly “Meteor Notes” brought Popular Astronomy’s readership the latest discoveries in meteor astronomy as well as accounts of AMS members’ observational results. Publicizing meteor astronomy on a monthly basis was surely one factor that attracted new observers. The greatest one-year membership gain was in 1929 when 21 new members shared data with the AMS, a 50 % increase over 1928’s active membership. In 1929, Dr. Olivier’s notices to PA’s readers about a possible increase of Leonid meteors in the 1930s may have encouraged new volunteers to begin meteor study.

Largest Age Subgroup of the Newcomers

Chronological ages of 55 of the 65 “newcomers” were found. Forty-nine percent of these 55 were less than 20 years old, and when newcomers aged 20–25 were counted too, the subgroup comprised 75 % of the new observers. Although it is impossible to be certain, Professor Olivier’s “Meteor Notes,” the upcoming Leonid showers, and the Society’s one-dollar dues may have been attractive inducements for these youthful amateurs to join the AMS.

Newcomers’ Residences

Newcomers who lived in the US observed from Washington, D.C. and 24 of the 48 states. The Midwestern states had the most observers, followed by the Mid-Atlantic states, the southern states next, then New England states, the Appalachian states, followed by the mountain region, and the least number on the west coast. Although the distribution of observers was not uniform throughout the nation, all parts of it were watched during several years of the 1920s. New AMS members living outside the continental US borders helped check the skies above several regions of the globe. A Canadian newcomer from British Columbia bolstered meteor recording from the west coast of North America. The south Paciﬁc region was well represented by two New Zealanders and one Australian. A Royal Navy ofﬁcer contributed meteor watch data from aboard his ship. Even though he was not a newcomer, Harold Alden provided some coverage of Southern Hemisphere skies from the Yale University site in South Africa. 150 Postwar Years 1919–1929

Newcomers’ Occupations

Occupations of 50 newcomers were identiﬁed. Twenty-six percent (13) of these people had earned bachelors’ or higher degrees. Among this group were professional astronomers, an engineer, scientists in academia, high school teachers, and an attorney. Among the 37 without undergraduate college degrees, high school students were the most numerous with 17 members (46 % of the 37). College and university students were represented by eight members. The remaining 12 members worked in a variety of occupations: business, banking, horticulture, journalism, and the skilled and unskilled trades.

Description of the 1919–1929 Roster

This roster consists of meteor observers whose names appeared in Dr. Olivier’s last multi-year monograph for 1919–1925 and in American Meteor Society annual reports for 1926–1929 published in Popular Astronomy magazine. People earned a listing because they submitted a meteor observation report that resulted from at least one night’s watch during the membership year and they had paid the American Meteor Society’s annual dues, typically a dollar (US). Dr. Olivier called those observers, “active members.” Others who paid dues but did not make and report observations were prompted by a form letter from Professor Olivier to “bestir themselves” and actually record meteors. Below, the author has modiﬁed Olivier’s published rosters by adding an indication of long-term active membership. Members who submitted meteor observations for three or more years have their names listed in BOLD type. The author selected three years as the “cutoff” criterion for this distinction because it seemed likely that by the third year, the observers were genuinely devoted to making a scientiﬁc contribution and not simply dilettantes. And by the third year, the members had developed observational skills that made their data more accurate and therefore useful to Dr. Olivier. The Key below is a guide to help the reader identify these most diligent and long-term AMS members. Finally, biographies of these hardest working amateur observers appear in Part 2 of this book in the chapters indicated.

Key and Abbreviations

BOLD = 3 years or more of data contributions. For the names in BOLD font, the location of a full biography is in Part 2. The chapter is indicated as follows: Chapter 9, “Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918” Chapter Chapter 10, “Enrolled 1919–1929” Chapter. Membership Roster 1919–1929 151

* = Astronomer at an observatory engaged in research activities for which she or he was paid. USC = US Census Unknown = unable to identify the member in Ancestry databases

Member Residence Years Biographical notes Ahern, J.F. Jacksonville, 1929 Unknown FL Alden, Dr. Johannesburg, 1926, 1929 36 years old in 1926; Harold Lee* S. A. Yale astronomer Allen, Prof. Frederick, MD 1929 44 years old in 1929; Leah Brown* Professor Hood College Anderson, Miss Swarthmore, 1929 22 years old in 1929; Became a Mary H. PA science teacher (In 1930 USC) Anyzeski, New Haven, 1927–30 16 years old in 1927; Biography Vincent CT in Chapter 10 Axtell, R.H. Lewistown, ME 1929 19 years old; Bates College student Ball, N.P. Colton, CA Biography in Chapter 9 Bennett, Ft. Wayne, IN 1929 19 years old in 1929; meat cutter Millard Bessey, Mrs. Pensacola, FL Biography in Chapter 9 Grace H. Bradley, F. L. Staunton, VA 1925–1927 15 years old in 1925 Crozet, Biography in Chapter 10 University Brooks, D.B. Washington, Biography in Chapter 9 DC Brown, St. Paul, MN 1927 Unknown Hugh D. Brown, Robert Ft. Worth, TX 1928–1930 19 years old in 1928; a surveyor. Biography in Chapter 10 Bubar, Donald Decatur, TX 1928 25 years old in 1928 attorney in Charles 1930 Bunch, Ft. Worth, TX 1919, 1924, 18 yrs. old in 1919; joined Sterling 1925, 1927– Weather Bureau in 1929. 1930, 1933, Biography in Chapter 10 1934, 1936 Bunch, Ft. Worth, TX 1928, 1930, 22 years old in 1928 Unknown Mildred (Mrs. Knoxville, TN 1933, 1934 occupation. Biography in Sterling Bunch) Chapter 10 Campbell, Norway, ME 1926 45 years old in 1926; HCO Leon* Astronomer: AAVSO Recorder Carr, F.J. Swanton, VT Biography in Chapter 9 Chesley, Joseph Hamilton, TX 1928 26 years old in 1928; bank Ted cashier (continued) 152 Postwar Years 1919–1929

(continued) Member Residence Years Biographical notes Christie, Victoria, B.C. 1920, 1922 22 years old in 1920; in 1927 on William H. staff Dominion Observatory Cilley, Morgan Fort Spring, 1925 47 in 1925; civil engineer; WV AAVSO member Conboy, J. J. Lawton, OK 1928, 1929 14 years old in 1928; in 1940 a 1931, 1933 chemist and univ. Instructor Biography in Chapter 10 Culp, Harvey Chestertown, 1923, 1927 17 years old in 1920; in 1930 Willard MD Secretary to college dean Darling, B.C. Lansing, MI 1929–1933 18 years old in 1929; news-paper reporter in 1940 USC Biography in Chapter 10 Dole, R.M. Several states Biography in Chapter 9 Edwards, Fairhope, AL 1928, 1930– 39 years old in 1928; teacher Helen McC. 1932 Biography in Chapter 10 (Edwards, Mrs. W. H.) Fisher, Cambridge, 1929 62 yrs old in 1929; HCO staff but Willard J.* MA was an atmospheric physicist Ford, C. B. Ann Arbor, MI 1928–1931 15 years old in 1928; a future donor to AAVSO & AMS Biography in Chapter 10 Glover, Melrose, MA 1926 17 yrs. in 1926; at Dartmouth Curtis H. College in 1929 Graham, Asahel Denver, CO 1927 20 yrs in 1927; radio artist in Vance 1930 USC; ﬁlm announcer in 1940 Grote, Alfred Chicago, IL 1926 15 yrs. old in 1926; dry goods clerk Hempel, Elkader, IA Biography in Chapter 9 Kathleen Iedema, Great Neck, 1927 38 years old, a gardener born in Nicholas NY Holland. An AAVSO member Karp, Benjamin Syracuse, NY 1926 16 years old in 1926 Keller, Staunton, VA 1926, 1927 33 years old in 1926; watched Henry L. with F.L. Bradley 1927; tool-maker/mechanical designer Klapperich, Wilmette, IL 1928–30 18 years old in 1928; In 1940 A.J. 1933 USC, a physicist. Biography in Chapter 10 Koep, John D. Chippewa Biography in Chapter 9 Falls, WI Koontz, D.L. Chicago, IL 1926 Unknown Kovolenko, “University,” 1926 Unknown age; McCormick Michael* VA Observatory astronomer (continued) Membership Roster 1919–1929 153

(continued) Member Residence Years Biographical notes LaPaz, Manitou, CO Biography in Chapter 9 Formed Lincoln* the ﬁrst meteor observation group LaPaz, Leota Manitou, CO 1924 26 years old in 1924. “Mrs. Ray (Butler) Lincoln LaPaz,” unknown occupation Laurence, E.E. S.S. Olna 1928 Unknown age; U.K. Royal Navy ofﬁcer Lawrence, Rockville Cntr, 1927–1929, 21 years old in 1927 Biography A. S. NY 1932 in Chapter 10 Lawsine, Leo Malden, MA 1929 19 years old in 1929 MIT student in 1930 Logan, J. H. Dallas, TX 1927–1932 17 years old in 1927; Columbia U. student in 1930. Biography in Chapter 10 Levey, Miss L. Syracuse, NY 1926 Unknown Marsh, F. F. Frederick, MD 1929–1934 23 years old in 1929; news-paper 1936 advertising manager (1930 USC) Biography in Chapter 10 McIntosh, Auckland, NZ 1919–21, 15 years old in 1919; journalist Ronald 1925–1932 Cataloged southern showers. 1934–1936 Biography in Chapter 10 Mead, Paul Des Moines, IA 1922 19 years old in 1922. A student Cameron at Drake U observatory in 1922; a statistician in 1940 Merrill, Paul Pasadena, CA 1929 42 years old in 1929; Willard* astro-Physicist and colleague of Olivier’s at Lick Observatory 1909–1910 Monnig, Oscar Ft. Worth, TX 1927–32 25 years old in 1927; lawyer & 1934 family’s department store worker/owner. Editor of Texas Observers Bulletin Biography in Chapter 10 Niebuhr, Miss Reedsburg, WI 1929, 1933 20 years old in 1929; Physical Vida Jo 1934 therapist in 1938. Biography in Chapter 10 Nininger, McPherson, KS 1928, 1931 41 years old in 1928; famed Harvey Harlow meteoriticist and collector Noble, Ft. Worth, TX 1929 Obsrvd w/Miss L. Stevens; High Miss C.M. School Math teacher Unknown age O’Hara, R.J. Ann Arbor, MI 1929 Unknown Olivier, C.P.* Charlottesville, Founder of the AMS VA (continued) 154 Postwar Years 1919–1929

(continued) Member Residence Years Biographical notes Olson, Franklyn Chicago, IL 1929 19 years old in 1929; college Carl W. student, later a physicist Partello, Camp Kearney, Biography in Chapter 9 J.M.T. CA & Garrett Park, MD Peck, Fall River, WI 1920, 1934 16 years old in 1920; AAVSO Arthur L. & Milwaukee, 1935 mbr.; stenographer in 1930 WI Biography in Chapter 10 Pegues, Urbana, IL 1927, 1928 23 years old in 1927; lecturer & Charles M. graduate student in 1930/31: U of Illinois Peters, J. L. East Holliston, Biography in Chapter 9 MA Ransom, Jacksonville, 1929 24 years old in 1929; engineering Howard B., Jr. FL department at telephone company Roach, Sears P. Ft. Worth, TX 1928 20 years old in 1928; instrument mechanic at “US Air Depot” in 1940 USC Sanders, Ft. Worth, TX 1928–1931 16 years old in 1928 Biography Blakeney in Chapter 10 Schafer, Carl P. Nashville, TN 1929, 1930 29 years old in 1929; court reporter in 1933 & 1935 Shinkﬁeld, Adelaide, 1928–1933 27 years old in 1928; no Reginald C. Australia occupational info available Biography in Chapter 10 Smith, F. W. Glenolden, PA 1929–1940 22 years old in 1929; held mathematical and electronics positions 1930 & 1940; a volunteer at Flower Obsy during early 1930s. Biography in Chapter 10 Stevens, Miss Ft. Worth, TX 1929 Unknown; observed w/Noble Lucille Suter, Rufus O., Warren, PA 1921, 1922 16 years old in 1921; he was on Jr. HCO staff 1923–1926 and Library of Congress cataloger in 1944 Thomsen, Danneviske, 1925, 1926, 15 years old in 1925; in 1929, he Ivan L. NZ 1928 was an astronomer at Dominion Observatory, NZ. Biography in Chapter 10 Tomkins, T.K. N. Glenside, Biography in Chapter 9 PA (continued) Membership Roster 1919–1929 155

(continued) Member Residence Years Biographical notes Trimmier, Chicago, IL 1929, 1931 15 years old in 1929; ofﬁce clerk Miss M.E. 1934 in 1940 USC. Biography in Chapter 10 Turnage, W.W. ‘University’ 1926 Unknown a.k.a. Charlottesville, VA Van Osdol, Ft. Worth, TX 1929 18 years old in 1929, Unknown Miss Virginia occupation Van Zandt, Ft. Worth, TX 1929 18 years old in 1929; medical (Isaac) doctor in 1937 Lycurgus Watkins, Caldwell, ID 1927–29 14 years old in 1927. A teacher Goodrich In 1933 and a psychologist later. Biography in Chapter 10 Whitney, B. S. Lawton, OK & 1928–31 1934, 25 years old in 1928; became pro Beaver, OK 1936–1938 astronomer later in mid-1940s. Biography in Chapter 10 Wilson, L.J. Franklin, KY Biography in Chapter 2, Society for Practical Astronomy’s chapter Members’ ages and occupations derived from many Ancestry.com sources including the 1920 and 1930 US Censuses

Advances Made by the American Meteor Society 1919–1929

Astrophysical Discoveries as a Competitor to Meteor Science

Harlow Shapley and Edwin Hubble’s discoveries about the vastness of the universe and its expansion revolutionized astronomy and staggered the public’s notions about the cosmos during the 1920s. Galactic astrophysics had shifted the focus of the public’s astronomical interest to the realms of deep space where galaxies accelerated away from our Milky Way and each other into unknown regions of space. As might be imagined, astrophysical discoveries had made it more difficult for classical astronomers to reclaim the public’s attention. Their telescopic and mathematical works produced incremental refinements in astrometry and orbital science but were hardly the imagination-grabbing discoveries that Shapley and Hubble had made. Those marvels were the ones that Professor Olivier had to compete against to gain amateurs and his colleagues’ attention and support for meteor astronomy and the American Meteor Society. This chapter describes some of the ways Dr. Olivier succeeded. His outreach to citizen scientists, with articles about meteor science and invitations for training in 156 Postwar Years 1919–1929 the observational aspects of it, brought 65 new data-producing volunteers into the American Meteor Society’s membership during the years 1919–1929. The newcomers joined 13 veteran members to plot meteors on star maps and to record other meteoric data. Altogether, these citizen scientists affirmed the importance of meteor astronomy by making impressive contributions to its data collections.

Organizational Advances: Improved Communication with Members and Other Amateur Astronomers

Before December 1926, Charles Olivier’s published contacts with AMS members had been sporadic and at long time intervals. Then, Meteor Notes began to appear monthly in Popular Astronomy (PA). In AMS Bulletin No. 9, dated May 23, 1927, Olivier advised members:

Our Headquarters keeps in contact with the members in several ways: 1) Annual reports published in Popular Astronomy, and usually reprinted and mailed to each member. 2) By ‘Meteor Notes’… 3) and by memoirs, prepared by (Olivier) which contain the definitive results of several years’ work…The last (one) issued covered the interval 1915-1918 inclusive. The next now in preparation, will cover the years 1919-1925 inclusive. 4) By occasional bulletins which are mailed to each member. 5) By personal letters. Although true, the Bulletin’s enumeration masked the infrequency of Olivier’s contacts with the society’s members. The annual reports sometimes were relatively brief articles and were intended to be reports for two years, for example, years 1920–1921, published in 1922, and 1923–1924, published in 1925. The AMS memoirs to which Olivier referred were 349PO (published 1920) which was not followed until 1929 by the AMS Report for 1919–1925. AMS Bulletins also were widely spaced with Bulletin 8 appearing in 1924, Bulletin 9 in 1927, and Bulletin 10 in 1929. However, it was Olivier’s personal letters to members that probably furnished the contact the members needed to maintain their loyalty and work productivity. AMS archive boxes have many letters from members in which they expressed gratitude to Dr. Olivier for answered questions, for sending them gnomonic maps and forms, and occasionally for Olivier’s Christmas greeting cards. The archives also contain individual members’ letters that spanned several years suggesting an ongoing correspondence. However, before Meteor Notes became a monthly feature of PA in December 1926, most of Olivier’s communications about the AMS were to his relatively small cadre of members. For instance, Olivier appealed to members to help fill AMS ranks in his 1925 annual report. But in general, publicity about the AMS to the wider amateur community was neglected; it was only conducted in the irregularly published annual reports. Monthly publication of Meteor Notes began to improve the society’s visibility, and membership numbers began to climb. For example, 44 people made their first meteor observation reports to Olivier during the years 1927– 1929, the same years Meteor Notes debuted. But Olivier did not solely rely on the Advances Made by the American Meteor Society 1919–1929 157

Notes to generate interest in the AMS. Five months after their debut, in May 1927, he addressed members in Bulletin 9, asking members to, “interest others in the work, and if they live near other members to get into personal touch with them, which will be a great mutual incentive to better work.”

Olivier’s Public Lectures

Once Dr. Olivier was in charge of the Flower Observatory and simultaneously University of Pennsylvania’s (UPenn) Astronomy Department, he was free to schedule lectures to publicize the AMS. Soon after appointment, astronomy club newsletters and metropolitan newspapers began to publish articles about Olivier’s outreach and the content of his talks to the public. For example, Amateur Astronomer, newsletter of the New York City Amateur Astronomers Association, summarized the content of Dr. Olivier’s talk about meteors which he made on May 1, 1929.62 When Olivier was not addressing the public,63 he made the press aware of impending meteor showers and requested the public to watch too. Often, there were articles about the outcomes of Olivier’s watches, such as this Philadelphia newspaper article,

“Amateur astronomers met with disappointment early today as they waited with eyes alert for meteors…expected to make their appearance in the northeastern skies…’We are hoping for success tonight’ said Dr. Charles P. Olivier of the Flower Observatory, ‘as our calculations show the meteors are due on the nights of November 14, 15, and 16 (1928),’ 64 Olivier’s personal outreach to the public, in person, or through the newspapers and radio undoubtedly brought new volunteers to the AMS.

Amateurs Return to Meteor Work

In the mid-1920s, some members, like Sterling Bunch (1901–1945) in Ft. Worth, Texas, were of the same mind as Dr. Olivier: Meteor watchers needed to afﬁliate. Bunch began “arousing some interest” in meteors among his neighbors as early as August 1925.65 His and others’ efforts resulted in founding the Fort Worth

62Anonymous, “Meteors” by Prof. Olivier, Amateur Astronomer, New York: American Museum of Natural History, May, 1929, p. 3. 63Another notice of a talk by Olivier: “Inﬂuences of Meteoric Astronomy on Evolution” by Charles P. Olivier, Ph.D. at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on January 16, 1929 (an admission ticket found in the AMS archives box 1920s.) 64Anonymous, Clouds Obscure Meteor Display, Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Thursday, November 15, 1928. 65Letter from Sterling Bunch (SB) to Olivier dated August 18, 1925. AMS archives box labeled “1920s.” 158 Postwar Years 1919–1929

Astronomical and Physical Society on April 1, 1927.66 By June 1927, Bunch had persuaded Fort Worth amateur, Oscar Edward Monnig (1902–1999), to begin plotting meteors. The two held a joint watch on June 23 after which Bunch reported that “this was the ﬁrst plotting that Mr. Monnig had ever done.”67 It was the men’s intentions that Olivier compares their plots. They performed the watch to help Olivier pursue one of his announced goals,68 to assess observers’ plotting accuracy by using one observer’s plots as a check against the other one’s. On July 19, 1927, under Bunch’s tutelage, Monnig and “three boys (members of an astronomy class Bunch taught)…entrenched ourselves on top of the Central High School building” for 48 min, between clouds. Bunch reported that

“Mr. Monnig and I plotting in the usual way… the three beginners… noted (meteor) color, magnitude, durations, time and practiced plotting the paths by making their own charts… from free-hand sketches.” As a result of those sorts of training experiences, Bunch hoped that, “Perhaps…you may have some other meteor observers from here in the future.”69 And so Bunch continued to promote an interest in meteor reporting, and by November 3, 1927, he informed Olivier that he had contacted J.H. Logan, in Dallas, who promised to cooperate on a meteor height observational attempt. Bunch and Monnig networked with other Texans in Fort Worth and Dallas and “beginning in January 1928 a group of friends…banded themselves together very informally under the title given them by Dr. C.P. Olivier…‘Texas Observers.’”70 The Observers were an energetic, versatile group who during the late 1920s observed meteors, monitored 140 variable stars, collected information on several brilliant ﬁreballs, and photographed the sky with a camera guided by a four-inch refractor loaned them by the AAVSO.71 The Observers showed their prowess in meteor work by “contributing 904 meteor observations in 1927, and 1873 in 1928-over 29 and 44 percent respectively of the entire number reported to the AMS in those years,” reported Logan and Monnig in 1930.72 In 1932, Harvard College Observatory and University of Texas loaned the Observers prisms with which they constructed two spectrographs. Spectrographs are cameras ﬁtted with prisms. When a photographer successfully photographed meteors, the prism produced the meteors’ spectra. The group captured three meteor spectra during 1932–1933, and at the

66Bunch, S., The Ft. Worth Astronomical and Physical Society, Popular Astronomy, volume 35, 1927, p. 302. G.F. Townsend was elected President, and Bunch was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the new society. 67Letter from SB to C.P. Olivier (CPO) dated June 30, 1927. AMS archives box labeled “1920s.” 68Report of Commission des Etoiles Filantes (meteors) to IAU’s Leiden assembly, dated March 9, 1928; from the A.P.S.’ Olivier correspondence file. 69Letter from SB to CPO, dated July 20, 1927: from the AMS archives box “1920s.” 70Logan, J.H. and O.E. Monnig, Texas Observers, PA, volume38, 1930, p. 319. 71The founding members of the Texas Observers were Robert Brown, Sterling Bunch, Oscar Monnig, and Blakeney Sanders of Ft. Worth and James Logan and Graham Kendall of Dallas. 72Logan, J.H. and Oscar R Monnig, Texas Observers, PA, volume 38, 1930, pp. 317–324. Advances Made by the American Meteor Society 1919–1929 159 time, those three constituted 9 % of meteor spectra than in existence. This impressive group of amateurs built an observatory and Monnig published a newsletter beginning in 1931 which was sent to amateurs throughout the USA and Canada.73 During the same years, AMS membership was growing across the country. During 1919–1929, a total of 78 people contributed meteor plots and counts from 24 states, one Canadian Province, and four foreign countries and from ships at sea. Sixty-five of these 78 members filed meteor reports for the first time in their lives, and as an auspicious sign for the future, 27 of the newcomers were under the age of 20.74

How AMS Members’ Meteor Data Were Used

Despite Professor Olivier’s personal and professional struggles and astrophysicist-colleagues’ disdain for meteor astronomy, Dr. Olivier’s careful analysis of the data submitted by AMS members resulted in updated and oftentimes novel information about meteors. Olivier’s 1920 and 1929 monographs contain distillations of hundreds of members’ meteor plots and record forms; in Meteor Notes, Dr. Olivier informed meteor students about his current thinking and discussed the conduct of meteor research.

Radiants

All of the issues associated with radiants, described in “The First Assignment,” were of course the major use Dr. Olivier made of AMS meteor plots and other data submitted by members. However, as he issued later analytical memoirs of members’ data, he added new information about radiants or he amended previous views he had expressed in earlier works. The monograph 349PO, published in 1920, contained observational data recorded by members from 1914 to 1918. In it, Olivier referred to the number of nights for which radiant positions can be combined:

In this connection a most liberal limit would be three successive nights, when observations are made during approximately the same hours…it seems that observations made on more than that number and combined into one mean position cannot meet the requirements of

73Millman, P.M., The Texas Observers, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, volume 28, 1934, pp. 161–164. 74These statistics were compiled about the data-contributing AMS members listed in the 1919– 1925 Report to AMS members and from the AMS annual reports for the years 1926–1929. See the Membership Roster 1919–1929 chapter in this section for more details. 160 Postwar Years 1919–1929

accuracy and that radiants secured in this manner should be given the minimum weight or…discarded. Using his strict criteria for radiants, Olivier listed 696 that he deduced from AMS data; he reported that the radiants “were all derived from the work done in 1916–1918.” They were numbered 523–1224 in the AMS’ radiant list.

AMS Report for 1919–1925

By 1929, in his AMS Report for 1919–1925, Dr. Olivier departed from the practice of publishing meteor orbits as he had in his dissertation, 126PO and 349PO. “This was an omission made only after careful consideration,” he conﬁded. He admitted that the longer he worked

as an examiner and reducer of the results of others, the more he has become convinced that all of the lists of radiants, even the best, contain many fictitious cases. This is due not only to errors of observation, inherently large in (visual) meteor work, but also to the impossibility of deciding to what radiant a given meteor belongs, when perhaps it may fit either of two on the map with equal probability. He decided that “these and similar considerations have made the writer feel that calculation of parabolic orbits for the average radiants, deduced from a few meteors, is a waste of time.” Instead of providing orbits, he published a table of new radiants, beginning with number 1225 and ending at 1541, for which he used the operational definitions of radiants discussed in The First Assignment chapter of this history. Dr. Olivier mentioned that 61 of the 316 new radiants were “with southern declinations, many reduced from observations made in New Zealand.” For these southern radiants, “a thing which we never had before.” He credited “R.A. McIntosh, of New Zealand, (for) some good observations from the Southern Hemisphere.” Dr. Olivier devoted considerable space in the 1919–1925 Report to a detailed review of AMS members’ reports about the major meteor showers: Quadrantids, Lyrids, Eta Aquarids, Delta Aquarids, Perseids, Orionids, Leonids, and Geminids. He also summarized members’ records about the showers he wanted to monitor due to recent changes: the Pons-Winnecke meteors that John Koep and Philip Trudelle first saw in 1916 and the Andromedes also known as the Bielids, a shower of interest because its parent comet, Biela, had disintegrated in the late nineteenth century. Olivier’s review of showers had the advantage of seven years’ observations by many keen observers and he often used radiants deduced from members’ meteor plots to demonstrate that radiants were not stationary, but moved toward the east during the life of the shower, as expected because of the earth’s movement in its orbit. There were also brief discussions of the unexpected Lyrid meteor outburst in 1922 and F.L. Bradley’s observation of an outburst from the constellation Monoceros on November 20, 1925. Advances Made by the American Meteor Society 1919–1929 161

More Liberal Radiant Determination for “Small Showers”

When he approved of Ronald McIntosh’s radiant observation method in a 1929 Meteor Note, Olivier revealed that his views were more ﬂexible on the matter since he wrote about radiant combinations in 349PO (1920):

…it will be noted that the same radiant frequently was determined on one or more nights after its ﬁrst appearance. This makes the existence of such radiants doubly sure. It is a matter of opinion whether it is best to combine radiants, determined by 2 to 5 meteors on a given night, into a mean position for the mean date. As errors of observation make it usually impossible to detect motion night by night, perhaps for these small showers combinations of 3-day periods are quite permissible. But in all cases, great care should be taken to explain what has been done. Combinations that run to a week or more are to be heartily condemned on many grounds, and lead to quite impossible results.

Members’ Productivity 1925–1929

In the same 1929 Meteor Note, in which Olivier liberalized radiants, he revealed how productive AMS members had been while the 1919–1925 monograph languished at the printer awaiting its 1929 publication. Meteor plots arriving after 1925 had accumulated in rapidly increasing numbers, forcing Olivier to admit, “The volume of work is now so great that I cannot keep up with it.” He informed members that radiants sent to him would eventually be renumbered with an official AMS catalog number in the order received. Official numbers would commence with number 1542, one more than the final one in the 1919–1925 report. The MN gave an indication of how far behind he was in reducing the new radiant plots. It ended with a recently received list of Ronald McIntosh’s Southern Hemisphere radiants which he had vetted: The list ended at Radiant Number 2048.75

Meteor Rates

When he began the AMS in 1911, Olivier offered members two European information sources about the number of meteors per hour an observer could expect to see on a clear, moonless night. For the ﬁrst, he referred the reader to a large table in an article by W.F. Denning. The master English observer compiled hourly meteor rates for each day of the year. Denning derived the numbers from his observations, made at Bristol, England from 1866 to 1911.76 Denning prudently did not include the misleadingly high meteor rates for calendar dates of meteor storms in 1866, 1872, and 1885; “the idea in forming the table was to show the hourly number of

75PA, volume 37, 1929, pp. 400–401 and pp. 598–599. 76Anonymous, Hourly Number of Meteors, PA, volume 19, 1911, pp. 524–525. 162 Postwar Years 1919–1929 meteors to be expected on ordinary nights of the year when the conditions are favorable for viewing these phenomena,” Denning wrote. Olivier’s second source about hourly rates was data compiled by Charles Birkenstock, an Antwerp, Belgium meteor observer who founded and directed the Central Meteoric Bureau in 1910.77 Olivier reproduced Birkenstock’s data78 in two tables: One reported the hourly rate for each hour, 6 p.m. to 4 a.m., for any day of the year, and the second table listed the hourly rate for any hour on any day in each month; it was not explained when the observer was to use one table in preference to the other, or how to resolve their inconsistent data. Olivier could only suggest that “the tables…will give the observer information as to the number of meteors he can hope to see on a given date and at a given hour.”79

Improved Hourly Rate Data from AMS Observers

By 1920, in 349PO, Dr. Olivier published a “table (which contained) for each month the average rate per hour for each day.” Next to each hourly rate, he reported the number of nights’ observations used to compute the average. For this Table (1B), Olivier used members’ 24,560 meteor counts for the years 1911–1918 and he added 5000 of his own for May, July, August, October, and November which were from his 1911 dissertation data. He added that the meteor counts came from “observations…made on 301 of the 366 days in the year.” This table’s advances over Denning’s were that many more observers contributed to it, from many different observing sites, having different sky conditions; the implication was that the given hourly rate was likely to be a more realistic number which an observer would see under “average” conditions anyplace in the USA. The table’s advance over Birkenstock’s two was unambiguity about the meteor rate to expect: It was an average number which applied to all hours an observer could watch meteors on a particular night. A needed improvement on Olivier’s table was, by implication, one in which meteor rates would be given for each dark hour of each day of the year; this improved table of rates would require more years of data collection.

Telescopic Meteor Magnitudes

By 1918 or so, the accumulation of AMS members’ meteor magnitude estimates was great enough to warrant a presentation of them in a tabular summary in 349PO.

77Anonymous, An Appeal to Amateur Astronomers to Make Systematic Observations of Meteors, PA, volume 19, 1911, p. 127. 78Olivier extracted the information from Birkenstock’s work “Das Meteorphaenomenen.” Olivier cited no further bibliographic information about the source. 79Olivier, C.P., AMS Bulletin No. 2, PA, volume 21, 1913, p. 310. Advances Made by the American Meteor Society 1919–1929 163

For those members who reported 800 or more meteors, Dr. Olivier organized the meteors’ magnitudes into classes, e.g., +1 and +2. Each observer’s sequence of magnitudes, called a distribution, showed an increase in the quantity of meteors as magnitudes became fainter, up to a “peak” at about magnitude +3 or +4 after which meteor numbers became dramatically lower when +6 was reached. This table of magnitude distributions was a prelude to Olivier’s discussion of telescopic meteors’ magnitudes. “Telescopic meteors” were those seen serendipitously when looking at another celestial object through a telescope. Olivier’s ﬁrst discussion of telescopic meteor magnitudes was in 1920 in 349PO; his interest in the topic continued for another 30 years. This long-term study began with Olivier’s summary of 141 meteor magnitudes that were recorded by McCormick Observatory’s staff astronomers when they used the 26-inch refractor during the period 1885–November 15, 1920. He supplemented the Virginia sample with meteor records furnished to him by H.C. Bancroft, an AAVSO member who reported telescopic meteors from late 1916 to the end of 1917. From the data available, Olivier concluded that it was unlikely that a meteor fainter than magnitude 15 could be seen with the 26-inch and that Bancroft was unlikely to see a meteor fainter than magnitude 11 in his ﬁve-inch refractor. After 349PO, Dr. Olivier became more explicit in his request to receive telescopic meteors. In AMS Bulletins 9 (dated May 23, 1927) and 10 (May 7, 1929), he advised AMS and American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) members that he was particularly interested in knowing the dates and magnitudes of all telescopic meteors seen by them. Impatient to accumulate more telescopic data, he used Meteor Notes to repeatedly ask AAVSO members to cooperate with him by submitting records of all telescopic meteors they saw. He apparently got results because in the AMS Report for 1919–1925 published in 1929 Dr. Olivier acknowledged the source of his telescopic meteor data:

We are greatly indebted to the members of the AAVSO, as well as to the Association itself, for most of the observations of telescopic meteors discussed…This important feature of the present memoir would be wholly lacking without their aid. By 1929, cooperative professionals and amateur astronomers had contributed 796 magnitude estimates of meteors seen through their telescopes ranging in aperture from the McCormick and US Naval Observatories’ 26-inch refractors to AMS and AAVSO member J.L. Peters’ ﬁeld glass.80 After tabulating the meteors’ magnitudes, Olivier reported,

The striking thing about these ﬁnal results is…(if they) mean anything whatever they tend to show that there are nearly equal numbers of telescopic meteors of each magnitude,

80Olivier added the telescopic meteors reported in 349PO to those reported during 1919–1925 to form the total of 796. 164 Postwar Years 1919–1929

beginning about 8 magnitude, and that there is no decided increase such as we ﬁnd in the numbers of stars and ordinary (naked-eye) meteors as we go to fainter magnitudes. In trying to make sense of the ﬁnding, he reasoned

…if meteors of 6 magnitude are no larger than grains of sand, one of 14 magnitude must be hardly more than a grain of dust, or it must be (if it is as large as a grain of sand) very much farther away…Is it possible that some such telescopic meteors are really comparable in mass with ordinary (naked eye) meteors, but many times as distant? If so, it would extend our atmosphere to heights not now believed, yet auroral streamers are known to extend to 1000 km…81 To resolve the question, Olivier suggested that simultaneous meteor height observations be made with telescopes, at the time of Perseid maximum. He believed that doing so was urgent because if meteors became luminous “many hundred kilometers above the earth’s surface…modiﬁcations of our ideas about the atmosphere’s height” would be demonstrated in a way not otherwise possible in the 1920s. In addition, Olivier urged AMS members to continue to report telescopic meteors’ magnitudes “to determine the annual and daily frequency curves and compare with those for ordinary meteors.” He also hoped to be able to study “the appearance of meteor trains telescopically” if AMS and AAVSO members continued their cooperation. Olivier’s commentary based on the AMS’ collection of telescopic meteors revealed that he had interests in atmospheric issues as well as astronomical ones.

Long-Enduring Meteor Trains

I would suggest that one thing that the meteor observer can do, which would be of very great value in the study of meteorology of the upper atmosphere which is beyond the reach of ordinary means of research, is the observation of the direction of drift of the trains which are occasionally left by meteors. Thus, the eminent Edward Emerson Barnard, an amateur astronomer-turned- professional, echoed a similar request made by the Weather Bureau’s Cleveland Abbe. Barnard’s comment was made to the Meteor Committee of the AAS, of which Olivier was chairman and it was reprinted in 349PO for meteor observers to consider for future work. “Long-enduring trains” became another of Olivier’s career-long investigational pursuits. However, data were slow in accumulating, and analyses of meteor trains had to wait until the 1930s and beyond.

81Olivier’s astonishment at the prospect of meteors beginning to glow at hundreds of kilometers is understandable because as the section in this chapter about meteor heights reveals, he measured some Orionids and Perseids at about 110 km (about 66 miles) altitude. Olivier was excited about the possibility that meteor investigations would reveal previously unknown details about the atmosphere’s extent in an era when humans had no means of attaining heights of 1000 km (600 miles). Advances Made by the American Meteor Society 1919–1929 165

Meteor Heights

In his 1920 monograph, 349PO, Olivier initiated another long-term observing project which was often attempted in the 1920s and 1930s. He announced it by reporting the four-station campaign he, Alfred Doolittle, James Smith, and Thomas Simpson made in 1915 to measure the heights of August (Perseid) meteors. There was nothing fundamentally innovative in their effort because coordinated multi-observer efforts to trigonometrically measure meteor heights dated back to one in 1798 by university students Brandes and Benzenberg at Gottingen.82 However, Olivier improved credibility for the meteors’ heights by insisting that the measurement procedure includes a calculation of the meteors’ heights from each observer’s position, not just from one. He explained, “Until this check computation is…included some of the results would be so discordant as to be at once discarded as worthless.” Nine years later, in the AMS Report for 1919–1925, Dr. Olivier reported two efforts he organized to measure meteor heights by means of simultaneous observations. “Simultaneity” was arranged by observation teams’ agreement to watch the skies on certain dates at selected times. In the 1920s, they had no direct communication with each other during the predetermined watch periods. Following the teams’ separate but “simultaneous” meteor plotting, the teams’ meteor maps and times of recorded meteors were compared in hopes of ﬁnding some subset of plotted meteors that were indeed identical. These meteor plots formed the raw data which were analyzed and from which meteor heights were calculated. Olivier made the ﬁrst of these simultaneous observations with two experienced AMS members. The attempt was made in 1921 during the Perseid shower, August 9–12. In this campaign, Olivier enlisted John Koep’s assistance to plot meteors from the McCormick Observatory while Donald Brooks watched from Washington, D.C. The three men managed to plot six of the same Perseids and Olivier was able to compute their heights to his satisfaction, based upon the check computation procedure.83 The trio’s meteor plots also revealed Perseid radiants which showed the predicted radiant drift. While Koep was plotting Perseids, Olivier used “6-inch and two 5-inch cameras” which were loaned to McCormick Observatory by Frank Schlesinger at Yale University. These cameras or their lenses came from W.L. Elkins’ photographic apparatus.84

82Olivier, C.P., Meteors, Baltimore: Wilkins and Williams, 1925, p. 6. 83The heights were not listed in the Report, but instead in a separate publication: Olivier, C.P., Report of the AMS for 1920 and 1921, PA, volume 30, pp. 154–155. 84Letters between Olivier and Yale’s Frank Schlesinger reveal that two of the lenses were from Elkin’s photographic apparatus. Schlesinger’s correspondence file contains letters from Schlesinger to Olivier offering the loan of two “meteor cameras” (on May 12) and the fact that he “sent off by express mail two objectives” on June 7, 1921. Schlesinger’s file contains Olivier’s letters in which he requested “cameras which combine the largest lens with the shortest focal length” on May 23 and on June 29, 1921 confirmed he had received “two fine lenses” and he hoped to use them “in August, when the Perseids come. 166 Postwar Years 1919–1929

Olivier announced that “one excellent and three uncertain meteor paths were found upon the plates…the results were not without promise and will be repeated in 1922 on a larger scale.” Olivier’s second opportunity was during the Orionid meteor shower in 1922, and the meteor height campaign was conducted with Harold Lee Alden on October 18, 1922. Alden was assisted by A.J. Weed and Olivier by J.W. Blincoe.85 Each of the two observation sites was equipped with “a large camera.” These were UPenn and Yale University lenses, 5- to 6-inch-diameter objectives but with rather long focal lengths by today’s standards, making it difficult to capture faint meteors. However, the teams succeeded in imaging the same first magnitude sporadic meteor, but were not able to compute a height because one of the cameras was moved during the night and background reference star trails could not be matched. The teams succeeded in plotting 10 of the same meteors, but results were marred by the short baseline (17 miles/27.7 km) between the sites and because they were aligned almost exactly on an east–west azimuth. However, Olivier’s campaign did yield three Orionid meteors whose mean altitude of appearance was 128.3 km. (80 miles) and their mean disappearance height was 111.4 km (69 miles). They also found one sporadic meteor which disappeared at the same altitude as the three Orionids. Olivier followed his own advice by making a “check computation” from both sites for all 10 mutually observed meteors. This episode in 1922 is interesting because it illustrates the difficulties posed by site placement, equipment misadventures, and the shortcomings of visual observation when meteor heights are being sought. As with many an empirical endeavor, “lessons learned” from mistakes presumably would have been valuable for the next attempt. However, Olivier apparently made no more photographic meteor height efforts during the 1920s. He became enmeshed in the Elkins meteor study fiasco; then, he researched and wrote Meteors, and he closed out the decade with his successful campaign to become UPenn’s astronomy department chair and director of the Flower Observatory.

Fireballs

Dr. Olivier’s interest in ﬁreballs dated back to 1915, when he asked Virginia observers of a brilliant ﬁreball to send him complete details of their observation so

85A.J. Weed was identified as “chief mechanic at the (UVA) Physics Lab” and as a man who was “an excellent photographer” in Olivier’s letter to Schlesinger, dated July 3, 1923. Mr. Weed also was identified as an official photographer of UVA buildings and campus events J.W. Blincoe was identified as a man who was not an AMS member but who sent Olivier records of 65 meteors he saw on one night’s watch, probably the night of the Orionid campaign: Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1922, PA, volume 31, 1923, pp. 172–173. Advances Made by the American Meteor Society 1919–1929 167 that “its real path may be computed.”86 Seven years later, he published a complete analysis of a different fireball seen in North Carolina and Virginia.87 In 1926, he published a fireball solution with data that were furnished by three US Navy and one Weather Bureau ship.88 A possible motivation for Dr. Olivier’s interest in fireball investigations was research about them which began in the nineteenth century in Austria-Hungary. Gustav Niessl (1839–1919) studied the orbits of fireballs and their fainter kin, meteors. Before the twentieth century, there was uncertainty about whether fireballs and meteors were related phenomena or whether the two were fundamentally different in character and origin. Niessl’s investigations of fireball velocities led him to believe that they were from interstellar space, but he found shower meteors, being derivatives of comets in the solar system, to be interplanetary objects.89 Olivier was intrigued by these bodies whose origins were thought to be outside the solar system. His curiosity was likely heightened by Cuno Hoffmeister’s 1925 revision of Niessl’s fireball path catalog. The new catalog consisted of 593 computations by Niessl and an additional 93 by Hoffmeister.90 Olivier was eager to secure additional fireball data to compare with the Europeans’ findings. But there were difficulties in obtaining useful information from eyewitnesses due to errors they made. These were difficult to avoid because a meteor is only visible for a fraction of a second. For example, if an observer made a too-brief estimate of its duration, a false “increase” in the meteor’s apparent velocity resulted. In addition, a witness was often mistaken about a meteor’s path in the sky due to unfa- miliarity with how to make a useful description. So, before the advent of meteor photography, astronomers needed to coach prospective witnesses about the information they needed to report. To accomplish this, Dr. Olivier published a fireball report guide in 1927 which emphasized the need for factual reporting and the importance of fireball phenomena for science.91 This guide prepared AMS members to take immediate action when a fireball was seen in their region. AMS Bulletins 9 (1927) and 10 (1929) prodded members further: “If a great fireball is seen or a meteorite falls in their state, (members are to) use immediate efforts to secure data from as many persons and places as possible.”

86Olivier, C.P. A remarkable ﬁreball, PA, volume 23, 1915, p. 189. 87Report of the AMS for 1922, volume 30, 1922, pp. 172–173; and The Great Meteor of May 11, 1922, PA, volume 33, 1925, p. 502. 88Olivier, The Great Fireball of August 2, 1924, PA, volume 34, 1926, p. 612. 89Niessl, G., Determination of Meteor Orbits in the Solar System, Publication 2436 by the Smithsonian Institution, Translated by Cleveland Abbe, Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution, 1917, pp. 32–33. The original work, in German, was published in1907. Abbe’s entire translation was accessed on September 20, 2013: Google books. 90Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 35, 1927, pp. 172–173. 91Olivier, Meteor Note, How to report a ﬁreball, PA, volume 35, 1927, pp. 533–534. 168 Postwar Years 1919–1929

Fireball reports flooded into AMS headquarters,92 but often there were no duplicate observations so that it was impossible to determine the objects’ heights and orbits. Soon however, there were three occasions when two or more observers recorded the same fireball: one in 1928 and two in 1929. Olivier issued reports about these, and in one, he introduced an AMS member, O.E. Monnig, as his coauthor. Monnig earned the privilege by gathering 16 accounts of a Texas fireball and for attempting to determine its atmospheric height when it disappeared.93 So great was the influx of fireball reports in 1927 that it was feared it would be impossible for one astronomer to reduce them all. For this reason, the AAS Committee94 on Meteors recommended to the full Association:

that the United States and Canada be divided into districts of convenient size, each containing some well-known institution or individual agreeing to act as a center, to which all data concerning fireballs and meteorites from the district may be sent. We request volunteers to act in such capacity in those parts of the country not yet provided for. The following observatories have so far agreed to act for the surrounding regions: Ann Arbor, Harvard, McCormick, Ottawa and Syracuse.95 The Meteor Committee did not suggest how the regional centers should cooperate with each other and specifically with Dr. Olivier at Flower Observatory. Some of the AAS’ district directors spontaneously collaborated with Dr. Olivier, for example Dr. W.J. Fisher at Harvard. But others like Professor Charles Clayton Wylie (1886–1976) at University of Iowa disagreed with Olivier’s use of a questionnaire to learn the fireball’s ground track, height, and orbital parameters. Wylie insisted that for accurate results, personal interviews with eyewitnesses were necessary. And he further contended that surveying equipment needed to be used to measure fireball endpoints’ altitudes and azimuths at the witnesses’ observation sites.96 It did not take long for a heated disagreement about methodology to develop between Professors Wylie and Olivier.97 A widely observed fireball appearing over Illinois and Iowa on July 25, 192998became the focal point of the two professors’ disagreement and it continued in print for months.

92Meteor Notes, PA, volume 37, 1929, pp. 169, 289, 400, and 466. 93Olivier, Fireball of February 27, 1927, PA, volume 36, 1928, p. 91; Olivier, Fireball of June 22, 1927, PA, volume 37, p. 133; Monnig and Olivier, Fireball of August 8, 1928, PA, volume 37, p. 275. 94In 1927, membership consisted of Olivier, Willard James Fisher, William J. Humphreys, and Carroll M. Sparrow. Source: AMS Bulletin 9, May 23 1927. 95Olivier C.P, Report of the Committee on Meteors, PA, volume 35, 1927, pp. 26–27. 96Wylie, C.C., On the Fall of a Brilliant Meteor, PA, volume 42, 1934, pp. 278–280. 97Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 42, 1934, pp. 335–337. 98Wylie, C.C., The meteor of July 25 1929, PA, volume 37, 1929, pp. 514–519; and in the AMS’ 1929 Annual Report: “All our records were broken by about 450 separate reports on the Illinois ﬁreball of July 25.” PA, volume 37, p. 175. Advances Made by the American Meteor Society 1919–1929 169

Table 3 AMS’ annual meteor totals Year Nights Visual Number of active members meteors 1919 – 625 7 1920 76 1280 13 1921 71 1638 11 1922 91 1874 8 1923 and 91 2351 10 Separate totals were not given for each year 1924 1925 70 1573 7 1926 48 1468 15 1927 103 3070 18 1928 136 3794 24 1929 373 6306 38 TOTAL 23,979

Members’ Productivity 1919–1929

One direct indication of the Society’s accomplishments was the total number of meteors reported by members each year. In Table 3 are the yearly totals of meteors reported to Dr. Olivier by AMS members. Blanks (–) are substituted where data were not reported (Table 3). The totals were found in Olivier’s annual AMS reports. In addition to AMS members’ observations, he included Weather Bureau and Hydrographic Office staff members’ meteor observations because he considered them trained observers and he accepted their data as equivalent in accuracy to AMS members.’ The grand total of 23,979 meteors cited here was one in which Olivier had considerable confidence.99 The scientific yield from these 24,000 observations was hourly meteor rates, magnitude distributions, fireball heights and atmospheric paths and radiants deduced from meteor plots made on Reynold Young’s star maps. In the years following the 1919–1929 era, Dr. Olivier published catalogs and reports which listed or analyzed the several types of data submitted by AMS members during this 11-year period.

99Readers who check the annual reports for 1923–1924 and 1925 will ﬁnd that the “nights” and “meteors” totals given here do not add up to the totals Dr. Olivier published in his reports. Curious readers should consult the AMS Report for 1919–1925 to learn that two observers’ work done in these three years was deleted from the AMS databases because their work was found to be untrustworthy. The totals given in Table 3 in this chapter capture those deletions. 170 Postwar Years 1919–1929 References

Challenges for Olivier and the American Meteor Society

Koch, R., Observational Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, 1751-1996; privately published, 2008, pp. 51-3. The book was found by inserting the author’s name and the book’s title in a search engine, on 3/23/16. Olivier, C., History of the Leander McCormick Observatory circa 1883 to 1928, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory of the University of Virginia, volume 11, part 26, Charlottesville, Virginia: The University, 1967, p. 208. Olivier, C., Annual Report of the American Meteor Society for 1918, in 23rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Popular Astronomy, Volume 28, 1920, pp. 15-16. Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams and other results and Report of the AMS for 1914-1918, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, 1920 and 1921, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, pp. 200-266 Olivier, C., Notice to the American Meteor Society, in Notes for Observers, Popular Astronomy, Volume 27, 1919, pp. 122-123. Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society for 1919, Popular Astronomy, Volume 28, 1920, pp. 153-154. Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society for 1919-1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 5, Part 1, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1929 and 1935, pp. 1-49, but especially, pp. 25-27 and 36-40. University of Virginia Board of Visitors, Minutes; Volume 9, Minutes of October 12, 1923, p.306 All of the following American Meteor Society Annual Reports were authored by Charles P. Olivier and were found in his ‘Meteor Notes’ and published in Popular Astronomy 1927-1931. Only the volumes, years and pages are cited below: 1926: volume 35, 1927, pp. 286-287. 1927: volume 36, 1928, pp. 132-134 1928: volume 37, 1929, pp. 176-17. 1929: volume 38, 1930, pp. 174-177 1930: volume 39, 1931, pp. 149-154

Rise of Astrophysics

Christianson, G., Edwin Hubble, Mariner of the Nebulae, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. DeVorkin, D., Henry Norris Russell, Dean of American Astronomers, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000, Chapter 10, ‘Proper Practice in American Astronomy’. Habashi, F., Charles Augustus Young, Volume 2, pp. 1253-1254 Hockey, T., et al., Editors, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, New York: Springer, 2007. Kragh, H., Edwin Powell Hubble, Volume 1, pp. 534-535. Pasachoff, N. and J., Henry Norris Russell, Volume 2, pp. 994-996 Sheehan, W., Edwin Brant Frost, Volume 1, pp. 395-396. Selections: Florence, R., George Ellery Hale, Volume 1, pp. 461-463. Smith, H. and V. Trimble, Harlow Shapley, Volume 2, pp. 1048-1051. Lankford, J., American Astronomy: Community, Careers, and Power, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997, pp. 182-183 and 204-206. Membership Roster 1919–1929 171 Membership Roster 1919–1929

Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1919-1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Charlottesville, VA: U VA, 1929, pp. 1-49. Olivier, CP, 1926 Annual Report in Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, volume 35, 1927, pp. 286-287 Olivier, C., 1927 Annual Report in Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, volume 36, 1928, pp. 132-134 Olivier, C., 1928 Annual Report in Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, volume 37, 1929, pp. 176-178 Olivier, C., 1929 Annual Report in Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, volume 38, 1930, pp. 174-177

Advances Made by the American Meteor Society 1919–1929

Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams and other results and Report of the AMS for 1914-1918, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, 1920 and 1921, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; especially pp. 207, 220, 223, 241, and 263-265. Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society for 1919-1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 5, Part 1, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1929 and 1935, especially, pp. 3-8, 25-27, and 32-49 Olivier, C., American Meteor Society Annual Reports are to be found in his ‘Meteor Notes’ and published in Popular Astronomy 1920-1930. Only the volumes, years and pages are cited below: 1919: volume 28, 1920, p 153 1920 and 1921: volume 30, 1922, p. 153 1922: volume 31, 1923, p. 172 1923 and 1924: volume 33, 1925, p.241 1925: volume 34, 1926, p. 166 1926: volume 35, 1927, pp. 286-287 1927: volume 36, 1928, pp. 132-134 1928: volume 37, 1929, pp. 176-178 1929: volume 38, 1930, pp. 174-177 1930s—The Best of Times

The Best of Times During the Worst of Times

The year 1932 may have been one of general depression and hard luck for many institutions, but it was quite the opposite for the American Meteor Society.—Charles P. Olivier, Popular Astronomy, volume 41, 1933, p. 110 A Leonid meteor storm was anticipated in 1932 or 1933, the centennial anniversary of one in 1833 which ﬁlled the sky over the Americas with meteors and ﬁreballs. That sight was so astonishing and terrifying that the unprepared populace thought the end of the world had arrived. Only coincidental with the centennial, 1932 and 1933 were tragic years when many a person’s economic world ended.

The Depression Years in the USA

In the last 80 years, compassionate popular media have described and depicted the misery inﬂicted by the Depression on many Americans. Farms, businesses, and homes were lost, and many families’ unity destroyed. But a history of meteor astronomy during the Depression provides another perspective on that era. In 1929, the year the New York Stock Market crashed, the unemployed were 3 % of workers: about 1.5 million people. By 1933, they were 25 % of the workforce. One-quarter of the workforce meant that 13 million would-be workers of the country’s 125 million-strong population had no means to support themselves and their families. By 1937, many authorities in the USA believed that the economy was recovering, but yet the unemployed were 14 percent of capable workers; this

© Richard Taibi 2017 173 R. Taibi, Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science, Springer Biographies, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44518-2_5 174 1930s—The Best of Times equaled almost 8 million people out of a population of 128 million.1 Reportedly, 250,000 teenagers left their financially stricken families and risking health and safety, sought work and opportunity by roaming across the USA during the Depression. They “rode the rails” and along with rootless adult men were hoboes seeking day labor. And entire families, 25,000 of them, were uprooted from their homes and farms by banks’ foreclosures on their property mortgages.2 To varying extents, everyone in the USA was affected by financial insecurity or disaster, but despite others’ economic and social crises, many families were not gravely impacted by the Great Depression. Examination of the American Meteor Society (AMS) membership roster for 1930–1936 reveals that many observers were high school and college students. Their parents were able to provide a financially secure home base from which teenagers read Popular Astronomy and could afford a dollar a year for the AMS’ membership dues. Parental incomes sheltered them from the financial disasters that unfortunate neighbors suffered. They were protected from domestic crises which would have destroyed any possibility of disciplined skywatching. AMS members who were high school and college students were among the 1930s’ fortunate young people. The 1930–1936 roster identifies many employed men and women as well. They were newspaper reporters, farm laborers, steel and industrial workers, clerks and high school teachers, Weather Bureau observers, and even a chain store owner and two bankers. This vocational cross section of America still clung to employment. A few AMS members were graduate school students and college and university professors. Somehow economic disaster spared them and they were able to support Dr. Olivier’s campaign to restore meteor astronomy to a respected place in the astronomical community.

Meteor Astronomy Appealed to the General Public

In addition to astronomy enthusiasts, Dr. Olivier had raised the general public’s awareness about astronomy and meteors. In Philadelphia and New York City, he lectured about various astronomical topics and for the amateur astronomy community

1Unemployment percentages and number of unemployed workers are taken from The Measurement and Behavior of Unemployment, Part II, Lebergott, S., Chapter Two: Annual Estimates of Unemployment in the United States, 1900–1954, p. 215. The online source for this out-of-print book was: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c2644.pdf. Accessed on 1/10/2014. The US population ﬁgures were found at the online US Census.gov site: http://www.census. gov/popest/data/historical/pre-1980/index.html. This site is entitled ‘Pre-1980: National Tables.’ Click on ‘Historical National Population Estimates, 1900 to 1999. Accessed on 1/10/2014. And, McElvaine, R.S., The Great Depression; America 1929–1941, New York: Three Rivers Press, 1993, pp. 75 and 297–298. McElvaine believed that the country’s economic panic was the worst social and political crisis since the Civil War. 2Meissner, D.J., Life During the Great Depression. http://academic.mu.edu/meissnerd/depression. htm. This Web site was accessed on 12/29/2013. The Best of Times During the Worst of Times 175 his monthly Meteor Notes in Popular Astronomy kept the topic fresh in readers’ minds. He had popularized meteors in local newspapers and asked the public to count Perseids and Leonids during the 1930s. In several regions of the US, groups of amateur astronomers adopted meteor observation as one of their pet projects. The 1930s’ meteor “fever” was a helpful distraction from the country’s economic depression. For many science-oriented people during the 1930s, it provided a useful activity that encouraged scientiﬁc skill acquisition. Meteor study helped many people to cope with a frightening period in the US’ history by doing useful projects, and doing so increased the public’s appreciation of the natural world.

Academics Adopted Meteor Astronomy

Charles Olivier had earned professional astronomers’ respect because of his scholarly articles and memoirs about meteoric astronomy. In 1925, he had published Meteors, the twentieth-century’s first English-language textbook about the subject. In 1928, he had been selected as President of the International Astronomical Union’s Meteor Commission. By 1930, his meteor society had been active for 19 years and he had used its members’ observations to illustrate the orbital fallacies inherent in claims for stationary radiants. Olivier’s scholarly research and his leadership in the American Astronomical Society and the International Astronomical Union’s Meteor Commissions earned respectability for meteor science and made it a respectable subject for others’ research. Harvard College Observatory’s (HCO) Harlow Shapley sponsored an Estonian astronomer, Ernst Opik, to conduct a meteor study program near Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. HCO’s W.J. Fisher had been scanning the observatory’s archives of photographic plates for meteor images and had taken responsibility for fireball investigations in New England’s environs. Dr. Shapley’s graduate program, a bastion of astrophysics, had accepted graduate students, like Canadian Peter Millman, who was eager to apply New Astronomy’s methods to meteor study. In the Midwest, Charles Clayton Wylie, a University of Iowa professor, investigated fireballs in the region, mounted meteor watches, and openly challenged Olivier about his fireball investigation methods. As 1932 approached, several college professors of mathematics and astronomy across the country adopted meteor astronomy as part of their curricula. They assigned their students to count and chart meteors and when observational results were analyzed they sent them to Dr. Olivier.

Olivier Was Overwhelmed by Reported Data

It could be argued that Olivier had become a victim of his own success. During the hectic meteor years of the 1930s, he needed as much assistance as he could get to 176 1930s—The Best of Times record and analyze meteor shower and ﬁreball data reported by AMS members. Indeed, he confessed to one colleague that he could not keep up with the reports pouring into AMS Headquarters, if it were not for the help of the Society’s regional directors, amateurs who Olivier appointed to train and coordinate other observers’ activities in their geographical region.3 The surfeit of data was one more sign that the 1930s were the best of times for the AMS during the country’s worst years economically.

The Man at Midlife

Home

The director’s residence was located on the Flower Observatory’s seven-acre campus. Dr. Olivier lived a short walk away from the observatory’s largest telescope, an 18-inch refractor. In addition to the director’s living quarters, the residence had an apartment for the campus’ caretaker and his wife. However, probably its best physical description was one given by Alice Olivier, Charles and Frances’ older daughter whose first impression of it was formed as a ten-year-old girl. She recalled without any affection, “It was a great big old farm house. It had 23 rooms. In winter, it took 60 tons of coal to heat it and that did not do the job; it was still cold.” Family events that were to unfold made it difficult for the residence to become a “home” in the sense of emotional closeness and security. The first four years of the 1930s decade were filled with Frances’ health crises and the disruption to family routine that inevitably accompanies such misfortunes.

Loved Ones

Mary Francis Pender Olivier

Frances had been plagued by illness since shortly after her younger daughter Elise’s birth in 1925. A breast abscess that year was followed by a series of sinus infections in 1926. Charles recalled these illnesses “wore her resistance down” and she required a lengthy hospitalization under a physician’s care in 1927. In July 1927, Charles conﬁded to Frank Schlesinger, his mentor, “doctors’ and hospital bills… have taken up my whole income of late.” Frances’ health remained fragile and in April, 1929, Olivier apologized to Schlesinger,

3A letter from Olivier to Alphonso King dated January 19, 1935, a photocopy of which is in Olivier’s American Philosophical Society correspondence ﬁle. The quote is on the second page of the two-page letter. The Man at Midlife 177

I only wish that my wife were here and my home in decent shape to invite you to stay with me when you come (to visit Philadelphia) this week. But after a few months I hope this may be possible. It has never been put in shape yet, as I have been alone. Frances’ health improved enough for her to return home in February 1930 and on the 27th of that month, Olivier penned an affectionate dedication to her as he ﬁnished writing his second book, Comets. She was still at home in May; however, the couple must have been unsure about her recovery because at that time their daughters continued living with Frances’ brothers and their wives.4 Frances’ illness became worse again and she was hospitalized in early 1933. Unfortunately, her long course of treatment and hospitalizations failed to cure her and she died on July 21, 1934 at 37 years of age. Frances had died of a heart attack while in a private hospital in Philadelphia.5 Six months later, Olivier wrote Alphonso King, an English colleague and friend,

Last year brought deep grief to me for my wife was very, very dear…had my wife lived she would have had little pleasure out of life, I am afraid, and the prospects for a complete cure had become fainter and fainter. She had been sick so much, and had to be away from home so much, that her life was fearfully saddened. With my belief, I am sure she is in a better, happier world, which her bravery and faithfulness in this fully merits. Frances’ death must have been expected as her health continued to deteriorate and some of Charles’ grieving was likely done before she died. By August 8, 1934, only 18 days after her death, Olivier had resumed work in his UPenn ofﬁce.

Olivier’s Daughters’ Perspectives

Ten-year-old Alice and ﬁve-year-old Elise returned to Upper Darby in very late 1930 or in 1931. Their mother’s chronic illness was a constant stress for the entire family. Alice recalled that “My mother’s illness was very hard on my father and us.” Charles’ sister Kate Maddux’ caring visits helped a great deal and both girls grew very fond of their aunt and teenaged cousin, Henry Cabell Maddux, Jr., who the girls teasingly called “Cowbell.” Nevertheless, even with Aunt Kate’s visits, Elise insisted that Charles was the one who raised her and Alice. On clear nights, when Charles was scheduled to use the big telescope, he would make the short walk across to the observatory building on its seven-acre facility site. He did not allow the girls to accompany him and they remembered him telling

4The 1930 US Census, enumerated on May 3, 1930, shows only Charles and Frances living at the observatory residence. The 1930 USC shows that Alice was 9 years old living with Shepperd T. Pender and wife Hattie, living in Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina, on April 14,1930; Shepperd was an insurance salesman. The 1930 Census enumeration, in Norfolk, Virginia, shows that an “Alice Olivier” lived at the household of William C. Pender and his wife, Willie. The author has assumed that it was Elise who lived in Norfolk. The two Pender couples had no children of their own living with them, only their nieces: From Ancestry.com databases for Charles P. Olivier, Shepperd Pender, and William Pender accessed on August 7,2014. 5The Charlottesville, Virginia Daily Progress, carried Frances’ obituary on July 25, 1934. 178 1930s—The Best of Times them, “Women didn’t belong in observatories at night.” His rationale was that “It was very lonely observing. He was afraid of women being out at night alone.” Neither daughter remembers him discussing astronomy with them. Despite being excluded from activity that took him away from them for many hours, the girls felt proud of having a father like Charles. Alice insisted, “The two of us were very fortunate to have him as a father.” Alice described him as “an Old Southern Gentleman.” Prodded to explain how an “O.S.G.” acted, Alice elaborated, “He was very gallant. He thought ladies are very nice. He told us that ‘Nice ladies did not kiss until they were engaged’.” Perhaps Charles’ conservatism, about how “nice ladies” should behave while dating, grew too restrictive when the girls became adolescents. Alice admitted that when she was 18, she thought her father and his viewpoint about dating “was as old as Methuselah.” Yet, the girls admired his moral code, which included not telling lies. Elise, his youngest, remembers the anguish and guilt her father felt for years afterward when he told a lie about Elise having a heart problem so that UPenn would excuse her from an often-failed swimming test that threatened to keep her from graduating. The only other character flaw Charles’ daughters recalled was his competitive attitude toward chess games at the UPenn faculty club. Both recalled recognizing that Charles had lost if they heard the door slam loudly after a game. Alice had fewer years to observe her father than Elise had. When she was 13 years old Charles sent her to an Episcopal Diocese of Virginia-run residential school located in Tappahannock, Virginia. St. Margaret’s School had inaugurated its five-year college preparatory program a dozen years before Alice matriculated at what she labeled “a school for the genteel poor of the South.” Despite this tart description, she admitted that she had “liked it a lot” and she reported in 2002 that she donated money to the school’s Alumnae fund. However, even though she thought the school a good educational experience, she believed that Elise learned more about the Bible, history, and mythology by living with their father during the five academic years she was away. Alice reported that she did not feel entirely separated from her father during high school; he wrote her every week; “I thought that was good for a man,” she said. Alice returned to Pennsylvania to live year-round and attend UPenn in 1939. There she met Arnold Edmund Hayes in August 1940. He was a first-year graduate student in her father’s astronomy program. The two married a year later on August 7, 1941. As a result, she left undergraduate studies at UPenn. Elise Olivier remained at Upper Darby for her primary and secondary education and she graduated from UPenn. While there, she met a dental student, Harry Ferris, whom she married during World War 2.

Ninuzza

Elise Olivier had an advantage over Alice because she lived with her father and watched developments in her father’s love life. One day in late 1934 or early 1935, her father received a phone call. Elise recalled, for an interview 66 years after the The Man at Midlife 179 incident, “Daddy got a call from Miss Seymour to say she had been thinking about him. Daddy took the next train to New York (City) to see her.” Elise did not know that Charles knew Ninuzza Seymour since he taught at Agnes Scott College in 1912. Charles’ first academic post was at the Decatur, Georgia women’s college from 1911 to 1914. Henrietta Roberta Ninuzza Seymour (1894–1978)6 was 18 years old and a freshman in 1912. She was born in Palermo, Sicily, while her father, William H. Seymour, served there as American Consul.7 In addition to teaching duties, Professor Olivier chaperoned some of the students’ social functions such as a field trip to Stone Mountain outside Atlanta.8 It was inevitable that the young women and he would become more informally acquainted during the non-academic activities of the college. Apparently Ninuzza and he had maintained correspondence contact for years9 after he left Agnes Scott to become an adjunct professor at University of Virginia. The Olivier–Seymour romance accelerated in the summer of 1935. In a letter to Felix de Roy, newly selected President of the International Astronomical Union’s Meteor Commission, Olivier, wrote that he spent “part of the summer (of 1935) in Paris with my fiancée.” The love-smitten Olivier wrote Dr. Otto Struve, Director of Yerkes Observatory that he planned a visit to nearby Chicago “in the latter part of July, for personal reasons…for a few weeks.” In September, Olivier informed Meteor Notes readers he had been away for six weeks and while in Chicago, he attended an August 10th conference of AMS members and nearby amateur astronomers arranged by Luverne Armfield.10 However, probably the major reason for his trip away was to visit Ms. Seymour who lived in Chicago at the time. By October, Olivier announced their engagement to Alphonso King,

I am engaged to a very lovely woman, one…who has had a most splendid career in the American Red Cross in the legal-medical end of it, going as far as a woman can in the special part of the work she chose. If all goes well we will be married this winter, so I hope the future will again give me the sort of home I have always desired.

6Ms. Seymour’s full name and vital statistics were listed under biographical details for Kinter Berkebile (1872–1966). Ninuzza is listed as his spouse, full name: Henrietta Roberta Ninuzza Seymour, 1894–1978. Berkebile was apparently her second husband. Source Ancestry.com database for Mr. Berkebile accessed on 11/5/2013. 7Philadelphia Record, Dr. Charles Olivier marries in Capital, Director of Penn Observatory takes Red Cross Aide as Bride, October 24, 1936. 8“Silhouette(1912)” the Agnes Scott College yearbook, accessed 11/8/2013: http://archive.org/ stream/silhouette191200agne/silhouette191200agne_djvu.txt. 9A photocopy of a hand-written, annotated copy of AMS Bulletin 10 had notes to send copies of AMS Report 1919–1925 to several people that included astronomers, “Mrs. CPO” and “Miss N. Seymour.” The Report was published in 1929 by Leander McCormick Observatory/UVA. A note on the Bulletin’s ﬁrst page states Olivier mailed it from Flower Observatory. Bulletin 10 was dated May 7, 1929. It is not clear precisely when it was mailed, but the author suspects it was late 1929. Hand-written notes also indicate copies were to be sent to Shepperd Turner Pender and William Cottrell Pender, Olivier’s brothers-in-law, who had cared for Olivier’s daughters ca. 1925–1930. 10Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 498. 180 1930s—The Best of Times

It was unusual for Olivier, but in the security of his friendship with King, he confided, that he had returned from a trip to “Pittsburgh (in November 1935), where I spent some days with my fiancée, and this meant very frankly that such minor things as scientific matters were temporarily laid aside.” Olivier and Seymour’s intention to marry may have been shared with only a select few. Frank Schlesinger was informed at the last minute, when Olivier told him he could not meet Schlesinger one week in late October 1936; Olivier explained that he was marrying. Charles and Ninuzza were married quietly on October 23 in Washington, D.C., but afterward the public was informed by announcements in Philadelphia and Washington newspaper articles.11

The Observatory Director’s Lifestyle

By 1930, Dr. Olivier had become a celebrity. His newspaper and magazine articles,12 speaking engagements,13 and occasional radio interviews14 about the Leonids and astronomical topics made his name known to the astronomically interested public. Being Flower Observatory Director conveyed the autonomy to engage with the wider community; he was an authority by reason of his role as well as his scientiﬁc achievements. Prominent community members sought him out for both of these reasons; they wanted him to be part of their circle of friends. Olivier’s celebrity status was perhaps similar to that held by Carl Sagan in the late twentieth century and by Neil de Grasse Tyson in the early twenty-ﬁrst (Fig. 1). One such prominent person was John Adams Kingsbury (1876–1956)15 who was known to one 1930s era newspaper as “one of the most widely known of

11Dr. Charles Olivier weds Miss Seymour, Astronomer’s Bride is former Executive Secretary of the American Red Cross, New York Times, October 26, 1936. And, Philadelphia Record, Dr. Charles Olivier marries in Capital, Director of Penn Observatory takes Red Cross Aide as Bride, October 24, 1936. 12Albert G. Ingalls, associate editor of Scientific American magazine, in 1931, wrote Olivier a letter, dated August 21, 1931, acknowledging an article sent by Olivier for publication. Ingalls apologized for being only able to offer $25 for Olivier’s work. Source: Olivier’s American Philosophical Society correspondence file. 13For one example, Dr. Olivier gave a talk about “Meteors” to the Amateur Astronomers Association at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on May 1, 1929. Source: Brainin, C.S., editor, Amateur Astronomer, volume 1, No. 2, New York: Amateur Astronomers Association, p. 3. Olivier also wrote articles for Amateur Astronomer: “The Observation of Meteors” for its Spring 1933 issue. Source: Amateur Astronomer, volume 6, No. 2, pp. 3–5. 14Olivier, C.P., The August meteors, “A Radio Talk, under the auspices of Science Service” and broadcast “through a nationwide network of the Columbia Broadcasting System.” The broadcast was made on August 1, 1930. Source: A carbon copy of a script from Olivier’s APS correspondence file. 15Birth year found in Ancestry.com database. Date of death from Springfield (MA) Union, Obituary Notice, August 4, 1956, p. 21. The Man at Midlife 181

Fig. 1 Charles P. Olivier and John A. Kingsbury. Courtesy of Philip W. Feller, grandson of Dr. Clyde Fisher, photographer for the American Astronomers’ Association of New York 182 1930s—The Best of Times

American social workers.”16 Kingsbury rose from obscurity as a Washington (State) teacher, earned a B.S. degree from Columbia University in 1908 and an LL. D. from Syracuse University in 1931. Along the way, Kingsbury was mentored by Homer Folks, an early US social worker. He became Commissioner of Public Charities in New York City (1914), and he was named the ‘American Red Cross,’ Assistant Director of general relief in Paris, France (1918–1919), and from 1921 to 1935 was Secretary of the Milbank Memorial Fund.17 The Milbank Fund was located on New York’s Wall Street and was endowed by Elizabeth Milbank Anderson (1850–1921), daughter of wealthy Jeremiah Milbank (1818–1884), one of the founders of what would become the Borden Milk Company.18 The Fund was intended for social research and the promotion of public health.19 At the time, Kingsbury became the Fund’s Secretary, eradication of tuberculosis was its focus, and he was reported to be directing a $2,000,000 program for this purpose.20 Kingsbury enjoyed this prestigious role, bought a Catskills mountaintop retreat, which he and his wife Mabel named “Lavorika.” They cultivated “a wide and intensely interesting circle of friends.”21 Charles P. Olivier joined the “circle” during Kingsbury’s AMS membership years 1931–1932. Dr. Olivier mentioned his ﬁrst visit to Lavorika in a 1931 Meteor Note.22 He reported that the site was in the clear air, “at an altitude of about 2000 feet.” His sojourn there was from November 13th to the 17th and

“on November 16/17…besides Mr. Kingsbury and (himself), a party of nine took part in a meteor watch…these nine observers counted the meteors…from 11:00 p.m. on the 16th to 5:40 a.m. on the 17th (Olivier) recorded 266 meteors, plotting about 100. The total counts of the 11 watchers were over 2500; allowing for duplicates, at least 1000 Leonids were seen.” Olivier estimated that from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., the Leonid rate was between 130 and 190 per hour for one observer. He was thrilled to see two ﬁreballs that left 12-min trains and he judged that “On the whole, the shower was an excellent one.” Olivier did not join Kingsbury at Lavorika for the 1932 Leonid shower but mentioned in a Meteor Note, “Mr. Kingsbury’s party leads all other AMS observers

16Source: Omaha World Herald (Omaha, NE), October 27, 1935, p. 3; from GenealogyBank.com’s database about Kingsbury. 17John Adams Kingsbury Papers, A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress, 1998 and revised 2010, pp. 4–5, http://rs5.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2003/ms003054. pdf. Accessed 8/20/2014. 18Elizabeth Milbank Anderson (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Milbank_ Anderson. Accessed 8/20/2014. 19Evansville (IN) Courier and Press, January 1, 1936, p. 3; the Fund’s purpose is also alluded to in Ms. Anderson’s Wikipedia biography. 20Seattle Daily Press, June 4, 1922; Source: Genealogy Bank.com. 21Source: Genealogy Bank.com: Seattle Daily Press, June 4, 1922. 22Olivier, C.P., Meteor Note, 1931 Leonids, PA, volume 39, 1931, p. 607. The Man at Midlife 183 in numbers reported; they saw 901…because they were favored by an ideal station from which to observe…”23 Kingsbury wrote Olivier saying that his absence was regretted and that those who had returned from 1931’s party, “all remembered you so pleasantly and recalled how much you added both to the pleasure and the scientiﬁc interest of our last year’s observations.” Kingsbury mentioned that “Dorothy A. Bennett, Assistant Curator of Education at the American Museum of Natural History” was among the party who missed Olivier and he invited Olivier to his 1933 Leonid party. Olivier did not write about attending the 1933 Leonid party at Lavorika, but he did attend Kingsbury’s gathering there for the 1933 Perseids. He disclosed to Meteor Notes readers24 that he

was at the hospitable home of Mr. J.A. Kingsbury in the Catskill mountains, for the nights of Aug 11/12 and 12/13…Mr. Kingsbury gave a “meteor party,” about 50 guests attending…For several years past, Mr. and Mrs. Kingsbury have been giving, for the Perseids and Leonids, “meteor parties” which are largely attended. These are not only most pleasant to the guests, but spread some knowledge of meteoric astronomy among large groups. The idea is passed on to other AMS members who may own country homes. It is well worth imitating.

Rest and Recreation in the Old Dominion

Charles Olivier always considered himself a Virginian and was proud of his heritage. He was like Antaeus, the Greek god that drew strength from contact with “mother earth”; but for Olivier, the nourishing soil was Virginia’s. So it is not too surprising that he mentioned spending some vacations in the Old Dominion. Periodically, Meteor Notes published during the summer contained a byline address in Virginia, like in July 1931 when his address was “Chesterbrook Farm, Rosslyn, Virginia,” just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.25 In 1936, he wrote a Note from his home county, Albemarle. That year, he watched the Perseid shower from Shadwell26 which was the name of Peter Jefferson’s huge plantation, where his son Thomas, third President of the USA, was born. Olivier was a private man and did not disclose any details about these sojourns, like who accompanied him, or who his hosts were.

23Olivier, C.P., Meteor Note, PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 646. 24Olivier, C.P., Meteor Note, PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 462. 25Olivier, C.P., Meteor Note, PA, volume 39, 1931, p. 407. 26Olivier, C.P., Meteor Note, PA, volume 44, 1936, p. 438. 184 1930s—The Best of Times

Religious and Political Convictions

Charles Olivier’s parents were members of the Episcopal Church and George Olivier was a vestryman at the church in Charlottesville. Charles followed their example and was a lifelong Episcopalian, taking an active part in church affairs. Like his father, he served on two church Vestries. In his later years, he wrote church officials decrying the liberal social actions the church leaders were taking. As he retired from University of Pennsylvania in 1954, Olivier left a typewritten document in the Flower Observatory’s files whose title declared that it contained biographical information “not to be found probably in Who’s Who or American Men of Science.” In it, he declared that he had been active in the Harry Bird “wing of the Democratic Party” in Virginia.27 Harry Flood Byrd, Sr. (1887–1966) dominated Virginia politics for the last 40 years of his life, serving as Virginia’s governor and then a US Senator. Byrd was a fiscally conservative governor and when a Senator he strenuously opposed racial integration in the Virginia public schools from 1954 until health problems forced his retirement.28 Olivier’s views did not vary from his parents’ about the Confederacy and the correctness of its cause. He wrote to the editor of the Confederate Veteran,a magazine that “officially represent(ed) United Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy,” when the magazine ceased publication in 1933. Editor E.A. Pope thanked Olivier for his “kind letter…referring to the passing of the Veteran…with you we deplore the discontinuance of the publication which has fought again the battles of the South…” Pope praised Olivier’s appreciation of the magazine’s views, writing “it shows that you were indeed trained by a patriotic mother.”

The Astronomer at Midlife

Double and Variable Star Research Work

Charles Olivier was best known for his accomplishments on behalf of meteor astronomy and for leading the American Meteor Society’s observational research programs. It is seldom known that he had a second professional specialty: double stars. Measuring and discovering these kept him and the Flower Observatory staff at the eyepiece of the facility’s 18-inch refractor. This was the work that won Olivier

27Olivier, C.P. Notes on life and work of C.P. Olivier, which would not be found probably in Who’s Who or American Men of Science. A typewritten document, annotated in Olivier’s hand writing, circa 1954. In Flower Observatory achives. 28http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_F._Byrd. Accessed 10/14/14. The Astronomer at Midlife 185 more respect than meteor astronomy among his peers in the American Astronomical Society. The following is an account about the nature of this other “night duty” that Olivier and his staff performed. It is a glimpse into the type of work that classical astronomers did.

Continued Double Star Measurement

“1414 Measures” was the first double star paper published, in 1932, during Olivier’s administration at Flower Observatory. He gave a short history of the Observatory and its traditional work: measurement of the distance between stars comprising a “binary,” or double star. This work had been done at Flower Observatory since its inauguration in 1895. Dr. Samuel Barton continued the work after the Observatory’s last director, Eric Doolittle, died in 1920. When Dr. Olivier became Director in autumn 1928, he wanted to continue the measurements because the Observatory’s reputation had been built upon them and because he had developed a reputation in the field too; he had written 16 papers on the subject since 1905. Dr. Olivier devoted space in “1414” to a description of the technical improvements in the telescope and observatory building he had insisted upon when he accepted the observatory directorship. He wanted an electrical motor to rotate the dome. And he wanted electrical lighting for the large “setting circles” so that it would be easier to accurately point the massive telescope at target stars. Before Olivier’s appointment, Dr. Barton made do by physically pushing the dome into position and by using a flashlight and oil lamps for the circles. Two other improvements, lowering the height of the observer’s chair and adding to it a moveable shelf, “saved not only continual annoyance but many hours of valuable time,” according to Dr. Olivier’s report. All four improvements “made faster observing possible” and increased the factory observatory’s output of data. The bulk of the “1414” paper consisted mostly of numbers. They were arranged so that for each of 1,033 double stars observed a cluster of digits referred to micrometer measures the astronomers made. Each cluster identified the measured star, dates it was measured, the angular orientation of the pair, and the distance in seconds of arc between the stars. There were 1,414 of these clusters, all the telescopic work of the paper’s authors, Olivier and Barton, and their graduate students F.G. Fender, A.H. Mason, and W.P. Wamer. They had measured and remeasured binary stars that were listed in earlier astronomers’ catalogs. The purpose of the measurements was merely to indelibly mark in time where the component stars in each double had been located, so that future astronomers might detect a rotation or changing separation when they made measurements of those stars again. Changes in the stars’ positions might prompt a future astronomer to recompute their orbit to see whether the result confirmed an earlier computation or if it indicated an 186 1930s—The Best of Times improved orbit. Classical astronomy often consisted of such incremental toil; astronomers were night watchmen inspecting the universe’s clockwork as it ticked away the years. They did not expect their routine work to vault them into fame. 1414’s authors had worked in four hour shifts on clear nights. However, “clear” was an imprecise description. Dr. Olivier noted that even in the early 1930s, air clarity (“transparency” is the technical term astronomers use) and steadiness (“seeing”) were deteriorating because of the encroachments of nearby Philadelphia’s “continuous building…and worst of all the immense increase in electrical illumination of both streets and buildings.” Olivier complained that by 1932, “we now suffer from being practically in the city (of Philadelphia).”.He explained that poor transparency and seeing conditions forced the five astronomers to limit telescopic magnification to 212 times, on most occasions, and to only 423 times on the “best” nights. Use of such low magnifications, 12 and 24 times per inch of telescope aperture, meant that component stars did not appear very far apart and errors due to eyestrain could more easily be made when using the micrometer. Nevertheless, the men pressed on, as best they could, with the observational tradition of Flower Observatory. Olivier’s portion of the 1,414 was 468 measurements made from 1928 to June 1931; Barton’s list was 382 long; Fender’s 178; Mason’s 163, and Wamer’s 223. In the paper’s section where Olivier discussed his own measures, he reported that “about a year after starting work there a change began in (his) eyesight.” The 45-year-old astronomer reported that he had trouble reading the separation measurement on the filar micrometer and it became progressively more difficult, necessitating his use of a magnifying lens. Concerned about this, Olivier then described the analysis he made of his latest measurements in comparison with those he made at Lick and McCormick Observatories, 1911–1928. This self-assessment was a typical practice for a competent classical astronomer. He needed to learn if he, as a human “measuring instrument,” had developed a new “systematic error” to be compensated for in reducing micrometer measurements. In the course of this telescopic work, Olivier discovered six new double stars, and listed them, in the “1414 Measures” paper, as numbers 127–132 in his eponymous double star catalog. In 1936, he corrected his catalog’s numeration of discoveries made at McCormick Observatory and he added to it “16 faint and… rather wide pairs found at Flower Observatory” from 1932 to 1935. At that time, he had 164 discoveries in his catalog.29 Two years later, in 1938, he published another 12 discoveries, Olivier Numbers 165–176.30 Olivier’s newly discovered and

29Olivier, C.P., Corrections and Additions to the Double Stars found by Olivier, Astronomische Nachtrichten, volume 258, 1936, p. 410. 30Olivier, C.P., Fourteen New Double Stars Found at Flower Observatory, Astronomical Journal, volume 47, 1938, p. 100. Two of the 14 were found by graduate assistant P.H. Taylor. The Astronomer at Midlife 187 measured binaries added to the longer list of all double star observers’ earlier discoveries. Future astronomers would dutifully check the entire list for changes and publish their own reports like “1414.”31

Variable Star Astronomy at Flower Observatory

In 1932, Olivier reported that the Flower Observatory staff had spent 90 % of its observational time, in the period October 1929–June 1931, measuring double stars, and “the rest being spent on variable stars.” Perhaps this division of observing time explains why it took until 1936 for Olivier to publish the first note32 about a variable star which Flower Observatory staff and a pair of collaborating American Meteor Society members, J.L. Woods and P.S. Watson, had been monitoring. This variable star was a special case of double star, called an eclipsing variable star, also known as an eclipsing binary. An eclipsing binary is a very close star-pair, which appears as one even in a telescope. The two stars’ orbit happens to be edge on to terrestrial observers who see it only in profile. This means that at regular intervals of time, each star passes in front of and wholly or partially eclipses the other, causing the stars’ combined light to dim. It is only when both stars are visible to the observer that the eclipsing variable star is at “maximum,” its brightest magnitude. By 1927, Dr. Henry Norris Russell and colleagues at Princeton University had discovered several properties of the stars in eclipsing binaries by examining the “light curve” of the binary. This curve is a graphed plot of the star’s magnitude variations over the period of time required for the star’s components to make a complete cycle from maximum to maximum. From such a plot, the Princeton astrophysicists were able to calculate the diameters, masses, and densities of each component star, and the distance between the stars’ centers. They stated that study of the light curve was “the first way in which the diameter of a star was ever measured.” One might imagine that Russell et al.’s breakthrough made discovery and monitoring of eclipsing binaries a priority project at every observatory that monitored double stars. However, Dr. Olivier decided against such a project and instead

31This book’s reader may be interested in Dr. Robert H. Koch’s evaluation of the variable star and eclipsing binary star science done at Flower Observatory, including that done during Dr. Olivier’s directorship. Dr. Koch (1929–2010) was a professional astronomer on Flower and Cook Observatories’ staff until 1996 and he wrote a comprehensive history of observational astronomy at those institutions. See, Koch, R.H., Observational Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania 1751–2007, privately published in 2005 but available online (2008). Koch’s appraisal of Dr. Olivier’s career achievements is on pp. 57–59 and his opinion of the enduring value of scientific work done, especially under Olivier’s direction is on pp. 76 and 79–80. 32Olivier, C.P., An eclipsing variable, PA, volume 44, 1936, pp. 257–258. 188 1930s—The Best of Times continued Flower Observatory’s tradition, and his own professional interest,33 by devoting most observing time to measuring double stars as Flower Observatory astronomers had done since 1895. Even if eclipsing variables did not become the rage at Flower Observatory, monitoring other types of variable stars’ magnitudes continued at a slower pace alongside measurement of double stars. Owing to a minority time allotment to variables, years were required to amass a sufficient number of results before the first report was printed, in 1940, about the observatory’s variable star work during the 1930s.34 In his introduction to that paper, Olivier mentioned that the 1940 report did not include eclipsing binaries, but instead “only dealt with those (variables) of long period, irregular, or unknown period” in order to aid an American Association of Variable Star Observers’ program. The 1940 report also provided measurements of the brightness of comparison stars in the star fields surrounding the targeted variables. Those estimates were needed in order to estimate the variables’ brightness. Olivier reassured colleagues that eclipsing variables had not been completely neglected at Flower Observatory. He wrote that “several of the assistants” had been “intensively studying” the binaries for their dissertation projects. One of them, William Wamer wrote a dissertation which was completed in 1934, on the “Eclipsing Variable SX Draconis.”35

Comets

Dr. Olivier’s last exposure to cometary astronomy was when he was a graduate assistant at Lick Observatory from 1909 to 1910. Then, he assisted Heber Curtis and Paul Merrill with their photography of Comet Halley and an unpredicted “January Comet.” Returning to this topic, by writing Comets, was a distinct departure from Olivier’s better-known astronomical specializations. Comets revealed that Olivier had astrophysical sophistication because he discussed the spectra of several comets’ tails and the elemental composition they implied. This revelation may have been an important covert message that Olivier wanted to convey to astrophysicist colleagues; the new observatory director was competent in astrophysics as well as in classical astronomy. Olivier was astute politically and

33Olivier was named to membership in the IAU’s Commission 26, on Double Stars in 1925 and belonged until 1938. Source: Olivier, C.P., “A Report on the Department of Astronomy and the two Astronomical Observatories during the directorship of Charles P. Olivier”, dated 1952 March 2009, p. 6. This is a carbon copy in the author’s archives. 34Olivier, C.P., Magnitudes and Coordinates of Comparison Stars in 52 Regions of Variable Stars and Magnitudes of 284 Variables, Publications of the University of Pennsylvania, Astronomical Series, Volume 5, Part 3; Philadelphia: UPenn Press, 1940. The monograph was reviewed in Prager, R., Magnitudes and Coordinates (etc.), PA, volume 48, 1940, p. 572. 35Wamer’s dissertation has also been dated as 1936 in the Library of Congress’ listing and as Flower Observatory Reprint 35A, but it appears as 1934 in the SAO/NASA ADS database, http:// adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1934PhDT. Accessed 8/25/2014. The Astronomer at Midlife 189 wanted to be respected by both astrophysicists and astronomers in the astronomical community. Comets was Dr. Olivier’s second book, published in September 1930. In comparison with his ﬁrst one, Meteors, it was a more descriptive book, even quite dramatically written when Olivier described what it may have been like to witness the impact of “a tremendous blazing mass” that created the nearly mile-wide Arizona Meteor Crater. However, such departures into colorful imagery were brief and Olivier returned to factual material to educate “the (non-specialist) astronomer, as well as an average intelligent reader” about the “origin, constitution, changes, and dissolution of comets…” Olivier intended the book to be a sequel to Meteors and he accomplished this by describing comets as the progenitors of meteor showers. In connection to this topic, Comets prompted readers about the return of the Leonid meteor shower and possible storm during the years 1932–1934.

Professional and Graduate-Level Astronomers’ Attitudes Toward Meteoric and Stellar Astronomy

Disdain for meteoric astronomy seemed to pervade the entire American astronomical community in the 1930s. An incident reported during a 1932 American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting could have been a typical example of the attitude in many astronomers’ minds. The entire staff of Flower Observatory attended the AAS’ 49th meeting in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in December 1932. Dr. Olivier discussed results from observers’ Leonid watches made the previous month. Ms. Doris Wills presented a preliminary statistical analysis of 20,000 meteors observed by AMS members from 1926 to 1932. And the AMS was not the sole source of meteor reports, Peter Millman from Harvard Observatory gave a talk about meteor spectra secured during the 1932 Leonids.36 At some point during one of these discussions, a member of the audience of professional astronomers was heard to remark, “You might as well watch the clouds drift by as observe meteors.” Arnold Edmund Hayes, Jr. (1920–2005),37 Dr. Olivier’s future son-in-law, was a graduate assistant at Flower Observatory for one academic year, 1940–1941, and was there long enough to register professional astronomers’ scorn for meteors as a scientiﬁc ﬁeld of study. Hayes reported the prevailing attitude toward AMS studies: “The AAS ignored us.” He explained, “They didn’t see the point of it. ‘Well, so what,’ was members’ attitudes. If we pointed out that a sporadic had a different orbit than a shower meteor, or, that a meteor was extrasolar in origin, the AAS was

36Olivier, C.P, Meteor Notes, PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 111; and Dean McLaughlin, The 49th Meeting of the AAS, PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 68. 37Arnold Edmund Hayes, Jr., 1920–2005. Source of Vital statistics: http://midatlantic.rootsweb. ancestry.com/database/d0154/g0000099.htm#192198, accessed 8/23/2014. 190 1930s—The Best of Times not interested.” Hayes indicated the prevailing scientific focus for the professional community at the time: “Variable stars! Everyone understood that! Every observatory cranked out data; that was what the ‘scope was for.” So too at Flower Observatory, “All of our work was about variable stars and the reductions in variable star data, which were sent to Harvard.” Hayes mentioned that, “Rainy day work was about meteors.” These same views were well established a decade earlier, judging by the behavior of Flower Observatory’s graduate students. One of F.W. Smith’s recol- lections38 was “Dr. Olivier had serious trouble with graduate students. They refused to work on meteor problems as subjects for PhD theses on the ground that such a thesis would be of little help in getting a job.” And, in fact an exclusive focus on meteors could potentially have prevented Olivier from advancing in his own career. Smith recalled, “Dr. Olivier once told me that he regretted not having time to observe meteors, but that he ‘was paid to look through a telescope’.” Smith elaborated on Olivier’s comment, “At the time, meteors were not considered worthy of an astronomer’s attention.” Dr. Olivier recognized the reality that professional colleagues were unlikely to hire a new PhD if the new astronomer had written a meteor-related dissertation. Olivier acceded to his assistants’ pleas for non-meteoric doctoral topics, and the first two dissertations completed during Olivier’s regime, W.P. Wamer and R.H. Wilson’s were, respectively, about an eclipsing variable star and a newly developed technology for measuring the distance between double stars’ components.39 Even on the one occasion when Olivier could persuade a graduate student to accept a meteor topic for a PhD dissertation, his luck was bad. Fred G. Fender began his association with Dr. Olivier and Flower Observatory as a volunteer observer in the summer of 1929. At that time, he took graduate electrical engineering courses but assured Dr. Olivier he intended to pursue astronomy as a career. Olivier was excited about this prospect because he deemed Fender “an exceptional student.” Olivier wrote Frank Schlesinger, chairman of the J. Lawrence Smith Fund for the financial support needed to bring Fender on as an assistant at Flower Observatory. In accepting the fellowship, Fender had agreed to write a dissertation examining AMS meteor data to determine whether it supported Cuno Hoffmeister’s theory of hyperbolic meteor velocities. Fender reportedly worked energetically. However, he became ill during the winter of 1930–1931 and lost all interest in practical astronomy. Olivier “felt obliged to relieve Mr. Fender of this thesis

38Smith was a resident volunteer computer at Flower Observatory 1929–1936. 39Wamer’s: ‘The Eclipsing Variable SX Draconis’ 1934, republished 1936; and Wilson’s: ‘Interferometric Measurement of Double Stars with an 18-inch Refractor.” Wilson’s dissertation was written circa 1935, judging by two letters between Olivier and Dr. Otto Struve, editor of Astrophysical Journal, dated 1935: Struve to Wilson and Olivier (October 11, 1935) and Olivier to Struve (October 21, 1935); Source: Olivier’s APS correspondence ﬁle. The Astronomer at Midlife 191 subject.” Olivier hoped that he could interest another graduate student in the topic, but that possibility never presented itself.40 Olivier was only able to persuade some assistants to write masters’ degree theses on meteoric topics.

Presentation of Meteor Results to Professional Organizations

Despite the discouraging and sometimes rude reception his meteor research got from colleagues young and old, Dr. Olivier persisted in presenting its latest developments to learned societies and professional meetings. He presented “Daily and Monthly Meteor Rates” to the April 1933 meeting of the Pennsylvania Academy of Sciences which published it in its Proceedings. And he alerted Meteor Notes readers that he was to give a paper, “Heights and Train-Drifts of the Leonid Meteors of 1932” to an April 22, 1933 meeting of the American Philosophical Society (APS). The paper concerned “results of the local network of 14 stations (which extended from New York to Virginia).”41 Two years later, he mentioned to Notes readers that he gave a paper dealing with long-enduring meteor trains to a Washington, D.C. meeting of the Geophysical Union in April 1935. He explained that “One purpose…(was to) call attention to the desirability of cooperation on the part of scientists interested in the earth’s atmosphere in the gathering of meteor train data…”42 In December 1935, at the AAS’ 55th Meeting in Princeton, New Jersey, where Albert Einstein was guest of honor one night, Dr. Olivier asked Ms. Wills to present her “Statistical Investigation of November Meteor Heights from the AMS.” She calculated the beginning and end heights of 369 meteors which were plotted on meteor maps by AMS members during the 1932 to 1934 Leonid showers. Dr. Olivier had the satisfaction of knowing that an abstract of the paper was published in Publications of the AAS.43

40Olivier, C.P., Report to the Committee of the J. Lawrence Smith Fund of the National Academy of Science, dated January 21, 1932. Source: Frank Schlesinger correspondence ﬁle at Yale. 41Olivier mentioned this in his Meteor Note in PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 279. The Academy published it in its Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science, Volume 7, 1933; it is also Flower Observatory Reprint No. 21. 42Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 377. 43Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 44, 1936, p. 277. The abstract of Wills’ paper appeared in Publications of the AAS, volume 8, 1936, p. 229. A summary of the social events at the 55th meeting was published in Popular Astronomy, volume 44, 1936, pp. 59–62 and Drs. Olivier and Barton appear in a group photograph opposite p. 59. 192 1930s—The Best of Times

Formal Honors Awarded

Dr. Olivier was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society at its annual meeting in April 1932.44 The Society is the oldest scholarly society in the USA, and its establishment was suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1743. Olivier wrote Frank Schlesinger about his election, “It was a complete and most agreeable surprise…I did not know anyone had in mind to put up my name. I consider the election a great honor and will try in the future to justify it.” Olivier’s son-in-law, Arnold Hayes, who knew Olivier from 1940 until Olivier’s death in 1975, commented, “If you were to ask him, ‘What was the greatest thing that ever happened to you?’ he would have said, ‘Being elected to the American Philosophical Society!’” The Society was the venue for some of Dr. Olivier’s lectures and it published several of his monographs.

“Neighbors”

Frank Schlesinger (1871–1943), Director of Yale Observatory, was a formidable power in American astronomy and had been since 1919, when he succeeded Edward Pickering as President of the American Astronomical Society. His status was increased by roles he played on the international level: From 1925 to 1932, he was the vice president of the International Astronomical Union, and from 1932 to 1935 he served as its President. Schlesinger was classical astronomy’s political and financial counterpart to astrophysics’ H.N. Russell. As an officer of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Schlesinger was influential in awarding the J. Lawrence Smith Fund grants to astronomers and Dr. Olivier was the grateful recipient of several.45 Schlesinger

44Anonymous, General Notes and Reviews, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, volume 44, 1932, p. 192. 45Dr. Schlesinger referred to being the “Chairman of the J. Lawrence Smith Fund” in a June 18, 1927 response to Dr. Olivier’s request for a $200 grant from the Fund. Olivier wanted funds to hire a student to help him with some clerical matters and for some “accessories” for photographic work he was contemplating. Schlesinger assured Olivier, “I have little doubt that the grant will be made.” The letters are from Schlesinger’s Correspondence File at Yale University: CPO to FS on June 16, 1927, FS to CPO on June 18, 1927 and CPO to FS on June 20, 1927. Further details about this grant request: Schlesinger, Frank, Chairman, J. Lawrence Smith Fund, Report of the NAS, fiscal year 1927–1928, dated January 1, 1928, Publication Serial Set Vol. No. 9002, Report: S. Doc. 174 of the Autumn 1927 meeting, pp. 7–8, which reported: Dr. Olivier was granted $200 to “(1) have 500 sets of meteor maps for the Southern Hemisphere… (2) to construct a camera box for a large unmounted portrait lens… (3) to secure the occasional assistance of a student in certain statistical work. I particularly desire to test out Hoffmeister’s theory of meteor velocities, using the AMS data…”. Several Reports of the NAS, for fiscal years 1915–1916, 1930–1931, 1932–1934, and 1941– 1942 reported JLS Fund grants to Dr. Olivier, ranging from $200 to $400. Source: The Astronomer at Midlife 193 exercised his influence over several eastern universities’ astronomy programs when, in 1920, he established the Neighbors club consisting of the directors of the institutions’ observatories.46 Schlesinger convened informal meetings of “The Neighbors” which met in New Haven, Connecticut, Yale’s location. Directors from the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions were invited to form cooperative working relationships; Princeton’s Henry Norris Russell, Harvard’s Harlow Shapley, and Virginia’s Samuel Mitchell were prominent members. When Charles Olivier was appointed director of Flower Observatory, he was called upon to participate too. One function of the meetings was to discuss graduate students and junior colleagues’ fitness for advancement. Olivier and Schlesinger had a correspondence relationship dating back at least to 1923, and Schlesinger had been the power broker who helped Olivier win the directorship at Flower Observatory in 1928.47 Olivier’s inclusion in the Neighbors was a token of the esteem with which he was held as a member of the American astronomical fraternity and of his status among its elites. Frank Schlesinger’s Yale University correspondence file contains 13 letters between Olivier and himself that refer to Neighbors meetings during the years 1928 to 1937. Both men found the meetings helpful, even Schlesinger believed he “never fail(ed) to get some worthwhile suggestions from these meetings.” Olivier benefitted in concrete ways when he attended: among them, securing C.C. Trowbridge’s meteor train files,48 and discussions with Schlesinger about publishing Elkins’ long-delayed results. Olivier’s attendance was spotty, however. One of Olivier’s letters suggests that a reason was Mary Frances’ medical crises. Other reasons were clear-cut: The Neighbors were meeting during a campaign that Olivier had planned for the 1931 Leonid shower and a second meeting date conflicted with Olivier’s marriage to Ninuzza Seymour in 1936. Still, Schlesinger chided Olivier for absences, writing in 1937, “You have not been to many meetings in recent years and I believe you do not realize what you are missing.”

(Footnote 45 continued) GenealogyBank.com Web site database listing “Official Documents” regarding Charles P. Olivier. These records were accessed in August 2013. 46Hoffleit, Dorrit, Astronomy at Yale, 1701–1968, Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Volume 23, New Haven, CT: CT Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1992, pp. 141– 142; and Brouwer, op.cit., p. 122. Schlesinger hinted at the political power he wielded to elect candidates to the NAS by suggesting that Harlow Shapley discuss candidate Annie Jump Cannon at a Neighbors meeting in 1925: Lankford, op.cit., pp. 349–350. 47The professionally powerful Neighbors, especially Schlesinger, frequently influenced or determined the selection of observatories’ directors and more junior staff members. Schlesinger’s Yale correspondence file contains several letters dated 1936 in which he and Olivier discuss the desirability of having Harold Lee Alden, a friend of Olivier’s from McCormick Observatory days, and staff member of Yale’s South African observatory, become director of Swarthmore College’s Sproul Observatory. Alden did not get the post, which went to Peter van de Kamp. 48Trowbridge’s pioneering work on trains formed the beginning of Olivier’s data collection of long-enduring meteor trains. 194 1930s—The Best of Times

Even after Frank Schlesinger’s death in 1943, Olivier continued to meet once annually with Henry Norris Russell and Harlow Shapley according to Olivier’s son-in-law, Arnold Hayes. Hayes had this privileged information because he chauffeured Olivier to the sessions in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Hayes overheard parts of the men’s conversations and realized that, “They reviewed PhD applications and decided which students ‘wouldn’t hack it.” 49 So, it appears that Olivier exercised considerable inﬂuence, along with other prominent observatory directors, in the selection of the next generation of astronomers.

Organizing Flower Observatory Staff for the Leonids

Taking advantage of a rare opportunity to study the Leonid meteor stream at “storm” strength posed many challenges for the Flower Observatory’s director. Conducting the meteor research projects Olivier contemplated added demands on the time of the observatory staff which had preexisting programs for which they were already responsible. This predicament was a test of a director’s management skill: coaxing maximum productivity from his staff. Historian and sociologist of astronomy, John Lankford, described the observatory director’s role as being like a “chief executive officer” of a “factory observatory.” Many of the same management skills used by the 1930s’ corporate leaders were needed by observatory directors to keep to the observatory’s research agenda and maintain production quotas. Directors had a small number of staff members to conduct the observatory and university astronomy department’s “business”: monitoring celestial objects in its research programs, analyzing data collected, writing research reports, teaching undergraduate and graduate students, recruiting new research-savvy graduate students to fulfill the observatory’s research goals, graduating bright new PhDs who would become the profession’s new luminaries, and marketing the observatory’s “product line,” its research, to the public, to academic institutions and to funding organizations. In addition, it was necessary for the director to demonstrate how well he employed the observatory’s resources in comparison with other factory observatories’ directors. He was under pressure to show the university’s board of regents or trustees that it was “getting the biggest bang for its buck,” that is, the most scientific yield for university funds that supported the observatory. Doing so was the director’s best commendation when he asked for more money and staff.

49Hayes explained the reason he was Olivier’s chauffeur: “Olivier in his later years had Parkinsonism. He was very self-conscious about it. I served as his chauffeur and drove him up to this meeting.” Organizing Flower Observatory Staff for the Leonids 195

Stafﬁng and Work at Flower Observatory 1930–1936

Near the end of his tenure at UPenn, Dr. Olivier gave his Board of Trustees an accounting of his career at Flower Observatory. Olivier reported that during his ﬁrst academic year as director, 1928–1929, one other astronomer, Samuel Barton, and he were the only staff members. Teaching two undergraduate sections of astronomy classes left the men little time to use the observatory’s 18-inch telescope for double star research, the observatory’s tradition since 1897. The report continued that beginning the following academic year, autumn 1929 until spring 1930, and continuing until World War 2, Olivier increased the observatory staff by adding two graduate student assistants. Olivier reported to the Trustees that with the students, he was able to keep the 18-inch busy producing data for six entire nights per week. Olivier summed up his 26-year stewardship of the telescope and its use by staff with a list of research projects conducted at the observatory. He wrote that the telescope had been used to observe double stars, monitor the magnitudes of long period variable stars, measure the positions and magnitudes of comparison stars in variable star ﬁelds, and to determine the brightness and dimming cycle of eclipsing variable stars. But in addition to his staff’s telescopic work, he informed the Trustees that Observatory staff had made naked-eye observations too; it had observed the Perseid, Orionid, and Leonid meteor showers from 1929 to 1935. Finally, to show how his direction of the American Meteor Society (AMS) burnished Flower Observatory’s reputation, he boasted that the Society had provided “(meteor) observing, involving thousands of hours of night work per year …done by volunteers, without cost to the University.”

Observatory Staff and Leonid Shower Research 1930–1936

There were four categories of personnel associated with the Flower Observatory during the Leonid storm years. These were two professorial staff astronomers, seven graduate students, or assistants, two paid computational assistants, and one unpaid college graduate who volunteered as a computer. Flower Observatory’s professorial staff was just two astronomers: Drs. Olivier and Samuel Goodwin Barton (1882–1958). Barton was an astronomer on the UPenn faculty before Olivier arrived. It was unclear to Olivier why Barton did not become department chairman following the death of the previous one. Nevertheless, Barton remained on the university and observatory staffs after being passed over by UPenn hiring authorities. Barton graciously accepted Olivier’s directorship and carried out Olivier’s research programs until he retired in 1950.50

50Franklin W. Smith, who was an observer of Flower Observatory politics while a volunteer on the staff 1928–1936, recalled that “Dr. Barton was very unhappy to have Olivier brought in ‘over his head.’ He tried to be polite but sometimes his actual attitude showed through. Olivier tried to 196 1930s—The Best of Times

Observatory Director Olivier gave each of his graduate assistants51 some meteor-related computational work, but only one of them, William Peden Wamer (1908–1964), authored a paper on the subject. Wamer’s article, Meteor Heights from Observations Made by Texas Group, was published in Popular Astronomy (PA) in 1933. He was the ﬁrst graduate student that Olivier recruited and was an assistant at Flower Observatory from 1929 to 1936. He earned a MA degree in 1931 and PhD in 1934; however, he did not pursue a career in astronomy but chose to be a journalist in South Carolina, his home state. Franklin Willard Smith (1906–2006) was the unpaid volunteer computer, from 1929 to 1935. After graduating from Haverford College in 1928, Smith took graduate-level courses in orbit calculation just before offering to assist Dr. Olivier. The history of Flower Observatory’s two human computers is complicated by a saga of how Dr. Olivier struggled to ﬁnd money to hire them.

Hiring Human Computers Doris Wills and Clarence Cleminshaw

By February 1931, Dr. Olivier admitted to PA readers that despite the part-time assistance his graduate assistants could give him for meteor work, he could not keep up with the ﬂood of meteor data coming in from AMS members. He announced that “a special assistant whose whole time should be devoted (to meteors) has become a necessity. Efforts are being made to secure from some research fund enough to pay such an assistant.” The mounting workload was so severe that he informed AMS members that until he could obtain an assistant, there was no staff time that could be spared to review their star maps in search of new meteor radiants. Not surprisingly, only one new radiant was published in the 1931 volume of PA. Fortunately, the University of Pennsylvania came to Olivier’s aid by authorizing him to hire an assistant in September 1931.

Doris Wills

Dr. Olivier hired Doris M. Wills (1902–?) to help with the AMS data backlog. Years later, in 1952, Olivier described her role: “Mrs. D.M. Wills was added to the

(Footnote 50 continued) smooth things over by having Barton promoted from assistant to associate professor.” Source: Letter from FW Smith to author, dated May 2, 2001. 51The other six, besides Wamer, were: Fred G. Fender, Alvin Hewlett Mason, John W. Evans, Raymond H. Wilson, I.M. Levitt, and Philip H. Taylor. Organizing Flower Observatory Staff for the Leonids 197 staff as day assistant and secretary.” His skimpy job description neglected to mention Wills’ Harvard Observatory experience as a computer.52 Doris Wills was on the Observatory staff from 1932 to 1939, and her services were made possible by a series of grants Dr. Olivier was able to secure from the J. Lawrence Smith Fund of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the Research Committee Fund of UPenn. Some ideas about the sums needed for staff can be estimated by Olivier’s disclosures in PA: For the academic year from autumn 1932 to spring 1933, the NAS and UPenn grants totaled $15,000 in 2012 US dollars.53 Olivier reported, “Thanks, in part to these (grants), the Flower Observatory (FO) has…the valuable services of Mrs. Doris M. Wills, most of whose time is spent in preparation, study, and computation on records sent in by the AMS.” He credited Wills’ industry with making possible a presentation to the American Astronomical Society in 1933: a preliminary statistical discussion of 20,000 AMS meteors observed from 1926 to 1932. In the same year, she and Olivier wrote the first article which explored the significance of AMS-derived meteor rates. In March 1934, Olivier published the first installment of Wills’ meteor height studies deduced from the data of AMS Regional Groups (RGs). Meteor Notes containing her meteor height reports continued into 1935. For all of these, Olivier acknowledged that Wills had “done or supervised all the work of measuring the maps, computing the coordinates, and finding the heights” of hundreds of Leonid and sporadic meteors mapped by RGs’ observers. Nevertheless a year later, despite Ms. Wills’ help, an influx of meteor plots had again swamped the observatory staff’s ability to review and publish height results. Olivier complained that with “no increase in staff…long delays were inevitable” in publishing AMS members’ work. So, Olivier’s struggle to cope with a data over- load continued and his staff made what progress was possible. For her part, Doris Wills soldiered on and in 1936 published a Statistical Investigation of November Meteor Heights.

Clarence Cleminshaw

Dr. Olivier decided to address another meteor research topic even while Doris Wills and graduate assistants struggled to keep up with meteor plots. Olivier used two grants to hire Dr. Clarence H. Cleminshaw (1902–1985) whose assignment was to

52Letter from Olivier to Frank Schlesinger, dated January 21, 1932. Frank Schlesinger Correspondence File, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. 532012 equivalent amounts of 1930s era dollars are computed by Measuring Worth.com’s calculator at https://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/. Accessed April 25, 2016. The user must enter the amount of dollars from the year to be compared with a recent year. The author has used the current dollar amount produced by the ‘Purchasing Power Calculator’ which uses the Consumer Price Index for its calculations. 198 1930s—The Best of Times catalog observers’ reports of long-enduring trains (LETs) produced by fireball meteors. By May 1935, many LET drawings on AMS maps had arrived at Flower Observatory and were accumulating in filing cabinets. Dr. Olivier opted for the shift of focus because in the 1930s, study of LETs was the only means available to measure the velocity of high altitude winds, and it was anticipated that such information would be useful to manned flight. The grants to pay Cleminshaw’s salary during the 1935–1936 academic year came from UPenn’s Research Fund in the amount of $150 ($2500 in 2012 US dollars) and a $1000 ($16,700) from the American Philosophical Society (APS). Cleminshaw was not able to complete the project by spring 1936 and it languished for some years until Olivier finished the remaining work. The end product, published in 1942, was a catalog of 1,336 LETs dating from 32 A.D to 1941.

Summary in a Metaphor

Dr. Olivier and his staff, especially those mentioned above, were the skilled tradesmen tasked with spinning the observational “straw” meteor watchers gathered into the scientiﬁc “gold” that eventually appeared in academic publications.

Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1930–1936

The last two sections described Charles Olivier’s career at its apex and how he organized the Flower Observatory staff members roles to process Leonid meteor storm observations. This chapter introduces Olivier’s American Meteor Society (AMS) observers. Olivier furnished this group of (mostly) amateur astronomers with the observational tools and scientiﬁc direction they needed. But these observers were the ones who put them into practice and furnished the data he required to investigate the quantity and characteristics of meteors during the Leonid storm years. The people on the 1930–1936 roster were the yeomen of meteor astronomy. Their hard work allowed Dr. Olivier to uncover facets of meteor science not previously documented. Olivier and AMS observers’ achievements impressed the public and earned renewed respect for a branch of astronomy that had been an embarrassing disappointment only 30 years earlier. The full (multi-year) roster for the years 1930–1936 contained the names of 173 active AMS members. To be “active” meant that someone had paid the annual dues, had observed meteors for at least one night that year, and had reported the data that resulted to Dr. Olivier. Active members’ names and observation statistics were found in AMS annual reports that appeared in Popular Astronomy. Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1930–1936 199

Statistical Summary of the 1930–1936 Membership

Amateur astronomers were 95 % of the entire membership: 165 of the 173. Women were 9 % of it: 15 members. Citizens of other countries represented 8% of the membership: 14 members. Seven men and one woman are designated “professional astronomers” on the roster by an asterisk (*). These eight professionals comprised 5 % of the roster. They were as follows: R.A. Binckley, M. Dartayet, Bernhard Dawson, Margaret Harwood, Jack Kent, Lincoln LaPaz, Charles Olivier, and William Wamer. In this book, remuneration for astronomical work was what distinguished “professionals” from “amateurs.”

Where Did the 173 AMS Members Live?

The vast majority of members (158) lived in and observed from North America. They resided in 34 of the 48 states in the USA: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Two members from Canada, one each from Ontario and Saskatchewan, completed North America’s observing contingent. AMS members living outside North America helped monitor the skies above several regions around the globe. Two Argentinian observers watched from a previously “blind” area in the south of the Western Hemisphere. Belgian and Italian observers provided the AMS with data from Europe. A new Hawaiian observer and her students filed reports about meteors in a mid-Pacific region that had not been monitored before. The south Pacific region was well surveyed by four New Zealanders and two Australians. Skies in the western Pacific region were scanned by a Japanese observer and those in southern Asia were well monitored by an Indian member. Dr. Olivier had never previously had such comprehensive coverage of skies around the world.

Veterans

The 1930–1936 roster contained names of 26 members who were veterans from earlier rosters and who returned to report new observations. The veteran group with the largest number of returnees, 21, was from the 1919–1929 roster. Four of them were women. Three veterans returned from the 1915-to-1918 roster: Robert M. Dole, Lincoln LaPaz and Thomas K. Tomkins. Two veterans were from the earliest days of the AMS: Latimer J. Wilson as well as Society founder Dr. Olivier. 200 1930s—The Best of Times

Table 1 Numbers of Active members who joined in 1930 = 20 newcomers who joined the in 1931 = 21 AMS each year 1930–1936 in 1932 = 24 in 1933 = 31 in 1934 = 21 in 1935 = 14 in 1936 = 16 Total = 147

Newcomers 1930–1936

Joining the veterans were 147 more meteor watchers who affiliated with the AMS from 1930 to 1936. They are designated as newcomers in this summary. They were 141 amateurs and six professionals. This influx was more than twice the number of newcomers who arrived during the years 1919–1929: 147 versus 65. What accounts for this increased affiliation with the AMS during this epoch? Dr. Olivier’s monthly “Meteor Notes” publicized meteor astronomy and was surely one factor that attracted new observers. A second factor that motivated observers was the Leonid meteor storm that was expected in the early 1930s. Dr. Olivier’s notices to readers about a possible Leonid storm encouraged new volunteers to begin meteor study with him. Enrollment figures certainly suggest that the hoped-for storm, expected in 1933 at the latest, was a key motivator (Table 1). Note in Table 1 that for each year from 1930 to 1933, increasing numbers of newcomers joined until a “peak” of 31 in 1933. Then after 1933, their number declined as the likelihood of a storm decreased.

Largest Age Subgroup of the Newcomers

Chronological ages of 122 of the 147 “newcomers” were found. Thirty-nine percent of these 122 were less than 20 years old. When newcomers aged 20–25 were added to the younger set, the combined subgroup comprised 64 % of the new observers whose ages could be learned. Note that 25 newcomers’ ages could not be found; this is one-sixth of the 1930– 1936 newcomer cohort of 147. The unavailability of these 25 newcomers’ ages prevented meaningful calculations of the entire cohort’s mean (averaged) ages. Nevertheless, with the under-26-year-old subgroup being such a large one, it appears that the 1930–1936 newcomers were generally speaking, even if not precise mathematically, a “youthful” group. Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1930–1936 201

Newcomers’ Occupations

Occupations of 114 newcomers were identiﬁed. Twenty-one (18 %) of these people had earned bachelors’ or higher academic degrees. Among this group were professional astronomers, scientists in academia, high school and college teachers, a physician, and an engineer. Among the 94 without undergraduate college degrees, high school students were the most numerous with 29 members (25 % of the 114). College and university students were represented by 15 members (13 % of the 114). The remaining 50 members (44 % of the 114) worked in a variety of occupations: business, banking, agriculture, journalism, skilled trades, and railroad-related occupations.

Description of the 1930–1936 Roster

This roster consists of meteor observers whose names appeared in Dr. Olivier’s American Meteor Society (AMS) annual reports for 1930–1936 published in Popular Astronomy magazine. People earned a listing because they submitted a meteor observation report that resulted from at least one night’s watch during the membership year and they had paid the AMS’ annual dues, one dollar (US). Dr. Olivier called observers who met these criteria, “active members.” Below, the author has modiﬁed Olivier’s published rosters by adding an indication of long-term active membership. Members who submitted meteor observations for three or more years have their names listed in bold type. The author selected three years as the “cut off” criterion for this distinction because it seemed likely that by the third year, the observers were genuinely devoted to making a scientiﬁc contribution and were not dilettantes. And by the third year, the members had developed observational skills that made their data more accurate and therefore useful to Dr. Olivier. The Key below is a guide to help the reader identify these most diligent and long-term AMS members. Finally, biographies of these hardest working amateur observers appear in Part 2 of this book in the Chapters indicated to the right of the members’ names. Occupational information about each individual was found in Ancestry.com’s databases except where stated.

Key and Abbreviations

Bold = 3 years or more of data contributions. For the names in bold font, the location of a full biography is in Part 2 in one of the following Chapters: Chapter 9, “Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918” Chapter 10, “Enrolled 1919–1929”. Chapter 11, “Enrolled 1930–1936”. 202 1930s—The Best of Times

* = Astronomer at an observatory engaged in research activities for which she or he was paid. USC = United States Census Unknown = unable to identify the member in Ancestry databases

Member Residence Years Age and notes Abernathy, Clearwater, FL 1930,1931 15 years old in 1930 USC radio engineer (Thomas) in 1953 Carlton Adamson, Tecumseh, MI 1933 18 years old in 1933 George H. Albrecht, Milwaukee, WI 1935 Also an AAVSO member William B. 17 years old in 1935 Anderson, Chicago, IL 1935, 26-years-old in 1936; grocer. See Russell F. 1936, biography in Chapter 11 1942 1950s, 1960s, and later years Anyzeski, New Haven, See biography in Chapter 10 Vincent CT Armﬁeld, Milwaukee, WI 1933 24 years old in 1933, home-maker Dorothy Armﬁeld, L.E. Milwaukee, WI 1933–1937 27 years old in 1933 Regional Director of Wisconsin—N. Illinois. Telephone company circuit layout engineer in 1930 See biography in Chapter 11 Arslanian, L. San Jose, CA 1936-1939 Watched with Stackpole England 1944 15 years old in 1936 An actor before he enlisted in US Army in 1941. See biography in Chapter 11 Baines, Wm. Okanogan, WA 1933 Unknown Baker, State College, 1930–1932 High School teacher in 1943 Stewart R. PA 19 years old in 1930 USC See biography in Chapter 11 Bateson, Frank Wellington, NZ 1932 23 years old in 1932; in 1935, he was a Maine clerk. Founded variable star chapter of the R.A.S.N.Z. Bernhardt, Salisbury, NC 1936 21 years old in 1936 Harvey (continued) Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1930–1936 203

(continued) Member Residence Years Age and notes Binckley, R.A. *Upper Darby, 1934 Flower Observatory PA Graduate student Unknown age Black, James Cleveland, OH 1934–37 27 years old in 1934; L. 1944 A surveyor See biography in Chapter 11 Blair, Naomi R. East Point, GA 1933 30 years of age in 1933 (Mrs. J.H.) Bobbit, Ottis C. Brownsville, 1931 Weather Bureau employee; 23 years old in TX 1931 Bowman, Kansas City, 1932–1934 30 years old in 1932; owned a printing Edward F. MO business 1936, 1938 See biography in Chapter 11 Braun, Salisbury, NC 1934, 1936 Professor Catawba College, 41 years old in Milton L., Dr. 1934 1939, 1942 See biography in Chapter 11 Brinegar, Tucson, AZ 1932–1934 22 years old in 1932, see his bio in J.D. David F. Williams’ Journalist in 1940 USC See biography in Chapter 11 Brown, J. Pass Christian, 1932 Probationary member, aged 14 years; lived MS in Jackson Brown, Fort Worth, TX See biography in Chapter 10 Robert Bryan, E.H., Jr. Honolulu, HI 1933 Unknown Buddhue, John Pasadena, CA 1935 24 years old in 1935 junior college in 1931 Davis Bugar(r), Geza Eugene, OR 1932, 1936 28 years old in 1932; a Hungarian Michael immigrant and J.H. Pruett’s (college) student Bunch, Knoxville, TN See biography in Chapter 10 Mildred Bunch, Knoxville, TN See biography in Chapter 10 Sterling Burch, Paul Radford, VA 1930 32 years old in 1930; biology professor at Randolph Radford College, Radford, Virginia Burns, Spring Valley, 1930–32 20 years old in 1930; college graduate; Herbert A. NY ﬂorist in 1940 USC See biography in Chapter 11 Butler, Robert Plainﬁeld, NJ 1933 39 years of age in 1933 Barnes He founded the North Jersey Amateur Astro Soc’y in January 1933 and was a Regional Director in 1933 Life insurance salesman (continued) 204 1930s—The Best of Times

(continued) Member Residence Years Age and notes Buttles, L.I. Chicago, IL 1933 Unknown age. But he published a telescope makers’ newsletter, Astroscope for amateur telescope makers in 1933; later he sold a motorized equatorial mount for telescopes Christman, Farmingdale, 1936 38 years old in 1936; worked in the funeral Charles H. NY industry Claridge, Reedsburg, WI 1931 18 years old in 1931, was in college. Later George a priest who taught in a Catholic high Clemens school Clark, Northﬁeld, MN 1932 Carleton College student and 20 years old Ronald E. in 1932 Conboy, J.J. Lawton, OK See biography in Chapter 10 Connolly, Dallas, TX 1934 Observing partner of Clarence Wheeler, Charles H. (below).15 years of age in 1934 Cook, Allan Westﬁeld, NJ 1935 13 years old in 1935; future meteor Fairchild, II astrophysicist Cope, Thomas Wayne, PA 1930, 1932 50 years old in 1930; Prof of Physics at Darlington UPenn Daniel, Raleigh Jr.Asheville, 1930 17 years old in 1930 USC Physical Travers, NC education teacher Darling, B.C. Lansing, MI See biography in Chapter 10 Dartayet, M.* La Plata, 1931 Professional Astronomer Unknown age Argentina Davis, Chester Evanston, IL 1930 Unknown Dawson, B.H.* La Plata, 1931 Professional Astronomer 40 years old in Argentina 1931 de Roy, Felix Antwerp, 1933 50 years old in 1933. Belgian variable star Belgium expert and member I.A.U. Commission 22 (Meteors). A journalist Deutsch, Chicago, IL 1933, 1934 15 years old in 1933, PhD in astronomy in Armin Joseph 1946. Became a stellar spectroscopist. Diedrich, Milwaukee, WI 1935 25 years old in 1935; George, Laboratory assistant in 1940 Dole, R.M. Scarboro, ME See biography in Chapter 9 Dupree, East Point, GA 1933 20 years old in 1933 Heywood M. Eason, East Point, GA 1930, 1932 14 years old in 1930 USC Frank B., Jr. Eason, East Point, GA 1933 13 years old in 1933: probational member. J. Clifton Younger brother of Frank Eason Eddy, Frank Russellville, 1936 Watched with J.T. Kent 33 years old in AR 1936; a farmer (continued) Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1930–1936 205

(continued) Member Residence Years Age and notes Edwards, Fairhope, AL See biography in Chapter 10 Mrs. W.H. Evans, John McDaniel, MD 1932, 1933 23 years old and married in Wainwright, Jr. 1932; later became a solar physicist Evons, Drexel Hill, PA 1931, 1932 18 years old in 1931. Meredith L. Fairbrother, S. Tadmor, 1935, 1936 Unknown R. Nelson, NZ Ford, C.B. Ann Arbor, MI See biography in Chapter 10 Ford, Miss Sayre, OK 1934 20 years old in 1934 Mary M. Francis, New Bedford, 1932 17 years old in 1932; at boarding school (Sidney) MA Vincent Friton, St. Louis, MO 1934–37 19 years old in 1934; an electrical engineer Edwin E. later. See biography in Chapter 11 Gardner, Lakewood, OH 1931 20 years old in 1931 Richard F. Geddes, Otekura, Otago, 1931–1936 22 years old in 1931 Murray NZ Teacher See biography in Chapter 11 Gell, Rochester, NY 1931 30 years old in 1931; a high school Kenneth E. economics teacher. He was New York State Regional Director in 1933 for the Leonid shower Gillespie, Nitro, WV 1936 21 years old in 1936 (Cecil) Rollin Graham, Salem, OR 1933, 23 years old in 1933 Julian Wallace 1935– He became a farmer. See biography in Chapter 11 Green, Pittsﬁeld, MA 1936–9 16 years old in 1936 Gordon 1943, geophysicist in 1956 1946 1948, See biography in Chapter 11 1950 Greenberg, G. Lake Worth, FL 1931 Unknown Halbach, Milwaukee, WI 1935, 26 years old in 1935 Edward 1939 1942, Engineer in industrial and space 1944 technologies 1945, See biography in Chapter 11 1947 (continued) 206 1930s—The Best of Times

(continued) Member Residence Years Age and notes Halcomb, G.E. Gadsden, AL 1936 Watched with Harrell Unknown age Hand, Cape May, NJ 1936 Watched with Knox William E. Unknown age Harper, Robert Kirkwood, MO 1934 15 years old in 1934 Harrell, Gadsden, AL 1934, 1936 Unknown age and occupation but he Brent L. watched with Halcomb in list above. Harwood, Nantucket, MA 1933 Director of Maria Mitchell Margaret* Observatory, 48 years old Hayes, Junius Salt Lake City, 1933 Mathematics professor, 47 years old in John, Dr. UT 1933 Heines, Neal J. Patterson, NJ 1933 40 years old in 1933 AAVSO member. A bookkeeper in a food store Hellweg, St. Louis, MO 1934 23 years old in 1934 Carl F. Hett, John H. Bronxville, NY 1930, 20 years old in 1930, college teacher in 1932 1940 USC Hickerson, Webster 1931, J. Wesley Simpson’s maternal aunt. She Frances Groves, MO 1933 was 59 years old in 1931 Holm, Lincoln, NE 1932, Student at Union College Michael W. 1933 Age unknown Holt, William Scarboro, ME 1934, 56 years old in 1934 Leland, M.D. 1936 1937, Physician; associate of R.M. Dole above 1944 See biography in Chapter 11 Hunter, Eugene, OR 1936 19 years old in 1936 David L. 1939 U. of OR graduate Enlisted in US Army in 1942 Inouye, Hideo Nagoya, Japan 1935–37, 13 years old in 1935 1951 Student in high school See biography in Chapter 11 Jewett, Mary Grandview, TN 1934–39 36 years old in 1934 L. 1941–43 She and husband farmed See biography in Chapter 11 Jones, (Henry) Bristol, TN 1933 23 years old in 1933; farm Laborer Wallace Kenney, Freeport, NY 1933 18 years old in 1933 William Gerard Food store clerk in 1940 (continued) Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1930–1936 207

(continued) Member Residence Years Age and notes Kent, Jack T.* Jackson, TN 1935–1937 26 years old in 1935 Mathematics and astronomy professor at Texas A&M See biography in Chapter 11 Kent, Pauline College Station, 1936 26 years old in 1936 (Mrs. J.T. Kent) TX Ketchum, Antrim, PA 1932 26 years old in 1932 Lewis H. Coal miner in 1930 Khan, Mohd. Begumpet, 1932–1954 51 years old in 1932; he was a college A.R. India administrator as well as science educator See biography in Chapter 11 Kingsbury, Ulster County, 1931, Post-WW1 relief administrator. 55 years John Adams NY 1932 old in 1931. Olivier’s host at ‘Lavorika’ in Catskill Mtns. Kirkpatrick, Piermont, NY 1933–1938 18 years old in 1933 George P. See biography in Chapter 11 Klapper, Narberth, PA 1932 22 years old in 1932 August A printer in 1940 Klapper, Elmer Narberth, PA 1932 17 years old in 1932 Mechanical engineer in 1940 Klapperich, A. Willmette, IL See biography in Chapter 10 Knabe, Robert Tucson, AZ 1933, 15 years old in 1933 1934 He became a petroleum geologist. His biography is in J.D. Williams’ biography in Chapter 11 Knox, Reed, Jr. Cape May, NJ 1936 Watched with Hand above 19 years old in 1936 and attended Stetson U. in FL Komori, Arthur Honolulu, HI 1933 18 years old in 1933; in 1940, he was at graduate school Kusner, Gainesville, FL 1932, Prof. at U of Florida Joseph H. 1933 1936, 29 years old in 1932 and Florida Regional 1939 Director See biography in Chapter 11 La Paz, L.* Columbus, OH See biography in Chapter 9 Lamb, John E. Regina, SK, 1934 19 years old in 1934 Canada Railroad station agent in 1940 Larrabee, Honolulu, HI 1935, 51 years old in 1935; a teacher in Hawaii Louise M. 1936 schools 1938–1940 See biography in Chapter 11 (continued) 208 1930s—The Best of Times

(continued) Member Residence Years Age and notes Lawrence, Lynbrook, NY See biography in Chapter 10 A.S. Logan, J.H. Dallas, TX See biography in Chapter 10 Loreta, Eppe Bologna, Italy 1933–1940 25 years old in 1933; prominent AAVSO observer A librarian in Bologna See biography in Chapter 11 MacQueen, Birmingham, 1931 Hospital superintendent James AL William, M.D. 31 years old in 1931 Marsh, F.F. Frederick, MD See biography in Chapter 10 Martin, East Norwalk, 1932 Unknown Harold S. CT Martz, Edwin Oak Park, IL 1932, 16 years old in 1932 Paul, Jr. 1935 Became an optical engineer working with space and military projects in 1960s McIntosh, R. Auckland, NZ See biography in Chapter 10 A. McKee, J.E. Mt. Vernon, 1930, 20 years old in 1930 USC OH 1931 McVictor, Ocean City, NJ 1930 Unknown David McVictor, Ocean City, NJ 1930 Unknown Miss M. Van I. Mehl, Milton Fort Worth, TX 1930, 17 years old in 1930 Joseph 1931 Lawyer in 1940 Merkel, Roy T. Topton, PA 1932 24 years old in 1932 and a public school teacher in 1940 Miller, Lansdowne, PA 1931–1933 17 years old in 1931 Robert W. See biography in Chapter 11 Milne, D. Scarboro, ME 1936 Unknown age; but watched in a group with Dole and Holt Mittendorf, Ed. Lake Geneva, 1935 Unknown WI Molyneaux, Binghamton, 1932, 14 years old in 1932; in US Navy in 1946 (Silas) David, NY 1933 Jr. Monnig, Fort Worth, TX See biography in Chapter 10 Oscar E. Niebuhr, V.J. Reedsburg, WI See biography in Chapter 10 Nininger, McPherson, KS 1931 Meteorite collector and investigator. Harvey H. 44 years old in 1931 (continued) Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1930–1936 209

(continued) Member Residence Years Age and notes O’Byrne, Webster 1931–33 26 years old in 1931. In 1930, he was a Stuart L. Groves, MO ﬁeld assistant with a US government entomo—logical agency See biography in Chapter 11 Olivier, Charlottesville, Founder of the AMS Charles P.* VA Pannill, Fort Worth, TX 1934 18 years old in 1934 (Fitzhugh) Observed from Texas Hastings Observers’ site at Burleson, Texas Parker, P.O. Cohutta, GA 1934–1937 47 years old in 1934 Ooltewah, TN 1939, Freight agent Southern RR 1940 See biography in Chapter 11 Paterson, Broken Hill, 1933, 47 years old in 1933 J. Fraser Australia 1935 1936, employed as a welder. 1942 1945 See biography in Chapter 11 Pearce, Rex Kellogg, ID 1935 32 years old in 1935 Stanley Department store salesman Peck, Milwaukee, WI See biography in Chapter 10 Arthur L. Persons, W.J. Kalamazoo, MI 1931–1934 20 years old in 1931 when in his college’s science club. See biography in Chapter 11 Preucil, Frank Joliet, IL 1933–1936 27 years old in 1933 1938, 1940– Photolithographer 1942, 1944– See biography in Chapter 11 1947 Pruett, Eugene, OR 1935–1937 50 years old in 1935 Hope S. 1946 She helped organize meteor watches with her husband, Hugh See biography in Chapter 11 Pruett, Eugene, OR 1934–1936 48 years old in 1934 J. Hugh 1939, Professor at U of Oregon 1940, 1944, Astronomy popularizer 1947 1950 See biography in Chapter 11 (continued) 210 1930s—The Best of Times

(continued) Member Residence Years Age and notes Reed, Rudolph Fall River, MA 1934, 1935 17 years old in 1934 Gardner Reich, Marshfield, WI 1931, 1933 21 years old in 1931. He worked in the Edward R. steel industry and was a union member Ridley, G.W. Alameda, CA 1930–1934 20 years old in 1930; in ’40 clerk, Southern Pacific R.R. See biography in Chapter 11 Riggs, (James) Pelly, TX 1934 20 years old in 1934 Willborn, Jr. Rosengarten, Brookline, PA 1932 19 years old in 1932 George Mott Mechanical engineer in 1940 Rupert, Exeter, CA 1933, Probational; 14 years old in 1933 (Claude) 1934 Stanley Sanders, B. Fort Worth, TX See biography in Chapter 10 Scanlon, Leo J. Pittsburgh, PA 1932 24 years old in 1932; tile setter and amateur telescope maker Schafer, Carl P. Nashville, TN 1930 19 years old in 1930 ironworker Schenkman, New 1932 13 years old in 1932 Alfred Brunswick, NJ Librarian in 1940 Scudder, Wellsboro, PA 1931 26 years old in 1931; farm or garden William F. worker Shinkfield, R. Adelaide, S. See biography in Chapter 10 C. Australia Simpson, Webster 1931–1937 18 years old in 1931; in 1933 was a J. Wesley Groves, MO laborer, later, truck driver, aircraft navigator, and electrical technician 1944, See biography in Chapter 11 1952 Skinner, Brockton, MA 1935, 25 years old in 1935 Gerald 1945 Bradford 1947–1950 Farm and factory laborer See biography in Chapter 11 Smith, Waterloo, NY 1936–1938 26 years old in 1936 Claude H. 1942 He began as a worker in a cereal plant but 1945–1947 advanced to a managerial post 1949, See biography in Chapter 11 1953 (continued) Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1930–1936 211

(continued) Member Residence Years Age and notes Smith, F.W. Glenolden, PA See biography in Chapter 10 Smith, Talbot Tucson, AZ 1932–1934 15 years old in 1932 Truxtun, Jr. See biography in Chapter 11 Stackpole, H. San Jose, CA 1936–8 Arslonian’s partner 17 years old in 1936 High school science teacher in California See biography in Chapter 11 Steadman, Honolulu, HI 1933 Unknown Miss L. Stokely, James Barre, MA 1934 34 years old in 1934 Astronomy writer for Science News and Director Fels Planetarium Stone, Santa Barbara, 1936–41 83 years old in 1936 William R. CA Retired grocer; born in 1853! See biography in Chapter 11 Tomkins, West Point, PA 1933 Unknown Charles B. Tomkins, T.K. N. Glenside, See biography in Chapter 9 PA Tonkin, Allen Knoxville, TN 1933, 26 years old in 1933 (William Van 1934 Sales/managerial occupations Alen) Trimmier, Chicago, IL See biography in Chapter 9 Mary Esther Troyer, Toronto, 1930, 18 years old in 1930; a clerk Frederic Ontario 1931 Laurence Urquhart, Detroit, MI 1931–1933 17 years old in 1931 Sally See biography in Chapter 10 Wamer, St. George, SC 1930–1933 Astronomy PhD in 1936 William Meteor work done as a grad assistant at Peden* Flower Obsy 22 years old in 1930 Watson, Baltimore, MD 1932–1934 27 years old in 1932 Paul S. 1936, in 1940, Curator of Astronomy at 1939 Maryland Academy of Sciences See biography in Chapter 10 (continued) 212 1930s—The Best of Times

(continued) Member Residence Years Age and notes Waugh, Storrs, CT 1936 Unknown Albert E. Waugh, Dan Tokyo, Japan 1930 Accountant for Intn’l Bank Frank Corp., 36 years old in 1930 Weed, Floyd, Jefferson City, 1933,1934 Unknown Jr. TN West, Joe Y. East Radford, 1933 Professor, unknown age VA Wheeler, Dallas, TX 1934, 1935 17 years old in 1934; later a WW2 ﬁghter Clarence pilot and still later a physician/surgeon Joseph, Jr. Whitney, B.S. Beaver, OK See biography in Chapter 9 Williams, King George, 1933 Unknown Charles Insco VA Williams, J.D. Tunkhannock, 1931–1934 22 years old in 1931 PA He had independent income in 1931. Attended college to prepare for an astronomy career. Ended his career at RAND Corporation See biography in Chapter 10 Williamson, D. Ann Arbor, MI 1934 Unknown E. Wilson, Franklin, KY See biography in Society for Practical Latimer J. Astronomy chapter in Chapter 2 Wilson, Swarthmore, 1930,1932 Astronomy PhD in 1936 Raymond H. PA 1933 19 years old in 1930 USC See biography in Chapter 10 Wilson, R.J. Byron Center, 1934 Unknown MI Witherspoon, Weatherford, 1932, 1933 29 years old in 1932 Joe B. TX Bank cashier Yanovsky, Philadelphia, 1930 16 years old in 1930 USC Abraham H. PA How the Meteor Quest Was Won 213

How the Meteor Quest Was Won

One-hundred-seventy-three observers participated in American Meteor Society (AMS) Leonid era programs between 1930 and 1936. With this large a number, at least two challenges can be imagined when Dr. Olivier directed members’ activities. The first was how to instruct them about the types of observations most needed: plots of meteors on star maps, hourly counts, fireball path investigations, or recording details of fireballs’ long-enduring trains in the sky. Members needed specific instructions too for the fireball-related observations. The second challenge was how to coordinate far-flung members’ activities from Flower Observatory near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the 1930s, members lived hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away from Dr. Olivier. It was a tractable problem when directing or instructing one observer, but quite impossible when the goal was to coordinate a distant group of observers to make simultaneous plots of meteors, for instance. Such a project needed in situ supervision and problem-solving if any difficulty arose. This chapter addresses aspects of these two issues: instruction and coordination. Dr. Olivier attempted to solve the instruction problem with written materials. Coordination of distant members was accomplished by directing enterprising AMS members who formed regional groups in the USA. A hallmark of the AMS in the 1930s was the formation of RGs.

How Olivier Instructed American Meteor Society Members

Dr. Olivier’s monthly Meteor Notes column in Popular Astronomy (PA), directed members’ observational efforts and set the quality standards that Olivier expected them to respect in their work. In addition, Olivier sent members American Meteor Society Bulletins which provided more detailed instructions for the observational work Olivier wanted. Bulletins also listed AMS members, associates in other organizations, and cooperating American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) observers’ names and addresses. Occasionally, Olivier furnished new meteor data in Bulletins, like hourly meteor rates which observers could expect to experience for each dark hour of night and for each month of the year (Bulletin 15). Another, Bulletin 13, contained the ofﬁcial AMS questionnaire which members were expected to complete when reporting ﬁreballs.54 With the Bulletins, Dr.

54“AMS Bulletin 13…contains a revised and complete questionnaire for ﬁreball observations, prepared particularly for non-members and the casual observer…Large numbers are being sent to the heads of our regional groups.” Source: Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, Volume 40, 1932, pp. 411–412. 214 1930s—The Best of Times

Olivier attempted to standardize members’ observational behavior and the format in which it was recorded. This was done to minimize the errors that could threaten the value of the AMS’ archived meteor data; reducing error had been Olivier’s standard operating procedure since he began the AMS in 1911.

Flower Observatory Reprints Left no Member Behind

Dr. Olivier understood that not all AMS members could afford a subscription to PA. In 1930, PA’s subscription price was $4 a year, but this amount deceives the modern reader into believing that it was a trivial expense. The equivalent cost in 2012 would have been 55 US dollars ($55)55; Olivier knew this may have been too great an expense for many members, especially adolescents who made up a large percentage of AMS membership. So, to bring all members up to date, Olivier mailed them a bound compilation of the previous year’s Meteor Notes in a booklet entitled Flower Observatory Reprints (FOR). These sequentially numbered Reprints were not mere duplications of the Notes in PA; they also contained recent information about current topics in observational meteor astronomy.

Regional Groups: Coordination at a Distance

Creation and Leadership

AMS members created Regional Groups (RGs) after little more than a suggestion by Dr. Olivier in Meteor Notes. He asked that a member with leadership skills should step forward, contact members living within a few-miles’ radius of his hometown, and coordinate his fellows’ meteor watches. The earliest such group leader was Lincoln LaPaz who organized ten of Wichita, Kansas’ teenagers in 1916. Sterling Bunch recruited amateur astronomers in the north Texas area to create the Texas Observers in the late 1920s. Group formation accelerated during the 1930s after Dr. Olivier explained the need for members to make coordinated simultaneous watches so that meteors’ atmospheric heights could be measured.

552012 equivalent amounts of 1930s era dollars are computed by Measuring Worth.com’s calculator at https://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/. Accessed April 25, 2016. The user must enter the amount of dollars from the year to be compared with a recent year. The author has cited the current dollar amount produced by the “Purchasing Power Calculator” which uses the Consumer Price Index for its calculations. How the Meteor Quest Was Won 215

The Regional Leader’s Functions

Conceptually, a regional leader’s role was consistent with the pedagogical model of how a graduate assistant is important to student learning. The assistant supervises students’ practice of the learning objectives central to a professor’s classroom instruction. In the same way, RG leaders were responsible for training and supervising new members in observation methods approved by Dr. Olivier. Leaders also collected group members’ reports and local citizens’ ﬁreball accounts which they forwarded to AMS Headquarters at Flower Observatory where they were analyzed for ﬁnding important to meteor science.

Longevity, Names, and Aliases

During the Leonid meteor storm years of 1930–1936, regional groups formed but not all functioned for seven years. Compiling a history of the various RGs is complicated by the fact that each group was identiﬁed by different names. Each Flower Observatory author who analyzed RGs’ reports used slightly differing titles for the RGs. In addition, RGs changed their names over the years.

Proliferation

The number of RGs grew until 1933, the year predicted most likely to witness a Leonid meteor storm and then waned as 1936 approached. This growth pattern suggests that making a scientiﬁc contribution, especially for the predicted storm year, was a potent motivation for AMS members to form RGs (Table 2).

The Regional Groups Were…

The following groups of AMS members cooperated with Dr. Olivier to gather meteor data in support of research needed to answer questions about the Leonid meteor shower, its hourly rates, heights in the atmosphere where meteors appeared,

Table 2 Rise and fall in Year Number of regional groups mentioned in Meteor number of Regional Groups Notes during the Leonid storm years 1930 2 1931 3 1932 8 1933 16 1934 9 1935 6 1936 5 216 1930s—The Best of Times and about long-enduring trains left behind by ﬁreballs. All those projects needed elucidation in the 1930s. These AMS projects were ones that could be competently carried out by observers using only their unaided eyes. The groups’ titles in the list below begin with the most often found name for the RG, followed by other names associated with it. The exploits of each group were chronicled by Olivier and Doris Wills in Popular Astronomy.

Arizona Group/J.D. Williams’ Group

Regional Director John Davis Williams began his AMS work in Pennsylvania but relocated to Tucson, Arizona (AZ) in 1932 where David F. Brinegar and Talbot T. Smith began work in the same year, suggesting that the three joined forces shortly after Williams’ arrival. The three concentrated on plotting meteors and tabulating their magnitudes in 1932. These same projects were pursued in 1933 with the addition of Robert Knabe’s extensive telescopic meteor work. The four men and their assistants collaborated on simultaneous meteor plotting in November 1933, and their plots resulted in the computation of 89 meteor heights. In 1933, Williams also collected ﬁreball accounts of an event on March 24. The Group continued to observe and send reports to Dr. Olivier in 1934 but disbanded in 1935.

Catawba College Group

This RG’s leader was Professor Milton L. Braun at Catawba College, Salisbury, North Carolina. Most likely, the 21 group members were students of Prof. Braun’s. The group counted 1934’s Leonid meteors, for four nights, in order to assist Dr. Olivier in determining hourly meteor rates and the date of the Leonids’ maximum activity. Prof. Braun held solo watches in 1936.

Colorado Group/Colorado Observers/Alpha Nu Fraternity Chapters

RG leader was Professor A.W. Recht, an astronomer at University of Denver’s Chamberlin Observatory, where the Beta Chapter of the Alpha Nu (astronomy) Fraternity was located. Recht coordinated meteor work with Dr. J.M. Blair at University of Colorado in Boulder, where the Fraternity’s Alpha Chapter was located. The two Chapters collaborated on measuring the heights of Leonid and sporadic meteors in 1933 and 1934; in 1934, the two chapters plotted meteors from three stations and maintained individual meteors’ identiﬁcation using radio announcements from station KOA. In addition to collaboration on Leonid heights, the Chapters decided upon separate activities in 1934: The Recht/Beta Chapter counted 1083 meteors and the Blair/Alpha Chapter plotted 115. Prof. Recht and the Beta Chapter counted meteors in 1934 and 1935 to round out their participation in How the Meteor Quest Was Won 217 the 1930s. Their work in those ﬁnal years was for an hourly rate research project developed by Cuno Hoffmeister, a German meteor astronomer and Dr. Olivier. Olivier referred to this project as the Hoffmeister-Olivier Program (HOP) when he reported RGs’ activities in support of it in PA.

Florida Group/J.H. Kusner and Florida Group

Professor Joseph H. Kusner, University of Florida at Gainesville was RG leader. Kusner and his students conducted group counts of meteors in 1932 and 1933. Dr. Olivier had unconﬁrmed reports that the group had performed cooperative meteor plotting work in 1936.

Flower Observatory Group/Local Group/Local Network/Mid-Atlantic Region/Eastern Group

This RG was led by Dr. Olivier, from Flower Observatory, UPenn’s Upper Darby facility. The numbers of its aliases suggest the loose formality of RG titles. When deployed in the field with all of its members dispersed across the states, this RG extended from southern New York State in the north to central Virginia in the south. Olivier led the RG on extensive campaigns to measure Perseid, Leonid, and sporadic meteor heights in the atmosphere. On August 11, 1930, Olivier led a three-station simultaneous “parallax” meteor plotting program which successfully found meteor heights. But this effort was surpassed when he coordinated an ambitious 14-station attempt to determine Leonid heights in 1932. This simultaneous mapping program extended from “New York City at the northeast end to King George, Virginia at the southwest end…we had two (stations) in New Jersey, three in Pennsylvania, four in Maryland, and three in the District of Columbia,” Olivier reported. Their results were spectacular; approximately, 1500 meteors were mapped by the 14 stations, “nine or ten” stations mapped long-enduring fireballs’ trains and their direction of drift; and finally Joseph Woods at Sykesville, Maryland, secured a sequence of nine, ten-second photographic exposures of one train. “…Never before have 14 active stations taken part in such a cooperative program,” exulted Olivier. Dr. Olivier’s 1933 Leonid heights campaign was successful as well. There were 15 stations this time, sited in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia and Maryland. Doris Wills was able to compute 45 Leonid and 33 sporadic meteor heights; her results were that the Leonids began and ended visibility at higher atmospheric altitudes than the sporadic meteors. However, Wills believed the heights’ values to be less reliable than 1932’s because there were more inexperienced plotters in 1933. For the 1934 Leonids, Olivier was able to field 12 stations beginning north of New York City and extending to northern Maryland in the south. Wills was able to compute the heights of 46 simultaneously plotted meteors that were recorded by at 218 1930s—The Best of Times least two stations. Most of the measured meteors were sporadics because the Leonid rate was so poor that year. Cloudy weather in 1935 permitted only one Leonid plot from Flower Observatory, but there was no known confirmatory plot from another location. Fervor for cooperative work had waned by 1936 when only two sites, one in Pennsylvania and one in northern Maryland, were deployed to plot Perseid meteors; Olivier could only claim “probable coincidences” for the teams’ efforts.

Honolulu Group/Hawaii Group/Miss Larrabee’s Students

Regional Director Louise Larrabee trained and supervised her teenaged students to make meteor counts on 10 nights in 1932 and on ﬁve dates during the 1933 Leonid shower. Dr. Olivier applauded her efforts for the 1935 Orionid meteors, writing that he was impressed by “her on having been able to interest so many young persons (11 students) all members of ‘Hui Hoku’ (Star Society) of McKinley High School.” In all, the group counted a total of 495 meteors in 1935.

Michigan Group

The widely separated AMS members who lived in Michigan usually did not form a unified observing group in the same fashion as did the Flower Observatory group’s members. Instead, the “Michigan Group” was a convenient fiction that Dr. Olivier fashioned for ease of discussion in his Meteor Notes; “it” was an aggregate of separate AMS members who often observed alone but as in the examples to follow, they sometimes observed meteors in small groups with neighboring citizen scientists. In 1931, Birt C. Darling (Lansing, Michigan) and Clinton B. Ford (Ann Arbor) collaborated by using Ford’s 1.25-inch (3-cm) finder telescope to plot Perseid meteors on Bonner Durchmusterung star charts. In 1932, William J. Persons (Kalamazoo) counted meteors with the help of three other observers during the Perseid meteor shower maximum on August 10–12. He arranged simultaneous meteor mapping observations with R.J. Wilson for the 1934 Perseid and Leonid showers and they succeeded in securing meteor height data for four bright Leonid meteors. In 1933, Sally Urquhart led three Detroit colleagues who counted Perseid meteors while she mapped the ones she saw.

MILWAUKEE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY GROUP/WISCONSIN GROUP or NETWORK or OBSERVERS/WISCONSIN and NORTHERN ILLINOIS GROUP Regional Director Luverne E. Armﬁeld’s strong leadership resulted in meteor work that earned prominent mentions in Meteor Notes; he is all the more unusual as a director, because he was an AMS member in only one year, 1933. However, How the Meteor Quest Was Won 219

Armfield’s talent, energy, and persistence more than justified his continued directorship. The group began to attract Olivier’s attention in 1933 when Armfield sent their Perseid meteor count reports to AMS headquarters. The Milwaukee Society joined forces with observers from Beloit College, Washburn Observatory in Madison, Reedsburg, and Marshfield Wisconsin, along with observers in northern Illinois and Indiana to make simultaneous plots of Leonid meteors from 10 stations during the 1933 shower. Doris Wills was able to compute 18 meteor heights from the RG’s data, but results were plagued by large error margins because so many inexperienced plotters had participated. Nevertheless, Wills praised them for following Armfield’s directions about the compass azimuths they were to concentrate upon during the night’s work; she believed they showed promise for better work in the future. The Wisconsin and Northern Illinois Group of societies collaborated on another simultaneous cooperative campaign to map Leonids in 1934. They watched on two nights, and their mapped meteors resulted in 20 atmospheric heights computed by Ms. Wills. In addition to the RG’s Leonid heights campaigns, Armfield’s Milwaukee Astronomical Society members performed watches to count and map meteors. For three years in a row, they had spectacular results: 1120 meteors counted in 1933; they plotted 1050 meteors and counted another 359 during 42 nights’ watches in 1934; and in 1936, they counted almost 2900 meteors during 570 h of meteor watches. Olivier cited RG Director Armfield’s Wisconsin-Northern Illinois Group for “outstanding work in 1935” when RG members counted a total of 2360 meteors according to the Hoffmeister-Olivier Program’s instructions. Another of Armfield’s memorable feats was when he arranged a regional conference of AMS members that Dr. Olivier attended on August 10, 1935. No other such gathering had occurred in the previous 24-year existence of the AMS.

Missouri Group/Missouri-Illinois Group/Missouri-Southern Illinois Group/Webster Groves (Missouri) Nature Study Group/Webster Groves Volunteer Group

J. Wesley Simpson directed this multi-named RG from 1931 to 1937; Dr. Olivier wrote that while Simpson directed it, the Missouri Group reported an average of more than 5000 meteors per year. Simpson had remarkable leadership skills; he was 18 years old when he organized it in 1931. He led the Webster Groves Volunteers, none of whom were AMS members that year to count 642 meteors on 10 nights, while Simpson himself counted another 262 on 13 nights. Simpson and the Webster Groves Volunteers’ activities were mentioned several times in 1932’s PA, for their Perseid and other meteor counts and the rates resulting from these. Simpson also distinguished himself for his persistence in “collecting large numbers of observations on …important ﬁreballs,” Olivier reported. In 1933 220 1930s—The Best of Times

Simpson, his brother, his cousin, and 10 associates travelled to California to count Perseid meteors at the shower’s maximum. During the remainder of the 1934–1936 period, Simpson’s Missouri-Southern Illinois group continued to count hundreds of meteors for the AMS: 1979 in 1934; 4599 for the Hoffmeister-Olivier Program in 1935; and 1117 more were counted in 1936.

New York (Central) Group

Kenneth E. Gell was identiﬁed as director of this regional group during its one-year operation for the 1933 Leonids. The group’s members counted meteors from three villages in upstate and western New York State.

Northeastern Network/N. New Jersey, S.E. New York, and S.W. New England Group

Robert B. Butler was Regional Director for this RG’s one-year existence during the 1933 Leonid shower. Its campaign to plot Leonids lasted three nights from November 14/15 to 16/17 and deployed seven observation stations extending from northern New Jersey through counties just north of New York City, to Providence, Rhode Island. Despite poor weather, the group succeeded in mapping several identical meteors and Doris Wills was able to compute three meteor heights from its data. In addition, during the same three nights’ work, the Northeastern Network’s members succeeded in collecting meteor rate data.

Ohio Group

Dr. Lincoln La Paz was Regional Director for the group’s campaigns to measure meteor heights during the 1933 and 1934 Leonid showers. The Ohio Group was successful in making simultaneous meteor plots in 1933 so that 15 heights could be computed by Doris Wills. La Paz hoped to simplify the identification of simultaneously plotted meteors by sending a radio signal when he saw a meteor and ended it when the meteor disappeared. Wills congratulated La Paz for being first to use radio to alert colleague observers about a meteor he was plotting. In most other meteor heights attempts, group leaders did not know whether a meteor had been plotted simultaneously until after the watch was finished. “Radio control” was used again for a two-night Leonid watch in 1934. How the Meteor Quest Was Won 221

Oregon Group

This group began to be mentioned as early as 1932 but at first no AMS member was identified as Regional Director. Its members concentrated their efforts on making meteor counts which assisted Olivier in calculating meteor rates. Their first accomplishment was a 1932 report of two members’ counts of that year’s Perseid meteors. One of that dyad, Miss P. Reburn, was separately cited for observing two nights in 1932. Another member, J. Hugh Pruett, was praised in a 1933 Meteor Note for “great success in gathering data on several great fireballs appearing over that state in 1933.” It was not until 1935 that Pruett was identified as the group’s director in a Meteor Note about the group’s Perseid meteor counts. Pruett was praised for making photographic exposures during the shower and capturing two bright Perseids on film. Pruett and six anonymous Oregon Group members were mentioned in the 1936 AMS Annual Report for their meteor counts; they counted over 600 during 14 nights’ watches, and Pruett added another 196 which he saw on three nights’ watches.

South Carolina Group

Flower Observatory grad student William P. Wamer was likely the regional director, even though not named, when this group made meteor counts during the 1933 Leonid shower maximum. Wamer watched from St. George, Mrs. F. Barrington coordinated a group count at Charleston and at University of South Carolina, in Columbia, Professor E.C. Coker and three students made a group count.

Tennessee–Kentucky Group/Kentucky–Tennessee Group/Southern Appalachian Observers

Sterling Bunch served as this group’s Regional Director for most of the 1930–1936 period; however, Latimer J. Wilson served a strong supporting role and assumed leadership in 1936 when Bunch was reassigned by the US Weather Bureau to work in another state. This group was one of the period’s most active and accomplished ones and rivalled Dr. Olivier’s. The group’s programs were making hourly meteor counts, cooperative plotting campaigns to measure meteor heights, and Latimer Wilson’s photographic captures of meteor trails. It began to work as a unit in 1932 when members counted 213 meteors on four nights. Bunch at Knoxville, Tennessee (TN), Wilson at Franklyn, Kentucky (KY) and Lincoln Memorial University’s Dr. H.A. Miley at Harrogate, TN worked for several nights at the Leonid shower’s maximum in 1932. They were plagued by clouds and haze, as well as the bright moonlight which all observers endured that year, and yet two observers succeeded in plotting one Leonid meteor 222 1930s—The Best of Times simultaneously so that Dr. Olivier was able to compute its height. Wilson’s role in this campaign was making photographic exposures from Franklyn; he wrote Olivier that he believed one definitely contained a meteor trail, another had a likely one, and a third exposure possibly contained a trail. Despite atrocious sky conditions in 1932, the group’s members counted meteors and succeeded in identifying four new radiants. Olivier praised their tenacity, “for trying night after night under discouraging conditions and obtaining results of value.” The group had an excellent year in 1933. Bunch and Wilson teamed up for a simultaneous watch one night, and Bunch plotted a meteor that Wilson happened to photograph. Dr. Olivier was especially excited about Bunch’s collection of TN eyewitness accounts of a fireball’s train; these reports permitted Olivier to “calculate not only the height but the vastly more important train drift (of the fireball).” Bunch and Olivier wrote an article about the fireball’s train for publication in the US Weather Bureau’s Monthly Weather Review. Doris Wills and Sterling Bunch computed heights of Leonid and sporadic meteors that were simultaneously mapped by the Southern Appalachian Group’s eight-station campaign for the 1933 Leonids. Ms. Wills deduced 23 meteors’ heights and listed eleven heights Bunch had independently calculated; concerning their lists, she commented “our mean heights agree reasonably well…” In general, she was impressed with the group’s work in 1933; she commented, “These observers have been carrying out cooperative plans…with care and industry.” Seventeen members of the Southern Appalachian Group mapped and counted the 1934 Perseid meteors from stations in TN, KY, Alabama, and Georgia. In addition to participating in the Perseid campaign, one of the regional group’s members, the Louisville Astronomical Society, plotted nearly 600 meteors on six nights in 1934. The entire regional group, led by Bunch, participated in the 1934 Leonid meteor heights program with cooperative observations made from five sites extending from KY, through TN and into Georgia. Ms. Wills was able to compute eight heights from the meteors group members had plotted on star maps. In 1936, Dr. Olivier praised the Southern Appalachian Group, noting that it had undertaken “cooperative work on a large scale…” He appreciated Latimer Wilson’s initiative to lead the group after Sterling Bunch’s job transfer that year. Fifty-eight-year-old Wilson was an AMS veteran from the Society’s earliest days in 1912 when he was also a Society for Practical Astronomy member.

Texas Observers

Oscar E. Monnig served as Regional Director of the Texas Observers (TOs) for many years and in 1930’s AMS annual report, he received just recognition for being a major contributor to the TOs’ meteor counts. Olivier totaled Monnig’s counts at 533 in 1930 and credited his leadership for encouraging other members to add another 500 meteors to the AMS database. Monnig was further commended for asking eyewitnesses to a 1929 ﬁreball for more information as well as inquiring about a meteorite fall in early 1930. 1930 was also the year that Monnig and fellow Observer, How the Meteor Quest Was Won 223

J.H. Logan, filed reports of a serendipitous simultaneous observation which excited Dr. Olivier, who exclaimed that it “…had the highest theoretical importance.” Logan happened to see a first magnitude meteor that appeared to have the same trajectory as a ninth magnitude one Monnig saw moments before in an 11-inch (28-cm) telescope. Olivier was “inclined to the view that here we have the first recorded telescopic observation of the early stage of an eventually bright meteor.” The TOs plotted and counted another 1000 meteors in 1931, and Olivier published meteor rates derived from Monnig’s and two other TOs’ work in the same year. In 1932 and 1933, the TOs began to do spectroscopic meteor photography and were successful in capturing three spectrograms. They were the only AMS regional group to embark on astrophysical investigations during the Leonid storm years.

Utah Group

Dr. Junius John Hayes was regional director of the Utah Group that worked during the 1933 Leonid meteor season. Dr. Olivier published the group’s meteor rates, and his endnotes reveal that there were a total of 24 group members working on two nights from two sites in the state. An interesting innovation of theirs was to use surveyors’ transits to measure the altitudes and azimuths of meteors seen.

Summary

The reader is asked to bear in mind the professorial analogy inherent in Dr. Olivier’ method of conducting the AMS. When considered with this idea in mind, it is possible to recognize the structure of a university professor’s laboratory course in astronomy. Professor Olivier instructed AMS members, his “students,” by means of his Meteor Notes, AMS Bulletins, and Flower Observatory Reprints. During the Leonid Meteor Storm years, 1930–1936, he tasked his regional group leaders to act as his “graduate nighttime laboratory assistants.” These trained and trusted leaders guided their groups’ members in gathering meteor observations that were turned in to Olivier for analysis and publication. The next chapter’s subject is the numerous scientiﬁc results obtained by the professor’s organization.

What the American Meteor Society Accomplished

Introduction

American Meteor Society (AMS) regional group members churned out thousands of meteor observations from 1930 to 1936. Their impressive performance 224 1930s—The Best of Times was accomplished in conformance with instructions and observational methodology developed by a University of Pennsylvania professor of astronomy, Dr. Charles P. Olivier. Members were supervised during their meteor watches by Olivier’s assistants: the regional groups’ directors. Functioning like university teaching assistants, directors coached observers to adhere to Dr. Olivier’s research protocol for the specific type of observation he requested, whether hourly meteor counts or sketching meteors’ paths on star maps. Regional directors forwarded their group members’ observations to Professor Olivier for analysis and publication of the data’sresults. The AMS was a research organization that functioned according to a pedagogical model practiced in universities’ science departments. Each member of the organization, the professor/scientific director, graduate teaching assistants, and data-collecting class members were essential to the research effort’s success. The AMS was successful in clarifying the era’s mysteries in meteor science using the university’shierarchical teaching model. To be clear, there is no intent to detract from the AMS members’ accomplishments by making explicit Olivier’s management model. The AMS meteor observers worked with energy and self-discipline to provide the needed data. And they displayed initiative by experimenting with meteor photography using their own equipment and with only tepid encouragement from Dr. Olivier initially. In another development, AMS members devised search methods for finding meteorites; they literally brought meteor study “down to earth.” Lastly, the early- to mid-1930s provided surprise meteor outbursts which alert members documented for future observers to monitor.

“Out” with an Old Research Objective

Dr. Olivier began the 1930s with a celebratory announcement. His survey of international meteor research convinced him that,

… at present (1930) no reputable observer is known to follow the old custom of combining the work of 10 to 60 days and calling his results radiants…those of us who were working 20 years ago know what a great advance that is! This erroneous practice was precisely what Olivier believed led to many of the 4,367 meteor radiants in W.F. Denning’s General Catalog. Instead, Olivier judged that celestial mechanics only safely allowed,

…a(t) most (a) liberal limit (of) three successive nights, when observations are made during approximately the same hours…it seems that observations made on more than that number and combined into one mean position cannot meet the requirements of accuracy… radiants secured in this manner should be given the minimum weight or…discarded. In fact he had noted the wane of combination as early as 1923 when he saw that a British Astronomical Association radiant list “ha(d) broken away from the What the American Meteor Society Accomplished 225 practice of combining the work of many nights…Th(is), with other excellent features, makes this list a model for all to follow.” Throughout his early career, Olivier contended that AMS members’ work successfully challenged the enduring radiant’s fallacious relative, the stationary radiant. This was accomplished by mapping meteors according to restrictive radiant deﬁ- nitions that Olivier and the American Astronomical Society’s Meteor Committee (AASMC) advocated in 1917. In his long monographs of AMS data, published in 1914, 1920, and 1929, Olivier repeatedly adduced AMS members’ mapping results to show that the Eta Aquarid radiant, previously claimed to be stationary, was actually in motion throughout the shower’s appearance. In 1930, Ronald McIntosh’s series of Eta Aquarid radiants was the latest to “show the daily motion well.” After 1930, Olivier seldom concerned himself with refuting claims of stationary and long-enduring radiants. He believed AMS evidence had forced them both out of the ﬁeld of meteoric astronomy by convincing most knowledgeable colleagues of their non-existence.

“In” with New Research Objectives for the AMS in the 1930s

Dr. Olivier believed that meteoric astronomy was overdue for new research priorities in the 1930s. He felt that some he identiﬁed in a 1920 Meteor Committee report to the American Astronomical Society were now appropriate for AMS members to address. He was careful to name objectives which unaided-eye observers could usefully pursue. Among them were: 1. to determine accurate radiant points; 2. to determine accurate heights of meteors’ appearance and disappearance in the earth’s atmosphere; 3. to study meteor trains, especially to secure accurate velocities and directions of their drifts; 4. to secure telescopic data on the physical appearance of meteors; 5. to study the distribution (rate) of all meteors according to the month, day, and hour; 6. to study ﬁreballs and meteorites.

Plan for This Chapter

The remainder of the chapter is organized around discussions of the progress the AMS team achieved regarding these six objectives. 226 1930s—The Best of Times

Table 3 Number of radiants 1930 128 radiants published each year in 1931 1 radiants Popular Astronomy 1932 231 radiants 1933 87 radiants 1934 30 radiants 1935 95 radiants 1936 47 radiants Total 619 radiants

New Radiants Determined 1930–1936

As early as 1926, Dr. Olivier was overwhelmed by the number of gnomonic maps bearing meteor plots that arrived at AMS Headquarters. He was seldom able to keep up with the demand to review and deduce radiants according to the 1917 American Astronomical Society Meteor Committee’s (AASMC) criteria. Nevertheless, he published in Popular Astronomy (PA) a regular stream of radiants deduced by him or Flower Observatory graduate students.56 From 1930 to 1936, he attempted to keep up with arriving maps as well as to catch up in reducing maps he had received as early as 1926. As a result, Meteor Notes were confusing because Olivier segued from current year radiants to radiants that had arrived on maps in 1926–1927. Dr. Olivier was scrupulous about publishing all competently obtained radiants, but some AMS mappers had to wait for years to be credited in PA. New radiants were published on January 1, 1930, to December 31, 193657 (Table 3). When these new radiants were added to those reported in earlier AMS monographs the AMS had published, as of December 31, 1936, a total of 2160 radiants were deduced using the AASMC’s criteria. This radiant list was one that Olivier was proud of because it was the result of a single set of rules which respected celestial mechanical realities. The drawback was that not all radiants which members had mapped up to the end of 1936 were yet in print. However, Olivier resolved to continue to review and publish all the radiants even though it might take years to do so.

56An exception was that from 1933 to 1936, McIntosh determined all New Zealand observers’ radiants. Olivier defended this by reporting in a Meteor Note: “All maps were sent here by McIntosh but I have such high conﬁdence in his skill as a meteor observer that I feel that it is wholly unnecessary to check his radiants.” PA, volume 44, 1936, pp. 90–91. This trust in McIntosh was rare praise. 57The totals in Table 3 were derived by review of the 70 Meteor Notes published 1930–1936. What the American Meteor Society Accomplished 227

Meteor Heights

The prospect of a Leonid meteor storm in 1932 or 1933 offered meteor astronomy rare opportunities to measure the meteors’ heights and the velocity of high altitude winds which distorted the brightest Leonids’ enduring trains. Not wanting these phenomena to go undocumented, Dr. Olivier devoted much space in Meteor Notes coaching AMS members and other interested citizen scientists about the most effective means of recording meteor heights and train movements. Professor Olivier began 1930 by cajoling AMS members “who (had done) little or nothing” in 1929 to “bestir themselves” and

observe one-half night per month, (because) the results would be most surprising-and the members none the worse for the effort! This is suggested as an ideal to our relatively inactive colleagues for the rest of 1930. If more AMS members began plotting meteors on maps, Olivier reasoned, much more data would result. He emphasized on several occasions that meteor plotting was the sine qua non of sound observational meteor science. And he made it clear in April 1931 that to

become an accurate plotter- and no one is a good meteor observer until this happens- continuous practice and an accurate knowledge of the faint stars in the constellations are necessary. In 1932, he alerted observers who did not see their radiants published in PA that they had only themselves to blame because they

have never taken the trouble to learn the constellations well enough to plot with any accuracy. Until they learn the stars well enough so that they can turn from sky to map and quickly put their fingers upon the stars desired, their plotting will not yield good radiants. Although finding radiants was the context for this blunt advice, accurate plotting skills were crucial for the two principal objectives that Olivier had in mind for the 1930s’ Leonid epoch: measuring meteor heights and plotting drifting meteor trains. Both projects required accurate placement of meteor paths and train locations among the stars on a sky map. In addition, however, height and drift determinations required regional group members to make simultaneous observations of identical meteors and trains. To gain experience, Olivier urged members who lived within 40–100 miles of each other to make duplicate observations of the 1930 Perseids. Dr. Olivier described how he was going to arrange the Flower Observatory regional group’s observers for the 1932 Leonid maximum and he offered it as an example to the other regional groups’ (RGs) leaders to emulate. Olivier stationed eight observers on a north–south line, from Pennsylvania to Virginia and asked all observers to face the direction of the central station, Baltimore, Maryland, so that their fields of vision would converge. With this arrangement, he felt confident that at least two and perhaps more observers would plot the same bright Leonids on their star maps. 228 1930s—The Best of Times

However, Olivier learned that ﬁelding numerous observers created more con- fusion than clarity when it came to calculate meteor heights from so many vantage points. As a result, in April 1935, Olivier instructed the RGs to deploy two or at most three mappers when attempting simultaneous observations for meteor heights. In advance of the 1930 Leonid display, Dr. Olivier advised AMS members to schedule their Leonid maximum watches from November 10 to 18 inclusive for the years 1930 to 1934. The 1930 Leonids were an unexpectedly good shower when some favorably located observers saw 100 meteors an hour. Olivier interpreted the outburst as presaging a lengthier epoch of high Leonid rates, so he asked AMS members to be on watch an additional year, to 1935. Olivier was also surprised that the 1930 Leonid maximum occurred a day later than expected, on the night of November 16 to the morning of the 17th (November 16/17). This unexpected development alarmed him and he advised, “for the years 1931–1935 inclusive, we must be ready on all nights from Nov 13 to 18…so as not to be caught napping by further shifts of the date of maximum.” As 1933 approached, the year when the Leonid storm was considered most likely, Olivier’s coaching to observers took on a solicitous tone. He wanted observers to avoid any calamity that might interfere with their ability to watch the sky uninterruptedly, so he gave a warning that experienced observers already knew: November nights are cold. Olivier instructed them to dress warmly “otherwise the observer will be driven indoors by the cold.” Because the 1930 maximum was a day “late,” Olivier scheduled the Flower Observatory/“local” group to “work on November 14/15 and 16/17 in case the shower is a day early or late(r)” than the predicted date of November 15/16. He emphasized the reason for urgency, “as this is probably the last chance for a great Leonid shower until 1966, we urge that everyone be prepared.” As the days passed toward mid-November 1933, and as tension mounted, he coached observers that it did not make sense to watch before 11 p.m. on any night because the Leonid radiant would be below the horizon until about 1 a.m. local time. This was another needless prompt for experienced Leonid observers, but Olivier no doubt wanted watchers to guard against tiring due to a too-early start of their watches. Ultimately, Professor Olivier could not caution any further and observers could only wait for the maximum to occur. Unfortunately, tragically, the 1933 Leonid maximum was, in Olivier’s words, a “pitifully poor display.” As can be expected, Olivier had his work cut out for him in motivating the members to make more cooperative watches at Leonid maxima in 1934 and 1935. But he managed it before each year’s display, as late as 1936.

Meteor Heights Resulting from Regional Groups’ Cooperative Observations

Under Professor Olivier’s general supervision, AMS regional groups organized and carried out simultaneous meteor plotting campaigns in 1932, 1933, and 1934. As their results arrived at Flower Observatory, Doris Wills computed Leonid and sporadic meteor heights for simultaneously plotted meteor pairs. As was the practice, What the American Meteor Society Accomplished 229

Table 4 Summary of annual Leonid and sporadic meteor heights 1932–1934 (Average) Meteor heights 1932 (km) 1933 (km) 1934 (km) All years (km) Leonids Began 123.6 123.6 124.5 123.9 (76.8 mi) Ended 89.1 93.5 92.7 91.8 (56.9 mi) Sporadic Began 119.6 103.7 111.1 105.9 (65.7 mi) Ended 90.2 81.9 83.2 82.6 (51.2 mi) Source Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, Volume 43, 1935, pp. 455–456. Reproduced by courtesy of Carleton College Archives

“simultaneity” was judged by meteors which were noted to have closely similar times of occurrence. She used a “graphical” calculation method described in Flower Observatory Reprint No. 11, Methods for Computing the Heights and Paths of Fireballs which Dr. Olivier authored in 1931, for the US Navy’s Hydrographic Office. In June 1935, Dr. Olivier published a table summarizing Wills’ meteor heights for 1932–1934 along with two pages of explanatory remarks. Olivier’s table, in abbreviated format, is presented in Table 4. The table’s conciseness belies the immense amount of effort and time expended by regional groups’ observers to produce the data that were reduced by Wills. It was truly a product of AMS teamwork. The basic information displayed in Table 4 is the average atmospheric heights, in kilometers, when Leonid and sporadic meteors were first observed (Began) and last seen (Ended) by AMS regional group members. Conversion of kilometers to miles is given next to heights in the ALL column for the convenience of readers. In order to shorten an explanation of the Table, only the Leonid meteor results will be referred to here. The average (arithmetic mean) height of each year’s Leonids was the result of a varying total of plotted Leonids from year to year: For instance, average “end” heights were due to 79 Leonid heights in 1932, 98 in 1933, and 55 in 1934. The average of the three averages (1932–1934) in the “ALL” column resulted from a total of 232 Leonid meteor heights, the sum of the three years’ totals. Similar varying totals of meteor heights existed for all the remaining average heights in the original table. Professor Olivier began discussion of the table’s results by examining possible sources of observational and computational errors that could have skewed the results. He minimized the possibility that results were tainted by any single error that all the observer groups made. A single type of meteor-plotting error that all regional groups’ members made would have introduced a systematic error into the heights results. To explain why this was unlikely, he pointed out that the average heights did not result from one regional group’s data in one part of the USA, but in fact the heights “came from” several distinct groups. For this reason, a mistake made by the members of one regional group was probably not shared by another regional group’s members in a different part of the USA. The separate regional groups that contributed to an average height probably had differing plotting errors that minimized the influence of any one group’s errors. The variety of groups’ 230 1930s—The Best of Times errors did not quite cancel each other out, but no one error type had an out-sized influence on the final average height. The unknown mixture of groups’ errors introduced something similar to randomness in the measurement process, and randomness is antithetical to systematic error. Olivier believed that the possibility of computational error was reduced because Doris Wills used a graphical method which he opined was “most simple and obvious.” He said that he reviewed Wills’ work as well. For these reasons, he concluded “there seems to be no way in which systematic errors could enter through (the graphical method’s) use…” to distort the results. When Olivier actually addressed the table’s content, he was ecstatic about how consistent the average Leonid heights were from year to year. He exulted, “The truly wonderful agreement for the Leonids…quite exceeds our most optimistic expectations…” These results were a victory for the observational practices he taught AMS members and that were reinforced by the members’ regional group leaders. “Everyone followed the same general instructions, and nearly all used the standard AMS maps,” Olivier pointed out when reviewing the various error influences affecting the meteor height outcomes. Somehow, the standardized observing methods he instilled in AMS members triumphed over all the possible imperfections in individuals’ meteor mapping skills; they contributed to the AMS’ excellent results. Olivier believed that the Society’s average meteor height results had “a real scientific value” and “these heights, at least for the Leonids, should…be accepted as standard.” It was a proud American Meteor Society President who declared, “I feel that the Leonid campaigns of the past three years have fully justified themselves… all who participated may feel just pride in the remarkably accordant results that came from their observations…”

Long-Enduring Trains (LETs), a Shift of Dr. Olivier’s Priorities

Readers have had the experience of seeing tobacco, campfire, and fireworks’ smoke blown by a breeze, away from their sources. Stratospheric winds do the same when bright meteors leave behind an enduring train. Beginning in 1932, Dr. Olivier began to direct observers to subordinate meteor mapping to mapping long-enduring fireball trains on their star maps. He emphasized that they should continue to sketch the evolving wind-blown smoke shapes and the background stars as long as the trains persisted. He explained the scientific value of the observations, “The drifts furnish us with our only accurate means of determining wind velocities in the upper atmosphere.” In the September 1932 Meteor Note, he instructed meteor watchers to make, “Duplicate observations of long-enduring trains, particularly (to make drawings) at one-minute intervals, which can be used for parallax and drift computations,” and What the American Meteor Society Accomplished 231 he emphasized that these drawings “are the most valuable data to be secured.” And departing from his usual ambivalence about meteor photography, he asked for “photographs of very brilliant trains, even with ordinary Kodaks.” Olivier instructed AMS members about the method they were to use: “(photographs) will be very valuable if the camera is rigidly fixed on a tripod, and exposures are taken at intervals of one or two minutes, and each photograph being carefully timed as to mid-exposure.”58 By October 1933, Olivier decided the types of Leonid meteor data he wanted and listed them in order of priority. He published the following “last-minute” instructions for observers’ attention during the November shower,

Above (all) we want accurate plots of any ﬁreball leaving a long-enduring train, and plots to scale of the train at one-minute intervals…Next in importance is the determination of heights…by simultaneous observations from two or more stations. Lastly, the hourly rates can be counted by the less experienced members of observing parties. A year later, in autumn 1934, in advance of what was expected to be the last possible good Leonid return, Olivier emphasized the importance of train sketches, writing, “Such observations should take precedence over all others.” He was even more insistent just before the 1935 Leonids:

…it is of capital importance to obtain more data on long-enduring trains…this last opportunity should not be missed…if a long-enduring train is left, everything else should be dropped while complete drawings of this at one minute intervals are made…Opera glasses will be an aid in following such trains longer than the naked eye permits.59 AMS members sketched morphing trains and recorded their ﬂeet progress against the starry background. They sent drawings of these ghostly blurs to Dr. Olivier soon after their watches. Olivier hired Dr. Clarence Clemenshaw to itemize and systematize their reports. The job was too laborious for Cleminshaw to complete during the one-year term of his contract. The results of Olivier’s quest for meteor train drawings did not appear until 1942 when he published a monograph, begun by Cleminshaw and completed by him. This product was a catalog listing of more than 1300 trains which had been observed and described from as early as 32 A.D. The catalog’s publication was delayed by Dr. Olivier’s scholarly determination that it should be an exhaustive list. He advised its readers, “This paper should be fundamental to future studies of currents in the upper atmosphere… (because) it appears to be based upon far the largest existing collection of data on the subject.”

58Readers who are only familiar with digital cameras may want to know that a “kodak” was an early twentieth-century camera using a light-sensitive chemical emulsion on ﬁlm as the recording medium. Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes (MN), PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 496, MN dated September 19, 1932. 59Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 595; dated October 22, 1935. Eppe Loreta, an Italian AMS member, was responsible for Olivier’s opera glass recommendation because he sent Olivier numerous train drawings; one series of drawings was of a train visible for two minutes in 44 mm. binoculars; see Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 44, 1936, p. 327; also see Loreta’s biography elsewhere in this book. 232 1930s—The Best of Times

Not only AMS train data, but the data collections of several scientists were included in his catalog.60

Telescopic Meteor Observations

Although many telescopic meteor magnitude estimates came from AAVSO observers, some AMS members made dedicated efforts to seek out telescopic meteors. Robert Knabe, one of J.D. Williams’ teenaged associates in Tucson, Arizona, reported more than 800 estimates made with 7 × 50 binoculars during 1934 and 1935. Knabe’s and Luverne Armﬁeld’s contributions in 1935 prompted Olivier to comment that he was accumulating enough telescopic data to “attack… the problems connected with these little-known bodies.” Listed in Table 5 are the numbers of annual contributions and the most productive observers (Table 5). These almost 2400 magnitude reports were summarized in a monograph Olivier published in 1950. They were the major portion of 3300 telescopic meteors analyzed in the study.

Meteor Rates

Dr. Olivier’sdeﬁnition for “meteor rate” was “the number of meteors recorded per hour by one observer only, the sky being clear and the moon absent.” His insistence that each observer should only report his own observations, and not copy fellow

Table 5 Yearly totals of telescopic meteors and observers who submitted more than 40 observations that year Year Total Observers with more than 40 reports per year 1930 224 M.K. Jessup, South Africa; F.F. Marsh, Maryland; L.C. Peltier, Ohio 1931 172 Peltier 1932 130 None 1933 269 L.E. Armfield, Wisconsin 1934 921 L.E. Armfield; R Knabe, Arizona (Knabe reported 606) 1935 435 L.E. Armfield; R. Knabe (Knabe reported 202); F. Preucil, Illinois 1936 239 Flower Observatory staff, Pennsylvania; H. Inouye, Japan; G.P. Kirkpatrick, New York Total = 2390 (1930–1936 inclusive)

60Olivier’s predecessor-contributors were Charles Christopher Trowbridge (1870–1918), a Columbia University physicist and meteorologist; Cleveland Abbe, whose biography is elsewhere in this book and a German meteorologist, S. Kahlke, who published in 1921. Olivier credited many unnamed Soviet astronomers and others in various countries for their contributions too. What the American Meteor Society Accomplished 233 watchers’ results, was crucial to Olivier’s analyses and conclusions about the number of meteors visible per hour. However, each of Olivier’s catalogs of meteor rates varied as to how he operationalized the word “recorded”; in a 1933 publication, he meant “meteors plotted per hour” but in his 1960 Catalog of Hourly Meteor Rates, “recorded” meant “meteors that were either plotted or described” and it also meant “the observer merely counted meteors.” His meteor rate catalogs all featured corrections of the number of meteors actually observed to compensate for unfavorable sky conditions such as haze, moonlight, or clouds. But in addition, some catalogs included one more correction for the time lost by an observer who took her eyes off the sky to plot a meteor on a sky map or wrote notes to fully describe the meteor’s magnitude, speed, color, and train. Dr. Olivier began the 1930s’ series of Meteor Notes by calculating the meteor rate members experienced for each of their nightly reports. So, a Meteor Note from that era contained a list of the members’ names, watch sites, the dates, and time periods they observed along with the observed number of meteors reported, sky condition factors for each observation date and the corrected meteor rates for each observation session. These printed acknowledgements began to occupy much of the space Popular Astronomy allotted for a Meteor Note, for example, four pages in one 1932 Meteor Note. So, it was not surprising that in an October 15, 1932 Note, Olivier asked members to forego the satisfaction of seeing their observations reproduced in PA and instead accept a much abbreviated mention in each year’s annual report. He explained,

Inasmuch as the main object in collecting these data is to accumulate them for the study, discussion, and determination of statistical and other facts of meteoric astronomy… We are… considering the advisability of largely discontinuing the publication of rates and devoting this space to articles based upon the observations received currently or in recent years. He solicited reactions from members about this proposal. But he persisted in suggesting that members should sacrifice the satisfaction of seeing prompt publication of their results in favor of the “gratifying knowledge that the observations sent in…were being used more effectively for the advancement of science.” Dr. Olivier wanted to make his “factory observatory” more effective in the use of his and staff members’ time; the time spent calculating and listing members’ nightly rates for publication in PA could be better used, he believed. Dr. Olivier no doubt employed the time saved to compile and eventually publish long “hourly rate” catalogs (beginning in 1960), based upon members’ reports. What was the scientific value of such meteor rate catalogs? Olivier was quick to confront skeptics with a retort that “the determination of hourly meteor rates for each day of the year may at first glance seem to be a mere compilation of unin- teresting data, but these data…serve for the solution of important problems and for the testing of various hypotheses.” As one example, he informed readers in 1933 about an important meteoric problem which astronomers hoped meteor rates might solve: “Hourly rates can be used to determine the mean velocity of meteors in space.” Olivier reported that Dr. Cuno Hoffmeister’s meteor rate data indicated “a preponderance of hyperbolic velocities (which implied) that the meteors did not originate in our solar system.” However, Dr. Olivier drew the opposite conclusion 234 1930s—The Best of Times in a 1933 article based upon 24 years of AMS members’ records. Olivier believed that “a majority of the (AMS) meteors…have originated in the solar system,” for instance, from comets’ debris trails. Sixty-eight (68) AMS observers who submitted records from November 1929 to October 1932 furnished 15,000 of the observations which formed the basis of Olivier’s 1933 finding. Hoffmeister and Olivier’s attempts to find meteors’ velocities by visual observational methods became superseded in the early 1950s when optical and photographic technology allowed more objective velocity measures. But until then, visual observation and logical–mathematical deduction were the only means of evaluating this question.61

The Uses of Hourly Meteor Rates

Dr. Olivier used members’ meteor observations in a series of catalogs which tabulated hourly meteor rates; the last one was published in 1974. His first Catalog of Hourly Meteor Rates, published in 1960, acknowledged several 1930s-era AMS members by name and the number of meteor plots, descriptions, or counts they contributed. He cited J. Wesley Simpson (17,000 observations), Prof. Mohammed A.R. Khan (12,000), and R.M. Dole (“over 10,000”). Olivier credited three productive regional groups as well: members of Simpson’s Missouri group (35,000 meteors); R. McIntosh, M. Geddes, and S.R. Fairbrother (a total of “about 10,000…about half by McIntosh”) and J.D. Williams, R. Knabe, D. Brinegar, and T. Smith (a total of “more than 27,000 meteors…more than 17,000…by Williams”). These AMS members contributed a grand total of 111,000 observations out of 294,000 that Dr. Olivier estimated were in the 1960 catalog, nearly 40 percent of the total. In an illustration of a shower-specific use of hourly meteor rates, Dr. Olivier classified the richness of the 1933 Perseid meteor shower based upon meteor counts made by non-member citizen scientists (CSs). He seemed confident in making the pronouncement because so many CSs responded to his crowdsourcing appeals that year. These volunteers counted nearly 13,000 meteors during four August nights from “from about 8:00 p.m. to midnight, local time, for North American (cities) between latitudes +27 to +55 degrees.” He listed the average (arithmetic mean) Perseid meteor rates obtained for the four consecutive nights to show that August 11/12 was the night on which the 1933 maximum occurred. The aggregate of crowd-sourced data prompted his opinion “…1933 appears to have furnished just the normal…display” of Perseid meteors at maximum.

61See elsewhere in this book about the “Hoffmeister-Olivier Program” in which the two astronomers pooled resources and collaborated to measure meteors’ velocities. Olivier furnished AMS members’ half-hourly meteor counts to Hoffmeister whose assistants were assigned to analyze AMS data and their own. What the American Meteor Society Accomplished 235

Annual Reports’ Grand Meteor Totals Provided More Data for Hourly Rate Catalogs

In every AMS annual report, Dr. Olivier published the grand total number of visual, photographic, and telescopic meteor observations made by AMS members and non-members that were mailed to him. The visual observations included meteor plots on star maps, full descriptions on AMS standard forms and simple meteor counts. Many of these visual observations made their way into Olivier’s hourly meteor rate catalogs. The following table of annual grand totals of meteors is meant to illustrate the great number of observations that accumulated in AMS data archives from 1930 to 1936. Although not described until the next chapter, crowdsourcing of the newspaper-reading public helped to augment the grand totals from 1930 to 1934. For each year, a grand total is listed and in separate columns are given, as subtotals, the number of Perseid and Leonid meteors which were contributed by a combination of AMS members and citizen scientists who responded to Olivier’s newspaper appeals. Dr. Olivier asked that the public submit its Perseid and Leonid counts made during half- or full-hourly intervals, so that their data were readily useable in rate catalogs (Table 6).

Table 6 Yearly grand meteor totals with subtotals of Perseids and Leonids reported by AMS and Non-AMS observers Year Grand total Perseid subtotal Leonid subtotal 1930 13,560 2,431 1,390 1931 30,428 13,719 2,940 1932 59,086a 27,525b 5,409 1933 61,989 12,703 13,558 1934 37,625 5,386 5,448 1935 16,494 924 0 1936 21,675 0 0 Sum of grand totals: Sum of Perseid subtotals: Sum of Leonid subtotals: 240,857 62,688 28,745 Percent of sum of grand 26.0 11.9 totals (%) aIn 1932, observations arrived over a period of weeks, so the grand total accumulated over four MN entries; see: Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 495 and volume 41, 1933, pp. 111–113, p. 167, and p. 279 b Dr. Olivier commented about the 27,000 meteors seen during the Perseids, “the good Perseid shower of (1932) August, was more widely observed than any shower in recorded history.” (Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 495) 236 1930s—The Best of Times

Fireball Observations

In 1930, Dr. Olivier was pleased with the number of fireball reports arriving at AMS Headquarters. He informed PA readers that “we have 45 (reports) up to May 4 (1930).” Even so, he was eager to collect reports of all fireballs that appeared in the USA. In particular, he was concerned that some regions of the USA did not have a designated regional director to be responsible for ferreting out fireball eyewitnesses and their fireball appearance reports. So in March 1932, he addressed members in those regional directors-less regions:

One of the most important things a member could do, who lives in a region not now cared for, would be to offer to undertake the publicity campaign both by press and personal letters, necessary to gather fireball data… (If someone would volunteer) a real service would be rendered the AMS. His call was answered a year later, in early 1933. Olivier announced, “We now have state groups, with active leaders, in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas, which are on watch for great fireballs and (who) make prompt efforts to gather data thereon.” The regional directors diligently performed their duty and as the list Table 7 shows total numbers of fireball reports increased beginning in 1933.

Fireball Reports 1930–1936

In April 1935, Dr. Olivier presented a paper to the American Philosophical Society in which he summarized the challenges of ﬁreball investigation and if successfully overcome, the opportunities for discoveries about the ﬁreball phenomena. He wrote that “probably 80 percent” of the pre-1935 reports “had only one observation, the other 20 percent having from two to an extreme case of nearly 400 observations” for a bolide in July 1929.62 (Table 7)

Table 7 Yearly totals of 1930 245 ﬁreball reports 1931 245 1932 231 1933 285 1934 293 1935 254 1936 274 Total of reported ﬁreballs 1930–1936: 1,827

62Olivier’s reference to a July 1929 “great ﬁreball” is: “all our records were broken by about 450 separate reports on the Illinois ﬁreball of July 25 (1929)” Olivier, CP, Meteor Notes, PA, volume 38, 1930, pp. 174–177. What the American Meteor Society Accomplished 237

Each report offered an opportunity for Olivier to glean supplementary information about “meteoric bodies…(which) come from outside our earth and give us the one direct means of studying masses not of terrestrial origin.” He expounded on possible discoveries when sufﬁcient information about the ﬁreball’s appearance was provided by eyewitnesses,

we may hope to determine directly…the heights of beginning and end points, the length of the path and its shape in our atmosphere, the velocity, the radiant point (or point in space) from which the object came, the upper and lower limit at which the train remained visible, the direction and velocity of drift of the train, and the orbit of the body in space… if a spectrogram is available, the (atomic elemental) constitution of the body may be determined. Olivier pointed out that except for the meteoroids’ orbit, velocity, and composition, all the other data provided information about the meteorological characteristics of the upper atmosphere. In particular, for the 1930s-era scientist, “What is of greater importance (is) the train drifts (that) give us our main information upon wind directions and velocities at really great heights.” Having identified that void in knowledge about fireball trains’ movements in the upper atmosphere, he provided some information to fill it. Olivier’s study of 33 well-described fireballs revealed that they first appeared in the atmosphere at an average height of 140 km (87 miles) and three of these left enduring trains for which drift velocities ranging between 128 km per hour (79 m.p.h.) and 236 k.p.h. (146 mph) were calculated. The remainder of Olivier’s 1935 fireball monograph provided a detailed account of a sound-producing and meteorite-dropping fireball which occurred on March 24, 1933. He credited regional directors Oscar E. Monnig (Texas) and J.D. Williams (Arizona) for diligently pursuing eyewitnesses of this spectacular object by sending them letters containing AMS fireball questionnaires (AMS Bulletin 13) and for interviewing some personally. Monnig and Williams queried 55 eyewitnesses to provide the database for Dr. Olivier’s investigation. This object’s explosion must have frightened many people in the “panhandles” of Oklahoma and Texas: Its detonation over their heads produced shockwaves which shook homes in a region stretching 120 miles from Guymon, Oklahoma to Amarillo, Texas. Harvey H. Nininger made his own independent investigation of the “panhandles” fireball, employing onsite interviews with eyewitnesses. He reported on local residents’“recovery of a few (meteoritic) fragments from this great fireball, one of which had been picked up immediately after its fall.” After Nininger inspected the meteorite he wrote, “The texture of the stone, (was) very friable, render(ing) it unlikely that any considerable mass landed intact.” Nininger’s involvement in this matter betokened the shift of meteorite study from meteor astronomers to the Society for Research on Meteorites (SRM), begun by Frederick Charles Leonard in 1933. Nininger and Dr. Charles Clayton Wylie were early applicants for membership and they became very active in the nascent organization. 238 1930s—The Best of Times

Members’ Innovations

Meteorites

In 1931, Dr. Olivier reported,

…another class of observations which rapidly increases in number as meteoric astronomy receives more publicity… (is) numerous letters from persons who have inherited, or have picked up, or in some cases have actually had meteorites to fall at their very feet…a dozen specimens have been sent here for examination…(but) in no case has anything been sent in remotely resembling a meteorite in either appearance or structure. But Olivier’s luck changed later the same year when R.C. Shinkfield of South Australia sent him a “several ounce” fragment of the Karoonda Meteorite which fell 75 miles (120 km) southeast of Adelaide on November 25, 1930. Olivier described Shinkfield’s gift as being “dark gray stone… (in which) minute quantities of metals can be easily recognized by using a magnifying glass” but Olivier estimated that “at a guess…over 95 percent of the mass is stony.” A Meteor Note written in 1933 showed that Dr. Olivier was knowledgeable about meteorite types and he eventually joined and later became an officer of the SRM (later renamed the Meteoritical Society). However, Olivier ultimately decided that he would concentrate his energies on the study of meteors and not meteorites, a decision illustrated in an anecdote told by Nininger, “(Olivier) privately confided to me, to my great disappointment, that when a meteorite landed on the earth he lost interest in it.” If Dr. Olivier was not interested in meteorites or searching for them, there were at least two AMS members who were: Texas Observers Oscar Monnig and Robert Brown. Monnig financed a number of search expeditions to meteorite sites in Oklahoma and west Texas during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1934, Monnig and Brown travelled to Odessa, Texas, to examine and measure many surface features of the eponymous crater near that west Texas town. In 1936, Monnig sent Brown and Sterling Bunch to search for pieces of the Crescent meteorite, and the two men were successful in finding a small piece of it. Meteorite searches were good examples of how amateur meteor observers were intrigued by and pursued new meteoric topics that Dr. Olivier had not considered important at the time he founded the AMS. Perhaps Dr. Olivier’s preoccupation with classical meteoric issues of radiant, orbit, train, height, and atmospheric path had crowded meteorites’ salience out of his awareness. But some of the 1930s-era amateur astronomers grasped the importance of finding and examining actual samples of solar system bodies and they seized the initiative to develop this new field. Meteorite searches were an example of “bottom-up,” amateurs influencing professionals, efforts that arose in the early 1930 s. What the American Meteor Society Accomplished 239

Meteor Photography

The second innovative effort by amateurs was their pursuit of meteor photography. In the 1890s, meteor photography had briefly (at Yale under Dr. Elkin) and often accidentally (as at Harvard College Observatory) occurred at US observatories. But, in the 1930s, amateurs took their Kodak cameras out to capture bright shower meteors. Although not instantly a paradigm change from visual methods, the sum total of their efforts nudged meteor observation toward more frequent use of photography to record meteors. Dr. Olivier had complicated opinions, with justification, about photography’s usefulness to meteoric astronomy. On one hand, in September 1932, he asked for “photographs of very brilliant (Leonid) trains, even (exposed) with ordinary Kodaks;” and he found very useful two photographs of a March 24, 1933 fireball’s train which allowed him to calculate its drift velocity at about 270 k.p.h. (167 m.p. h.) He even offered to send to would-be photographers of 1933’s Leonids some of J. D. Williams’ suggestions for photography that were found to be effective. But on the other hand, even as late as 1934, he wrote that capturing a meteor trail on film “has been disappointing considering the time and effort spent upon it.” The difficulty in the 1930s was that the era’s chemical emulsions, responsible for recording light on film, were “slow,” or insensitive. They were more likely to capture bright nighttime sky streaks if they were like long-enduring trains: slow-moving or stationary. However, the emulsions were less likely to register swift-moving, especially faint, meteor trails. In addition, if film captured a bright meteor’s trail, it was not likely to register the full length of the meteor trail as seen by the eye. This formed Dr. Olivier’s chief complaint about photography for meteor trails and it figured in a comment he made about a Geminid meteor trail that Latimer J. Wilson managed to photograph on December 10, 1933. As Olivier summarized the observation, “the plotted trail (on Wilson’s star map) is 12 degrees long but on the (photographic) print received here only 2 degrees show up…this discrepancy in visual and photographic length of trail points to one of the serious handicaps when too much reliance is placed on photographic results.” Nevertheless, amateur astrophotographers continued their efforts to apply photographic methods to meteor work. Olivier reported that C.H. Brown, a Baltimore AMS member, sent him a photograph containing two Lyrid meteors’ trails that Brown captured on the night of April 21/22, 1934. And, Olivier mentioned that “several others” had success with fixing meteor trails on film. In 1935, J. Hugh Pruett succeeded in photographing two meteor trails, and one, a −1 magnitude Perseid “left a most interesting path on the plate, about 10 degrees long and showing two distinct flare-ups near the middle…” Olivier reported. However, it was the work of an Alabama member which gave Dr. Olivier some reasons to reconsider the usefulness of meteor trail photography. It was a subversive event that undermined the primacy of visual meteor work. Alfred Boyles (1902–1983), a 33-year-old chemical engineer living in Ensley Alabama, arranged a simultaneous photographic observation of the 1935 Leonids with W.G. Montgomery, who lived sevenmilesawayinBirmingham,Alabama. 240 1930s—The Best of Times

The two men used different makes of camera; their photographs recorded a 1st magnitude meteor which appeared at 3:18:58 a.m. Central Standard Time on November 16. Boyles’ Kodak meteor trail photograph was almost 1 degree long, but Montgomery’s Bausch and Lomb camera’s photograph revealed a trail that was about a half-degree longer. Dr. Olivier was initially critical because, “This (photographed trail length) difference illustrates …the present fundamental difficulty with the photographic determination of meteor heights: We can never be sure that the same absolute points of the meteor’s trail appear as ends on both plates.” But after the inspection of both amateurs’ photographs, Olivier noted that they had captured the same background stars. Using five field stars as reference points, Olivier and Doris Wills independently measured both photographic negatives to locate the right ascension and declination63 of the midpoints of the two trails, and with these they were able to calculate the height of the meteor trail as 100.4 km (62 miles). This outcome from two photographs impressed Dr. Olivier, especially because photographs are not prone to the judgment errors observers can make when they draw a meteor trail from memory on a sky map. Olivier declared, “The success of this well-planned piece of work by Boyles should encourage other amateurs to undertake simultaneous photograph observations. We consider the height here obtained one of the most reliable on record, the credit…is due to the observers.” Olivier’s last Meteor Note of 1935 suggests that he was warming to the idea of further meteor trail photographic efforts by AMS members. To guide readers for future photographic attempts, Olivier published the technical details of Boyles and Montgomery’s cameras, “For the simultaneous photographs…both lenses were of the Tessar type, and for both cameras, the focal ratio was f/4.5,” and he added that the two cameras’ apertures were 46 and 40 mm. He knew it was important that other amateurs use equipment that was successful in the past. As another indication of Olivier’s changing opinion, when he urged AMS members to make simultaneous watches of 1936s Delta Aquarid and Perseid meteors, he suggested that “simultaneous photographic work would be particularly valuable.” It is unknown whether observers responded to this particular request, but Olivier reported in the 1936 Annual Report: “More people are trying the photography of meteors…I …request all to send us for our files a print of each trail, putting the known data on the back.” Amateurs’ photographic successes over the previous four years subverted the established visual methods paradigm and even though visual methods continued to be most often used during meteor watches, Dr. Olivier acknowledged that photography had a useful role in AMS campaigns.

63Right ascension and declination are sky coordinates analogous to longitude and latitude on earth’s surface. What the American Meteor Society Accomplished 241

New Developments

Anomalous Brief Meteor Outbursts

As AMS members monitored the 1930s’ skies they occasionally witnessed remarkable, unanticipated meteor showers in which tens, or more rarely, hundreds of meteors fell in a short time span. When these showers occurred they were only visible over restricted geographical regions, sometimes as small as over one state. When they were observed, Dr. Olivier urged a watch in subsequent years to learn whether the meteor shower would repeat its appearance. On June 10, 1930, in Maryland, AMS member Paul S. Watson and his friends Frank Oertel and Joseph Field were treated to a summer evening twilight meteor outburst. They reported seeing 51 meteors during a half-hour period, 9:15–9:45 p. m. Eastern Standard Time, all radiating from within three degrees of the star Gamma Delphini: 39 were first magnitude, and 10 of zero magnitude. The presence of a full moon prevented them from seeing fainter meteors. Coincidentally, Drs. Olivier and Barton happened to make short meteor watches immediately after the Maryland phenomenon ended. Olivier noted that “despite the moonlight, we on that night could easily have seen 3-magnitude meteors,” yet they saw none. He concluded, “we have a case of a brief shower of meteors seen at one place but not elsewhere” In 2013, North American meteor observers were asked to watch for a recurrence of Watson’s shower, but a summary of several observers’ reports after the predicted outburst were disappointing: “No strong rates were seen anywhere.”64 April 15, 1931—Olivier summarized a report by Noah W. McLeod, an AAVSO member who while monitoring variable stars from Christine, North Dakota saw 28– 30 meteors during a 35-min period. After plotting 10 of the meteors’ paths, he found they radiated from an area just north of the constellation Corona Borealis. Dr. Olivier classified McLeod’s sighting as being similar to Watson’s a year earlier, commenting, “It proves that the earth frequently meets small, isolated groups of meteors, the groups having such small cross sections that they can be seen from only a very restricted territory.” No watch for a recurrence was requested in subsequent years, and this shower has not been observed by chance again. October 19, 1935—Miss Margaret Whitcombe, who graduated with astronomical training from Mt. Holyoke College, and a companion, witnessed more than 100 bright meteors during a two-and-a-half-hour interval. Ms. Whitcombe identified the radiant, east of the variable star Mira, in Cetus, on a star map sent to her by Dr. Olivier. No searches have been made for a recurrence of this shower. January 19 and February 23, 1936—Two more “brief intense” showers were reported from a Southern Hemisphere observer, J. Fraser Paterson of Broken Hill, South Australia. Only the February shower was observed well enough for Paterson to locate the radiant of 13 meteors appearing in “a perfect sky” near the star Eta

64Lunsford, Robert, Gamma Delphinid Results and Observations, http://www.amsmeteors.org// 2013/06/gamma-delphinid-results-and-observations/. Accessed April 30, 2016. 242 1930s—The Best of Times

Carinae. Dr. Olivier asked Southern Hemisphere observers to make searches on both dates in future years so that the radiant “of this minor shower can be accurately determined.” It is unknown if such searches were made.

Recurrent 1930s Showers

Not all of the 1930s’ surprise meteor showers ended in one-off appearances. Two, ultimately named the Draconid (or Giacobinid) and the Alpha Monocerotid showers, have recurred a few times in decades after they were first witnessed. October 9, 1933—The Draconids startled European sky watchers. Dr. Olivier describedthe outburst as “averyfine meteor shower,” perhaps anunderstatement for one that produced “over 100 meteors per minute as seen in Russia at Pulkovo Observatory.” Olivier checked existing radiant catalogs, including Denning’s1899General Catalog, and found no radiant near where Europeans reported it, but he finally found one in a reference by W.J. Fisher for 1926 “which gave a radiant near Nu Draconis,” a dim star in the constellation Draco, the dragon. Olivier concluded that the 1933 storm “may…be assumed with fair safety… (to be) the first (shower) of really large proportions furnished by Giacobini’s Comet. (Jupiter’s gravitational) perturbations in recent years evidently shifted debris along the comet’s orbit into the earth’s path.” The Draconids stormed again in 1946 and brief strong showers occurred in 1985, 1998, 2005, and 2011. November 21, 1935— Mohammed A.R. Khan, an Indian AMS member was treated to a “brilliant but restricted meteor shower” which was a recurrence of a meteor outburst first reported by F. Bradley ten years earlier. Khan saw over 100 meteors in 20 min, several of first magnitude, with long trails. Khan located the radiant in the constellation Monoceros, near the bright stars Sirius and Procyon. Dr. Olivier commented that the (later named) Alpha Monocerotid shower “was far richer than any of the annual ones in 1935. The unexpected still happens, and new meteor streams are appearing…” Unlike the one-time-only meteor outbursts described above, the Alpha Monocerotids were seen hundreds of miles away from where Khan saw them, in the Philippines. For a period of one half-hour, the commanding officer of USS Canopus in Manila harbor saw 60 meteors, at 30-s intervals, on the same night that Khan saw the outburst. Dr. Olivier commented that the officer’s description of the radiant “…fit Prof. Khan’s radiant fairly well…(and) thus (we) have a full confirmation of the short duration and exceptional richness of this shower…” Recurrences of this meteor shower were observed in 1985 and 1995; each of these outbursts were described as “strong” but lasted only about 30 min.

Chapter Summary

During the Leonid storm years, Dr. Olivier instructed AMS regional group members to concentrate their observations upon a number of topics that would help him explore certain aspects of meteor astronomy that were not well documented. The What the American Meteor Society Accomplished 243 response of AMS members to his directions was gratifying. Among the results were hundreds of additions to the AMS radiant list, analyses of ﬁreball atmospheric paths, thousands of new meteors counted and plotted by AMS members, descriptions of long-enduring meteor trains, hundreds of measured meteor heights, and the magnitudes of hundreds of telescopic meteors were estimated. During the Leonid era, AMS members broadened their meteor-related activities beyond the visual studies Dr. Olivier requested. They experimented with photographic meteor observations and developed an interest in meteorites, especially devising ways these solar system bodies could be found after they struck the earth. In addition to meteor shower watches requested by Dr. Olivier, AMS members were alert to the occurrence of anomalous meteor showers ﬁreballs and reported these to Dr. Olivier. In the 1930s, active AMS members cooperated closely with the Society’s President, Dr. Olivier. The next chapter describes how Olivier secured the cooperation of large numbers of the North American population to watch and count meteors as well.

Citizen Scientists Caught Meteor Fever

An unusually large number of meteors are expected by astronomers…on the night of Thursday November 14. At this time the Leonid shower…reaches its maximum…Cloudy weather at the established observatories may prevent astronomers from observing the meteors, and so Prof. Charles P. Olivier…has requested the aid of amateurs in counting the Leonids…Anyone with good eyesight and the determination to stay up for a few hours after midnight in the early morning hours of November 15…can aid in this work. The simplest thing is to count the number of meteors visible during half-hourly periods, say from 12:00 to 12:30, 12:30 to 1:00, etc… “November Meteors Soon to Be Seen,” Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas), Friday, November 8, 1929, p. 7

Olivier’s Publicity Efforts and Results

Dr. Charles Olivier had a keen appreciation for news articles’ usefulness to educate the general public about meteor astronomy. Beginning about 1928, he described the Perseid and Leonid meteor showers and alerted the public when they were due to appear. These aroused the nation’s interest in meteor science and motivated sci- entiﬁcally inclined members of the public, often called citizen scientists (CSs) today, to participate in informal meteor watches. 244 1930s—The Best of Times

Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing in the 1930s

During the 1930s, Dr. Olivier asked the nation’s newspaper editors to print his appeals to CSs’ for meteor counts during the Perseid and Leonid displays. Olivier instructed meteor watchers to make half-hourly counts and not to combine their totals with other observers’ even if groups of people watched together. The 1930s had no speciﬁc term for this type of appeal to masses of people, but today, “crowdsourcing” is the term that we would use. Crowdsourcing (CG) proved to be an effective way for meteor counts to be made throughout the USA and Canada, ensuring that somewhere clear skies would prevail and allow meteor data to be gathered.

Olivier’s Publicity Efforts and CG’s Results 1930–1934

Communicating with the public did not go well at first because of an editor’s errors in an article about the 1929 Leonids. Olivier complained that the message he had intended became “misleading if not absurd.” Despite this unfortunate beginning, Olivier’s articles about monitoring the Perseids and Leonids became more faithfully transmitted and Olivier received volumes of helpful observations. A good example was the successful campaign for counts of the 1930 Perseid meteors. After the shower he informed Popular Astronomy (PA) readers that “hundreds of newspapers” printed his appeal and because of them, “reports from all parts of the country poured in from persons whose interest was aroused for the first time.” He praised the newspapers for avoiding “local editing and… (making) comparatively few ridiculous misstatements” which could have confused the public; as a result Olivier announced “that more observing was done in America on the Perseids in 1930 than in any previous year.” He was impressed by the initiative some CSs displayed because they enlisted others to carry out meteor counts. For example, Edith Vaughan Michaux directed six of her Camp Fire Girls to watch meteors while they camped at Lake Wichita in Wichita Falls, Texas, and Alice Wilson Wilcox, a Providence, Rhode Island, zoology professor convinced 18 other vacationers at Lake Winnipesauke, New Hampshire, to watch Perseids on August 12. In 1930, a total of 74 people reported from 21 states and all of their hourly counts were listed, by the CSs’ names, in PA. Olivier commented that his newspaper appeal led 13 people to join the AMS; he welcomed them by listing their names and addresses, so they could contact each other for joint observations. Dr. Olivier was especially grateful for newspapers’ cooperation in November 1930. Widespread clouds and rain in the eastern part of the USA sidelined most AMS members. Almost all of the meteor counts Olivier received were from CSs who had responded to his newspaper pleas for observations. Observers with clear skies reported 100 Leonids per hour along with several brilliant fireballs whose trains lasted for minutes. Olivier reported an unanticipated result which Citizen Scientists Caught Meteor Fever 245 crowdsourcing had produced: The date when the greatest hourly rates occurred was a day later than predicted. Olivier remarked that the 1930 display was the finest since 1901, and he owed the knowledge about the delayed maximum to citizen scientists’ cooperation. Following 1930’s flood of useful data, Dr. Olivier printed an acknowledgement to “the Science Editor of the Associated Press, editors of Science Service, and the editor of The Week’s Science” for their invaluable role which encouraged “casually interested” readers’ active participation in citizen science. Olivier’s gratitude paid dividends because the print media and radio commentators continued to alert audiences about future meteor showers. In August 1931, the number of participating citizen scientists surpassed 1930’s group. One-hundred-eighty-six groups of meteor counters sent Olivier half-hourly Perseid counts. The groups were led by 54 women and 132 men, ranging in age from 10 to 85 years of age; they had watched from Canada as well as the USA. After midnight on August 11 and 12, the dates of maximum, some fortunate observers reported more than 60 Perseids an hour. In his October 1932 Meteor Note, Olivier proclaimed the “Perseid shower of August 1932…more widely observed than any shower in recorded history.” After he totaled results from CSs and AMS members, he found “for the interval August 6–15…about 32,700 meteors (had) been reported to the AMS…Such an interest in the subject breaks all records,” he exulted. Three-hundred-twenty-seven non-members contributed meteor counts “in accordance with instructions” given by Olivier. Olivier was ecstatic; he listed 185 people who had followed AMS methodology and sent reports of watches that lasted at least one hour. These CSs were from 27 states and two Canadian provinces. Olivier was to be even more excited about the total number of meteor reports he received by the end of 1932. He claimed, “Over 58,000 observations of all kinds have arrived, from meteors counted in half-hour intervals…to those fully described on the standard record sheet and carefully plotted on the regular maps.” He estimated that over 1,000 CSs took part in AMS meteor work that year and he believed they “not only added something of value to science but also had the educational advantage of personally taking part in the work…gaining practical experience in observing.” Olivier recognized his debt to the print media for the most bountiful meteor data harvest he had ever made:

The excellent cooperation of the Associated Press and Science Service (both of which) now permit us to reach many interested individuals, and as a consequence meteoric astronomy is becoming constantly more widely known to the public with many good results to itself. In what was becoming an annual August morning pastime, CSs reported their observations of the 1933 Perseids. Olivier listed the crowdsourcing yield: 197 people counted Perseids. The contributors’ names stretched over ﬁve pages of a Meteor Note article; there were 167 US participants (56 of them women) and 30 Canadians (including eight women). They watched from 36 states and six Canadian provinces and when 37 AMS members were added to the participant roster, three more states were added to the observation sites. With the news media’s help in 246 1930s—The Best of Times

1933, citizens in 81 % of the 48 states and in 60 % of the Canadian provinces responded to the invitation to count meteors. Dr. Olivier had infected an entire continent with meteor fever.

Crowdsourced Fireballs

Olivier found the public’s eyewitness accounts to be very helpful to deduce fireballs’ paths through the atmosphere. Just as he had with Perseids, he crowdsourced relevant facts immediately after a shadow-casting fireball appeared. He found the newspaper editors in the region where the spectacle occurred to be very willing to print his entreaties. Through them, he asked eyewitnesses to write him whether they had seen a fireball. In 1936 and 1937, the newspapers brought forth hundreds of sighting reports. When newspapers spontaneously printed eyewitnesses’ fireball accounts, Olivier was able to identify the most competent observers for further questionnaire inquiries. These witnesses were able to provide clues about where in the sky a fireball had been when it first appeared and when it was last visible. After Olivier analyzed the best eyewitnesses’ information, he published “fireball solutions” in PA. These were his deductions about the compass direction a fireball had travelled and the height they had been when they first and last appeared. Then he sent the report to the editors who had been so helpful. When these were printed, the papers’ readers learned the scientific details about “their” fireball. This feedback helped motivate them to make a fireball report the next time they saw one.

Summary of the 1930s Chapter

From 1930 to 1936, Dr. Charles Olivier had secured thousands of meteor observations with enormous assistance from 173 members of the American Meteor Society. The entire AMS team had recorded enough meteor data to fill catalogs with hourly rates, atmospheric heights, radiants, long-enduring fireball trains, and telescopic meteors. In addition, Dr. Olivier, thanks to the cooperation of newspaper editors across North America, benefited from the scientific motivations and good will of hundreds of crowd-sourced North Americans who endured sleepless nights in several Augusts and Novembers to send thousands of meteor counts to AMS headquarters. All of the citizen scientists who collaborated with Dr. Olivier made the 1930s the best of times for meteor science in the USA. They and he saved meteor science from the disgraceful state it was in only 30 years earlier. One proof of its salvation was emergence during the 1930s of several American meteor research programs. They will be the subject in the next chapter. References 247

References

The Man at Mid-life

Correspondence archives Charles P. Olivier Correspondence Collection, American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Alphonso King to CPO, 1930: February 15 CPO to Alphonso King, 1935: January 19, October 25, November 29, CPO to Felix de Roy, 1935: December 30, CPO to Otto Struve, 1935, June 1, E.A. Pope to CPO, January 16, 1933 Frank Schlesinger Correspondence File, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut Harold Lee Alden to CPO: June 21, 1933 CPO to FS, 1927: July 21, July 29, 1929: April 15, 1930: February 20, 1931: November 9 1932: May 21, 1934: August 8, 1936: February 4 and October 20, FS to CPO: 1936: February 26 1937: May 20 Telephone interviews by the author with Elise Olivier Ferris, June 5, 2001 and October 14, 2002 Alice Olivier Hayes, June 11, 2001 and October 14, 2002 Arnold Edmund Hayes, Jr., June 11, 2001 and June 29, 2001

The Astronomer at Mid-life

Texts

Hoffleit, Dorrit, Astronomy at Yale, 1701-1968, Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Volume 23, New Haven, Connecticut: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1992, Chapter 17 Koch, R.H., Observational Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, 1751-1996; privately published, 2008, pp. 60-75. The book was available online at: http://gravic.com/graviclabs/pdf/ astronomy/Observational%20Astronomy%20at%20UP%201751%20-%20Revision%20B.pdf Accessed April 24, 2016, however this URL (web address) changes frequently and the reader may need to use a search engine to locate Dr. Koch’s book. Lankford, J., American Astronomy: Community, Careers and Power 1859-1940,Chicago:University of Chicago, 1997; pp. 204-205 specifically, and his Chapter 7, Power and Conflict, generally. Olivier, C., Comets, Baltimore, Maryland: Williams and Wilkins Company, 1930. 248 1930s—The Best of Times

Olivier, C., et.al., 1414 Measures of 1033 Double and Multiple Stars’, Publications of the University of Pennsylvania, Astronomical Series, Volume 5, Part 1, Philadelphia: U of Penn., 1932, pp. 1-64. Russell, H., R. Dugan, and J. Stewart, Astronomy, A Revision of Young’s Manual of Astronomy, Volume 2, Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy, Boston: Ginn and Company, 1927, pp. 707-709 and 715-719. Correspondence archives Charles P. Olivier Correspondence Collection, American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Alphonso King to CPO, 1930: February 15 CPO to Alphonso King, 1935: January 19, October 25, November 29, CPO to Felix de Roy, 1935: December 30, CPO to Otto Struve, 1935, June 1, E.A. Pope to CPO, January 16, 1933 Frank Schlesinger Correspondence File, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut Harold Lee Alden to CPO: June 21, 1933 CPO to FS, 1927: July 21, July 29, 1929: April 15, 1930: February 20, 1931: November 9 1932: May 21, 1934: August 8, 1936: February 4 and October 20, FS to CPO: 1936: February 26 1937: May 20 Author’s correspondence archives F.W. Smith to RT, May 2, 2001 and May 12, 2001 Telephone interviews by the author Elise Olivier Ferris, June 5, 2001 and October 14, 2002 Alice Olivier Hayes, June 11, 2001 and October 14, 2002 Arnold Edmund Hayes, Jr., June 11, 2001 and June 29, 2001

Organizing Flower Observatory Staff for the Leonids

Koch, R.H., Observational Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, 1751-1996; privately published, 2008, pp. 60-75. The book is available online at: http://gravic.com/graviclabs/pdf/ astronomy/Observational%20Astronomy%20at%20UP%201751%20-%20Revision%20B.pdf Accessed April 24, 2016, however this URL (web address) changes frequently and the reader may need to use a search engine to locate Dr. Koch’s book. Lankford, J., American Astronomy: Community, Careers and Power 1859-1940, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1997; pp. 188-194. Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 39, 1931, pp. 151-152 and p.406 volume 40, 1932, p. 357: The Meteor Note was dated May 10, 1932 volume 41, 1933, p. 111, The Meteor Note was dated January 24, 1933 volume 42, 1934, pp. 219-223 Organizing Flower Observatory Staff for the Leonids 249

volume 43, 1935, pp. 119-129 and p.377 volume 44, 1936, p. 213 and p.277 Olivier, C. and D. Wills, Daily and Monthly Meteor Rates, Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science, volume 7, 1933. Olivier, C.P., Long Enduring Meteor Trains, Flower Observatory Reprint No. 60, 1941 and Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, volume 85, Philadelphia: APS, January 1942, pp. 93-135 Olivier, C., A Report on the Department of Astronomy and the two Astronomical Observatories during the directorship of Chas. P. Olivier, typewritten at either UPenn or F.O. and dated 1952 March 09. Wills, D., Preliminary Discussion of American Meteor Society Meteor Magnitudes, Colors, and Path Lengths in Proceedings of the American Astronomical Society (PAAS), volume 7, 1933, pp. 189ff Wills, D., Statistical Investigation of November Meteor Heights, PAAS, volume 8, 1934, pp. 229ff

Membership Roster and Statistical Summary for the Years 1930–1936

Members’ names and addresses were found in Dr. Olivier’s Annual Reports 1930-1936. Olivier, C., Annual reports were in his ‘Meteor Notes’ and published in Popular Astronomy. The volume, year and page(s) for each year’s report are cited below: 1930: volume 39, 1931, pp. 149-154 1931: volume 40, 1932, pp. 95-96 and 163-165. 1932: volume 41, 1933, p. 112 1933: volume 42, 1934, p. 155 1934: volume 43, 1935, p. 179 1935: volume 44, 1936, p. 213 1936: volume 45, 1937, p. 160

How the Meteor Quest Was Won

Bunch, S. and C. Olivier, Tennessee ﬁreball of August 21, 1933, Monthly Weather Review, volume 61, 1933, p. 326 Millman, P., Texas Observers, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 28, 1934, pp. 161-164. Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volumes 38-44, 1930-1936. Olivier, C., Flower Observatory Reprints, Numbers 5 (1929), 8 (1930), 12 (1931), 15 (1932) and 22 (1933); University of Pennsylvania’s Archives, 3401 Market St., Philadelphia, PA 19104. Request a ﬁnding aid for the reprints at http://www.archives.upenn.edu/home/archives.html. Accessed on April 27, 2016. Wills, D., Meteor Heights 1933, in Popular Astronomy, Volume 42, 1934, pp. 220, 274, 337 and 394. Wills, D., Meteor Heights 1934, in Popular Astronomy, Volume 43, 1935, pp. 29, 309 and 457.

What the American Meteor Society Accomplished

New research objectives Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams (and Report of AMS for 1914-1918), Publications of Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, 1920 and 1921, pp. 224-225 Olivier, C., Report of the Committee on Meteors (to the 23rd Meeting of the AAS), Popular Astronomy, Volume 28, 1920, pp. 13-15 250 1930s—The Best of Times

Olivier, C., Meteors, Baltimore, Maryland: Williams and Wilkins Co., 1925, pp. 88-91. Accomplishments of the AMS Kronk, G., Meteor Showers: Annotated Catalog, Second edition, New York: Springer, 2014, pp. 240-241 and 286-287 Olivier, C., AMS Annual Reports, in Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Only the years, volumes, and pages are cited below: 1930: volume 39, 1931, pp. 149-154 1931: volume 40, 1932, pp. 95-96 and 163-165. 1932: volume 41, 1933, p. 112 1933: volume 42, 1934, p. 155 1934: volume 43, 1935, p. 179 1935: volume 44, 1936, p. 213 1936: volume 45, 1937, p. 160 Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volumes 38-44, 1930-1936. Olivier, C., Methods for Computing the Heights and Paths of Fireballs, Flower Observatory Reprint No.11; University of Pennsylvania’s Archives, 3401 Market St., Philadelphia, PA 19104. Request a ﬁnding aid for the reprints at http://www.archives.upenn.edu/home/archives. html. Accessed on April 27, 2016. Olivier, C. and D. Wills, Daily and Monthly Meteor Rates, Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science, volume 7, 1933. Olivier, C.P., Problems presented by a study of ﬁreballs recently observed in America, Proceedings American Philosophical Society, volume 75, No. 6, 1935, p. 489 and subsequently published as Flower Observatory Reprint No. 29. Olivier, C., Long Enduring Meteor Trains, Flower Observatory Reprint No. 60, 1941 and Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 85, No. 2, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, January 1942, pp. 93-135 Olivier, C. P., Some Results from Data Secured by the American Meteor Society, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 94, No. 4, (Aug 25, 1950), pp. 327-335. Olivier, C.P., Catalog of Hourly Meteor Rates, Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics, Volume 4, July 1960, pp. 1-2. Wills, D., Meteor Heights 1933, in Popular Astronomy, Volume 42, 1934, pp. 220, 274, 337 and 394. Wills, D., Meteor Heights 1934, in Popular Astronomy, Volume 43, 1935, pp. 29, 309 and 457. APPENDIX: Published reports in which the AMS’ 1930 s data appeared after 1936 Olivier, C.P., Long Enduring Meteor Trains, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 85, No.2, January, 1942. Olivier, C.P., Long Enduring Meteor Trains, Second Paper Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 91, No.4, October, 1947 Olivier, C.P., Long Enduring Meteor Trains and Fireball Orbits, Third Paper, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 101, No. 3, June, 1957 Olivier, C.P., Catalog of Hourly Meteor Rates, Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics, Volume 4, No.1, 1960. Olivier, C.P., Catalogue of Fireball Radiants, Flower Observatory Reprint No. 146, 1964 Olivier, C.P., Long Enduring Meteor Trains, fourth paper, Flower and Cook Astronomical Observatory, Reprint No. 189, 1969.

Citizen Scientists Caught Meteor Fever

Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volumes 38-44, 1930-1936 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad

Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA

The early to mid-1930s witnessed six loci of scientiﬁc meteor study within the USA or with American astronomers’ supervision or collaboration: Flower Observatory (American Meteor Society), Iowa’s Midwest Meteor Association, Antarctica, Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts and its Arizona outpost near Lowell Observatory, and, ﬁnally, the Society for Research on Meteorites formed in 1933 at Chicago.

C.C. Wylie and Midwest Meteor Association: Challengers from the Midwest

Astronomer Dr. Charles Clayton Wylie (1886–1976) maintained a distance from Dr. Olivier and his American Meteor Society (AMS). Perhaps he did so as a means of achieving intellectual autonomy in meteor astronomy. There were episodes during the late 1920s and 1930s when Wylie publicly disagreed with some of Olivier’s practices in conducting meteor research. Perhaps it was inevitable that the two men, about the same age, both ambitious to achieve prominence in the same scientiﬁc endeavor, would come into conﬂict. Wylie maintained his independent viewpoint by publishing Iowa observers’ Leonid shower reports separately from the AMS’. Father John A. Theobald (1888–1969), a mathematics professor at Columbia College (now Loras College)1, often cooperated with Wylie’s research

1Theobald wrote articles for mathematical associations which are held by the JSTOR site; his topics were about teaching mathematics to undergraduates.

© Richard Taibi 2017 251 R. Taibi, Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science, Springer Biographies, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44518-2_6 252 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad programs. He published results of his students’ meteor watches in articles that followed Wylie’sinPopular Astronomy.2

C.C. Wylie

C.C. Wylie was born in Idana, a rural Kansas crossroads town. In 1900, his father, Oliver, the secretary of a building and loan association, relocated the family to Marissa, Illinois, where Charles graduated high school. Young Wylie earned a B.A. degree from Park College, Parkville, Missouri, in 1908. In 1911, while a graduate student on the staff of Laws Observatory, Columbia, Missouri, Wylie was elected to membership of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America (AASA), predecessor to the American Astronomical Society. Charles P. Olivier was present at the same AASA meeting where Wylie was elected, and was already a member of the society. In the years between a master’s degree in 1912, from University of Missouri, and a Ph.D. from University of Illinois (UIL) in 1922,3 Wylie was an assistant at the United States Naval Observatory (USNO), in Washington, DC, from 1913–1919. Wylie was one of the USNO’s astronomers at Baker, Oregon, for 1918’s June solar eclipse. He taught at UIL from 1922 to 1925 and then, in 1925, became a faculty member at the University of Iowa (UIA), where he remained until he retired.

Midwest Meteor Association

Dr. Wylie and UIA observatory colleagues decided in the fall of 1926 to investigate “spectacular fireballs, bright enough to cast shadows.” They noted that Dr. Olivier and the AAS’ Meteor Committee had recommended partitioning the USA into districts with an academic center that would volunteer to investigate fireballs occurring within their districts. Wylie and other “college professors in Iowa and adjoining states” decided that “any of the Middle Western states” were their domain, and in the summer of 1927, the group named themselves the Midwest Meteor Association. Coincidentally a spectacular fireball appeared over Illinois that summer which set Wylie and Olivier on a collision course that would include territorial and methodological conflicts.

2For example: Theobald, John A, Counts of the 1931 Perseids, PA, volume 39, 1931, p. 552. The SAO/NASA ADS search engine found seven articles authored by Theobald, 1931–1934, most of them individual and group meteor counts of the Perseid and Leonid meteors performed by his students at what is now known as Loras College. The SAO/NASA search was made on September 1, 2014. 3Dissertation: The Cepheid Variable Eta Aquilae and the Eclipsing Binary Sigma Aquilae, Graduate School of the University of Illinois, 1922. Abstracts and summaries of Wylie’s dissertation results were reprinted in the Astrophysical Journal, volume 56, no. 4, 1922, pp. 217, 231, 232, and 241. Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA 253

The fateful fireball was an explosively detonating one that dropped more than a hundred pounds (45.5 kg) of meteorites near Tilden, Illinois, in June 1927. Dr. Olivier sent questionnaires to local newspapers and citizen-observers, per his cus- tomary procedure after learning of a fireball’s appearance. He hoped observers’ return-mailed responses would allow him to identify those people who seemed to have the best information about it. The most detailed eyewitness accounts, Olivier expected, would lead him to deducing the fireball’s path through the atmosphere and locating its radiant. Dr. Wylie followed his usual investigational procedure by driving 300 miles from UIA in Iowa City to Tilden so that he could interview eyewitnesses to the spectacle. He believed that it was only by quizzing observers, on location, about where the fireball appeared in the sky, that he could most accurately determine the fireball’s path. When Dr. Wylie arrived in Tilden soon after the meteorites fell, he found that Dr. Olivier’s questionnaires had already been received and answered by the cooperative townsfolk. It must have been immediately clear to Wylie that he and Olivier were competing for the same information.4 Wylie decided to show Tildenites a united scientific front by showing them his copy of Olivier’s book, Meteors and telling them they were colleagues and had met when Wylie was on the USNO’s staff. However, Wylie’s affable presentation did not mean he was yielding the investigational field to Olivier. Wylie wrote Olivier, “I have promised my final article, with illustrations of the meteorites, of the holes made in striking (the ground), and a map of the vicinity to Popular Astronomy. The report of the geologist will be included.” Wylie requested that if Olivier’s report was published first, Olivier would include the phrase “(Wylie’s) report will appear a little later.” As it turned out, only Wylie published a detailed report that appeared in the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s Journal. Olivier never published results of his investigation.

Fireball of July 25, 1929

Two years later, the two men were to duplicate efforts again. Those investigations resulted in a heated debate, published in Popular Astronomy, over the merits of their respective investigation methods. The fireball that kindled their dispute occurred on July 25, 1929, in Illinois, Dr. Wylie’s self-proclaimed “territory.” Wylie was first to report the immense geographical area over which the fireball had been seen. UIL Astronomy Department and Iowa State Weather Bureau staffs were able to collect reports from observers as far-flung as southwest Minnesota, northeast Nebraska, eastern Michigan, central Ohio, and southern Illinois. Wylie opined that considering the territory over which the fireball had been seen, it could also have been witnessed in Canada, the Gulf states, the Mid-Atlantic, Appalachian, and

4Wylie and Olivier sent announcement notices of the Tilden fall to Popular Astronomy within two days of each other in September 1927, and the notices were published within 20 pages of each other: Wylie, The Tilden Meteor, an Illinois Daylight Fall, PA, volume 35, 1927, 453–454; and Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 35, 1927, p. 473. 254 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad

Southeast coast states of Georgia and South Carolina; “it lighted up nearly a million square miles of territory, a remarkable record,” he wrote. Olivier only printed a terse bulletin: the fireball “was a very fine object which may indeed have been a meteorite…(it) traversed Illinois from south to north.” Dr. Olivier was injected into the inquiry by his assistant at Flower Observatory, Dr. Samuel G. Barton (1882–1958) who happened to see the fireball from Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin. Barton contacted Chicago and Milwaukee newspapers about the event and requested that they ask their readers who had seen the fireball to send reports to Olivier in Pennsylvania; as a result, Olivier received “over 400” reports. Barton was not the only astronomer at Yerkes to see the fireball and one of them, Joel Stebbins, summarized his own and colleagues’ accounts which were sent to Wylie and thereby invited the Iowan into the inquiry.

Two Astronomers in Conﬂict

Two months after the spectacle, Wylie was first to publish an analysis of observers’ reports and his judgment about the fireball’s atmospheric path over Illinois. His 1929 report was based upon measurements of the meteor’s beginning and end points in the sky; the measurements were made “in most cases, with a (surveyor’s) transit, by an experienced person, who interviewed the observer at the exact place from which the meteor was seen.” Wylie was the expert who interviewed eyewitnesses and took measurements “only when it appeared the observer could point out the path quite well.” Olivier published a report two years after the event, in 1931; he admitted “this (analysis) has dragged on much longer than intended.” He explained that his delay resulted from the hope that late reports would improve chances for a better height and atmospheric path determination. The delay was also lengthened by “follow-up letters with questionnaires…sent to the more promising of the observers…” However, “most of the observations were too general in statement to be of use, so only those by persons who seemed to have some idea of angular measurements and directions finally figured in the solutions.” Nevertheless, these promising witnesses were very numerous and Olivier collected almost 140 data points that he trusted well enough to use in his calculations of the fireball’s atmospheric path and its radiant in the sky. Olivier received a bonus from the myriad reports; he learned that there were actually two fireballs seen on July 25, 1929 one appearing a half hour before the widely seen one. The professors’ arguments with each other were not based upon computational errors the other committed, but rather they were based upon differences in data collection methods. Wylie insisted that the analyst needed to make measurements with surveying instruments at the spot where the fireball was witnessed. Wylie contended that only after that had been done could the analyst perform accurate calculations. Olivier countered that as an experienced analyst of fireball reports, he could winnow through mailed observational reports and questionnaires to identify competent eyewitnesses whose altitude and azimuth data he would use for his computations. Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA 255

Their dispute was complicated by two side issues which each thought crucial to his work. Wylie insisted on in situ investigation because consultation “with physicists and psychologists” led him to believe that people have perceptual biases that inﬂuence eyewitness descriptions of ﬁreball paths; because of these, an eyewitness’ testimony could not be relied upon without vetting by a trained astronomer who was almost literally standing in the witness’ shoes.

Charges and Countercharges

In 1934, Wylie charged that Olivier’s 1931 results were vitiated by his correspondent-informants’ faulty perceptions. Wylie’s criticism provoked Olivier to respond. Olivier bluntly retorted that his methodology permitted him to deduce more information about the fireball’s path, height, and radiant than Wylie had reported in 1929. Further, Olivier insisted he had deduced a more accurate path length because he had better-situated observers than Wylie. He scorned Wylie’s investigation because Wylie “wholly failed to detect (or at least mention) the other bright fireball seen…32 min sooner (than the subject fireball). Had (Wylie’s) reports been complete, this could hardly have been missed.”

Mailed Questionnaires Avoided Disparagement

But, more crucial for Olivier was to defend against Wylie’s criticism about the use of untrained observers upon whom Olivier depended for fireball data. Relying on the public was necessary for Olivier whose goal was to collect meteor data from across the entire USA, something that was practically impossible if he needed to visit every fireball site. Olivier charged that Wylie’s in situ expert requirement “would make amateurs and the general public believe that their reports were of little or no value unless they (were) personally interviewed.” Further, Olivier feared that the Iowa method “would discourage others from taking up the work of regional leadership” which Olivier found invaluable for the collection of meteor data. Olivier’s method relied upon regional directors of all skill levels and experience to collect many observations of varying quality which, when sent to AMS headquarters, allowed Olivier to decide which was most useful. Olivier wanted to encourage greater input of data and trusted that his practiced evaluation of it all would be the best path to accurate conclusions. At the same time, amateurs would be protected from a requirement to be a trained astronomer in order to seek fireball reports. Wylie did not agree and would not let the matter die. He wrote a second paper with a reanalysis of his data, conducted by five colleagues. Wylie’s ten-page, 1935, paper exhaustively reviewed procedures used to deduce the beginning and end points of the fireball path, its atmospheric altitude, its velocity, detonations it made while exploding, and the air’s resistance to its flight. Wylie compared the results obtained by Olivier in 1931 to his own in 1929 and 1935. Wylie’s 1935 results 256 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad agreed only with Olivier’s radiant determination, but Wylie’s height of appearance and path length values remained discrepant from Olivier’s; he had a higher altitude and shorter path length than Olivier’s measures. Wylie’s value of the fireball’s velocity in space was new data that did not appear in either his earlier paper or Olivier’s. Wylie determined it to be 21 miles per second which indicated that the 1929 meteoroid had been in orbit around the sun. Such a finding was contrary to most 1930s meteor studies which found hyperbolic velocities indicating an origin in interstellar space. Olivier’s mute response to Wylie’s last paper was to continue his practice of deducing meteors’ heights in the same way he had done before Wylie’s criticism.5

Dissent at Flower Observatory

There were doubters about Olivier’s questionnaire method much closer to home. F. W. Smith, Flower Observatory’s volunteer staff member, found Wylie’s use of surveyor’s instruments at eyewitnesses’ observation sites very persuasive. Smith spent 1929 in a post-baccalaureate year at Swarthmore College taking courses in celestial mechanics and orbit computation. When Smith volunteered to work at Flower Observatory in his free time, Olivier seized on the young man’s advanced education to have him calculate fireball solutions. Smith recalled, “Olivier thought that if I could compute a comet orbit I could do a fireball trajectory.”6 Olivier gave Smith fireball observations that had been languishing in the AMS files for a long while and ones Olivier deferred doing in favor of multistate fireballs of the July 1929 class. In the course of assigned reductions, Smith was dismayed to learn how poorly laypeople estimated angular distances. “For example, one person gave an altitude of 100 degrees!” Smith reported.7 Smith saw too many examples of this sort and concluded, privately, “The questionnaire data were worthless, but I kept on working because I wanted to remain in touch with Olivier and the AMS.”

5Wylie continued to be a methodological contrarian to Olivier and other meteor astronomers’ practice in one more respect: He and Fr. Theobald experimented with and advised how meteor counts could be made by groups with the group members’ data aggregated: Wylie, C.C., The Relation of Group to Solo Counts in Meteor Work, PA, volume 42, 1934, pp. 157–158 and How to Make Good Group Counts, PA, volume 42, 1934, pp. 596–598. The accepted practice, beginning with W.F. Denning and strongly insisted upon by Olivier, was that if people observed meteors in a group, each one should only report the data associated with meteors he or she had seen. 6Olivier attested to Smith’s orbital calculation skill in a comment in one Meteor Note: “A paper by one of our own members, F.W. Smith…was read and favorably commented upon at the Dec mtg of the RAS, and appeared in the December Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.It concerned the meteor orbits connected with the Pons-Winnecke Comet”: PA. volume 41, 1933, p. 169. 7The greatest number of degrees that can be reported, from the horizon to directly overhead, is 90°. Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA 257

Midwestern Independence: Group Counts and Use of Reticles

Dr. Olivier had established and supervised an observational protocol for almost 20 years before the Midwest Meteor Association’s formation. But, as in other scientiﬁc ﬁelds, established practice is not guaranteed widespread acceptance by other scholar-researchers. Dr. Wylie did not feel bound by Olivier’s procedures and adopted two more methods which were at odds with Olivier’s. Wylie encouraged group meteor counts in which all observers’ counts were totaled and he allowed meteor observers who were not familiar with the constellations to use sighting devices called “reticles” as a means to record meteors’ paths.

Group Counts

Olivier insisted that the basis for hourly meteor rate investigations was a meteor count by one individual who did not add to her total any meteors seen by a fellow observer. Wylie’s reason for counting meteors was different than Olivier’s; he was interested in “estimating the total number which strikes the earth each day.” Wylie insisted that the proper investigation began with “a large group arranged so as to cover effectively the entire sky.” The end results of Olivier and Wylie’s hourly counts were different. Olivier wanted an individual’s hourly meteor count; Wylie wanted the group’s hourly count of every meteor visible in the sky. Surely, a number of citizen scientists must have been confused to read about one professor emphasizing an individual count and the other professor seeking a group count. Nevertheless, Wylie described how a group of as many as 24 observers should arrange themselves at the watch site so that entire sky was monitored in the course of a watch. Midwest Meteor Association member, Professor John A. Theobald, at Columbia College, Dubuque, Iowa, was an enthusiastic proponent of Wylie’s group method. Theobald led his students in group watches of the Perseid and Leonid showers from 1931 to 1934. Interestingly, some of his reports listed the group’s total count and individuals’ counts in a mix of Wylie’s and Olivier’s reporting styles.

Reticles

Reticles were large wire arrays which projected a network grid on the sky when an observer looked through an eyepiece positioned behind it. The arrays’ artificial patterns were meant to replace the stars or sky coordinates as a reference frame for describing meteors’ paths. There were two reticle design configurations that were used in the 1930s. One had concentric rings and an array of cross-wires like those seen in a bull’s-eye and another employed smaller rectangular areas within an outer 258 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad rectangular boundary frame.8 In use, the observer watched the sky through the reticle, and when a meteor was seen, he drew the meteor’s path on a diagram of the reticle, reproducing what he had seen. One advantage claimed for reticle use was dispensing with the need for observers who knew the constellations. Admittedly, finding constellation-savvy people was difficult as Olivier’s decades-long experience demonstrated. So, some astronomers were willing to accept untrained observers simply to have sufficient staff to conduct meteor studies. Their hope was that accurate meteor height results could be obtained by reticle users who otherwise did not know their way around the night sky. One inexperienced observer participated in a study designed by Dr. Wylie and Dr. Thomas Charles Poulter (1897–1978), a physicist on the faculty of Iowa Wesleyan College in Mt. Pleasant. Each professor assigned one graduate student to observe the 1932 Perseid shower using a 35-inch-diameter (0.9 m) reticle constructed by Poulter. Wylie’s observer was a graduate astronomy student, who presumably was familiar with the night sky, but Poulter’s was a physics graduate student who was not star-oriented. The two succeeded in recording five identical meteors, but when the professors completed the data analysis, they could only classify one of five observations as being fully reliable, assigning the four others weights of one-half to three-quarters as opposed to a full “one.” In the article’s conclusion, Wylie and Poulter commented that the “observations were much better than plots on star charts by the average graduate student, but it is to be assumed that with more experience, the accuracy will be increased.” An AMS member, J.D. Williams, saw Wylie’s article and decided to conduct an empirical investigation. Williams compared meteor numbers seen without a reticle to the number of meteors observed using a “simple reticle.” He found that total numbers of meteors seen with each method were comparable, but he believed that the stars-only method was superior in allowing a more accurate plot of a meteor path. Williams admitted that he had not yet done a comparative study of each method’s plotting accuracy, but because he had experience with the AMS’ straightedge and star map method, he counseled his readers, “Until definite information is secured concerning their accuracy, the use of (reticles) should be confined to investigations where expediency is admittedly the determinant.” In summary, the two preliminary studies did not settle the question about whether a reticle’s use by untrained observers would yield an accurate, credible meteor height determination. However, uncertainty did not stop reticles’ use in two other meteor programs, described below, that were contemporaneous with the AMS’.

8A full description of the “bull’s-eye” style reticle: Editor, Meteor Program in Connection with the Byrd Antarctic Expedition II, PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 283. The rectangular reticle is described in: Shapley, H., E. Opik, and S. Boothroyd, The Arizona Expedition for the Study of Meteors, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, volume 18, No. 1, 1932, p.18. Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA 259

Olivier and Wylie’s Professional Relationship

Frank Schlesinger asked Olivier for his evaluation of C.C. Wylie’s meteor work and whether, in Olivier’s opinion, it deserved the ﬁnancial support which Wylie requested from the Smith Fund in June 1933. Olivier responded:

In my opinion Wylie has done excellent work in the cause of meteoric astronomy, has aroused enthusiasm in his section of the country, has made valuable investigations, and as a general proposition deserves support, particularly as I understand he gets little locally in the way of funds, Iowa being hard hit…if the J. Lawrence Smith Fund can do so, an appro- priation to him would be in order and would be used to good advantage. Schlesinger thanked Olivier, telling him his letter, “contain(ed) exactly the information I need.” Olivier’s opinion about Wylie likely soured after Wylie published pointed criticism of Olivier’s ﬁreball analysis method in 1934. Wylie’s article provoked a tart response from Olivier and an attack on Wylie’s work. A question from Felix de Roy, newly selected President of the International Astronomical Union’s Meteor Commission in 1935, about the relationship between the AMS and Wylie’s organization, elicited a telling response from Olivier. He informed de Roy, “The Midwestern (Meteor Association)—under Wylie is entirely separate from the AMS. Except to exchange publications we have nothing to do with one another…I do not mean we are on bad terms, but Wylie runs his group as he pleases and with no advice from me. It is quite distinct (from the AMS).” Olivier struck a similar formal tone when he wrote Wylie in May 1936. Olivier was attempting to discover why an AMS regional director, J.W. Simpson, volunteered to participate in a program designed by Wylie. Olivier informed Wylie that he might not object to Simpson participating in Wylie’s program, but “I have not to my recollection examined it…it might work in perfectly, or it might put the section out of business so far as the AMS is concerned.” Olivier’s concern with Simpson’s approach to Wylie was more about maintaining his control over the meteor work done by a regional group, “I am obliged to keep some hold over the regional directors or the Society would soon go to ruin,” Olivier explained. The formality of Olivier’s letter emphasized his wariness of Wylie, another meteor scientist, whose methods differed from his and whose scientiﬁc priorities he did not know.

Cosmological Issues as a Rationale for Reticle Use

During the 1930s, at least two meteor astronomers made arguments for the use of reticles in their investigations: Thomas Poulter and Ernst Opik. These arguments were that reticle use would impose observational discipline on a meteor observer. The implication was that only with such “discipline” could scientiﬁc investigators properly evaluate a claim that interstellar space was ﬁlled with meteors. 260 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad

European astronomers found observational and mathematical support for interstellar meteors during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Gustav von Niessl (1839–1919) compiled a fireball catalog and found that a large number of them appeared to have such high velocities that they could not have been gravitationally bound to the sun in comet-like orbits; he concluded that they must have been interlopers in the solar system and have entered from interstellar space. Cuno Hoffmeister added more fireball data to von Niessl’s catalog and found a similar result: 79 % of the fireballs’ velocities indicated an extra-solar origin. By 1933, Hoffmeister had additional observational evidence for the existence of “an interstellar meteor system.” These results raised the possibility that our Milky Way-orbiting solar system, with the earth in tow, was being peppered by a fusillade of high-velocity (hyperbolic) meteoroids that raced with vast streams of the tiny bodies. An alternative possibility was that the solar system was passing through a vast cloud of speedy meteoroids in the galactic neighborhood it was transiting. The latter scenario was of interest to early twentieth century astronomers, like Harlow Shapley, who were curious about the physical nature of matter in the “interstellar medium.” Evidence of the kind Hoffmeister reported was compelling because it offered meteoric astronomy an opportunity to compete with the dramatic galactic discoveries made by Shapley and the intergalactic ones by Edwin Hubble. If it could be confirmed that meteoroids were interstellar and perhaps intergalactic bodies, classical astronomy’s lackluster discipline, meteors, would suddenly be on a par with the exciting discoveries by astrophysicists. During the 1930s, Hoffmeister, Opik, and Poulter conducted investigations that pursued that glamourous prize. Opik and Poulter’s efforts’ were made more exotic because of their expeditions’ locales; Opik’s was to Arizona, only accepted as one of the USA 20 years earlier, and Poulter’s to the frigid “end” of the earth, Antarctica.

Dr. Thomas C. Poulter and His Antarctic Meteor Program

Soon after his 1932 Perseid shower collaboration with C.C. Wylie, Poulter made arrangements for unpaid, extended leave from Iowa Wesleyan College (IWC) and joined Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd’s (1888–1957) second Antarctic expedition, from 1933 to 1935, as its scientific director. Poulter conceived of a meteor observation program as one of the scientific investigations to be performed while the expedition wintered at the South Pole in 1934. He approached Dr. Olivier for suggestions concerning scientific aspects of the project and for support of his application for research funds. Olivier assented to both appeals and advocated for Poulter’s financial support by requesting that he be given a J. Lawrence Smith grant from the National Academy of Science. Olivier omitted mentioning this role in a September 1932, Meteor Note, but he informed readers that Poulter planned systematic meteor watches that would continue for “24 consecutive hours” during the Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA 261 polar winter night and this would “be entirely unique” in the history of meteor studies. In a 1933 solicitation for observers, Poulter described “very extensive plans” for a “worldwide meteor program…consisting of two major divisions” one of which was to be carried out at the South Pole. The second was the “worldwide program” requiring “a large number of cooperating stations, widely distributed over the earth.” This latter component was presumably the one that AMS members were eligible to join. Poulter’s global observer network was to occupy observing sites extending from the Antarctic to 50 or 60 degrees north latitude. He envisioned three concentrations of observers watching from longitudinal bands centered on 80 degrees west longitude, 20 degrees east longitude, and 140 degrees east longitude. However, in addition he wanted observers in “other cooperating stations.” Poulter planned two programs for the non-Antarctic observers: meteor counts and “determinations of real paths in the atmosphere.” For the latter work, and at the Antarctic site, observers were to use reticles made of steel wire and arranged in a bull’s-eye configuration. Poulter justified reticle use by asserting,

First it permits the observer to watch the sky uninterruptedly for the period of observations. Second, the data are in terms of a system of coordinates, stationary with respect to the earth, rather than the stars which facilitate calculations of real paths (of meteors). It has been our experience that a much more accurate measurement is obtained in this manner (reticles) than by the method of star charts. Poulter asked that observers interested in cooperating with him in the research should contact him before August 15, 1933, and if interested could purchase the expedition’s reticle from IWC’s Scientiﬁc Instrument Shop for $3.90 ($69 in 2012 US dollars). Olivier wrote nothing more about Poulter’s program until 1935 when he revealed:

With the full approval of headquarters, many of our members took part in the Byrd Antarctic Expedition program. Copies of these observations are eventually to become the property of the AMS, by agreement with Professor Poulter when our aid was enlisted. After his return to the USA, Poulter made a cursory report in a letter to Olivier, mentioning, “We obtained data on about 6500 meteors in spite of (poor weather at the pole)…We have not heard from all the cooperating stations (AMS participants) yet, but have data on about 18,000 meteors for the period that the expedition was in the Antarctic.” Instead of a data jackpot, Olivier received a pittance from Poulter: only three meteor train observations were sent to him in 1935. Poulter’s letters to Olivier indicate that he had little time to reduce meteor observations; he was under great financial pressure to repay loans for scientific instruments taken to Antarctica. He was only able to raise money by lectures to scientific societies that would pay for his expenses. He explained to Olivier that on his return from Antarctica, he “prepared material and moving picture film, for my lecture tour this fall and winter… (he) spent six weeks cutting 60 miles of film down to seven or eight reels.” Poulter 262 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad claimed, “I have a picture that will be quite interesting regardless of what I may say in the lecture.” Poulter was candid in a letter:

I have two primary interests in giving these lectures. First, is to give the audience a very interesting picture of a romantic and scientiﬁc adventure, and second is to get as much money out of it for our work as I can. He ended his letter asking Olivier, “Do you know of any committee …who would care to sponsor such a lecture? Poulter’s letter to Olivier in January 1936 revealed a hard fact; he needed to market the expedition’s geophysical yield to produce income. He explained that he would reduce Antarctic seismic data “in cooperation with the Seismic Service Corporation of Tulsa, Oklahoma.” He continued:

I have been without salary for the past few years and the lecture tour still lacks a few thousand dollars of covering my expenditures for scientific equipment for the expedition. I will be in need of some financial assistance for living expenses while I am continuing this work…Would you be willing to write a letter to the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation relative to the importance and scientific value of the meteor data? The issue was obvious; the meteor data would have to pay for its own reduction and publication. Understanding this reality from his own experience, Olivier implored the Guggenheim Foundation to award Poulter one of its $2000 fellowships, worth $33,000 in 2012 dollars. When Olivier asked, in 1952, for an update, Poulter replied, “It is a source of considerable embarrassment to me that the meteor data which we collected in the Antarctic have never been published.” Poulter explained that his new position at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) had kept him traveling “almost 10,000 miles a month” since September 1948, supervising field crews engaged in geophysical work. Poulter wrote that his Antarctic seismic data had been published by SRI only the year before. Poulter said he was unsure where and how the meteor data could be made public. Once again, he asked Olivier if he had any suggestions for how “almost a hundred pages of (meteor) data tabulation” could be published. Olivier’s response to this question is unrecorded. However, as this is written in 2015, the author could not find any reference to a monograph about Antarctic meteors observed in 1934.

Harvard College Observatory Meteor Programs

There were two Harvard College Observatory (HCO) meteor programs operating in the early 1930s. The ﬁrst was a two-year long research expedition (1931–1933) to northern Arizona, led by Ernst Opik, an Estonian astronomer. The second HCO program, led by W.J. Fisher, actually began in 1922 when Harlow Shapley brought him to HCO. Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA 263

Ernst Opik and the Harvard-Cornell Arizona Expedition 1931–1933

With Harlow Shapley’s sponsorship, Ernst Opik (1893–1985) joined HCO’s staff in 1930 and assisted Shapley in organizing a two-year meteor research program in northern Arizona that was supervised by Opik. Opik was joined by Samuel Latimer Boothroyd (1874–1965) of Cornell University who participated in several aspects of the expedition’s investigations and in reductions of its data. This ambitious expedition, eventually employing the talents of six graduate students, computational staff in Estonia, as well as Professors Opik and Boothroyd, was ﬁnanced by grants from Harvard, Cornell, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, but especially “larger grants from the Wyeth Bequest to Harvard University and from the Rockefeller Foundation made the expedition possible.”9 Their program was a comprehensive one, encompassing meteor radiant statistics, heights, and velocities. Observers represented Harvard College Observatory, Cornell, Lowell Observatory, California Institute of Technology, and the Universities of Arizona and New Mexico. In the course of this program, from October 1931 to July 1933, the team observed 22,000 individual meteors; some meteors were seen by two observers so that the total number of observations was 26,000.

Distrust of Published Radiants

Ernst Opik’s Arizona research was the latest expression of astronomers’ skepticism about the reality of published meteor radiants. It will be recalled that Olivier’s crusade against stationary and long enduring radiants began because he believed Denning’s reduction method had created false radiants. Even when Olivier’s methods, in the hands of AMS members, had compiled a list of 1200 radiants by 1925, Olivier became skeptical of about one-half of them because they “were based upon too few meteors to be absolutely safe.” In a 1928 article, the next skeptic, a Russian astronomer, Viktor A. Maltsev, agreed with Olivier. Maltsev was the ﬁrst to describe how an observer’s expectations about “where radiants should be” was a “personal error” responsible for a meteor plotter’s misplacement of meteors drawn on star maps; an observer drew what (s)he expected to see. The Russian believed that Olivier’s radiant deﬁnition needed to be revised. Until then, Olivier’s requirement for a radiant was four meteor paths, traced back to a sky area of two degrees in diameter. To estimate a more appropriate number of required meteor paths, Maltsev conducted a series of analog

9Entire list of funding sources were, “special grants were obtained from the Milton Fund of Harvard University, and from the Rumford Fund of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for preliminary experimental work. Larger grants from the Wyeth Bequest to Harvard University and from the Rockefeller Foundation made the expedition possible. Prof Boothroyd of Cornell University joined the expedition, and a grant from the Heckscher Fund of Cornell was obtained to cover a part of the expenses.” 264 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad demonstrations, in which he used straight pins to represent meteors’ paths when dropped on a star map. Maltsev then counted the number of fictitious “radiants” created by four fallen pins, in a simulation of the Olivier requirement. Based on these counts, Maltsev recommended an increased number of meteor paths that would give an astronomer “sufficient ground to consider the determined radiant to be real.” Opik took a statistical approach to find real radiants. He thought that insisting on a radiant definition which used a two-degree circle was too restrictive, “making most of the real members of the radiant fall outside the (two degree) limit.” He believed that a statistical entity, a “group radiant,” would be found if meteors’ directions were recorded as they occurred over “the region of the sky where the radiant is found.” Opik claimed that a group radiant was discovered if a statistical analysis of plotted meteors’ directions showed concentrations of meteors moving in parallel paths. Further, Opik believed, “The probability of a concentration in an observed distribution of (parallel meteors) may be calculated, and the reality of the concentration tested.” To hunt for group radiants, Opik placed his observers in a meteor observatory- hut that contained a reticule (reticle). Opik’s rectangular reticules were subdivided into smaller rectangles that reportedly allowed the observation’s analyst to precisely determine meteors’ paths in right ascension and declination. In contrast with traditional procedure, in which an observer watches a large portion of the sky with as few obstructions to viewing the sky as possible, the Arizona Expedition’s (AE) observer watched the sky through the reticule mounted in the observing hut’s roof; he could see no other portion of the sky because of the hut’s walls and ceiling. There were four observation huts, two facing south and two north. One of each pair was oriented so that the observer’s field of view was centered on an azimuth ten degrees east of the meridian and the other’s ten degrees west of it.10 Why was the AE observer enclosed in a hut, enduring a severely restricted view of the sky? The explanation for such a peculiar meteor observatory is that it prevented preferential viewing toward published radiants. Opik, like Maltsev, believed that an observer watching a radiant would have an unconscious tendency to plot meteors so that they seemed to come from it, when in actuality, the meteor flew from another sky position. Opik’s reticule-huts were designed to keep a meteor mapper honest, or at least less prone to judgment errors that lead to false radiants. So, an important outcome of AE’s 23-month observational program was its discovery of 279 real radiants which Opik believed were unaffected by observer bias and were listed in a 1934 report describing how Opik performed the statistical analysis which discovered them.

10The meridian is an imaginary line in the sky that joined due north and south horizon points through another one in the zenith. Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA 265

Olivier Criticized Opik’s Methods

When Olivier read Opik’s list of real radiants, he was dismayed that the AE’s well-funded, prestigiously and well-staffed program which intensively studied meteors for almost two years found radiant positions which were “far from those generally accepted as correct” when compared with positions found by himself, W. F. Denning, R.A. McIntosh, and Alphonso King. Olivier concluded the “whole of the 280 (sic) radiants must be received with serious suspicion as to their value.” Olivier attributed Opik’s “discrepant” radiants to the AE’s use of reticules, a meteor mapping method Olivier considered “inferior to that of directly plotting upon prepared star maps, in the ways (he) often described in the AMS instructions.” He also faulted Opik’s use of reticules to examine the “region of the sky where the radiant is found” because examining “immense radiant areas for a stream mean not reality (of radiants) but poor observations.” Opik responded to Olivier’s criticism in a letter which Opik asked to have published in a Meteor Note. Olivier did as Opik requested. Opik charged that Olivier misunderstood most of Opik’s 1934 article and the reason for the discrepant radiant positions in particular. Opik explained:

The positions of the Arizona radiants are not very accurate, nor were they supposed to become accurate, as clearly stated in many places in my paper; the inaccuracy, however is not due to ‘an inferior method of observing,’ but to the arrangement of observations for general statistical purposes: these required the observations to be arranged in ﬁxed zenith distance and azimuth…The Arizona radiants are a by-product in observations arranged for a different purpose, and as such, they are satisfactory enough. Opik pointed out that his paper’s determination of radiant probability “is the new and most important” part of the AE work. He elaborated:

There does not exist up to present, as much as I know, another method (certainly no graphical method!) to calculate the probability of reality of a radiant…if the (radiant) position is not accurate enough, the high probability indicates that at or near the supposed point a real radiant must exist; special observations may help later to ﬁx the accurate position of the radiant… Opik believed that his methods and Olivier’s complemented each other and that even AMS meteor plots could be used to determine the reality probability of AMS radiants because Olivier’s instructions to members was to “record all meteors seen during the observing period.” Opik contended, “a faithful observer, who followed (Olivier’s) instructions, must have collected material which allows” calculation of radiant probability “derived from his observations.” Opik pressed his point:

I am sure that the AMS records contain a large and precious material from this standpoint and that the probabilities of the radiants published by you can be derived from the original maps…Why not try (Opik’s) additional computations, in order to increase the value of (AMS records)? If needed, I am ready to help. It is unlikely that Olivier accepted Opik’s invitation, only committing himself to the comment, “at a later date I may make some further remarks on the subject.” But he was pleased by Opik’s personal letter to him, writing “I think his writing to me 266 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad directly a courteous and ideal way of handling such a matter for it keeps it out of unpleasant controversy.” Opik’s letter also gave Olivier cause to admit, “his letter clears up for me…some points in which I did not fully understand …and hence was unduly critical.” But although he acknowledged Opik as “one of the leading authorities in the world in meteoric astronomy” and that “what he says deserves most careful attention,” Olivier yet reserved his opinion that “it however has seemed at times that different methods of approach were more suitable or more nearly accurate.” Olivier continued to believe AMS radiants were competently deduced because they were found using the restrictive radiant deﬁnitions he and the AAS’ Meteor Committee published in 1918. That being so, Olivier believed AMS radiants were “real” and accurate within the limits of visual observers’ observational errors.

Arizona Expedition’s Results for Meteor Heights and Velocities

In 1937, Opik published the AE’s meteor heights results. These measurements were made by two-station simultaneous observations, similar to Olivier’s method, but made using reticules. The two stations were the same north and south-facing huts used to discover real radiants. The huts’ reticule observers were “generally 35.3 km. (21.9 miles)” apart. Opik’s paper which was a “statistical discussion of over 3500 individual heights” is an impressive, exhaustively comprehensive treatment of data secured in northern Arizona. In addition to meteor observations made with reticules, Opik and Boothroyd constructed a mirror on a “rocking” mounting device to measure the velocities of meteors observed with a four-inch telescope. The two astronomers found that 60 % of sporadic meteors were measured to have velocities, indicating that they were ejected from solar systems outside of our own. When Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory staff used Super-Schmidt cameras to measure meteor velocities in 1952–1954, virtually no meteors, shower or sporadic, had hyperbolic, origins- outside-of-our-solar system velocities. Opik accepted the Smithsonian results and investigated the reasons for AE’s erroneous ones. Ultimately, his inquiry led to the conclusion that two assumptions he made in 1931–1932, concerning the masses of meteors and the types of errors observers would make, proved to be at fault in light of the 1952-era ﬁndings.

Back at HCO Cambridge: W.J. Fisher

HCO’s meteor research program depended upon the scientiﬁc investigative talents of a scholarly man whose earliest academic work was as a classics and biology professor, Willard James Fisher (1867–1934). He was almost a generation older than Charles Olivier and at the age of 41 chose physics as his second scientiﬁc career, earning a Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1908. He spent a postdoctoral year 1908–1909, at Gottingen University, Germany, learning about the viscosity of Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA 267 gases. Following this advanced training, he served on the physics faculties of Cornell, New Hampshire University, Clark University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Just before the end of World War 1, he was appointed Acting Head of the Physics Department at University of the Philippines. While there, he investigated lunar eclipses and low-sun atmospheric phenomena.

W.J. Fisher and Harvard’s Meteor Program at Cambridge

In 1920, his Pacific studies led to the use of HCO’s library where he conducted a literature search about old lunar eclipses and upper atmosphere topics. Late in 1922, Harlow Shapley appointed him an HCO Research Associate where he studied meteor trails on Harvard Sky Patrol photographic plates and devised original means of reducing the data he obtained. Fisher was appointed to the Meteor Commission by the American Section of the International Astronomical Union’s Executive Committee in 1924, and the same year Olivier was asked to chair the Commission. Dr. Harlow Shapley recommended Fisher because he had been analyzing Harvard’s photographic plates for meteor trains’ possible clues about the Earth’s upper atmosphere’s wind dynamics.11 During 1924–1926, Olivier carried on extensive correspondence with Fisher. The AMS’ archives contain many letters between Fisher and Olivier about the meteor trains on Harvard’s patrol plates, W.L. Elkin’s photographic meteor research, and coordinating responsibility for analyses of fireballs’ paths that occurred in the northeastern USA. In 1928, Dr. Fisher was appointed as a Lecturer in Astronomy at Harvard University in addition to his HCO research post. In the academic post, he lectured about meteoric astronomy and had a considerable impact upon graduate students. His 1933 paper describing the Newton-Denning Method of fireball path calculation was used by Peter Mackenzie Millman (1906–1990) in reductions of observations that he published in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Fisher’sinfluence is also seen in Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit’s (1907–2007) 1932 masters’ degree thesis about meteoric astronomy.12 Undoubtedly, Olivier’s participation in the Neighbors Club bore fruit in the form of meteor data from HCO: Harlow Shapley, Director of HCO, promoted an exchange of meteoric data between Cambridge and the AMS. Dr. Fisher, Director of HCO’s meteor program, sent Dr. Olivier the 1929 Leonid meteor count results of graduate students Margaret Mayall, Helen Sawyer, and Peter Millman. Shapley and Fisher also assisted Olivier by sending him meteor counts that were originally sent

11One of Fisher’s articles on this topic: Fisher, WJ: Mass and velocity of Meteorites and the air density along their luminous paths. Harvard College Observatory Circular No. 385, 1934. 12Her article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, volume 19, 1933, pp. 212–221, about meteor light ﬂuctuations follows Fisher’s and may be a concise version of her thesis. 268 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad to HCO; in 1930, these “Harvard” meteors amounted to almost 3000 that Olivier happily added to his database, with a scrupulous attribution to HCO.

Harvard Meteor Work After Fisher’s Death

After Fisher died in 1934, Olivier wrote to Harlow Shapley, asking who on the HCO staff was assigned to coordinate meteor studies and respond to queries. Shapley’s indirect response was a letter from Fletcher Guard Watson (1912–1997) who informed Olivier that “Since Dr. Fisher’s death the meteor work here has been divided between Miss Hoffleit and myself.” Watson and Hoffleit were both graduate students at the time. Watson was conscientious in providing fireball data to Olivier and answering his questions about the methods Fisher had used to calculate meteor heights and paths. After Fisher died, it was unclear whether meteoric work would have a future at HCO, as suggested by a comment Watson made to Olivier, “We do not try to push the fireball work.” Nevertheless, such work did continue and Watson completed calculations on “several of the more spectacular” fireballs in HCO records and published a report about a fireball which appeared on May 26, 1935.13 Even four years later, in 1939, it seemed that meteoric research continued to be important at HCO because Watson published an article concerning telescopic meteors.

Society for Research on Meteorites

This organization, later renamed the Meteoritical Society, was founded in 1933 by the same man who 24 years earlier began the Society for Practical Astronomy: Frederick Charles Leonard (1896–1960). In 1909, as a 13-year-old amateur astronomer, Leonard saw the need for an organization that would encourage others to make useful sky watches and he furnished a journal where their work could be published and shared. By 1933, Leonard had earned a Ph.D. in astronomy from University of California (UC) at Berkeley in 1922 and had founded UC, Los Angeles’ astronomy department in 1931. Leonard accomplished for meteoriticists what he did for amateur astronomers in 1909. In a March 1933 letter, Leonard sent a notice to PA for publication requesting

All persons who are interested in forming a Society for Research on Meteorites (SRM), (for) which the purpose shall be to promote the discovery, collection, investigation, and preservation of meteorites …

13Watson did publish an article about the 1936 ﬁreball: Watson, F., Jr., The detonating ﬁreball of May 26, 1935, PA, volume 44, 1936, p. 131ff. Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA 269

to contact Harvey H. Nininger at Nininger Laboratory in Denver. By May, 28 charter members had joined, among them were Edward A. Fath and Curvin H. Gingrich, Director of the Goodsell Observatory and Editor of PA, respectively, Oscar Monnig of Texas, J. Hugh Pruett of Oregon, Frederic L. Troyer, who was News Editor of the Astronomical Press Service in Toronto, Canada, and C.C. Wylie, Professor of Astronomy at University of Iowa. The organizational meeting was held August 21, 1933, at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, with Leonard and Nininger serving as Acting President and Acting Secretary, respectively. The SRM had 37 charter members at that time. It was Dr. Oliver Cummings Farrington (1864–1933), Curator of Geology at the Museum, and author of a 1915 book, Meteorites, who arranged the Museum’s meeting room for Chicago native Leonard who was then a professor at UCLA. As Leonard had promised SRM members and PA’s readership, the society’s business meeting and scientiﬁc reports began to appear in PA in 1934. During the society’s next three years, 1934–1936, SRM’s Notes detailed the society’s organizational deliberations, comprehensive bibliographies of earlier and current meteoritical research, articles about newly found meteorites, meteorite spectra, and two reports about the 1908 Tunguska meteorite impact event.

Olivier’s Appreciation of Leonard and the SRM

In June 1935, Olivier responded to a letter written to him by Professor W.J. Luyten at the University of Minnesota. The two men’s topic, even though not speciﬁcally mentioned by name, was the SRM. Olivier revealed:

I myself joined the society…While I do think there has been far too much talk about constitutions, resolutions, officers, committees, etc…still despite that I think it has already done real good and that there is a place for it. True, in some ways it runs over into (the AMS’ agenda) but the field is so large I cannot handle it by myself anyhow. And I am not trained as a geologist either. So, I am in sympathy with its aims. In the same letter, Olivier gave Frederick Leonard credit for his role in American astronomy during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Olivier commented:

To do F.C.L. justice, which I know he has had too little of, for a few very powerful men got down on him while he was a boy. In my opinion he is really the founder of all amateur astronomical societies, including the AAVSO, in that they all ‘lifted’ the members he had gotten for his little original society as a nucleus. Then, Olivier accounted for his treatment of Leonard’s SPA Meteor Section, “In my own case, I cooperated with him until his fell through, so as not to feel I had done him an injustice. I ran his meteor section.” Then, he gave Leonard’s SPA a great compliment for being the prototypical association which paired professionals and amateur astronomers, “I mean all such active societies in the USA…for his was the ﬁrst in my opinion to function as we all do now and so showed us the light.” 270 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad

Summary

From 1930–1936, there were six meteor-investigating organizations: the AMS, the Midwest Meteor Society (MMS), the Byrd Antarctic Expedition’s meteor program (BAE), HCO Cambridge and Arizona (HCO-C and A), and the Society for Research on Meteorites (SRM). In addition to traditional research about atmospheric meteors performed by the AMS, MMS, and HCO-C, two of them hoped to confirm claims of interstellar meteors (HCO-A and BAE) and a third (SRM) extended the meteoric field’s scrutiny to meteoroids that reached the earth’s surface. Compared with 1911 when Olivier first championed meteoric studies in the USA, the scope of meteoric studies had expanded; during the 1930s, the six organizations’ investigations extended from the earth’s surface into deep space. Charles Olivier’s tireless advocacy for meteor astronomy kept it in front of his American colleagues for two decades until the Leonid storm years presented a research opportunity that they decided to seize.

Outside the USA: A Survey of Meteor Astronomers and Organizations

Introduction

Several countries had established meteor astronomy organizations during the 1930s, a few of these began at the same time as the American Meteor Society (AMS) and a fewer number even earlier. This chapter is an overview of meteor researchers and organizations that Dr. Charles P. Olivier mentioned in various publications during the AMS’ ﬁrst 25 years, 1911–1936. The following national vignettes describe some of the meteor work being done outside the USA and provide an international context for the AMS’ programs. Some countries’ meteor programs were inﬂuenced by Dr. Olivier’s publications and by the contact he had with their astronomers when he was President of the International Astronomical Union’s Commission 22, on meteors from 1925–1935.

Argentina

Argentina was a source of Southern Hemisphere meteor data according to two of Olivier’s Meteor Notes in 1930. In one Note, Olivier reported that Professor Martin Horacio Dartayet (ﬂourished 1926–1952) of La Plata’s Cordoba Observatory, “formed a meteor section…In fact never has there been so much sustained interest in meteoric astronomy as at present.” Outside the USA: A Survey of Meteor Astronomers and Organizations 271

In the other note, Olivier thanked Dartayet and his colleague, Bernhard Dawson (1891–1960) for recording and reporting meteors they saw in the course of telescopic work at the National Observatory in La Plata. The two men reported a total of 102 telescopic meteors seen in 1928 and 1929.

Belgium

Bureau Central Meteorique (BCM)

Almost simultaneously, Charles Olivier in Charlottesville and Charles Birkenstock, in Antwerp, founded organizations to investigate meteor phenomena. Birkenstock independently espoused meteor observation methods similar to Olivier’s, probably for the same sound statistical reasons as did Olivier. Birkenstock ﬁrst published some European observers’ results in 1910 in an Antwerp journal, the Gazette Astronomique. Birkenstock’s “Appeal to Amateur Astronomers to make systematic observations of meteors” appeared in the December 1910 issue of the Belgian Society of Astronomy’s Bulletin. In it, Birkenstock urged amateurs to observe meteors systematically and send reports to the BCM as an international meteor data compiler. Birkenstock made the same appeal in Popular Astronomy in early 1911. He also sent it to Frederick C. Leonard in January 1912 and Leonard published it in the March issue of Monthly Register of the Society for Practical Astronomy. Leonard referred Birkenstock’s proposal to the SPA’s Meteor Section director: Charles P. Olivier. Olivier no doubt saw the BCM as a rival to the American Meteor Society. Not surprisingly, Olivier never advocated for the BCM among SPA and AMS members. Olivier only mentioned Birkenstock as the compiler of hourly and daily meteor rates that he republished in AMS Bulletin No. 2.

Felix de Roy

Even though Olivier ignored Birkenstock’s BCM, he was curious about Birkenstock’s career after the Great War interrupted European meteoric pursuits. Felix de Roy (1883–1942), a Belgian amateur astronomer, was the man he consulted. De Roy was in a good position to know, because he had been one of the Gazette Astronomique’s editors in 1910–1911 and his articles appeared in the journal. De Roy informed Olivier that Birkenstock was:

a young Belgian of German descent…was in Hamburg at the outbreak of the (First World) war, engaged in business, and was unable to leave Germany owing to his nationality…after the war, when Germany needed huge supplies of raw materials our friend became a very successful merchant, got rich and now (1927) appears to have lost…through lack of time and manifold engagements, all interest in astronomy. 272 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad

When he wrote Olivier in 1927, de Roy was Director of the British Astronomical Association’s Variable Star Section and continued in that capacity until the outbreak of World War 2. However, de Roy assured Olivier he had “done quite a lot of meteor observing…and I think I have a fair knowledge of the literature and of the present status of the branch.” By profession, de Roy was a journalist and editor of Antwerp’s Le Matin newspaper. Even though de Roy had those responsibilities, he accepted Dr. Olivier’s call to be a member of the IAU’s Commission 22, about meteors, under Olivier’s chairmanship. De Roy’s 1927 letter warned Olivier that he should not expect much interest in meteor observation among Belgians due to the “after effects of war, destruction, and foreign occupation.” De Roy opined that “you would hardly ﬁnd in this small country more than a half-dozen people casually interested in meteoric astronomy.” The IAU chose de Roy to succeed Olivier as Commission 22 President after the American’s third term ended in 1933.

Canada

The ﬁrst synergistic relationship between Canadian and US meteor astronomers began at Lick Observatory before 1910, when Reynold Kenneth Young (1886– 1977), a native of Ontario, and Charles Olivier were graduate assistants. Five years later, Dr. Young developed a set of 13 gnomonic star maps, and Dr. Olivier adopted them for use by AMS observers. These were the charts amateurs used to plot myriads of meteors and which enabled Olivier to deduce radiants and demonstrate radiants’ movement during meteor showers. Before Canadian amateur meteor astronomers were organized by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), they joined the AMS and contributed their observations. In 1915, two Canadians from Quebec and one from Saskatchewan were the ﬁrst to become members and others followed in 1916 and 1920. During the 1930s, Canadian citizen scientists sent meteor counts as non-members. In response to a 1928 IAU Meteor Commission report from Olivier, Professor Clarence A. Chant, a commission member and a founder of modern Canadian astronomy, informed him “As to Canada, there is very little done in the observation of shooting stars, and at present I do not see a likely beginning of systematic work.” Chant said he had a meteor program in mind but “There is no one here just now… the man is not in sight…” However, a year later the right man appeared: Peter MacKenzie Millman (1906–1990). Millman was a 1929 University of Toronto graduate who won the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s Gold Medal the same year. Millman began graduate work at Harvard University where he studied meteor physics with Willard James Fisher and with the encouragement of Harlow Shapley studied meteor spectra that the Harvard Observatory had secured in the previous years. His investigations earned him a doctorate in 1932 and a reputation as a pioneer in the study of meteor spectra. Outside the USA: A Survey of Meteor Astronomers and Organizations 273

In 1934, the January issue of Journal of the RASC announced “Dr. P.M. Millman…has consented to take charge of a new department in the Journal, in which will be reported matters of interest in the field of meteoric phenomena. He will be glad to receive reports of observations.” Immediately following was Millman’s report of his photographic observation of 1933’s Geminid meteor shower. Later the same year, Dr. Olivier shared his delight about these developments, “it is particularly pleasing to mention the recent inauguration of a ‘Meteor News’ section in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, written by Dr. P.M. Millman. The first five numbers… give promise of a valuable addition to meteoric literature… We may expect valuable meteoric work to be done in Canada from now on, and Dr. Millman is to be congratulated on the excellent organization of his first (Leonid) campaign…”. Millman’s column became an excellent platform to showcase Canadian and other nations’ contributions to meteoric astronomy.

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia existed as a nation from 1918 until 1993 when it divided into two present-day countries, the Czech and Slovak Republics. Today, astronomers are familiar with the names of Ondrejov and Skalnate Pleso Observatories in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, respectively. However, practical astronomy was thriving there before and during the Great War of 1914–1918, when the region was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1898, Josef Jan Fric (1861–1945), an amateur astronomer and owner of a factory that produced mechanical and optical products, bought land for what became the Ondrejov Observatory. In 1917, astronomers, including another amateur, Josef Klepesta (1895–1976) founded the Czech Astronomical Society. When Charles Olivier attended the 1928 Leyden meeting of the I.A.U., he met Frantisek Nusl (1867–1951) an astronomer who is credited with being one of the founders of modern Czech astronomy and Nusl’s 23-year-old graduate assistant at Ondrejov Observatory, Vladimir Guth (1905–1980). Guth asked Olivier for the AMS’ data about the Pons-Winneckid meteor radiant. In a May 1929 letter to Olivier, Guth repeated his request explaining “I am now engaged in a special study of this shower and it would be very useful to have the observed material as complete as possible.” Presumably, Guth needed the data for a doctoral dissertation which he earned from Charles University in Prague later that year. Olivier found Guth an important information source about Czechoslovak meteor work which very much impressed him. Olivier reported to AMS members, “Not only is a great deal of ﬁne observing being done but several men of ability are studying meteors from the theoretical standpoint.” And then to prod AMS observers, Olivier warned, “the AMS will have to work very hard in the future if we do not want to see other countries turning out far better results than we do.” Vladimir Guth went on to have a distinguished scientiﬁc career during which he was elected President of the IAU’s commission on meteors for two terms, 1952–1958. Guth’s biographer opined that 274 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad

Guth was the founder of the modern school of meteor and cometary astronomy in Czechoslovakia. Dr. Olivier was impressed with the results of photographic work carried out by Czechoslovak meteor workers. An Ondrejov astronomer Josef Sykora (1870–1944) had captured 30 meteor paths on film during a period from 1901 to just before Olivier’s book, Meteors went to press in 1925. Nine years later, Sykora carried out a photographic patrol of the 1934 Perseid meteor shower’s maximum and made a series of exposures of a −5 magnitude fireball that lit up the landscape. Because the identical fireball and its train were observed from Prague, 26 miles (42 km) distant, their atmospheric heights were computed. Olivier was especially intrigued when the computed height of the enduring train was calculated: It was tens of miles lower than it had previously been thought trains formed. Olivier enthused, “observers in Czechoslovakia have previously had remarkable success in photographing meteors… (and this series of images is) a subject of sincere congratulation to Professor Sykora.” Olivier included another Czech photographic coup as a frontispiece in Meteors: Josef Klepesta’s serendipitous capture of a fireball’s path while photographing the Andromeda galaxy in September 1923.

England

In England, organized meteor study began with Reverend Professor Baden-Powell in the late 1840s when his observations appeared in the annual reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. When he died in 1860, the BAAS formed a Luminous Meteor Committee (LMC) to continue to report meteor and ﬁreball occurrences. Robert Philips Greg (1826–1906) was then the BAAS’ primary data analyst. In 1862, Alexander Stewart Herschcl (1836–1907), an early astrophysicist, assumed scientiﬁc direction of the LMC and began to emphasize detection of meteor radiants. After 1864, Herschel was the chief author of LMC reports in the BAAS annuals and he also began to publish radiant positions in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society which until that time did not have a meteor forum. Herschel’s LMC prepared gnomonic star maps in time for the 1860s’ Leonid displays and instituted the straight-edge and map procedures later used by Charles P. Olivier and the AMS. During the late 1860s and early 1870s, England’s most famous meteor observer, William Frederick Denning (1848–1931), appeared on the scene and contributed extensively to BAAS Annual Reports and to the Monthly Notices. It was in the latter journal that Denning introduced his belief in stationary radiants and published the observational data that had convinced him of their reality. In 1877, a new journal, The Observatory, began publication. It was issued monthly and along with the Monthly Notices soon replaced the BAAS’ annual reports as the most useful forum for meteor observers like Denning. In 1890, professional and amateur astronomers who wanted an astronomical organization whose membership was more affordable than the RAS’, more popular in its approach to astronomy, and open to women’s membership formed the British Outside the USA: A Survey of Meteor Astronomers and Organizations 275

Astronomical Association (BAA). The BAA inaugurated the concept of specialist sections devoted to various astronomical subjects, including a Meteor Section. From the 1890s to the outbreak of World War 2, the Meteor Section’s directors urged observers to locate meteor radiants and to investigate ﬁreball paths in the atmosphere. In 1923, the Meteor Section’s new Director J.P. Manning Prentice (1903–1981) began his administration by a six-year study period during which he immersed himself in a review of recent developments in meteor science. An outcome of this sabbatical, during which Charles Olivier’s Meteors was published, was Prentice’s rejection of stationary radiants and the adoption of Olivier’s radiant-deﬁnition practices. Prentice’s administration lasted until 1954, and during that time, Alphonso King (1882–1936) and George Alcock (1913–2001) greatly contributed to the conversion of British meteor astronomy to a version very much like its American cousin. Indeed, as early as 1928, a Russian commentator on national approaches to meteor work noted that the “British Astronomical Association… follows (in essence) the same rules in determining radiants” as the AMS. A further sign of the British-American accord was the cordial correspondence between Alphonso King and Charles Olivier from 1927 until King’s death in 1936.

Estonia

Estonia’s Dr. Ernst Julius Opik revealed the presence of amateur meteor observers in his country when he wrote Dr. Olivier in April 1923. He requested “20 sets of meteor maps edited by the A.M.S.…A group of amateurs organized by our observatory (of Tartu/Dorpat)…feels the need of suitable maps.” Opik’s name appeared on AMS Bulletins as an “associate member” of the AMS when he was a member of the IAU’s Commission on meteors during the years when Olivier was the commission’s President. Opik held an Associate Professorship at Tartu University in Estonia from 1921–1944, but during the 1930s, he worked in the USA where he held joint appointments at Harvard University and the Harvard College Observatory, under whose aegis he conducted extensive meteor investigations at Flagstaff, Arizona. There is an account of Opik’s work in Arizona in this chapter.

France

Olivier does not mention French observers in his Meteor Notes 1926–1936. Their absence is astonishing, but perhaps the aftereffects of protracted and intense warfare in France during the war were responsible. During Olivier’s years as Commission 22 President, there were three French observatory directors who were members: 276 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad

Dr. Jean Bosler at Marseille, Madame Flammarion at Juvisy, and M. Grouiller at Lyons. Olivier’s American Philosophical Society correspondence ﬁle contains no letters between Olivier and any of the French directors during his presidency, 1925– 1935. Completing the mystery is the fact that there was no mention in Meteor Notes about a meteor section of the Societe Astronomique de France, the Astronomical Society of France.

Germany

When a reader examines Dr. Olivier’s writings during the period 1911–1936, he or she ﬁnds the names of only two German meteor authorities, Gustav von Niessl and Cuno Hoffmeister. Considerable space is given below to Hoffmeister because Olivier and he collaborated on an ambitious program in the mid-1930s.

Gustav von Niessl (1839–1919)

Niessl was born in Verona, Italy, studied, and was hired to teach at the Vienna Polytechnic in 1857, and by 1860, he was a Professor of Practical Geometry at the Technical College at Brno, in what is now the Czech Republic. Niessl was a geodesist and astronomer. His astronomical work concerned calculation of meteor and ﬁreball velocities, and in 1907, he published his conclusions based upon this work. The most important ﬁnding was the following:

…in general, the large meteors (fireballs) are undoubtedly of interstellar origin. As opposed to this conclusion, we find streams of shooting-stars pursuing the same orbits as those of certain well-known comets of well-known periodicity. They are therefore, interplanetary shooting stars. Hence, we are inclined to consider the large meteors as interstellar, but the smaller (non-fireball) shooting stars as inter-planetary. Niessl’s reputation and scholarship undergirded this conclusion and initiated another 50 years of fireball data collection. The hope was that a study of interstellar space’s minor bodies would provide a breakthrough in understanding earth’s location and path through its region of the Milky Way galaxy. In the context of the contest between the Astronomies, studying fireball orbits was Classical Astronomy’s hope to rival Astrophysics’ discoveries about the earth’s place in the Milky Way.

Cuno Hoffmeister (1892–1968)

Dr. Olivier introduced his Meteor Notes readers to Cuno Hoffmeister as the heir to Gustav Niessl’s meteoric data estate. Throughout his career, Niessl collected ﬁreball observations and often recomputed the orbits with what he considered to be Outside the USA: A Survey of Meteor Astronomers and Organizations 277 improved methods. By the end of his life, Niessl had collected a total of 518 cases and these were given to Hoffmeister to publish as a catalog, which he did in 1925 after adding 93 more ﬁreball cases of his own. In 1927, Olivier reported Hoffmeister’s contribution to meteor science and was generous in his praise:

As it stands, we have the ﬁrst complete catalogue of the radiants…heights, lengths of paths, and velocities for 611 ﬁreballs, some of which ended as meteorites, in which all necessary data are given for general study…Hoffmeister…has greatly added to his already high reputation as one of the authorities in this branch of astronomy.

Hoffmeister’s Biography

Cuno Hoffmeister began to demonstrate an interest in astronomy at an early age, in the same way as American amateur astronomers. He had a telescope at age 13 and in 1909 he published a paper about the aurora borealis. Two articles in the Gazette Astronomique in 1911 show that from March to May that year, Hoffmeister recorded 444 meteors during 36 nights’ watches. In 1915, during World War 1, he was fortunate to obtain a position at Bamberg Observatory under the supervision of Carl Hartwig (1851–1923), a variable star specialist and one of several discoverers of a nova in the Andromeda galaxy in 1885. He was obliged to leave this position after the Armistice in 1918 because he had no academic credentials in astronomy. Hoffmeister was the son of a toy manufacturer, and he started a career as an apprentice in his father’s factory. After the war, he worked at the trade while he studied spherical trigonometry, astronomy, and physics. In 1919 at age of 27, he had the financial resources to establish an observatory on a hill northeast of his family’s home in the city and district of Sonneberg, Germany. It is not clear that he owned the facility outright because it was described as a “municipal observatory,” of which he was an unpaid director. In 1920, he earned the Abitur, an academic certificate entitling him to proceed to study for a degree in higher education. Hoffmeister continued to work as a toymaker while he studied for a doctorate in astronomy, which he earned in 1927 from the University of Jena in the Sonneberg district. He wrote several articles about theoretical aspects of meteoric astronomy before he earned the Ph.D. and Olivier cited them in Meteors. Hoffmeister traveled to the Caribbean Sea and South West Africa, now Namibia, in the 1930s to carry out visual meteor watches from a southern hemisphere site. These southern watches were efforts to gather observational support for his theory about meteors’ velocities. Today, Dr. Hoffmeister is best known for long-term photographic surveys of the northern and southern skies in a successful effort to discover, catalog, and document the brightness fluctuations of variable stars. His work, in cooperation with Paul Guthnick (1879–1947), resulted in the discovery of nearly 11,000 variable stars, 9600 of which Hoffmeister discovered using an optical device he invented. Hoffmeister is also known for discovering asteroids and one (4183, Cuno) is named for him. 278 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad

His photographic archives contained 100,000 plates. Some images of the Large Magellanic Cloud provided images of the star that became a supernova in 1987. Hoffmeister remained Director of Sonneberg Observatory even after it was appropriated by the East German government following World War 2; he was its director at the time of his death in 1968.

The Hoffmeister-Olivier Program

Dr. Olivier first mentioned a “Hoffmeister-Olivier program (HOP)” in 1934’s Annual Report. As late as 1936, there was no description of it in Olivier’s Meteor Notes (MNs); however, his American Philosophical Society (APS) correspondences file contained letters from Hoffmeister dated from 1934–1958 which explained their collaboration and its outcome. It began with a proposal Hoffmeister (CH) made to Olivier (CPO) in a March 12, 1934 letter. CH’s proposal was prompted by a 1933 paper written by CPO and Doris M. Wills, “Daily and Monthly Meteor Rates (DMMR),” from AMS hourly rate data. Olivier and Wills’ paper graphed the monthly mean numbers of meteors CPO plotted from 1898–1918 and Ms. Wills graphed means derived from 68 AMS members’ plots from November 1929 to October 1932. The two graphs’ curves conformed to each other and displayed what is well known now: Fewer meteors per hour are seen in the first six months of the year than in the last six months. Although CPO was careful to write that his conclusions were preliminary and tentative, he believed:

a majority of the meteors may have originated in the solar system. For if…rates are duplicated for different weeks in periods whose mean epochs are 23 years apart, would it not suggest that the meteors responsible may be… connected with our solar system (i.e., an integral part thereof, so) that they could thus appear cyclically? In DMMR, CPO noted that CH had conducted similar meteor rate studies, but CH’s conclusions were in conﬂict with his. Hoffmeister’s results inclined him to believe that a “preponderance” of meteors “did not originate in our solar system” but instead were of interstellar origin. Hoffmeister’s conclusion stemmed from an assumption he made about meteors’ occurrences in space. He postulated that sporadic meteors traveled randomly through space, and if so, they should impact the atmosphere in the same numbers during evening hours as often as in early morning hours. CH’s observational results were that more meteors occurred in evening hours than his assumption permitted. So, CH reasoned that evening meteors had to have “caught up” to the earth as it sped along its orbit. This reasoning implied that “evening” meteoroids traveled too fast (greater than 72 km/s) to be bound to the solar system.14 Hoffmeister’s

14A “frequently asked questions” page on the American Meteor Society website cites the solar system-connected meteor velocity range. The Web site was accessed on May 7, 2016: http://www. amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-faq/. Outside the USA: A Survey of Meteor Astronomers and Organizations 279

“hyperbolic meteors” seemed to coming from other stars in the Milky Way galaxy. So, the disparity in Olivier versus Hoffmeister’s study results made around-the- clock hourly rate observations of paramount importance to establish which viewpoint was supported and whether there were a high number of hyperbolic meteors in the earth’s vicinity. When CH read “Daily and Monthly Meteor Rates,” he proposed that he and CPO collaborate in a study that would clarify the issue. CH reported that he already had “about 1500 h of (his own) observations under calculation,” and because he had “so much experience in the discussion and calculation of daily (meteor rate) variation”, he could analyze AMS members’ meteor rates “without much trouble” if CPO would send them. CH ended his appeal to CPO by pointing out, “…the main thing is, that the result would surely be much better when all available observations were used, than could be obtained from (Hoffmeister’s data alone).” Eleven days after receiving Hoffmeister’s offer, Olivier agreed to the idea. CPO sent six packages of AMS meteor plots to CH on June 22, 1934. When they were inspected by CH in August 1934, he discovered that some of the data were not useful because of uncertainties about American timekeeping idiosyncrasies like daylight-savings time and the boundaries of time zones across the vast North American continent. Another problem was that AMS observers had not made precise notations about time taken to plot meteors. Despite these disqualifying problems, CH found 2672 h of AMS meteor plots to be useful.15 Even so, CH found the qualifying AMS data only “partly good for yearly (meteor rate) variation, but not for daily variation.” He commented “It seems urgently necessary to secure further observations…before deﬁnite conclusions can be made.” So he proposed a special program which Olivier dubbed the “Hoffmeister-Olivier Program.”

Hoffmeister-Olivier Program (HOP) Began in 1934

CH urged that the HOP program begin as soon as possible after Olivier received his August 1934 letter. To expedite its commencement, CH drafted a list of directions for AMS members to follow which, if CPO agreed and passed on to them, would serve as a signal to start a crash program which CH suggested should end on December 31, 1935. The 15-month campaign was to focus on non-shower periods and asked that members avoid observing sporadic meteors during bright moon periods between ﬁrst and last quarter phases. Observers were to plot meteors for at least a half hour but no longer than an hour and a half and they were to be sure they made precise notes about the time taken to plot meteors during the observation. Olivier queried Hoffmeister about results from the program’s analyses in a September 1937 letter. Hoffmeister was then in South West Africa (now Namibia) making extensive meteor observations with his wife’s assistance. He could only

15AMS observers whose data met CH’s criteria were: Brooks, Bunch, Darling, Geddes, Koep, LaPaz, McIntosh, Monnig, Olivier, Ridley, FW Smith, and Trudelle. 280 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad inform CPO that he had been in Africa since April 1937 and that “I can only give preliminary answers. According to the reports from Sonneberg (his observatory) the reductions are in good progress, but one must not forget that very high amount of computing work must be done.” Hoffmeister added that Olivier must decide whether or not to urge AMS members to continue programmatic work because Hoffmeister might only use more data “if this ﬁts the progress of the whole work.”

The Second World War Intervened

Olivier’s APS correspondence from CH does not resume until after World War 2 which disrupted all collaboration between the two astronomers. When he wrote Olivier on September 22, 1947, Hoffmeister’s address was in Berlin’s American Zone and he implored Olivier’s support of his application to be relocated with his wife in the USA.16 Apparently, Hoffmeister’s application and his US benefactors’ efforts came to naught because his next letter dated December 24, 1947, was from the Soviet Zone. CH did not believe there was any way he could successfully return the AMS meteor rate record sheets to Olivier at that time. An April 10, 1948, letter to Olivier did not mention AMS records at all.

All Effort for Naught

Olivier’s correspondence file contains a final letter from Hoffmeister in 1958 in which he reassured Olivier that he had found all the AMS record sheets and that he would return them in “ordinary envelopes, about twenty in one envelope” so that they would not to arouse the suspicions of Communist mail censors. It is not clear from the correspondence file that Olivier received any of the mailings. Compounding the loss, the Hoffmeister-Oliver program’s outcome was negative. Hoffmeister reported that many of the data reductions had been performed before the war, but Hoffmeister had not sought to publish because “the results were rather disappointing…and their value…was doubtful when compared with results obtained by other authors…it seems to me rather useless (now)…”. In fact, one of Hoffmeister’s biographers reported that Hoffmeister had repudiated interstellar meteors in 1948.

Italy

When Dr. Olivier reported about Italian meteor work in his Meteor Notes, a reader could draw the conclusion that AMS member Eppe Loreta was the entire program.

16In this letter, Hoffmeister mentioned that he also sought assistance from Harlow Shapley. Outside the USA: A Survey of Meteor Astronomers and Organizations 281

Readers can get a more realistic idea about the number of Italian meteor observers by reading Loreta’s reports in Dr. Millman’s Meteor News columns where Loreta’s colleagues are identiﬁed. Signor Loreta’s biography appears in this book’s Enrolled 1930–1936 Chapter.

Japan

The Astronomical Society of Japan (ASJ) was founded in 1908 and one of its prominent members, Shigeru Kanda (1894–1974), on the staff of Tokyo Astronomical Observatory inspired and encouraged amateurs to participate in the science. As an example, Kanda was reported to have coauthored an article with AMS member Hideo Inouye in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society about an orbital perturbation of Comet Wolf (1924 IV). Although the ﬁrst meteor observations by amateurs in Japan were made in 1909, information available to the author suggests that the ASJ was not as active in meteor observations as the later founded Oriental Astronomical Association (OAA). Dr. Issei Yamamoto (1889–1959), a Professor at Kyoto University and Director of the Kuwasan Observatory, founded the OAA in 1920. He was also a member of the IAU’s Commission on meteors and was an associate member of the AMS. The OAA’s Meteor Section was directed by Professor Koziro Komaki and he collaborated with Dr. Olivier by generously sharing OAA meteor data from the 1930s until he died in 1969. Japanese meteor observers were very successful in counting and plotting thousands of meteors during the 1933–1935 Leonid showers.

New Zealand

New Zealand’s entry into meteor work began in the late 1920s when Ronald A. McIntosh began an intensive sky survey for radiants. In 1930, he was made Director of the New Zealand Astronomical Society’s Meteor Section. The NZAS later became the New Zealand Royal Astronomical Society (see McIntosh’s biography elsewhere in this book).

South Africa

Dr. Olivier reported occasional meteor watch results from three American professional astronomers who were assigned to do astronomical surveys from South Africa: Harold Lee Alden (1890–1964) at Yale Observatory on the campus of Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, and Morris Ketchum Jessup (1900–1959) 282 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad and Henry Frederick Donner (1902–1991), at University of Michigan’s Lamont-Hussey Observatory in Bloemfontein.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

In 1930, Dr. Olivier informed AMS members:

As the AMS stands for the furtherance of meteoric astronomy everywhere, copies of our maps, blanks, circulars, and publications have been cheerfully furnished to foreign organizations interested in meteor research…we are glad to know that our standard recording blanks are widely copied, and our rules for the determination of radiants used elsewhere. There has been evidence given above, speciﬁcally for England and Estonia, that AMS literature was requested and was as persuasive as Olivier had hoped. And so it was too, in “Russia,” as Olivier always referred to the U.S.S.R. As early as 1928, a Leningrad astronomer, V.A. Maltsev reported that “the Meteor Section of the Russian Amateur Society for the Study of the Universe (Mirovedenie)…follow(ed) the same rules in determining radiants” as the AMS. In 1930, Olivier informed Popular Astronomy readers that he “received regularly the publications of the great Russian Amateur Society ‘Mirovedenie’.” When he read those Soviet reports, he was impressed and put AMS members on notice, “The AMS will have to work very hard in the future if we do not want to see other countries turning out far better results than we do…”. At least one professional astronomer, Igor S. Astapowitsch, a professor at Sternberg State Astronomical Institute in Moscow, corresponded with Olivier. In a copy of a 1936 letter, Olivier revealed that he was sending Astapowitsch recent AMS/Flower Observatory reprints, Olivier’s 1919–1925 monograph and “the radiant point of meteorites determined in the USA in the last year.” In return, Olivier reminded the Russian that he had promised to send Olivier “data about meteor trains and publications dealing with them.” At the end of the letter, Olivier commented, “You are to be congratulated on the great activity and success you are having in your country in meteoric astronomy.”17

Olivier’sInﬂuence Abroad

It is hazardous to make a deﬁnitive statement about how inﬂuential Olivier’s teachings were abroad over so long a time period as 1911–1936. Most of the data mentioned in the vignettes above come from Olivier’s own Meteor Notes, and so

17In 1937, Olivier summarized a few of the Soviet meteor studies he received in some detail: Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 45, 1937, pp. 553–555. Outside the USA: A Survey of Meteor Astronomers and Organizations 283 the reader can expect an understandable bias on Olivier’s part to report others’ good responses to his methods. However, some independent commentators, like Chant, Maltsev, and McBeath also figured in the vignettes. Viewed through the “prism” of the database above, the reader may find it reasonable to agree that Olivier had a “spectrum of influence” upon other countries’ meteor astronomers and programs. The following spectrum, from “no influence” to “substantial” is suggested: No influence: 2 countries France and Italy (except Loreta); Minimal influence (e.g., requested AMS maps or joined AMS or IAU Commission): 4 Belgium (de Roy), Canada, Czechoslovakia, and Estonia (Opik); Moderate influence (shared data with Olivier or collaborated in a research program): 5 Argentina, Germany (Hoffmeister), Japan, New Zealand (McIntosh et al.), and South Africa; and Substantial influence (e.g. adopted Olivier’s radiant-definition practices): 2 England (Prentice) and Russia (Mirovedenie); In summary, the above analysis indicates that by 1936, Dr. Olivier’s (bi-)modal influence on 13 other countries’ meteor workers was in the minimal to moderate range.

References

Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA

Books Olivier, C., Meteors, Baltimore, Maryland: Williams and Wilkins Co., 1925 pp. 89-90 Articles Anonymous, Obituary, Fletcher G. Watson, Harvard University Gazette, May 5, 1997 Campbell, L., Willard James Fisher, 1867-1934, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 43, 1935, pp. 475-476 Fisher, W., Remarks on the Fireball Catalog of von Niessl and Hoffmeister, Harvard College Observatory Circular 331, 1932 pp. 1-8 The Newton-Denning Method for Computing Meteor Paths with a Celestial Globe, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 19, 1933, pp. 209-212 284 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad

Hoffmeister, C., New Cosmic Relationships of Meteors, PA, Volume 45, 1937, pp. 207-209 Horch, E., Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit, in Hockey, T. ed., Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 1, New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 516-517 Maltsev, V., Concerning the fictitious radiants of meteoric streams, Astronomische Nachtrichten, Volume 234, 1928, p. 243-248 McFarland, J. and D. Asher, The Meteor work of Ernst Opik at Armagh Observatory, in Eds. Asher, D.J. et al., Proceedings of the International Meteor Conference, Armagh, Northern Ireland, 16-19 September, 2010, p. 67. Olivier, C., Report of the Committee on Meteors, PA, Volume 35, 1927, pp. 26-27 Meteor Notes, PA, Volumes 37,38,40,42,43,46,47 The Illinois Fireballs of July 25, 1929, PA, Volume 39, 1931, p. 521 Opik, E., Results of the Arizona Expedition for the Study of Meteors (RAESM), II, Statistical Analysis of Group Radiants, Harvard College Observatory Circulars, No. 388, 1934, pp. 1-38. RAESM, VI. Analysis of Meteor Heights, Annals of Harvard College Observatory, Tercentary Papers, No. 30, Volume 105, 1937, pp. 549-600 The Failures, Irish Astronomical Journal, Volume 9, 1969, p. 156 Poulter, T., Meteor Program in Connection with the Byrd Antarctic Expedition II, PA, Volume 41, 1933, pp. 282-283. Shapley, H., E. Opik, and S. Boothroyd, The Arizona Expedition for the Study of Meteors, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 18, No. 1, 1932, pp. 16ff. Smith, F., Concerning Meteor Radiants, PA, Volume 47, 1939, pp. 223-224 Theobald, J., Dubuque Counts of the 1934 Leonids, PA, Volume 42, 1934, pp. 598-599 Watson, F., A Study of Telescopic Meteors, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 81, No. 84, (September 25, 1939), pp. 493-504 Williams, J., The use of reticles for the observation of meteors, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 45, 1933, pp. 175-179 Wylie, C., The Meteor of July 25, 1929, PA, Volume 37, 1929, p. 514 Observations of the 1929 Leonids, Popular Astronomy (PA), Volume 38, 1930, pp. 48-49 The 1930 Leonid meteors, PA, Volume 38, 1930, pp. 623-624 The 1931 Leonid Meteors, PA, Volume 39, 1931, p. 609 The 1932 Return of the Leonid Meteors, PA, Volume 40, 1932, p. 97 Real Paths for Five Meteors, PA, Volume 40, 1932, pp. 500-501 Preliminary Report on the 1933 Leonids, PA, Volume 41, 1933, p. 581 How to Make Good Group Counts, PA, Volume 42, 1934, pp. 596-598 The Meteor of July 25, 1929 (second paper), PA, Volume 43, 1935, pp. 241-250 Archives C.C. Wylie Papers, 1910-1960- UIA Collection Guides http://collguides.lib.uiowa.edu/?RG99.0146 Accessed May 5, 2016 American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives Letter from Fisher to Olivier, dated Aug 20, 1924; box labeled “1920s” Letter from Wylie to Olivier, dated October 13, 1927: box labeled “1930s” Contemporary Meteor Organizations in the USA 285

Correspondence archives Charles P. Olivier Correspondence Collection, American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania CPO to Frank Schlesinger (FS), dated June 15, 1933 FS to CPO, dated June 16, 1933 CPO to Felix de Roy, dated December 30, 1935. CPO to C.C. Wylie (CCW), dated May 13, 1936 CPO to Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, dated January 7, 1936 Thomas C. Poulter (TCP) to CPO, dated September 8, 1935. TCP to CPO, dated December 18, 1935 TCP to CPO, dated September 25, 1935 TCP to CPO, dated January 4, 1936 TCP to CPO, dated January 9, 1952 CPO to Harlow Shapley (HS) dated December 2, 1935 Fletcher G. Watson (FGW) to CPO, dated December 6, 1935 CPO to FGW, dated December 12, 1935. CPO to W.J. Luyten, dated June 6, 1935 Interviews F.W. Smith by author’s questionnaires, dated May 2 and 12, 2001

Outside the USA: A Survey of Meteor Astronomers and Organizations

Books Abbe, C. (Translator), Niessl, G., The Determination of Meteor Orbits in the Solar System, Smithsonian Publication 2436, Volume 66, Issue 16, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1917. Jarrell, R., The Cold Light of Dawn, a History of Canadian Astronomy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988, p. 155ff. Olivier, C., Meteors, Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1925, p. 17. Schmadel, L., (Minor Planet 7849) Janjosefric, Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Sixth edition, Berlin: Springer, 2012, p. 604. Schmadel, L., Klepesta, Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Volume 1,5th edition, Berlin: Springer, 2003, p. 339. Vondrak, J., Frantisek Nusl, in T. Hockey et al. editors, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, volume 2, New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 842-843 Zejda, M., Cuno Hoffmeister, in Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 1, New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 517-518. Articles Anonymous, Cuno Hoffmeister, Irish Astronomical Journal, volume 9, 1969, p. 169 Ceplecha, Z., Obituary: V. Guth (1905-1980), Bulletin of the Astronomical Institutes of Czechoslovakia, volume 31, 1980, p. 256. Editor, Gazette Astronomique (GA), Volume 4, 1911, pp. 2 and 32 Editor, General Notes: (Birkenstock), An appeal to amateur astronomers, Popular Astronomy (PA), Volume 19, 1911, pp. 126-128 Editor, Obituary, Felix de Roy, The Observatory, Volume 65, 1943, p. 12. Halliday, I., Peter MacKenzie Millman, 1906-1990, Journal Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (JRASC), Volume 85, 1991, p. 68 286 Meteor Astronomy at Home and Abroad

Lindsay, E., I. Biographical, Ernst Julius Opik, Dr. Phil. (etc.), The Irish Astronomical Journal, Volume 10, Special Issue, 1972, pp. 1-2 Maltzev, V., Concerning the ﬁctitious radiants of meteoric streams; Astronomisches Nachtrichten, Volume 234, p. 244. McBeath, A., An Overview of British Meteor Observing, Parts I and II, WGN, Journal of the International Meteor Organization, Volume 39, 2011, pp. 29-31, and 76-78 Millman, P., and Editor, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Volume 28, 1934, pp. 35-36 Olivier, C. and D. Wills, Daily and Monthly Meteor Rates, Proceedings Pennsylvania Academy of Science, Volume 7, 1933 Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, Volumes 35, 38, 41, 42, 43, and 46. Renshaw, S. and S. Ihara, A Brief History of Amateur Astronomy in Japan, Sky and Telescope, Volume 93, 1997, pp. 104-108. Widorn, Th., Niessl von Mayendorf (Maiendorf), Gustav, in Osterreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815-1950 (OBL), Band 7, Vienna: Publisher of the Austrian Sciences Academy, 1978; ISBN 3-7001-0187-2, S. 126f. Correspondence Archives Charles P. Olivier Correspondence Collection, American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Astapowitsch, I. to Charles Olivier (CPO), letter dated September 24, 1936. Chant, C.A. to Charles Olivier (CPO), letter dated January 16, 1928 de Roy, Felix (FdR) to CPO, letter dated December 6, 1927 Guth, Vladimir to CPO, letter dated May 5, 1929 Hoffmeister, Cuno (CH) to CPO, letter dated 1934 March 12 CH to CPO, letters dated July 9 and August 25, 1934 CH to CPO, letter dated October 24, 1934 CH to CPO, letter dated December 24, 1937 CH to CPO letter dated March 12, 1958 Opik, Ernst to CPO, dated April 20, 1923 Richard Taibi, personal email correspondence Sakuma, Seiichi to RT, Biography of Hideo Inouye, dated August 4, 2015 Webpages Neglected Science: Martin Horacio Dartayet https://sites.google.com/a/neglectedscience.com/neglectedscience/alphabetical-list/d/martin- dartayet Accessed May 7, 2016. Summing Up

Summing Up: Olivier at Midlife

From a career perspective, midlife was a very satisfying time for Charles Olivier. By 1936, he had risen to the higher echelons of American professional astronomy, a Professor of Astronomy at University of Pennsylvania and director of its Flower Observatory. The observatory’s staff used its 18-inch refractor to record data that contributed to double star catalogs and measured magnitudes of variable stars and of the comparison stars in their immediate environs. He collaborated with Harvard Observatory and the AAVSO to broaden the scope of the organization’s variable star monitoring program. He had the satisfaction of returning meteoric astronomy to scientifically valid methods of meteor radiant determination. His American Meteor Society had increased in membership and its members, and many non-members had counted thousands of meteors and estimated their magnitudes. Likewise, the society’s simultaneous watches recorded hundreds of meteor heights, as well as descriptions of long-enduring meteor trains and, in some cases, the trains’ heights. His leadership and coaching of society members resulted in types of data that meteoric science lacked in 1919. Olivier’s advocacy for meteor studies and publicity for AMS accomplishments after World War 1 anticipated and may have stimulated the development of five new meteor science programs in the USA. By 1935, Olivier was known internationally as a double star as well as meteor expert and he was a distinguished member of the two I.A.U. commissions dedicated to those astronomical fields. At home in the eastern USA, he was welcomed by Ivy League universities’ observatory director colleagues as a Neighbor and contributed to the development of the profession. Olivier’s personal life was a different matter. He and his daughters coped as best they could during Mary Frances’ health crises and hospitalizations. These had caused them all anxiety and unhappiness during the early 1930s. All four family members endured separations resulting from Frances’ lengthy hospital stays. Her persistent illness forced Charles to surrender hopes for a contented home life, and

© Richard Taibi 2017 287 R. Taibi, Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science, Springer Biographies, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44518-2_7 288 Summing Up he likely began to mourn that relationship before Frances died in October 1934. Olivier quickly responded to the prospect of a relationship with Ninuzza Seymour, a young woman he had met when he was a professor and she a student at Agnes Scott College. When they married in October 1936, Olivier hoped for a happy domestic life that would last the remainder of his life. However, second marriages present uncertainties when children’s adjustments to it are considered. In 1936, Charles’ daughters Alice and Elise, aged 16 and 11, respectively, may not have resolved their grief over their mother’s death. In addition, the girls faced another challenge, adjusting to their father’s new wife and her presence in their home. One would expect that they had questions about where they stood in the new family constellation. Only their father could answer them. Part II The Stalwarts’ Biographies The Stalwarts

Who Were the Stalwarts?

The ‘Stalwarts’ were 90 men and women who were the American Meteor Society’s (AMS’) longest-reporting members who began their meteor watches during the Society’s first quarter century. They ‘paid their dues’ in more than one sense, beyond mere payment for annual membership. These stalwart amateur astronomers reported meteor data to the Society’s founder and President, Dr. Charles P. Olivier, at least once in a calendar year for a minimum of three years. Although some of the Stalwarts minimally satisfied these two criteria, many greatly exceeded them. This summary chapter describes these ten women and 80 men in several ways to present a ‘group portrait’ of enthusiastic, dedicated amateur astronomers who contributed to meteor astronomy’s database during the first third of the 20th century. Part II of this book is comprised of three Chapters, each containing biographies of the Stalwarts whose first membership year occurred during the span of years listed in the Chapters’ titles: 1900–1918, 1919–1929, and 1930–1936. Readers can locate a member’s biography by checking the three lists of biographies in the directory at the end of this chapter and turning to the Chapter which listed his or her name. Reading each Stalwart’s biography will provide a more complete concept of what these people, their families, fellow observers and communities were like. What emerges from the individual stories is a mental picture of the various ways people incorporated sky watching into their daily and yearly schedules.

Comparison of Stalwarts with Other Active AMS Members

The 90 Stalwarts distinguished themselves by contributing observations years longer than two thirds of the 277 AMS members who furnished Dr. Olivier with meteor data from 1911 to 1936.

Forty of the 90 contributed data to AMS headquarters for five or more years. Nine of the 90 sent data to Dr. Olivier for 10 or more years. The three longest-contributing Stalwarts were J. Hugh Pruett (24 years), Edwin E. Friton (25 years), and Robert M. Dole of the United States (48 years). Nineteen Stalwarts distinguished themselves by their leadership qualities. They coordinated other AMS members’ observations when they served as a local meteor group leader or as an AMS regional director. Included in a Regional Director’s role was training and supervision of junior members’ meteor work. Dr. Olivier also granted Regional Directors the privilege of representing the AMS to local media and civic groups. Olivier instructed ordinary AMS members that they were not to inform the press of their affiliation with the Society, unless Olivier gave them specific permission.

Examining Chronological Age Issues

Table 1 below compares the three multi-year Rosters with the Stalwarts Group concerning their members’ chronological age data. It shows the percentage of each roster’s members that were less than 26 years of age. The tabulated data demonstrate that the Stalwarts group contained a more ‘youthful’ membership than all of the three other rosters. Reading the Table’s columns from left to right discloses that the 1915–1918 Roster, for example, listed 61 members both veterans and newcomers. The third column shows that 26 of the 61 members were less than 26 years of age. The rightmost column indicates that the 26 members composed 43 % of the members on the roster. Each member’s chronological age was calculated by subtracting her or his birth year from the year of their earliest AMS contribution. Even though an effort was made, not all multi-year roster members’ birth years could be found; for example birth years for three of the 1915 group could not be discovered. Likewise 10 of the 1919 group and 26 of the 1930 group had unknown birth years. The missing chronological age data causes the percentage ﬁgures in the rightmost columns to be the lowest possible percent of less-than-26-year-olds. This is because the percentages would have been higher if more youthful members had been discovered. Data for the 1919 and 1930 roster members reveal that a majority, 55 % and 51 % respectively were less than 26-years old. The 1915 roster members missed the majority threshold; their members were the ‘oldest’ of the four groups. In comparison, the

Table 1 Comparing the four rosters: percent of members under age 26 Roster Number of Members Those Under 26-years-old Percent of Roster 1915–1918 61 26 43 % 1919–1929 78 43 55 % 1930–1936 173 89 51 % STALWARTS 90 56 62 % Who Were the Stalwarts? 293

Stalwarts’ ﬁgure of 62 % clearly demonstrates how ‘young’ the members were when they as a group are compared to the three rosters’ members. This conclusion is supported by two more statistics: the arithmetic mean (average) age of all of the Stalwarts was 25.93 years, just under 26-years-of-age. And, their median age was 22 years. What does the Stalwarts members’ collective ‘youth’ suggest as reasons for their long term participation in the AMS? Two possibilities are they possessed more youthful energy to observe meteors for a few years; and they had school vacation time free from other obligations and could devote these leisure hours to meteor work. Supporting the latter suggestion was a frequent comment that Dr. Olivier made. He wrote that AMS observers often stopped observing when they left high school and college to enter careers, the military or more advanced education.

Stalwarts’ Occupational Data

Because the Stalwarts had so many young people, it is no surprise that many were students. Thirty-one were high school students; nine were in college and two in graduate school. In the same ‘educational’ context, six Stalwarts were primary and secondary school teachers and ﬁve were college professors. If one gathers them all in one ‘group,’ composed of 53 people in an ‘educational ﬁeld,’ they compose 59 % of the Stalwart cohort. The structure of the academic year containing breaks in formal activity when meteor work was more conveniently carried out may have aided this large subgroup of Stalwarts to persist in meteor work. The next largest group of people who had similar occupations, was a ‘commercial’ group composed of business people: three grocers, two printers, a newspaper business agent and a department store owner. The remainder of the Stalwarts occupied a great range of miscellaneous employments, but with small numbers in each. These were in ‘agricultural/ horticultural/forestry’ activities, in engineering/technical worksites, and government employment in the weather service, military and environmental specialties. Some others labored in private residences, in industrial and railroad settings and some in unskilled occupations. The variety of Stalwarts’ occupations was very similar to those of members in the three multi-year rosters. In addition, the percentage of members who were in the educational, commercial and ‘miscellaneous’ clusters of occupations was very similar from one roster to the next.

Other Reasons the Stalwarts Continued in Meteor Work

Were there other reasons why, besides youth and an academic calendar that the Stalwarts reported meteors year in and year out? 294 The Stalwarts

Their motivation may have been very straightforward: watching meteors was an experience that connected them to the natural world. They enjoyed the quiet, a dark sky studded with stars, and above all the silent fireworks display of meteors. Each year they went outside into the night, at inconvenient hours, often in frigid temperatures, to await meteors’ appearances so that they could count them and draw their locations on star maps. They endured the watches with few meteors because they hoped that the next one would have many. This is what lures a meteor enthusiast outside to watch the sky. The Stalwarts who were group and regional leaders may have been motivated by the opportunity to amass a greater amount of data. They likely grasped the idea that many observers would more quickly and comprehensively gather meteor data. A group of observers was a force multiplier for data acquisition: more meteors were seen, more of them were seen simultaneously, and more long-enduring trains were recorded. Leaders understood that their group watches were the most efficient way to supply Dr. Olivier with the information he needed to reach conclusions about meteor rates, atmospheric heights and fireball trains’ characteristics. And the more rapidly conclusions could be drawn, the more quickly meteor astronomy would progress toward reliable scientific findings. Dr. Olivier did not disappoint them; he was ready to receive the Depression era observers’ data. He made use of it all. Over time he reduced the resulting immense mass of AMS data and he published the results in the catalogs and reports that were printed decades after the 1930s.

DIRECTORY TO STALWARTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

CHAPTER 9 ASSOCIATED OR ENROLLED 1900–1918 Ball, N.P. Bessey, Mrs. Grace H. Brooks, Donald Carr, F.J. Dole, Robert M. Hempel, Kathleen M. Johnson, H.I. Koep, John and Philip Trudelle Kronenberger, G.F., R. Lambert, and W. Pattison LaPaz, Lincoln Martin, Howard H. and J.W. Crain Partello, J.M.T. Peters, J.L. Tomkins, T.K.

CHAPTER 10 ENROLLED 1919–1929 Anyzeski, Vincent Bradley, F.L. Brown, Robert Who Were the Stalwarts? 295

Bunch, Sterling and Mildred Conboy, J.J. Darling, B.C. Edwards, Mrs. W.H. Ford, C.B. Klapperich, A.J. Lawrence, A.S. Logan, J.H. Marsh, F.F. McIntosh, R.A. Monnig, Oscar E. Niebuhr, Miss V.J. Peck, A.L. Sanders, Blakeney Shinkﬁeld, R.C. Smith, F.W. Thomsen, I.L. Trimmier, Miss M.E. Watkins, Goodrich Whitney, B.S.

CHAPTER 11 ENROLLED 1930–1936 Anderson, Russell Armﬁeld, L.E. Arslanian, L. Baker, Stewart R. Black, James L. Bowman, Edward F. Braun, Dr. Milton L. Burns, Herbert A. Friton, E.E. Geddes, Murray Gell, K.E. Graham, J.W. Green, Gordon Halbach, E.A. Holt, William Inouye, Hideo Jewett, Mary L. Kent, Jack T. Khan, Mohd. A.R. Kirkpatrick, G.P. Kusner, Joseph Larrabee, Louise 296 The Stalwarts

Leerman, Joseph Loreta, Eppe Miller, R.W. O’Byrne, Stuart L. Parker, P.O. Paterson, J. Fraser Persons,W.J. Preucil, Frank Pruett, Hope S. Pruett, J. Hugh Ridley, G.W. Simpson, J. Wesley Skinner, G.B. Smith, Claude H. Stackpole, H. Stone, William R. Urquhart, Sally Watson, Paul S. Williams, J.D. and the Arizona Observers (D.F. Brinegar, R.G. Knabe, T.T. Smith, Jr.) Wilson, R.H. Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918

N.P. Ball

1862–19281 Membership years: 1918–19222

Nathaniel Porter Ball, like Grace Bingham Bessey, was another early member of the American Meteor Society (AMS) who came to meteor work later in life. It is not clear what prompted his active participation at age 56, but his many observations during four years of membership helped keep the AMS functioning as a research organization after WW1. Ball was born in Kentucky and in 1880 he did chores on his father’s farm in Jasper County, Missouri. In 1910, he was one of the 25 railroad laborers who boarded with their foreman in Crittenden County, Arkansas. But by 1920, Ball had migrated to California’s San Bernardino County where all of his meteor work was done. There he lived with two older sisters and where he was employed as a laborer in truck gardens. Indeed, harvest time interrupted Ball’s meteor watches from late August to mid-October each year. N.P. Ball began his AMS career with a two-hour watch in November 1918. But the following year, he plotted meteors for a total of nearly 51 h. 1920’s hourly total was nearly 58 h and was his highest for his ﬁve year membership in the AMS. By the end of 1922, he had accrued 175.3 h of watches and plotted 1863 meteors. His observational feats came at a good time for Dr. Olivier’s struggling Society, which had few observers making reports at that time. In 1919, the AMS’ membership had dwindled to seven because members had not returned from military service and because the members who joined as high school students during the war were leaving

1His birthdate was found in Ancestry.com’s database where he is listed as “Porter” in the 1900 US Census. He is also named “Porter” in the 1910 US Census, and perhaps he preferred it to being “Nathaniel.” In three letters he wrote to Dr. Olivier, he signed his name as “N.P. Ball” or “NPB.” 2See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions.

© Richard Taibi 2017 297 R. Taibi, Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science, Springer Biographies, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44518-2_9 298 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918 home to attend college or go to work. For reasons of attrition and other members’ lower productivity, Ball’s meteor plots accounted for almost 57 % of the data Dr. Olivier was sent in 1919. In 1920, Ball’s records were 52 % of the AMS’ total. Distracted by personal and professional issues, Dr. Olivier gave Ball little credit for his yeomanly efforts in the 1919 and 1920 annual reports. However, Dr. Olivier made up for the oversights in 1929 when he cited Ball’s data and praised its usefulness when he reviewed the mass of accumulated AMS data in the 1919–1925 Report. In particular, Olivier lauded Ball for “his very faithful and intensive work… especially valuable for getting accurate (hourly meteor) rates” which were completely listed in a long table containing each AMS member’s meteor observations submitted from 1919–1925. Dr. Olivier found Ball’s 1921 Lyrid meteor data useful to note “a considerable increase” in the meteors’ rate compared to 1919 and 1920’s rates. Olivier called Ball’s monitoring of the 1921 Perseids on nine mornings “valuable and to be commended.” And Olivier thanked Ball for plotting several meteors that precisely located two Perseid radiants in 1922, despite the presence of a full moon. Lastly, Olivier found Ball’s reports helpful to establish hourly rates for the Orionids in 1919, 1920, and 1922 and for the Geminids in 1920. Perhaps Olivier’s greatest praise of Ball’s work was implied in a comment Olivier made about a table showing the quantity of meteors observers had reported in several magnitude classes. Only three observers had reported brightnesses of 1200 or more meteors and therefore were in Olivier’s estimation “enough to be useful for this purpose.” N.P. Ball was one and the other two were Dr. Olivier and Robert Dole. In this oblique compliment, Dr. Olivier had placed Ball in the same rank as himself and the AMS’ greatest longtime observer at the time, Robert Dole. When he learned of Ball’s death in 1929, Olivier stated his appreciation of the man’s contribution to the AMS. Dr. Olivier wrote that Ball was,

…for several years one of our most active members. Just after the World War, when our membership fell off and our prospects were at their lowest, his very extensive work was of particular value.

Grace H. (Bingham) Bessey

(1855–after 1921)3

3Birth month and year in 1900 US Census for Chicago 34th ward Cook County: October 1855. An approximate date of death resulted from a search for Mrs. Bessey on the GenealogyBank.com on 6/26/2015. She was mentioned as being President of the Ferry Pass School Improvement Association. Ferry Pass is a district north of Pensacola, Florida. Mrs. Bessey protested to the Escambia County commissioners about “repeated and brutal ﬂogging of prisoners” at the Ferry Pass prison camp. She demanded “that the matter be immediately investigated in the name of humanity and speedily corrected.” The article appeared in the Monday, March 21, 1921 edition of the Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), Volume 11, Issue 116, page 5. Grace H. (Bingham) Bessey 299

Membership years: 1915, 1916, and 19204

Grace Bingham was the daughter of Emily R. Knapp (1828–after 1885) and Adoniram Judson Bingham (1820–between 1863 and 1870). Reverend Bingham was a Baptist minister who served as a chaplain to the Massachusetts 10th Infantry from August 1862 to January 1863 during the Civil War. Emily remarried, to Benjamin Spaulding sometime between 1870 and 1880.5 Grace was born in Michigan and graduated from a Rockford, Illinois high school in 1874. In the 1870s, high schools were formidable educational institutions with rigorous curricula, so that her graduation was an achievement for any young person. Following graduation she went on to acquire a degree in music at Rockford (Illinois) College in 1877.6 Bingham’s history is well documented, 1880–1885, when she, her sister Mary Angie, and mother lived with Mr. Spaulding in St. Paul, Minnesota. However, information about her is scanty from 1885 to 1897. She revealed that she had been a “ranch woman” in California when she updated biographical information for her high school class sometime before 1897. And evidence of this claim was a 1900 article she published in Outing Magazine in which she described witnessing a Native American “burning” ceremony. In it, she described being in a tall pine forest which might have been a reference to a northern California site.7 The 1900 US Census enumerated Grace and Mary Angie in Chicago. Three months later, on September 268, Grace married William E. Bessey (1838–1905)9, a Canadian-born physician who was 17 years her senior. Dr. Bessey wrote philosophical tracts in addition to descriptions of his surgical work. In one of the former,

4See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate her contributions. 5Genealogical data found in Ancestry.com online database from United States Censuses for 1860, 1870, and 1880. A.J. Bingham’s military service was found in Ancestry also, listed under his full name. 6Jarvis, Grace H., Roster, Graduates of Rockford (Ill.) High Schools, 1862–1896. Rockford, IL: Republic Press, 1897, p. 113. A copy of pages relevant to Mrs. Bessey were acquired from Jacksonville (FL) Genealogical Society, PO Box 60756, Jacksonville, FL 32236. And in re her music education: 1911/1912 Alumnae Register, Volume 1–2, No. 58, Rockford College, Rockford, IL-Music Dept- Classes from 1854 to 1911. This source was found at http://heirloomsreunited. blogspot.com/2010/12/19111912-alumnae-register-rockford_20.html and accessed on 5/26/16. 7The article can be retrieved by using the Google search engine and entering “Grace Bingham digger”: accessed 5/26/16. 8Illinois Statewide Marriage Index 1763–1900, license number: 315390; accessed from the Ancestry.com site. 91891 Census of Canada and an obituary by A.W. Bowen, History of Grand Rapids and Kent County, 1900: ‘Dr. William E. Bessey, http://kent.migenweb.net/bowen/ac/besseyWmE.html accessed on 5/26/16. His death is mentioned in Journal of the American Medical Association,25 February, 1905: “Deaths: William E. Bessey, M.D. McGill University Medical Dept., Montreal, 1863. A member of the American Medical Association and of the British Medical Assn; one of the oldest practitioners of Grand Rapids, Mich., died at St. Mary’s Hospital in that city, February 15, after an illness of several weeks, from a carbuncle, aged 87.” The 1891 Census and Bowen’s biography are correct about Bessey’s birthdate and JAMA’s is in error. 300 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918 he argued that women were the more enlightened of the sexes.10 After Bessey’s death in 1905, Grace retained her marriage name, “Mrs. Bessey,” and used it exclusively during the years she made meteor watches for the AMS. Following her husband’s death in Grand Rapids, Michigan Grace relocated to the Florida panhandle area, perhaps because a younger cousin had prospered there. In 1908 and 1910, Grace was listed as “music teacher” in the Pensacola, Florida city directory. In 1911, she was a seamstress. In all the Pensacola directories, she listed herself as being a “wid(ow of) Wm.”11 The 1910 US Census shows Grace’s sister Mary living with her and doing “needlecraft” as an income source. Grace embarked on meteor astronomy in her 60th year, 1915. How she became interested and how she learned about the AMS are unknown, except that in a 1917 letter to Dr. Olivier she mentioned reading Popular Astronomy and wrote she enjoyed it “very much”; so the magazine is the likely inspiration. Between July 15, 1915 and December 13, 1915, Mrs. Bessey contributed 337 meteor plots to Olivier; 228 of these were Perseids and 97 were Geminid shower members. In 1916, Olivier credited her with 247 plotted meteors between January 2 and October 20. The majority (144) of the 1916 meteors was logged during the Delta Aquarid shower, one that is better observed from more southerly sites; Mrs. Bessey made full use of Pensacola’s southern latitude in plotting them. The 1916 total also included 52 members of January’s Quadrantid shower. These plots were likely welcomed by Olivier because many northern AMS members shunned the frigid winter temperatures that had to be endured in order to make them. Grace’s last meteor report was made two months before her 65th birthday, on August 11, 1920 when she logged 43 meteors, 29 being Perseids. The total number of meteors credited to her in AMS memoirs was 627. Mrs. Bessey’s total observing time for 1915, 1916, and 1920 was 51.72 h!12 In the middle of her observational career, during the hiatus from meteor reporting, Mrs. Bessey taught at Fairhope Alabama’s School of Organic Education, which must have necessitated a move from Pensacola.13. While she taught there, she wrote a letter to Olivier in 1917, in which she explained not being able to watch meteors after teaching “all day as I do.” Her long weekday work schedules made it difﬁcult to “… devote very much of the night, unless it should be Friday or Saturday night.” Nevertheless, she reported that she gave “talks before the High

10At the end of the Bowen biography mentioned in the endnote above, it mentions that Bessey believed women were the highest order of species because they were “last in the order of creation…is in fact paramount to all.” Further, “…she is naturally the instructor and director of man and his destinies, and that the human race must rise or fall with her, she being queen of the human hive.” 11All Pensacola Florida directories were obtained from the West Florida Genealogy Branch Library, 5740 N. 9th Ave., Pensacola, FL 32504. 12See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate her contributions. There is an unex- plained discrepancy in her meteor totals for 1916. In the 1916 annual report, she is credited with 378 meteors, whereas the number is 247 in Dr. Olivier’s 1929 memoir. 13The School of Organic Education is in existence in 2016 and is now called the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education. Source: http://fairhopeorganicschool.com/ Accessed on 5/26/16 Grace H. (Bingham) Bessey 301

School on our solar system and a considerable interest resulted.” She asked Dr. Olivier to answer a question posed to her by a teacher: If meteors come from icy comets, how can they become solid objects when they strike the earth’s atmosphere? This is an example of what must have been many quid pro quo exchanges between AMS members and Olivier in which each expected to beneﬁt from the professor-and-amateur astronomer relationship. The online available historical record is mute about Mrs. Bessey’s career and death after 1920. Still intrigued with her saga, the author made numerous attempts to investigate her fate by contacting libraries and historical societies in Pensacola and Fairhope; all to no avail.14 Perhaps the ongoing campaigns to publicize genealogical sources and digitize historical records will one day uncover a document revealing Mrs. Bessey’s career after 1920.

Donald Brooks

(1899–1965)15 Membership years: 1915–1917 and 192116

Twenty-two- year-old Donald Bane Brooks intently watched Washington, D.C.’s northeastern sky. It was the late evening of August 10 and early morning of August 11, 1921. He plotted as many Perseid meteors’ paths as he could on Young’s Gnomonic Star Chart, beginning at 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and he continued doing this until he had plotted a total of 74 Perseids. When he quit at 3 a.m., he had no idea if his part of a scientiﬁc campaign had produced results that were useful or not. Dr. Olivier had asked Brooks to join him, and John Koep, in a simultaneous recording project whose goal was to determine Perseid meteors’ heights in the atmosphere. Olivier and Koep watched from Charlottesville, and Brooks from Washington. They recorded as many Perseids as they could from August 9 to 12 inclusive. In order for the project to succeed, clear patches of sky would have to occur simultaneously in both locales’ skies on the same nights. Further, Perseids bright enough to be seen from both sites would have to occur so that their paths could be plotted. It turned out that on only one night, August 10–11 did all these conditions occur. After the observation campaign concluded, Dr. Olivier examined and compared the Washington and Charlottesville plots to learn whether meteors identiﬁed by simultaneous times of occurrence had been recorded. Seven meteors,

14The author contacted: The Fairhope, AL Museum of History, the Foley (AL) Public Library, Baldwin County (AL) Historical Society, and the West Florida Genealogy Branch Library in Pensacola. The author spent many hours in correspondence and combing through Internet and Ancestry.com records too. 15Ancestry.com database about Brooks documented his birthdate and its Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage, and Death Announcements, 1851–2003 supplied his date of death. The original death announcement was in The Washington Post on May 30 and 31, 1965. 16See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 302 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918 seen at both sites, had been plotted. Because of sites’ geographical separation, an identical meteor was seen and plotted against different star backgrounds, due to parallax. Olivier was able to use the path displacements between the two plots to deduce the heights of the meteors, in miles, when first and last seen. When Olivier surveyed the teams’ results, he commented, “…Some of the resulting heights, which appear in (the table below), are very satisfactory, but others differ from their checks more than desirable.” Olivier later clarified what he thought were acceptable limits for agreement between two sites’ measured heights. He wrote, “It is hard to set any exact numerical rule but in general, if the values of the (meteor’s) end points agree within about 5 km. (three miles) and those of the beginning points within about 8 km. (five miles), the results would be fairly good for visual work.”17 The most remarkable aspect of the campaign is that any useful data was obtained at all because success depended upon the accuracy of three men’s visual memory and their skill in accurately plotting the meteors’ paths on star maps. Dr. Olivier knew that observer skill came from hours of meteor plotting experience, and his teammates were among the most experienced alive in 1921.18 Olivier had honed his skill since before the turn of the 20th century. John Koep had plotted 4179 meteors during 393 h of watches from 1915–1919, and Brooks’ totals were 2968 meteors and 226 h of watches from 1915–1917. So, Olivier had selected the best meteor recorders for the task and knew he had “stacked the deck” in his favor for a successful outcome (Fig. 1). Donald Brooks began meteor plotting with a half-hour stint in August 1915. But during 1916, he recorded meteors on 45 nights, an average of almost one night a week all year. At year’s end, he had plotted 1491 meteors during 128 h of watches. In 1917, he watched fewer hours than in 1916 (98) but he saw nearly the same number of meteors: 1475. Like other young observers in the 1915–1918 cohort, and like many in later years, Brooks’ meteor watches ended when he entered college. It was only because of Olivier’s summons in 1921 that Brooks “came out of retirement” for the Perseid height campaign. After 1921, Brooks’ name was never again associated with meteor or any other astronomical specializations.

17This excerpt is from Olivier’s book, Meteors, Chap. 14, “Computation of the Real Heights of Meteors,” pp. 156–164. This chapter provides a comprehensive and detailed exposition of the mathematical and trigonometric methods used by Olivier, which was ﬁrst developed by astronomer John M. Schaeberle. Donald Brooks is credited with being the observer who provided half the data used in the chapter (p. 164). This data came from the 1921 Perseid campaign described in this biography. 18Dr. Olivier was so impressed and grateful for Brooks’ work that he cited Brooks, along with Koep and Lincoln LaPaz, for “the very great number of their observations, the care taken with their records, the clearness of their notes, and the exceptional intelligence of their communications…” Further Olivier believed that their work “demand(ed) that (they) be recorded as the most experienced observers…” And because the three had contributed so many meteor plots during the middle and late 1910s, Olivier acknowledged them for “a great proportion of the radiants” found in 349 Parabolic Orbits, the long report of the AMS for 1914–1918. In a literal sense, Olivier credited the young men’s work with making the AMS’ report possible. The preceding quotations in this endnote are from 349 Parabolic Orbits, p. 205. Donald Brooks 303

Fig. 1 The table above shows the heights of Perseid meteors seen by Dr. Olivier and his assistants John Koep and Donald Brooks on August 10–11, 1921. Source Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1920 and 1921, Popular Astronomy, volume 30, 1922, pp. 153–155. Image courtesy of Carleton College Archives

Donald’s father, Herbert B. Brooks, was a physicist employed by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Standards, the predecessor of today’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. Herbert’s career in the federal agency required the family to live in or near Washington, D.C. and so Donald was a Washingtonian during his formative years, including the AMS ones. The family lived in the northwestern quadrant of Washington, which in 1916–1917 had a darker sky than today’s is. Brooks graduated from the Ohio State University’s College of Engineering in 1921 and was described as a chemical engineer when he married Doris Caldrey of Ottawa, Canada in 1926. A 1927 alumni newsletter reported that he had worked with the Studebaker (automobile) Company before joining the Bureau of Standards’ automotive division in November, 1927.19

19Brooks’ graduation date and work history was cited in Ohio State Engineer Alumni News, volume 11, no. 2 (November, 1927), p. 13. His marriage date is from rootsweb.ancestry.com at: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/*maryc/carl1926.htm which was accessed on 5/26/16. 304 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918

While an employee at the Bureau he authored two technical papers: one about perception of humidity in 1934 and the second about automotive antifreezes in 1948. In the 1930 US Census, Brooks was listed as an “engineer,” and in the 1940 Census he was listed as an automotive engineer for the Bureau of Standards.20 At the time of his death on May 29, 1965, Brooks was survived by his wife Doris, three sons, and eight grandchildren.21

F.J. Carr

(1893–1951)22 Membership years: 1915–1917, 1920, and 192723

Frank J. Carr24 was emotionally resilient. He surmounted severe personal challenges early in life, and made useful contributions to meteor and variable star astronomy. Frank Carr suffered from paralysis in both legs.25 His disability made it difficult to find work. The 1920 US Census reported Carr’s only known employment, as an assistant town clerk, in his family’s hometown, Swanton, Vermont.26 Unfortunately, this work was seasonal; the clerk’soffice closed during the sum- mer27 further reducing Carr’s income.28

(Footnote 19 continued) The webpage reads: Carleton County, 1926, Part 1. The webpage cites many marriages and it is necessary to scroll down to “Brooks.” 20Ancestry.com’s US Census database for Donald Brooks. 21Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage, and Death Announcements, 1851–2003, in Ancestry.com’s database, supplied his date of death. It also furnished the information about Brooks’ survivors. The original death announcement was in The Washington Post on May 30 and 31, 1965. 22Ancestry.com’s database for Frank John Carr, Swanton, VT. 23See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 24Carr’s full name, Francis John, was found among the several Ancesty.com genealogical sources. He was most often referred to as “Frank J. Carr” and signed his name in that way. 25US, WWI Draft Registration Cards for Frank J. Carr, an Ancestry.com database. 26The 1930 US Census reported Carr’s claim that he was a “farmer” but this is not credible given his disability. 27Carr’s application for membership to the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), dated July 14, 1920, noted in the blank where an applicant was asked to report his vocation: “Assistant town clerk except during summer months.” Dr. Michael Saladyga, AAVSO archivist kindly furnished this and other information about Carr from the Association’s archives in an e-mail letter dated 10/05/15. 28Archivist Saladyga remarked after examining Carr’s AAVSO ﬁle that Carr repeatedly opened and closed his membership during the Depression, and in one cancelation note on May 15, 1931, stated “regret, out of work.” F.J. Carr 305

In addition to the paralysis, Frank Carr and his family endured two more devastating misfortunes. His 11-year-old sister died in 190129 and his parents divorced sometime before 1920.30 When his mother died intestate in 1928, he was required to buy the bulk of her several real estate holdings for $3000 in order to retain assets he would need for expenses later in life.31 He remained in Swanton for a few years after his mother’s death but then moved to Phillipsburg, New Jersey where his father, Ambrose, had lived since 1929.32 Carr’srelationshipwithAmbrosemayhavebeenstrainedbecausethe two men lived in separate rooming houses in the early 1940s.33 Six years after his father died in 1944, Carr sought admission to a home for the destitute 11 miles from Swanton. He died there of heart disease eight months later in January 1951.34 With Carr’s early history, the reader might suspect he would have become chronically depressed, lost himself in addiction, or developed a behavior problem. Instead, Carr rallied to make his mark as a meteor and variable star observer. He contributed meteor data during summers when the county Clerk’sofﬁce was closed. Carr’s observations were cited and used by Dr. Olivier in two long American Meteor Society monographs published in 1920 and 1929. In fact, Olivier credited him for submitting “good reports” in 1927. Carr observed the Perseids each report year, and in 1927 he also ventured out to monitor the Orionid shower on October 25th. That night’s meteor plots supplied the critical data Olivier needed to trace a decline in the shower’s activity proﬁle. Carr’s AMS career totals were 412 meteors observed during 35 h of watches 1915–1927. In 1920, Frank Carr decided to apply his energies to variable star work. He was elected to membership in the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) in September 1920 after being recommended for it by William Tyler

29Vermont Vital Records 1720–1908, in Mary Carr’s database on the Ancesty.com Web site. 30US Census for 1920, for Swanton, Vermont (VT), for the household of Teresa Carr, reported that she was head of the household and was a “widow.” Ambrose E. Carr, her husband, did not die until 1944 and widowhood was likely a euphemism for “divorcee.” All doubt is removed about her marital status by a note that she was divorced written on her death record. Source: Ancestry.com’s Vermont Death Records, 1909–2008 for “Mrs. Teresa Carr”. 31In a June 3, 1928 petition to the Judge of Probate Court, Carr reported that his mother died intestate on May 30, 1928. This document was contained in Ancestry.com’s “Vermont, Wills, and Probate Records, 1749–1999” under the Probate Court’s title, Estate of Theresa Carr, Swanton, VT; Filed June 4, 1928, No. 12389. The Probate Court ﬁle also contains several documents describing Teresa’s real estate holdings, their value, and their dispositions including Frank’s purchase of his mother’s properties. 32This fact is disclosed in a letter Frank Carr wrote to the Probate Court Judge in a letter dated January 31, 1929. The source is the Probate Court’s document ﬁle concerning the Estate of Theresa Carr. 33This possibility was deduced from the men’s addresses in two sources: Frank’s WW2 Draft Registration form, dated May 11, 1942 and the US Census for 1940 for Phillipsburg, New Jersey, for the household of Ambrose Carr. Both sources were found in Ancestry.com’s databases for the two men. 34Vermont Death Records, 1909–2008 for Frank J. Carr, an Ancestry.com database. 306 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918

Olcott, founder of the Association.35 The following month, he used his 3-inch (7.6 cm) Alvan Clark refractor to make 29 estimates of stars’ magnitudes. Variable star work became his passion after that and he did not return to meteors until 1927. Carr made 1960 magnitude estimates during the next four years. Neither the AMS nor the AAVSO heard from him during 1925 and 1926. The year 1927 proved to be Carr’s ﬁnal year of meteor and variable star reports. Carr’s mother died in 1928 and he was embroiled in probate issues late that year and the next one too. These unfortunate events seem to have ended Carr’s contributions to meteor and variable star astronomy databases.

Robert M. Dole

(1884–1966) From 1899–1961, Dole observed and recorded meteors for 48 years out of the 63 in the span. During his membership in the American Meteor Society, 1915–1961, he filed reports with Dr. Olivier in 39 out of 47 years. In 1915, Charles Olivier invited Weather Bureau meteor observers to join his program if they had gathered data independently of the AMS. Two Bureau employees stepped forward to join the AMS in 1915–1916: Robert M. Dole and Homer H. Martin. Robert Dole began actively plotting meteors in 1899 but volunteered to donate his data archive to Dr. Olivier in 1915 (Fig. 2). Robert Montgomery Dole’s biography resembled Charles Olivier’s in two key respects. One, both were born in 1884, but Dole was two months younger: born on June 13, 1884. Two, both lived long lives during which they devoted much of their time and energy to meteors. In fact, the span of Dole’s observational career may be unmatched by any other amateur meteor observer, living or dead: 63 years from 1899–1961. However, a major difference between the two was that as defiantly southern in outlook as Olivier was, Dole and his forebears were New England Yankees. Nevertheless, judging from the 31-year-long correspondence between the men in the AMS Archives, sectional and political differences never arose between them. Dole consistently dedicated himself to Olivier’s scientific programs and was an ardent ally in the effort to refute stationary radiants’ existence.

Family and Early Life

Robert Dole was the eldest child born to parents who were well-known literary ﬁgures during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Nathan Haskell Dole

35E-mail letter from Michael Saladyga, AAVSO archivist to the author on 10/5/15. Robert M. Dole 307

Fig. 2 Robert M. Dole in an undated photograph. Courtesy of the Portland Evening Express

(1852–1935) claimed ancestors in Massachusetts dating back to 1639. N.H. Dole was a Harvard College graduate and he translated several Tolstoy novels into English and edited many other foreign and English language books. In addition, he authored histories of Russia and published his own poems and novels. Like her husband, Helen James Bennett Dole (1858–1944) was a proliﬁc translator of foreign books and perhaps the best known of them was Heidi. Robert Dole also had a highly successful cousin, James Drummond Dole (1877– 1958), an 1899 Harvard College graduate, who was board chairman of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company and was responsible for developing pineapple farms and canning in Hawaii. He popularized the fruit so that it soon became a staple in the American home. He was popularly known as the “Hawaiian Pineapple King” and began a company which still bears his name. In comparison with these family luminaries, academic achievement and career success eluded Dole. He misinformed his 1906 Harvard College classmates that he failed to graduate because illness “during one…examination cost (him his) degree.” However, the truth was that Dole had been a poor student throughout his Harvard years. Following the Harvard ﬁasco, he failed in several employments beginning with the Waltham watch factory and after two years he tried the purchasing department at a store. But after a year at the latter, he “was advised to try the publishing business,” which he did as an editor and assistant manager at three different small publications.36 At age 25, Dole was living with his parents in

36A review of Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Folder for Robert Montgomery Dole revealed that Dole earned poor grades, was frequently absent from classes and from one Chemistry ﬁnal examination. He was put on academic probation twice, demoted in class standing, and threatened with “being sent away” because he did not improve his attendance and grades. In the end, June 1906, he did not graduate with his classmates. Recorded on Dole’s 308 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918

Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts and a 1910 US Census enumerator was told he was a self-employed magazine editor. Although his career attempts were unsuccessful, a genetic heritage conferred a love of observational astronomy. His grandmother, Caroline Fletcher Dole, who died at age 98 in 1914, observed the Leonid meteor shower in 1833, 1865, and 1866 from her home in Norridgewock, Maine. She told Robert she saw “millions” of meteors in those years. Her genetic inﬂuence may have been the foundation of his lifelong career in meteor astronomy and he seemed aware of it. In 1912 he wrote, “My chief delight in life is to study the mysteries of the heavens and the worlds which lie beyond.”

Early Meteor Watches and Variable Star Work

Dole’s meteor watching career began in 1899, when as a 15-year-old he monitored the Andromedids on November 20. He published the meteor path plots that resulted from this watch, and plots from four more watches he conducted during 1900 in Popular Astronomy (PA). He continued this observational pace and published 12 more watch results in PA from 1901 through 1912. In fact, his earliest published meteor reports preceded Charles Olivier’s ﬁrst in the 1901 volume of PA. Dole decided to join the AMS during the summer of 1915. The earliest of Dole’s letters dated August 31, 1915 and preserved in the AMS’ Archives gave Dole’s accounting of the “ﬁve or six thousand” meteor plots made from 1899 to 1915, which he donated to Dr. Olivier: 2500 Perseids, 1200 Leonids, 600 Geminids, 300 Orionids, and 200 each of Lyrids, Andromedids, and Aquarids.37 Olivier published an acknowledgement in September 1915,

The society has been most fortunate in having Mr. R.M. Dole of the U.S. Weather Bureau, join in its work. Mr. Dole has already observed over 5000 meteors and these he has kindly agreed to have worked up completely and published by the society. All astronomers will recognize the great value of this contribution—one of the largest single ones ever made by any observer.

(Footnote 36 continued) Undergraduate Record Card: “taken off the list of candidates for A.B. 1906 by vote of (Harvard’s Administrative) Board.” Dole claimed that a doctor had “told him to take life easily” because he had “strained his heart.” However, Harvard’s Assistant Dean urged Dole’s father to “cooperate with us in persuading Robert to turn over an entirely new leaf.” In October 1904, his father kept Robert out of Harvard hoping that he would mature during a hiatus. Unfortunately, meeting authorities’ expectations continued to be Robert’s pattern when he was a young man. The author is grateful to the Harvard University Archives Staff for providing Dole’s folder and record card on August 18, 2015. 37Olivier conﬁrmed the gift in a report which he wrote on September 17, 1915: Results of Meteor Observations for July and August 1915, Popular Astronomy, Volume 23, 1915, p. 568 Robert M. Dole 309

Variable Star Observations

In addition to plotting meteors, Bob Dole’s early astronomical work included estimates of variable stars’ magnitudes. He was one of the 37 volunteer observers who contributed their data to Edward C. Pickering at Harvard College Observatory (HCO) from 1906 to 1910. He was listed as “R. Dole” living in Jamaica Plain, his parents’ address, and that he had used a telescope with a four-inch (10 cm) aperture.38

Career with the Weather Bureau

In the March 1906 issue of Monthly Weather Review, Cleveland Abbe extolled the character-building rewards of service in the Weather Bureau by describing the upward career course of one young man who was awarded a public service position in Pittsburg after prior experience in the Bureau. “His case is one of the best examples of the development of a young man under the training and discipline that comes with the Weather Bureau service,” Abbe boasted. Abbe added that the Pittsburg man “was called…to an important public ofﬁce at a large salary.” Although the author does not know if Dole read this article, Dole would probably have found its appeal irresistible, because by 1912 he was badly in need of a career path that would bring success. Whatever induced him to do it, Dole joined the Weather Bureau as an Assistant Observer in May 1912 at an annual salary of $720.39 His letters to Olivier document his trials as a government weather man in the early to mid-twentieth century. Dole complained of low pay,40 demoralizing treatment by the Bureau and wearisome

38Leon Campbell wrote this article, which is listed under Journals in Sources above. He did not specify how many variable star observations Dole or other observers made during the five year period, but Dole was credited as a contributor. 39Zappone, A; Weather Bureau Report of Expenditures for Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1912 (station salaries);p.30 40The 2015 equivalent purchasing power of $720 in 1912 is $18,200. Source: Measuring worth.com’s calculator, (Accessed 5/26/16): https://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/ The cited equivalence is from the “Income or Wealth” calculator for “historic standard of living.” EH. net defines that term as a “measure of purchasing power of an income in its relative ability to purchase a (fixed over time) bundle of goods and services such as food, shelter, and clothing, that an average household would buy. This bundle does not change over time. It uses the Consumer Price Index.” Some further data to provide context for Dole’s annual salary is from Derks, Scott, The Value of a Dollar, Prices and Incomes in the United States 1860–2004, Millerton, New York: Grey House Publishing, Inc., 2004: The “average income” of workers in All Industries, excluding farm labor, in 1912 was $646/year. The “average income” Federal Civilian workers in 1912 was $1140/year (I would guess that higher seniority levels, with higher pay were included in this average.) The average income for “lower skilled labor” was $521/year. 310 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918 amounts of labor which at one station included ten-mile rounds daily. Despite his complaints about the Bureau, he remained with it enduring its severe tests of his character. 41 Four years after beginning as a weather observer, Dole married on October 5, 1916 and a year later, he and his wife Rosamond (nee Potter) had a son, Robert Haskell.42 With roles of employee, husband, and father, Robert Dole had matured and was a responsible adult with a modicum of success. Between 1912 and 1948, the Bureau transferred Dole to posts in North and South Carolina, Illinois, Michigan. and Maine, and Dole’s meteor reports came from all these locations. Dole continued with the Bureau, progressing through its series of promotional steps until he could finally proclaim, in a 1930 letter to Olivier, “I am now in charge of the (Portland, Maine) office.” He spent the final 19 years of his career in Portland. A Maine posting was what he wanted ever since he began in 1912 because he believed Maine’s skies were the clearest for meteor observation. Dole retired from the Bureau at Portland, as an assistant station chief, on May 31, 1948 after 36 years of service.43

Dole’s Support for Olivier’s Goals

Dole’s letters in the AMS Archives suggest that he enthusiastically adapted his meteor work to Olivier’s imperatives for meteoric astronomy. For instance, in response to Olivier’s desire to show that meteor radiants moved during a shower (especially the Orionids’), nine of Dole’s letters assured Olivier of his attention to this issue. And, he reported detection of radiant drift as a result of his meteor plots in the same nine letters. On a similar theme, he described the care he took in making meteor plots in another two letters. Dole’s letters about radiant drift detection were dated from 1921 to 1927, about the time period that Olivier was most intent upon discrediting W.F. Denning’s claim that the Orionid radiant was stationary. Dole was clearly intent on delivering the data that Olivier needed (Fig. 3). Olivier must have been impressed by the quality of Dole’s meteor plotting skill and the dutiful tone of Dole’s letters, because Olivier on one occasion accepted Dole’s measurements of radiant locations without reviewing their accuracy, which

41The Dole correspondence ﬁle in the AMS Archives consists of 49 letters to Olivier from 1915 to 1946. His letters to Olivier frequently complain of job-induced privations and his experience of abuse by the agency’s bureaucracy. 42Virkus, Frederick A., Compendium of American Genealogy, Volume 1, Lineage Records, Chicago: Marquis; 1925–1942, reprinted 2001, p. 251 43A summary of Dole’s Bureau career was published in Weather Bureau Topics 1946–1949, p. 276; http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/wb_topicsandpersonnel/1948.pdf; accessed 5/26/16. The Bureau publication was unclear about the precise job title Dole had at retirement: however, assistant meteorologist or assistant forecaster seems likely intended. Robert M. Dole 311

This first of Dole’s 1922 plots shows the Orionid radiant, where all the lines intersect, on October 17, 1922. On the following two plots, look to see how the radiant has shifted as the shower progressed. A meteor shower radiant should move to the left as the days pass.

October 21’s plot has many more meteor paths sketched because the meteors were more numerous; the 21st was near the shower’s maximum date.

Fig. 3 Robert M. Dole: Three orionid radiant sketches from 1922 312 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918

The October 29 plot has fewer meteor paths because the earth has nearly passed through the meteor shower’s orbit. The radiant’s movement toward the upper left, compared to the 17th’s radiant location is most clearly noticeable here.

All three plots are from Dole’s article “October Meteors,” Popular Astronomy, volume 31, 1923, pp. 37-40.

These three images are published here by courtesy of Carleton College Archives.

Fig. 3 (continued) he did not do with less experienced AMS members. In his discussion about the 1924 Orionid shower, Olivier tacitly admitted that he accepted Dole’s radiants without reviewing Dole’s work. Olivier wrote, “…(Dole) reported splendidly clear nights and an active shower of Orionids…(he) counted in all 230 Orionids…(he) wrote that he was able to get more accurate centers for the radiants than in 1922 as he saw and plotted many short meteors close in.”44 Olivier showed a great deal of trust in Dole, because when he accepted Dole’s measurements of the radiants’ positions, Olivier made himself vulnerable to criticism that he did not rigorously examine data that conﬁrmed his theoretical arguments against stationary radiants.

A Lifetime of Contributions to Meteor Astronomy

Robert Dole set an observational longevity record. Dole’s name was frequently present in Olivier’s AMS annual reports after 1915. The author found that Dole’s observational career spanned 63 years, 1899–1961. During it, Dole made 48 annual meteor watch reports, which were cited or published in PA, Meteoritics, Flower and

44Olivier elaborated, “The following (sky coordinate) positions of the radiants, determined by (Dole) personally from his maps, were (sent to Olivier). The maps themselves were not submitted, nor the number of paths for each radiant given.” Robert M. Dole 313

Cook Observatories Reprints, or in Dole’s letters to Dr. Olivier. There are very few observers with such faithful devotion to meteor science. In addition, Dole’s studies of shower radiants’ movement assisted Olivier’s quest to refute the stationary radiant argument. Dole earned Olivier’s respect and trust. And, it is clear from Dole’s letters that he held Olivier in very high regard. Considering how much the two respected each other, it is curious that they never arranged to meet; there is no evidence that they met face to face during the 51 years of their collaboration. Robert M. Dole died on May 5, 1966 in a Portland, Maine hospital. Memorial articles about him in the Portland Evening Express and Portland Press Herald mistakenly reported that he was a Harvard graduate and that he had been on the staff of the Harvard College Observatory.45 But there is no mistaking the reporters’ esteem for Dole. The Evening Express article reported how Portland’s newspaper writers revered and appreciated Dole because he could be relied upon to give them accurate information about any celestial or atmospheric phenomenon that captured the public’s attention or caused it alarm. Dole was described as a pre-dawn riser who watched the stars with his telescope. He was described as an avocational weather and astronomical observer in his retirement until a terminal illness forced the hospitalization during which he died.

Kathleen M. Hempel

(1890–1971)46 Membership years: 1917–192247

45Two results from fact-checking: (1) Harvard University Archives informed the author that contrary to the newspaper obituary accounts, information in the 1923 Harvard Alumni Directory indicated Dole had not obtained a bachelor’s degree: E-mail from Reference Staff, Harvard University Archives to the author, dated 5/17/2012. (2) In re: the newspapers’ claim that Dole had been a Harvard College Observatory (HCO) staffer is the following information. Solon Bailey, acting Director of Harvard College Observatory after E.C. Pickering’s death, listed HCO staff members “who were regularly employed in astronomical work for a year or more…(from 1839 until) the end of 1927.” Dole’s name does not appear on Bailey’s three-page list of staff members who were employed 1839– 1927. Bailey, S; The History and Work of Harvard Observatory, 1839 to 1927, Harvard Observatory Monograph No. 4, New York: McGraw-Hill/ Harvard Observatory; 1931, pp. 273 and 275. The author believes that newspaper personnel who thought very highly of Dole had enhanced his vitae by making claims that Dole never made himself. 46Her vital statistics are from a funeral notice in Oelwein (Iowa) Daily Register, Tuesday, September 7, 1971, p. 4, in which she was described to be 81 years-old at death. 1920 and 1930 US Censuses list her age that seems consistent with an 1890 birthdate. 47See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate her contributions. 314 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918

“It has always been a wonder to me how intelligent people can go out in a wonderful starry night and not even notice the sky until their attention is called to it…As long as I can remember I have been interested in the stars, and now it seems that I am really going to do something,” With this assertion 26-year-old Kathleen Hempel made known her intention to work with Dr. Olivier and the AMS. She assured Olivier “…I refuse to be frightened” when he warned her that meteor plotting was demanding work.48 Hempel had a strong interest in the natural sciences. She assured Olivier that she was ready to accomplish useful meteor work for him, claiming, “I also am keeping record of the bird migrations for the Biological Survey. (That fact) may give you a bit more conﬁdence in me. This is the second year for that work.”49 Kathleen was the second of three daughters born to Emma and John G. Hempel (1860–1945). Her father was a successful clothing merchant in Elkader, Iowa and later had a career as an Iowa State and U S Congressional representative. Kathleen lived with her parents until their deaths and helped to maintain the family household.50 Studying birds was probably her greatest passion, because in 1925 she published an article in an ornithological journal in which she reported temporarily trapping and banding “624 birds of 30 species.” She elaborated,

To those…who feel a real and genuine affection for birds, my advice is to start banding them…for there is nothing that gives me more pleasure than to hold a live bird in my hand…to study its plumage at close range, and then see it fly away alive and happy.51 Although ornithology was first, meteor work was a close second interest for Miss Hempel, as she is named in Dr. Olivier’s AMS reports. She was an avid Popular Astronomy reader and her interest in meteor plotting was piqued by reading Olivier’s 1916 AMS annual report.52 She requested data blanks and gnomonic maps from him and made her first watch on May 11, 1917. Even though the 55-minute watch only yielded one meteor to plot, Kathleen’s interest in meteor work was established and lasted six years. Hempel’s 23 watches, 1917–1922, were usually made in the early evening and rarely lasted past midnight. However, her plots were useful to Olivier in describing the inactivity of the 1921 and 1922 Pons-Winneckid meteor showers and in

48KM Hempel in a letter to CP Olivier dated April 4, 1917, in AMS Archives storage box labeled “1910–1920.” 49Ibid. 501920 and 1930 US Censuses in Ancestry.com’s database for John G. Hempel. John’s career is documented in a biographical note in an online description of his collected papers: John G. Hempel, MS 680, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University. 51KM Hempel, Adventures in Bird Banding, in Wilson Bulletin, volume 37, June 1925, pp. 95–98 quoted on two online Web sites: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4155301 and http://elibrary.unm.edu/ sora/Wilson/v037n02/p0095-p0103.pdf Both Web sites were accessed on January 29, 2013. 52Letter from Hempel to Olivier, dated March 29, 1917 in the AMS Archives box “1910–1920.” Kathleen M. Hempel 315 discussion of the 1920 Perseids.53 Seven years after her AMS membership years, Hempel contacted Olivier a last time to report a ﬁreball she had seen on November 5, 1929. His note on her report indicates that he added the event to his ﬁreball archives.54 Kathleen Hempel’s meteor career totals were 32.4 h of watches during which she plotted 129 meteors.55

H. I. Johnson

(1898–1973) Membership years: 1915, 1916, and 191756

Harold Irwin Johnson lived his life near the Canadian border in Montana and Washington State. A century ago, clear moonless night skies near his home in Hingham, Montana and in later life, Spokane, Washington must have been filled with brilliant stars in a black firmament. US Censuses for 1920–1940 show that Johnson lived with or near his parents and worked in the same types of occupations as his father, changing them as his father did. Johnson’s WW1 Draft Registration card (1917–1918) shows that he was a “chemist” and in the 1920 US Census he reported to be a “pharmacist” in a “dairy store.” During those years, Johnson was 19–22 years of age and was unlikely to have graduated from institutions of higher education that would be required to practice those occupations as we currently understand them. More likely, he worked in some customer service-related functions in a store. Later Censuses reveal that he was employed as an “oil field manager” in 1930 and as an “oil operator” in 1940. These occupations suggest that Mr. Johnson acquired some technical and managerial expertise in the oil extraction industry in the Spokane area (1930) and in Pioneer, Montana (1940). The Social Security Death Index recorded that his last address of record was Shelby, Montana in 1973. Johnson never married. Johnson’s observational contributions to the AMS ended in August 1917, soon after the United States entered World War 1. However, it was not wartime service that ended his meteor work because the 1930 census recorded he was not a veteran. Instead, unknown domestic or occupational demands interfered with astronomy, or he simply grew disinterested in meteor watches. Johnson’s AMS history indicates that he observed the summer showers, especially the Perseids which he watched all three years of participation. In 1916, he monitored the Delta Aquarids in late July and the Orionids on October 20th. His neatly typed letters to Dr. Olivier suggest that he kept careful notes about each

53Olivier, Charles P., Report of the AMS for 1919–1925, Publications of the L. McCormick Observatory, volume 5, 1929 and 1935, pp. 27 and 31. 54Hempel letter to Olivier, dated November 6, 1929 in AMS Archives storage box “1920s.” 55The totals statistics are from the sources in footnote 48. 56See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 316 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918 meteor he saw. In three years, he reported on a total of 975 meteors during 48.5 h accumulated observing time.

John Koep (1898–1949) and Philip Trudelle (1897–1966)

Koep’s Membership years: 1915–1921 and 192757 Trudelle’s Membership years: 1916–1917

John Dewey Koep and Philip Aloysius Trudelle joined forces to monitor meteors in the sky above Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. The pair watched during pre-midnight hours beginning in the first weeks of January 1916 and by year’s end, Koep had observed 91 nights and Trudelle 83. Their practice of making evening hour observations positioned them to record the first discovery that Dr. Olivier would claim for the American Meteor Society (AMS): detecting meteors shed by comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke. Koep and Trudelle were surprised to see a sustained outburst of meteors radiating from the constellation Corona Borealis in late May and early June 1916. Because of this shower, they were plotting 58 % more meteors per hour beginning May 23 than they were May 1–22nd. Seventeen-year-old Koep and 18-year-old Trudelle plotted as many of these early evening meteors as possible and sent the plots to Dr. Olivier in Charlottesville, Virginia. Olivier computed the plotted meteors’ orbit and noted they were similar to comet Pons-Winnecke’s. Olivier realized this implied the meteors were from the comet, and he published the discovery in two publications consulted by professional astronomers in search of scientifically reliable information: Monthly Notices Royal Astronomical Society and the Harvard College Observatory Bulletin. Dr. Olivier praised Koep and Trudelle in each article he wrote about the new meteor shower, now named the June Bootids, and its derivation from comet Pons-Winnecke. In his 1916 article to Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) in which he described the meteor–comet relationship, Olivier wrote, “…I wish to give all possible credit to the two young men … through whose observations, made with the greatest energy and enthusiasm, this proof was first made possible. It is of interest to say that during the first seven months of 1916 Mr. Koep sent in 1429 observations and Mr. Trudelle 908. This in itself is quite sufficient guarantee of their ability.”58 Dr. Olivier seized an opportunity to publicize the discovery in an article to Scientific American readers and cited it as an example of how “amateurs can render a real service to professional astronomers.” He acknowledged Koep and Trudelle for their discovery and simultaneously solicited new AMS observers to perform

57See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate their contributions. 58Olivier also gave the pair credit in his famous book, Meteors, Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1925, p. 80 as well as in 349 Parabolic Orbits (p. 209). John Koep (1898–1949) and Philip Trudelle (1897-1966) 317

Fig. 4 Star Maps by Koep and Trudelle. This illustration accompanied Dr. Olivier’s article in a 1917 issue of Scientific American. The star map on the left, Trudelle’s, is a reproduction of his meteor plots made on May 26, 1916. Similarly, a reproduction of Koep’s meteor plots on June 2– 4, 1916 is on the right. These plots were made during the outburst of meteors from comet 7/P Pons-Winnecke. With some effort, the reader may see radiant drift toward the left on the maps when May 26’s radiant position is compared with that of June 2–4’s. Source Olivier, C.P., Exploring the skies for the remains of extinct comets. Scientific American, volume 117, September 22, 1917, pp. 210–211 similar work. Olivier’s article provided abbreviated instructions for the neophyte meteor observer to begin work even before receiving maps from him (Fig. 4). John Koep began evening meteor watches in December 1915 before Trudelle joined him. His passion for meteor plotting was captured in a letter dated January 31, 1916; it contains his urgent plea for a new supply of Young’s star maps, “Please send me four sets of maps. I had to crowd fifty-two (meteor plots) on the set of maps I am sending.” Koep was most prolific as a meteor recorder during 1916 when he and Trudelle observed simultaneously on 64 nights: Koep charted 2675 meteors. During the same year, Trudelle mailed 1856 meteor plots to Dr. Olivier. In that year, Koep contributed 26 %, and Trudelle 18 % of the total meteor records sent by AMS members. Such a hectic pace was not to continue. Trudelle ceased mailing plots after March 1917 and that may have been due to beginning military service or war-related work.59 Koep’s 1917 production decreased to a total of 1080 plots.

59The US Congress declared war on April 6, 1917, beginning World War I. Trudelle’s WWI Registration Card, dated September 11, 1918 shows he worked as a “Checker in a forge and foundry company” in Stillwater, Minnesota. The source was Ancestry.com military database concerning Philip Trudelle. An alternate or additional explanation is one made by the Chippewa County Genealogical Society: Trudelle enlisted in the U.S. Army. Their ﬁles indicate that Trudelle became a Private in the STU Army Tug Corps. 318 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918

Perhaps the decrease was due, in part, to Trudelle’s absent camaraderie and the unstated good-natured competition that can occur between observing partners.60 Dr. Olivier reunited the pair, however, in 1920–1921. He furnished them both with Vanderbilt fellowships to attend the University of Virginia for an academic year. Unfortunately, Trudelle did not complete the second semester and returned to Chippewa Falls in March 1921; a newspaper article explained that “defective eyesight” was to blame for interfering with his work in Charlottesville.61 Trudelle’s participation in astronomy appears to have ended with this episode; his name does not appear in connection with any further astronomical work after 1921. On the other hand, John Koep’s astronomical career continued a few years longer. During the 1921 fellowship year at UVA, Koep and Olivier, in Charlottesville VA, teamed in a cooperative simultaneous observational effort with Donald Brooks in Washington, D.C. The three hoped to plot the same Perseids in an attempt to determine the meteors’ real heights in the atmosphere. They succeeded in matching seven meteors on August 10 and Olivier was able to derive heights for six of the seven. The average height for the Perseids’ path commencement was 71.6 miles and their average terminal height was 56.5 miles; Olivier’s modest assessment of the two-site work was that “something was accomplished.” Olivier showed conﬁdence in Koep’s work by reporting that Koep used 13 meteor plots to “independently” deduce a Perseid radiant for meteors he observed on August 11. Koep’s work at McCormick Observatory also included making photographic exposures of stars with the 26-inch refractor. He was assigned to regular night duty just like the observatory’s staff astronomers. He took scores of photographs during his fellowship. The objective of his duties was to assist Director Samuel A. Mitchell with a project to determine the trigonometric parallaxes of 440 stars. This required each observer to take two exposures of the same star on a predetermined night. Koep was expected to photograph several stars during each night’s work from

60Koep made an effort to enlist more Chippewa Falls observers for the AMS. He sent Olivier a January 5, 1917 clipping from the Chippewa Herald, entitled “Two Chippewa Boys Make Important Astronomical Discovery.” In the article, Koep described how meteors were recorded and were to be sent to “Mr. Charles P. Olivier” at McCormick Observatory. Koep wrote, in his letter dated January 6, “The boys say anyone, and especially amateur astronomers can do valuable meteor work…” In a letter dated April 5, 1917 (after Trudelle ceased observing), Koep wrote that he had identiﬁed a possible observer because “she returned a book (about comets) to the public library…that she had for six weeks. This is sufﬁcient proof that she takes great interest in the work.” Olivier underlined the young lady’s name and address that Koep supplied in his letter, which suggests Olivier sent her AMS Bulletins, as Koep requested. Unfortunately, the lady’s name does not appear among those of AMS observers in 1917 or later. Koep’s letters are in the AMS Archives storage box labeled 1910–1920. 61In Ancestry.com newspaper clips: The Eau Claire Leader, Eau Claire, WI, Sunday, March 13, 1921, page 20: “Phillipp (sic) Trudelle has returned home from Staunton, Va., where he was taking a course in astronomy at the University of Virginia. Mr. Trudelle received a scholarship some time ago in recognition by the government for astronomical work, but defective eyesight compelled his return.” John Koep (1898–1949) and Philip Trudelle (1897-1966) 319

October 1920 to January 1922.62 His stay at McCormick was as a genuine astronomer’s apprentice and the log of observers in the parallax study showed he worked alongside Mitchell, Olivier, and Harold Lee Alden contributor of telescopic meteors doing the same night work that they did. His work record suggests he had the requisite energy and integrity to complete research assignments. For this reason, it is unclear why Koep did not continue in astronomical work, as a night assistant if not as a professional astronomer. Despite abandoning active astronomical work, there is one clue that he kept an interest in AMS activities; his name appeared as a dues-paying member in the AMS Bulletin 11 which was published on September 15, 1930. John Koep returned to Chippewa Falls to live with his family and work with his father. In 1930, John worked as a tinsmith in his father’s shop and the 1940 US Census reported that Koep had continued in that work. When the United States entered World War 2, Koep enlisted as a warrant ofﬁcer in the US Army in August 1942, and he served in an engineering unit. He survived the war but died in a Chicago veteran’s hospital on March 1, 1949. After World War 1, Trudelle was a tinsmith and sheet metal worker for a company in Chippewa Falls. It is not clear that he worked in the Koep shop. But Trudelle later crewed on ships; in 1947, he was a crewmember on a ship sailing between British Columbia and Seattle, Washington. He was reported to have worked on Adak, an Aleutian island for a number of years before retiring in 1962 in Wisconsin. Trudelle died on January 24, 1966 in Ladysmith, Wisconsin.63 Both men were buried in Chippewa Falls and neither had married.

Summary

“Being interested in meteor observations and watching all other meteor observers’ results that are published…I become more interested in the work every day.” With these words John Koep announced his passion for meteor watching in a 1916 issue of Popular Astronomy. He enlisted Philip Trudelle to join in the work and the two

62Mitchell, S.A., Olivier, C.P., Alden, H.L., Trigonometric Parallaxes of 440 Stars Determined by Photography with the 26-inch refractor, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 4, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; 1927, pp. 1–289. The major part of this monograph is a listing of the observers and the dates the photographic exposures were taken for each of the 440 stars; the list required 257 pages of the report (p. 8–p. 265). The author counted 134 exposures taken by Koep on pages 8–82. Spot inspection of pages 145–147, 244–245, and 264–265 all cited Koep’s work and there is little doubt in the author’s mind that most of the uninspected pages also contained his name; he may have taken hundreds of exposures during the two academic years he was at McCormick Observatory. 63Post WW1 employment history is documented in the 1930 US Census and in an obituary that appeared in the Chippewa Herald-Telegram, dated January 26, 1966. The 1947 crew information came from the crew manifest of the American Steamer Iroquois, dated October 5–6, 1947, contained in Ancestry.com’s database for Trudelle. His death date is also in Ancestry’s ﬁles. 320 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918 contributed a total of 44 % of the AMS’ 1916 data. In so doing, they furnished the means for Charles Olivier to link a meteor shower to comet 7/P Pons-Winnecke. Trudelle’s meteor watches ended in 1917. When he stopped, he had plotted a total of 2034 meteors during 210 h of observation. Koep’s most active meteor watching years were 1915–1919. During this period, he plotted a total of 4178 meteors seen during 393 h of watches.

G.F. Kronenberger (1885–1926), R. Lambert, and W. Pattison

All three ﬁled reports with the American Meteor Society during the years 1916– 191864

The facts about George Francis Kronenberger’s total hours of observation and total of meteors reported revealed the shortcomings of the author’s rule for deciding which American Meteor Society (AMS) observers should be given a biography. The author had decided on a rule that an observer should have reported meteors for at least three years to merit having her or his life story detailed. Kronenberger met that requirement; he sent meteor plots to Dr. Olivier from 1916 to 1918. However, as the reader will read below, Kronenberger’s record was scanty compared to two other observers, Raymond Lambert and Walter Pattison, who reported to AMS headquarters for only two years. These facts show that there is a risk of omitting worthy observers when an arbitrary rule is imposed on the historical record! George Kronenberger’s earliest appearance in the historical record was in the 1910 US Census as a 24-year-old college (graduate?) student, living with his parents in the Bronx borough of New York City. He was a 29-year-old teacher when the State of New York conducted its own census in 1915. When he registered for the World War 1 draft in 1918, he taught for the Berlitz language school in the Bronx. In 1920, Kronenberger had moved to Hamilton, Ohio where he continued in his profession as a teacher. He had been living in the Bronx and was a Manhattan College professor when he died at 40 years of age in February, 1926. An examination of Kronenberger’s observational records reveals that each meteor watch, 1916–1918, was held in the early evening and all of them ended before midnight. This pattern of meteor observation, and the fact that meteor rates are notoriously low in the early evening, explains why his meteor total was so very low. Kronenberger’s total was also restricted by the low number of nights per year that he watched, especially in 1917 when he observed on only two nights. His efforts for the three years of AMS membership only yielded 37 meteors even though he watched for 25.6 h: less than an average of 1.5 meteors per hour.

64See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate their contributions. G.F. Kronenberger (1885–1926), R. Lambert, and W. Pattison 321

Nevertheless, Kronenberger had the consolation of knowing that his data was useful for Dr. Olivier’s early evening hourly meteor rate statistics. In contrast to Kronenberger’s record, there are those of two teens, (William) Raymond Lambert (1896–?) and Walter Pattison (1903–1992). Lambert’s watches were made in 1915 and 1916 when he recorded a total of 1254 meteors during 113.75 h of plotting. Pattison’s watches were in 1917–1918 when he was 13–15 years of age. Pattison plotted a total of 1108 meteors during 68.7 h of watches in 1918. He plotted an additional 73 meteors in 1917. Kronenberger, Lambert, and Pattison’s meteor watching careers persuaded the author to amend his biography-for-three-years-only rule to include as biography subjects those AMS members who reported several hundreds of meteors in two- years.

Lincoln Lapaz65

(1897–1985) Membership years: 1915–1918 and 192466

Eighteen-year-old Lincoln LaPaz was exactly the sort of American Meteor Society (AMS) member that Charles Olivier had hoped for: a proliﬁc observer and an organizer of other observers in his hometown. The Wichita, Kansas meteor enthusiast began watches during 1915s Perseid epoch. By the end of October, two of his neighbors were also plotting meteors for the American Meteor Society. “By interesting others he has done most valuable service, and this is especially mentioned in the hope that other members will be encouraged by his success to similar efforts,” enthused Dr. Olivier. The Wichita meteor watchers called themselves “the Society for the Advancement of Meteoric Astronomy (SAMA).” It operated from October 1915 until June 1917 with seven men participating for at least one year, and four for two years: Richard Aldrich, Olaf Burge, Clarence Ludeman, and William McPherson. Six of the seven members were high school students, but the seventh, Napoleon Carreau, was a 50-year-old optician who in later years reﬁgured a telescope mirror for Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto’s discoverer. The youngest member was 13 years of age. LaPaz’“branch section,” as Olivier called it, produced 3716 meteor plots in its two-year existence and the seven assistant observers accounted for almost a third of the total: 1225 meteors. SAMA was the forerunner of similar

65The family’s name was changed by Lincoln’s father, Charles Melchior, from Lebherz, which it was in the 1900 US Census, to LaPaz, which appeared in the 1905 Kansas State Census. In the 1900 Census, Lincoln’s name was recorded as “Charles Lincoln Lebherz.” This information is from Ancestry.com’s database about Lincoln LaPaz. 66See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate their contributions. LaPaz reported on meteor watches during the 1930s’ Leonid meteor storm epoch too. See Chap. 5 where his accomplishments are described. 322 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918 meteor observing groups, called “regional groups,” that were to become common during the 1930s; LaPaz was therefore a pioneer in starting SAMA. LaPaz was the most prolific observer of the Wichita Society and provided a splendid example for the other members. He plotted a total of 2733 meteors during 242 h of watches during his 1915–1918 observational career.67 While LaPaz watched meteors in 1915, he invented an electrical timing device that provided an objective comparison for observers’ use while making estimates of meteors’ duration. He called his invention a “durimeter” in a 1916 report to Popular Astronomy. It consisted of a spring-wound alarm clock that he modified with a circuit that produced auditory signals every quarter second. A meteor observer using the device was intended to make judgments about the length of time a meteor was visible by using the device’s sounds as an objective guide to rely upon. LaPaz especially hoped that the durimeter would simplify and improve the neophyte observer’s time judgments. He wrote,

Perhaps no more difficult a task can be required of an inexperienced observer than that of estimating the duration of an extremely transient appearance. Nowhere is the attempt to make such estimation more perplexing than in meteoric work, especially since the mind is occupied in classifying…shooting stars as to color and magnitude or in determining the position of the apparent paths. He admitted, “It is true of course, that the estimations still depend on the individual judgment, but with the constant standard of comparison and the rapid familiarity with brief durations which the apparatus affords it appears that more accurate estimates are certain.” Olivier appended a note to LaPaz’ durimeter article in Popular Astronomy,by crediting LaPaz with its use when he plotted the final 609 meteors of the 1523 he saw in 1915. In “349 Parabolic Orbits,” Olivier published a table illustrating LaPaz’ averaged timings, made using the durimeter, of first to sixth magnitude meteors and compared them to his own estimates, made by judgment alone. Perusal of the two duration lists reveals differences of less than a tenth of a second between the two men’s estimates for each magnitude class, and frequently the difference is only in the hundredths of a second! Olivier’s opinion was that “we check one another well,” and presumably concluded that the durimeter helped the neophyte LaPaz rival Olivier’s estimates acquired by practice over twenty years of observation (Fig. 5). LaPaz was busy furthering his academic training in mathematics after the 1918 observing season. He earned a B.A. from Fairmont College (now Wichita State University) in 1920, an M.A. from Harvard University in 1922, and a Ph.D. from University of Chicago in 1928. He was engaged in college-level instruction during this time too; he taught while a student at Fairmont, and at Dartmouth College 1922– 1925. In 1930, LaPaz became an assistant professor at Ohio State University (OSU).

67He added to this total with another Perseid watch in 1924. In that year he plotted 363 meteors during four nights from August 3–10. LaPaz’ wife joined him by plotting another 56 meteors and thereby extended the couple’s observing run with another session on July 30. (Source: Olivier, C. P., AMS annual report, Popular Astronomy, volume 33, 1925, p. 242.) Lincoln Lapaz 323

Fig. 5 Meteor Durimeter. This illustration accompanied Lincoln LaPaz’ article describing his invention, the “durimeter.” The device provided a mechanically produced sound signal four times a second that the meteor observer could use to judge the durations of meteors’ ﬂights. Source LaPaz, Lincoln, A Durimeter for Meteor Observations, Popular Astronomy, volume 24, 1916, pp. 374–376. Image courtesy of Carleton College Archives

He rose through the academic ranks at OSU to associate professor in 1936 and full professor in 1942. While at OSU, he helped develop a doctoral-level graduate mathematics program. During World War 2, he was on leave from Ohio State and worked first as a research mathematician at the New Mexico Proving Grounds and later directed an operations research section for the Second Air Force. The War Department’s need for technical ballistic information and his research to furnish it influenced him to take up the study of meteorites’ flight characteristics in the upper atmosphere. Scientific interest in meteorites began long before WW2. Years earlier, in 1933, Frederick C. Leonard, of Society for Practical Astronomy fame, organized a Society for Research on Meteorites (SRM). Leonard intended the SRM to “promote the discovery, collection, investigation, and preservation of meteorites, and to advance the science of meteorites.” The Society’s membership grew to 200 members just before WW2. The Society also published an increasing number of papers on the topic in Popular Astronomy during the same period. LaPaz joined the Society and served as its President from 1941 to 1946 when the Society’s name changed to the Meteoritical Society. Responding to Frederick Leonard’s appeal in 1941, for a university-based organization to study meteorites, the University of New Mexico (UNM) founded the Institute of Meteoritics in June 1944. LaPaz joined the University’s faculty in 1945 as Head of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy and he became Director of the Institute at the same time. In addition to the Meteoritical Society’s goals of discovery, collection, investigation, and preservation of meteorites, LaPaz was influenced by his wartime research experiences when he worked with the military. He asserted that meteoritic research after World War 2 was 324 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918

…most important of all (because of) the effects of (meteorites’) infall onto the earth. Development of the research program of the Institute can be justified not only on scientific grounds, but also on the basis of the superlative importance of meteoritics in studies…of the battleground of the next war, namely the upper atmosphere; and…the last frontier… outer space itself. However, LaPaz was able to set aside this national defense emphasis and make many successful meteorite recoveries and researches during his years at UNM; the most spectacular perhaps was his involvement in securing for the Institute the 2300-pound Norton County (Kansas) meteorite in 1948. He also was responsible for establishing a large meteorite collection at the Institute which has been useful to scientific investigators. Lincoln LaPaz capped a distinguished academic career in which he published more than 120 scientific articles and books, by serving as UNM’s Director of the Division of Astronomy in 1953. He became emeritus professor in 1962 and retired as Director of the Institute in 1966. His colleagues regarded him as “a pioneer in the field of meteoritics at a time when meteorites were largely viewed as curiosities.”

Howard H. Martin (1889–1944) and John Whitaker Crain (1887–1953)

Howard H. Martin and John W. Crain were two Weather Bureau employees who became American Meteor Society (AMS) members. Like their contemporaries Philip Trudelle, Raymond Lambert and Walter Pattison, these two Texans were very active in two years of meteor work during 1916 and 1917. Howard Homer Martin’s membership in the AMS was announced by Dr. Olivier in the 1916 annual report in Popular Astronomy (PA), “…Mr. H.H. Martin of the US Weather Bureau has been working for the past year with other local observers to obtain observations of meteors simultaneously, from which their real heights may be computed. He has most kindly sent in copies of all his results for the summer and fall of 1916…besides other lists of meteors. A few of these have already been computed here and work on others will be undertaken shortly. These results cannot fail to be of much interest.”

Personal History

Martin was born at Fort Worth, Texas on December 5, 1889 and at age nineteen years, in May 1909, he joined the Weather Bureau as an assistant observer. He married in 1912 and the couple had three children, two girls and a boy, in 1914, 1915, and 1918. Martin continued employment with the Bureau until May 1920, and during this interval served it at Galveston, Fort Worth, Dallas, Washington (D. C.), and from November 1917 to May 1920 at Columbus, Ohio. He resigned from Howard H. Martin (1889–1944) and John Whitaker Crain (1887–1953) 325 the Bureau in May 1920. Martin’s career change may have been due to the low salary WB employees earned. (This was also Robert Dole’s complaint). The 1930 US Census revealed Martin’s new career; he worked as a Sheriff’s Deputy in Columbus, Ohio’s City Court. He returned to the Bureau in September 1936. From then until his death, of cancer, on July 31, 1944, Martin served as an assistant meteorologist at Kansas City, Missouri.

Meteor Observation Career

Martin’s meteor watches were made from Fort Worth, Texas and were held from mid-1916 until early 1917. In May and June 1916, he corresponded with a US Navy physician to arrange simultaneous observations for that summer. The purpose of such a joint watch was to determine the atmospheric heights of any meteors both observers happened to sketch on star maps. Martin also collaborated with another Weather Bureau observer, John Whitaker Crain, who lived in and observed meteors from Denton, Texas.68 Martin and Crain’s names ﬁrst appeared in print in Monthly Weather Review in July 1916, when they published drawings of a ﬁreball’s twisting train which they saw during a simultaneous meteor watch at sunset on June 28. The two men sketched the train every half-minute for two minutes, as it appeared from their sites at Fort Worth and Denton. Review Editor Cleveland Abbe followed their article with a reprint of an article by C.C. Trowbridge to reinforce the importance to meteorology of meteor train reports.69 Martin’s most ambitious work was done with Crain, when they held coordinated meteor watches during which they hoped to plot the same meteors so that those meteors’ atmospheric heights could be computed. In order to do a competent job, Martin queried Dr. Olivier for instructions about how to improve his plotting procedures. Subsequently, Martin sent Olivier his and Crain’s simultaneous observations made on August 23 and 30 and September 20 and 27, 1916. The AMS Archives contain 30 pages of Olivier’s handwritten computations reducing the men’s 1916 data. For each month’s set of meteors, Olivier had printed the meteors’ starting and end points in right ascension and declination. His results appeared ready to be used in a forthcoming article. But, unfortunately, something

68Martin described Crain as “…a well-educated man and more or less of a student himself.” In another letter, dated March 13, 1917, Martin explained why Crain stopped AMS work; Crain’s work schedule changed so that he was “confined six nights per week, the off night being Sunday.” 69Although Martin suggested simultaneous watches on his own initiative, the June 28 watch with Crain may have been the direct and fortuitous outcome of a memorandum from the Chief of the Weather Bureau issued earlier that same day. The Chief advised Bureau employees, “At the present time the aerological investigations division is most in need of the observation of meteoric trains.” The memorandum specifically requested that “a sketch be made” of any meteor train that was observed. 326 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918 went awry and the habitually careful Olivier lost track of the data sets. Clipped to the computations, in the Archives, was a note in Olivier’s handwriting, dated July 25, 1959, in which he scrawled “1916 Texas/Simultaneous observations for heights. Were they used? If so, where?” A check of Olivier’s publications from 1917 through 1929 by the author failed to find an article analyzing the results of Martin and Crain’s watches. In addition, AMS Meteor Reports for 1959 and 1960 were read to learn if Olivier had made a belated report of the meteor heights. Once again, no such reports were made in those years either. The two Texans’ simultaneous meteor observations and Olivier’s work never appeared in print. Unfortunately, that is where Martin and Crain’s meteor careers ended: their names do not appear in AMS reports after 1917. Despite their own disappointment, Martin and Crain lived long enough to see other northeast Texans become prominent meteor observers during the 1930s. Olivier was to call this next group of meteor enthusiasts the “Texas Observers” and he devoted many Meteor Notes’ pages to the results of their exploits.

J.M.T. Partello

1854–1934 Membership years: 1915–1917, 1920 and 192170

Joseph McDowell Trimble Partello was a colorful figure from the US’ frontier days when the country was intent on following its “Manifest Destiny” to acquire land occupied by Native Americans and to place them on reservations to prevent their reprisals against settlers. He joined the US Army as an 18-year-old in 1872 and served in Montana during the waning phases of conflict with the Sioux in the early 1880s. From 1888 to 1890, he served near the Mexican frontier at Fort Davis, which years later became the site of McDonald Observatory in west Texas. Joseph Partello’s Army career began with a six-year period, 1872–1878, in which an official record records him as being a Private and ending as a sergeant in “general service,” unattached to a specific command. Much of this historical interval included skirmishes and major battles with Great Plains Indians and it included the massacre of George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry at Little Big Horn in 1876, but the record is too vague to recount exactly what Partello’s roles were. As a second lieutenant in the Fifth Infantry, in September 1879, his career record was more explicitly recorded. The Fifth Infantry was heavily involved in conflicts with the Sioux Indians and in mid-1881 it triumphed when Sitting Bull, a Sioux tribal chief, surrendered. From 1876 to 1888, the Fifth was posted to Fort Keogh, which it built on the Tongue River in Montana. Undoubtedly, Lieutenant Partello

70See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. J.M.T. Partello 327 took part in many of these late-phase pursuits and skirmishes with the Sioux, but the author does not know the specifics. However, after Sitting Bull’s surrender, the most intense conflicts ended. A number of stories about Partello’s exploits were found three years ago but they could not be confirmed at this writing in May 2016. Because those accounts were newspaper stories or found on currently unavailable Web sites, the stories have to be regarded with skepticism. The author was not able to find information about Joseph Partello’s military career after 1903. However, during his years as an AMS member, he was identified as a Colonel and he presumably was promoted to that rank sometime before his membership began. The reader will no doubt have observed that Partello was inactive with the AMS from 1918–1919, a period when he may have been called back to active duty during the United States’ participation in World War 1. A New York Times obituary reported that Partello was married and had a daughter and two sons who both served as officers in the armed services.

Meteor Career

A letter from Colonel Partello to Dr. Olivier bears witness to the fact that the two men were acquainted, and Partello had visited the Olivier family in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Colonel closed the letter, written in mid-1921, with “best of all wishes to the dear little family,” which then consisted of Olivier, his wife, and a daughter. Partello also asked that his best wishes go “especially to Mr. Olivier, Sr,” Dr. Olivier’s father, George Wythe Olivier (1842–1923) who was a Confederate Army veteran.71 In the same letter, Partello mentioned that he had been a meteor observer as early as 1899. He was apparently asked by Olivier to share details of an observation he made from Cuba in 1899. It is unclear which shower the Colonel observed but it may well have been the infamous 1899 Leonids which failed to storm contrary to the prediction of many newspapers. Partello wrote that he did not remember a bright moon that night but admitted it must have been present because Olivier quoted almanac data and cited his own memory of the shower that contradicted Partello’s. Colonel Partello was in his sixties when he observed meteors for the American Meteor Society. He began in November 1915 and stood one early evening watch almost every month until November 1917. During this pre-World War 1 period, he accumulated 33.38 h’s observing time and tallied 147 meteor plots. After the war, 1920–1921, he concentrated upon the Perseid shower and watched for 12.52 h and recorded 63 meteors.

71This letter was stored in the AMS Archives storage box labeled “1920s” in an envelope Olivier had marked “old personal letters of real value.” 328 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918

Fig. 6 This image of J.L. Peters was taken from a group photograph of attendees at the AAVSO’s Ninth Annual Meeting on November 6, 1920, which was held at Harvard College Observatory. Peters was 17 years of age at the time. Many of Dr. Olivier’s earliest observers were approximately Peters’ age when they drew meteor plots for the AMS. Source Popular Astronomy, volume 28, 1920, pp. 622–623. Image courtesy of Carleton College Archives

J.L. Peters

(1903–1988) Membership years: 1917–1922 and 1924 (Fig. 6)

John Lovett Peters, even at age 14, knew when the best time was to watch particular meteor showers. Whereas other AMS members merely chose a convenient time to watch, usually the early evening, Peters knew that the Delta Aquarid, Orionid, and Leonid showers produced more meteors per hour if they were monitored after midnight when the radiants were higher in the sky. His American Meteor Society (AMS) observation record reveals a clear preference for post-midnight watches in July, early August, October, and November when the aforementioned showers occur. He was particularly interested in July’s Delta Aquarids because he monitored them from 1919 to 1922 and again in 1924. When Dr. Olivier wrote his analysis of the Perseid radiant’s motion in 1921, he mentioned,

J.L. Peters…observed on July 31, plotting 50 meteors. On August 3 he saw 63, plotting 45. While most of these were Aquarids…a few were Perseids. Fair radiants were obtained from four or ﬁve Perseids on each night. Olivier mentioned Peters’ penchant for Aquarids again, “In 1924…the full moon was on August 14, thus making conditions rather unfavorable…however…on July 27, J.L. Peters… (was) observing for Aquarids…” In the same 1929 monograph that contained the last two quotes, Olivier listed 10 radiants that he had been able to determine because of Peters’ plots. John L. Peters’ meteor work was done while he lived with his family in Holliston, Massachusetts. In addition to meteor plots, Peters mailed Olivier details J.L. Peters 329 of two brilliant ﬁreballs he saw in 1918. Both bolides produced sounds, Peters reported. Peters’ work totals for his years in the AMS were 425 meteors seen during 58.53 h of watches. During his years with the AMS, he estimated variable stars’ magnitudes for the AAVSO in 1920 and 1921. By 1930, Peters was married and he listed his occupation as “engineer” in that year and again in 1940. It appears that his technical work was for the communication industry: for radio in 1930 and television in 1940. Peters died in Tom Green County, Texas in 1988.

T.K. Tomkins

(1881–1978) Membership years: 1917, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1930–1933, 1935, and 1937 72

Thomas Kitchenman Tomkins lived all of his 97 years in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the sixth of seven children born to Eleanor and Charles S. Tomkins. His father had been a blacksmith for a Pennsylvania Civil War cavalry regiment. Thomas became interested in art and design and worked as a commercial designer during the decades he was an American Meteor Society (AMS) member. Married at age 25, he and his wife Mabel had one daughter. Tomkins’ AMS career was remarkable because it spanned twenty years, although he was an active observer only half that number. He began meteor watches at age 35 and his record in Dr. Olivier’s 1920 and 1929 monographs indicates that he preferred plotting meteors of two showers that occurred in the warmer months, the April Lyrids, and August Perseids. Dr. Olivier cited his diligence when Tomkins plotted Perseids despite 1924s full moon. The plots Tomkins drew were useful in locating radiant points for Lyrids (1917 and 1920) and Perseids (1917 and 1924). Tomkins’ meteor totals for the years 1917, 1920, 1922, and 1924 were 88 meteors plotted during 17.66 h. Mr. Tomkins returned to the AMS in 1930, after a six-year hiatus. He likely did so because the Leonid meteors were predicted to return in very high numbers in the early 1930s. This motivation explains his participation in 1930–1933, but not 1935 and 1937. Nevertheless, Tomkins observed more nights each of the years in the 1930s than he did earlier in 1917 and the 1920s. Dr. Olivier used different metrics to report on observers’ activity in the 1930s: the number of nights an observer worked and the number of meteors (s)he saw during the year. Tomkins averaged 2.25 nights per year, 1917–1924, but during the 1930s, the average number of nights he worked was 6.33. The total number of meteors he plotted, 1930–1937, was 410.

72See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 330 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918 References

N.P. Ball

Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1919, Popular Astronomy, volume 28, 1920, p. 153 Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1920 and 1921, Popular Astronomy, volume 30, 1922, p. 153 Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, volume 37, 1929, p. 245 Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society for 1919–1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 5, Part 1, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1929 and 1935, especially, pp. 5-42

Grace H. (Bingham) Bessey

Journals Bingham, G., A Digger Indian Burning, in James H. and Ben J. Worman, Editors, Outing, an Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Sport, Travel and Recreation, Volume 35, Oct 1899-March 1900, New York and London: Outing Publishing Company, 1900; pp. 290-292. Archival records American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives Letter from Grace H. Bessey to C. Olivier, postmarked April 13, 1917

Donald Brooks

Reference book Olivier, C., Meteors, Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1925, pp. 156-164 Journals Brooks, D., Psychometric Charts, US Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Standards by the U.S. Government Printing Ofﬁce, Washington, D.C., 1934, pp.3 plus charts Brooks, D. and R. Streets, Automotive Antifreezes, US Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Standards by the U.S. Government Printing Ofﬁce, Washington, D.C., 1948, 16pp. with illustrations. Olivier, Charles P., 349 Parabolic Orbits, Report of the AMS for 1914-1918, Publication of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, 1920 and 1921, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; pp. 205 and 226-238 Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1920 and 1921, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 30, 1922, p.153-155.

F.J. Carr

Journals Annual Report of the AAVSO (ARAAVSO) for 1919-1920, PA, Volume 28, 1920, p.555 ARAAVSO for 1920-1921, PA, Volume 29, 1921, p.590 ARAAVSO for 1921-1922, PA, volume 30, 1922, p.582 F.J. Carr 331

ARAAVSO, 1922-1923, PA Volume 31, 1923, p.617 ARAAVSO, 1923-1924, PA Volume 32, 1924, p.656 ARAAVSO, 1927, PA, volume 35, 1927, pp.584-585 Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, Part 7, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1920 Olivier, Charles P., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 35, 1927, p. 473 Olivier, Charles P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 36, 1928, p. 64 Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society for 1919-1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 5, Part 1, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1929

Robert M. Dole

Reference Books Kelley, Nicholas, Harvard College Class of 1906, Secretary’s Second Report, June 1912; Cambridge, MA: Crimson Publishing Co.; 1912; pp. 82 and 101 Starr, H., Nathan Haskell Dole, in Dictionary of American Biography, volume 11, Supplement 1, New York: American Council of Learned Societies, 1944, pp.255-256 Ofﬁcial records 1910 United States Census, April 21, 1910, for the household of Nathan Haskell Dole, at 91 Glen Road Robert M. Dole, Service Completed, Weather Bureau Topics 1946-1949, p. 276; http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/wb_topicsandpersonnel/1948.pdf Accessed 5/26/16. Journals Abbe, C., The Opportunities of the Weather Service, Monthly Weather Review, Volume 34, March 1906, pp. 120-121 Campbell, L., Observations of 328 Variable Stars of Long Period, Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, Volume 63-Part I; Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Observatory, 1912, p. 2. Dole, R., The Andromedes, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 8, 1900, pp. 51-52 Olivier, CP, Observations of the Perseids, 1901, PA, volume 9, 1901, 525-526 Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1919-1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 5, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA, 1929 and 1935, p. 39 Newspapers Death Notice, Mrs. Caroline Fletcher Dole, New York Times, September 25, 1914, p. 11 Obituary Editor, Mrs. Nathan Dole, Book Translator, New York Times, June 10, 1944 Obituary Editor, James Dole Dies, ‘Pineapple King’, New York Times, May 16, 1958, p. 25 Obituary Editor, Services Monday for Robert Dole, Ex-Weatherman, Portland Press Herald, May 8, 1966 Pray, Waldo; Weatherman Robert Dole Dead at 82; Portland Express, (Portland, Maine), May 7, 1966 Archival records American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives Letters from Robert M. Dole to C. Olivier, dated, 1921, May 15 and August 31; 1922, July 30 and October 30; 1923, May 1, October 24, and November 20; 332 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918

1924, October 27 and December 9; 1927, October 25 and December 25; 1937, March 5 H.I. Johnson

Journals Olivier, Charles P., 349 Parabolic Orbits, Report of the AMS for 1914-1918, Publication of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, 1921, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; pp. 226-238 Ofﬁcial documents Social Security Death Index United States Censuses for 1900-1940 Archival records American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives Two letters from H.I. Johnson to C. Olivier, dated 1916 and 1917 Online archives Ancestry.com databases Harold Irwin Johnson World War 1 Draft Registration cards (1917-1918) Montana Death Index 1954-2002

John Koep (1898–1949) and Philip Trudelle (1897–1966)

Journals Koep, J., Meteor Observations from January to June 1916, Popular Astronomy, Volume 24, 1916, p.468 Olivier, C., Harvard College Observatory Bulletin 614, August 3, 1916 Olivier, C., Monthly Notices Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 77, 1916, pp. 71-75 Olivier, C., Exploring the skies for the remains of extinct comets. Scientiﬁc American, Volume 117, September 22, 1917, pp. 210-211 Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits, Report of the American Meteor Society for 1914-1918, Publication of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA, 1920 Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1920 and 1921, Popular Astronomy, volume 30, 1922, p.154. Olivier, Charles P., Report of the AMS for 1919-1925, Publications of the L. McCormick Observatory, Volume 5, 1929 Ofﬁcial Records United States Censuses for 1930 and 1940 The University of Virginia Record, Holders of Scholarships and Fellowships, February 1, 1921, p. 81 Archival records American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives Letters from John Koep to C. Olivier, dated, January 6 and 31, 1916, and April 5, 1917 Chippewa County Genealogical Society, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin John Koep (1898–1949) and Philip Trudelle (1897–1966) 333

Newspapers Obituary Editor, Philip Trudelle, Chippewa Herald-Telegram, dated January 26, 1966 Online archives Ancestry.com databases John Koep Philip Trudelle US World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 World War 1 Draft Registration Cards

G.F. Kronenberger (1885–1926), R. Lambert, and W. Pattison

Journal Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits, Report of the American Meteor Society for 1914-1918, Publication of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, 1920, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; pp. 229-239 Online archives Ancestry.com databases 1910 United States Census 1915 New York State Census 1920 United States Census George Francis Kronenberger Historical Newspapers Walter Pattison William Raymond Lambert World War 1 Draft Registration Cards

Lincoln Lapaz

Book Norton, O., Rocks from Space, Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press, 1994, pp.32-33 Journals Keil, K. and W. Cassidy, Memorial for Lincoln LaPaz, Meteoritics, Volume 23, 1988, p.386 LaPaz, L., A Durimeter for Meteor Observations, Popular Astronomy, Volume 24, 1916, pp.374-376 LaPaz, L., The Meteoritical Society, Meteoritics, Volume 1, 1953, p. 89 Leonard, F., Society for Research on Meteorites, Popular Astronomy, Volume 41, 1933, p. 216 Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits, Report of the American Meteor Society (AMS) for 1914-1918, Publication of the Leander McCormick Observatory, volume 2, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA, 1920, Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1919-1925, Publications of the L. McCormick Observatory, volume 5, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA, 1929 Archival records American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives AMS Bulletin No. 6, circa 1916 334 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918

Online archives Ancestry.com database about Lincoln LaPaz Institute of Meteoritics History, http://meteorite.unm.edu/iom-history/ This University of New Mexico website was accessed on 5/27/16.

Howard H. Martin (1889–1944) and John Whitaker Crain (1887–1953)

Journals Martin, H., Meteor of June 28, 1916, Monthly Weather Review, Volume 44, July 1916, pp. 323-324. Olivier, C., American Meteor Society in 1916, Popular Astronomy (PA), Volume 25, 1917, pp. 164-165 Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1917, PA, volume 26, 1918, p. 190 Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits, Report of the American Meteor Society (AMS) for 1914-1918, Publication of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, 1920, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; pp. 237–239 Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1920 and 1921, Popular Astronomy, volume 30, 1922, p. 154 Olivier, Charles P., Report of the AMS for 1919–1925, Publications of the L. McCormick Observatory, Volume 5, 1929 Archival records American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives Letters from Howard H. Martin (HHM) to J.B. Bostick, M.D., U.S.N. dated May 8 and June 6, 1916 Letters from HHM to C. Olivier, dated September and October 1916, January 29, 1917, and March 13, 1917 Online Archives Ancestry.com databases: 1930 United States Census for Columbus, Ohio Howard H. Martin J.W. Crain National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Central Library: Mr. Howard H. Martin, Weather Bureau Topics and Personnel, September 1944, reproduced online as ‘NOAA History-Proﬁles in Time, National Weather Service Biographies-Page 48’.It was accessed on 5/27/16 at: http://www.history.noaa.gov/nwsbios/nwsbios_page48.html

J.M.T. Partello

Dissertation Warhank, Josef James; Fort Keogh: Cutting Edge of a Culture, Thesis in partial fulﬁllment of requirements for M.A. degree; Long Beach, California: Department of History, California State University, Long Beach. 1983, pp. 24-25 Ofﬁcial records 57th Congress, 2nd Session, House of Representatives, Document no. 446; J.M.T. Partello 335

Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, from its organization Sept 29, 1789 to March 2, 1903; Volume 1, Washington, D.C: Government Printing Ofﬁce, 1903, p. 773; Francis B. Heitman, Compiler. Additional bibliographical data: US Congressional serial set, Issue 4535 Archival records American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives Letter from Colonel Partello to C. Olivier, dated June 30, 1921 Newspapers Obituary editor, ‘Col. J.M. Partello, crack shot, dead,’ The New York Times, August 15, 1934. Online Archives Ancestry.com databases for, Joseph McDowell Trimble Partello U.S. Veterans’ Gravesites

J.L. Peters

Journals Eaton, H., Annual Report of the AAVSO (ARAAVSO) for 1919-1920, PA, Volume 28, 1920, p.555 Eaton, H., ARAAVSO for 1921-1922, PA, volume 30, 1922, p.582 Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits, Report of the American Meteor Society (AMS) for 1914-1918, Publication of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, 1920, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; pp. 237-239. Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1919-1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 5, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; 1929, pp. 18, 23-24, 32 and 34 Walker, A., ARAAVSO for 1920-1921, PA, Volume 29, 1921, pp.590-591 Archival records American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives Letters from John L. Peters to C. Olivier, dated August 1 and October 2, 1918 Online Archives Ancestry.com databases: 1930 United States Census 1940 United States Census Eddy Family’s Tree John L. Peters Social Security Death Index Texas Death Index, 1903-2000

T.K. Tomkins

Journals Olivier, C., 349 Parabolic Orbits, Report of the American Meteor Society (AMS) for 1914-1918, Publication of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; 1920, pp. 236-238 336 Associated or Enrolled 1900–1918

Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1919-1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 5, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA, 1929, pp. 8-17 Online archives Ancestry.com databases for: Charles S. Tomkins, father of T.K. Tomkins Social Security Death Index re: T.K. Tomkins Thomas Kitchenman Tomkins Enrolled 1919–1929

Vincent Anyzeski

(1911–1995)1 Membership years: 1927–1930, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1942, 1946–492

Vincent Joseph Anyzeski brought meteor study back to New Haven, Connecticut where the serious study of meteors began in the USA in 1833. Sixteen-year-old Vincent resumed the work of a famous New Haven amateur, Edward Herrick, and Yale professors Olmstead, Newton, and Twining and dozens of their students during the nineteenth century. Vincent finished high school and began work as a mason, working with his father Joseph, an immigrant from Poland.3 He was still practicing this trade when he enlisted in the US Army just after his 31st birthday in April 1942.4 Anyzeski served as a warrant officer, and after the war he returned to meteor observing in the late 1940s. In the postwar years, he married; the couple had two sons; and Anyzeski finished his employment career as an electrical technician for Sikorski Aircraft, which manufactured helicopters.5 Vincent Anyzeski’s AMS membership began in 1927, the same year that Olivier began to publish a Meteor Note in each month’s Popular Astronomy issue; perhaps Olivier’s frequent discussions about the Society and its results influenced the 16-year-old to take up meteor astronomy. Anyzeski’s most productive year was in

1Ancestry.com database for Vincent Anyzeski. 2See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. An exception is for 1947: Volume 56, 1948, report on Geminids, p. 154. 31940 US Census for Joseph Anyzeski: Ancestry.com. 4US Army World War II Enlistment Records, 1938–1946: Ancestry.com about Vincent J. Anyzeski. 5Death Notice in New Haven Register, Friday December 1, 1995: Vincent Anyzeski. And, Connecticut Death Index, 1949–2001, an Ancestry.com database, about Vincent Anyzeski.

1937 when he plotted a total of 862 meteors on 25 nights.6 Before World War II broke out, Dr. Olivier appointed Anyzeski as the Regional Director for the New England states in recognition of his work; he was reappointed to this role following the war, in 1946.7 Anyzeski’s enthusiasm for meteor work prompted him to write four articles about it in Popular Astronomy numbers for 1946 and 1948. In one, The Amateur Astronomer and Meteoritics, he repeated Dr. Olivier’s often-stated goals for meteor workers; Anyzeski cited, ﬁreballs, meteor trains, and telescopic meteors as particularly attractive pursuits for other amateurs. Anyzeski recommended cooperative meteor plotting with other observers. “Several years ago our New Haven group (plotted meteors) with Vassar, Mt. Holyoke, and Smith Colleges…for heights during showers. These observations were…published,” he noted. He reported, “Although naked-eye observing is highly important we should not be satisﬁed with such work alone. I have made it a point never to observe without binoculars and a camera handy…binocular observations with possibly a photo make an observation of far greater value.”8 Vincent Anyzeski’s career meteor totals as noted in Popular Astronomy was 2375 meteors plotted on 107 nights, 1927–1949. Mr. Anyzeski published a brief, late-life memoir, in 1990, in which he recalled,

I have many happy memories of meteor observing with the New Haven Astronomical Society…I am a charter member since 1937…I had been observing and plotting (meteors) long before (joining the AMS in 1928.) I have been inactive in astronomy since the mid-1950s, but lately have been experimenting with radio detection of meteors, especially daylight observations.” He closed the memoir by adding he was “amateur radio operator KA1 LSX.9

F.L. Bradley10

(1909–?) Membership years: 1925–1927

Fred Bradley is the 15-year-old who ﬁrst noticed the Alpha Monocerotid meteor outburst on November 20, 1925. He happened to be watching the eastern sky at 11 p. m. Eastern Standard Time and for the next 15 min he was startled to see but had the presence of mind to count 37 meteors radiating from a region near southern Orion.

6Meteor Notes, PA, volume 46, 1938, p. 155. 7Meteor Notes, PA, volume 55, 1955, 1947, pp. 35–36. 8Anyzeski, The Amateur Astronomer and Meteoritics, in PA, volume 56, 1948, pp. 332–333. 9(an) “Observer Reminisces,” in Meteor News, No. 90, July 1990, p. 5. 10Fred Bradley, who was enumerated in the 1920 United States Census, is the author’s best guess to be the “F.T. Bradley” credited with reporting the 1925 outburst of Monocerotids. Dr. Olivier reported “F.T. Bradley’s” address to be Crozet and Staunton, VA but it is Fred Bradley, son of George W. Bradley, who shared the Staunton address with “F.T.” Fred is also the Bradley in the 1926 and 1927 annual reports. F.L. Bradley 339

But when he gathered his wits and rushed to get star maps the flurry of activity was over at 11:25 p.m. Bradley’s report, and confirmation from Dr. Olivier and some University of Virginia (UVA) students who also happened to witness part of the display, served to alert meteor watchers to expect more outbursts in the future. This shower appears to have a 10-year periodicity and was again noticed in 1935, 1985, and 1995. Bradley’s experience suggests that any meteor observer can witness surprising and unexpected phenomena and should have meteor maps available for plotting to make a more permanent record. Young Bradley filed AMS reports in 1926, from University, Virginia (a now-obsolete post office for UVA) and in 1927, from Staunton, VA. The 1927 watch was a cooperative one with Dr. Olivier, who watched from McCormick Observatory; the two hoped to plot the same meteors and be able to compute their atmospheric altitude. Summary totals for his meteor career, 1925–1927 are five nights of watches and a total of 186 meteors.

Robert Brown

1909–199311 Membership years: 1928–193012

Robert Garland Brown was one of the amateur astronomers who founded the Texas Observers. These young men were an informal group which had no organizational hierarchy but who were enthusiastic about practicing observational astronomy. Oscar Monnig, one of the Observers wrote about Brown,

(Mr.) Brown…helped Mr. (Sterling) Bunch during the night of our triple observations on the Perseids, and Mr. Brown plotted a few meteors that night. He has a working knowledge of the constellations, and Mr. Bunch tells me he was very painstaking about plotting the paths, since he understood we might try to use them in real heights calculations. Brown tried to plot some of the brighter Perseids that Bunch missed. A 1984 interview with Brown suggested that he became more interested in meteorite searches and retrieval during the 1930s. He used his skills as a surveyor, as well as insightful ﬁreball-witness interviewing skills to locate meteorites in Depression-era Texas.13 During Brown’s three years of meteor contributions to the AMS, he reported on 347 meteors during 18 watches.

11Ancestry.com’s database for Robert Garland Brown, 1909–1993 and Social Security Death Index for Robert G. Brown. An interview with Mr. Brown, in Meteor News that identified him as a surveyor, born about 1909, was crucial to sort through all the “Robert Browns” in Ancestry.com to find the correct man. 12See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 13Oscar Monnig reported that the Texas Observers donated all of their meteorite finds to Texas Christian University. 340 Enrolled 1919–1929

Robert G. Brown married about 1949 and he and his wife had three children during the early 1950s.14

Sterling (1901–1945)15 and Mildred (1906–?) Bunch16

The Bunches’ membership years, singly or together, were: 1919, 1924, 1925, 1927–1930, 1933, 1934, and 193617 A century ago, people commented on young people they knew who seemed born with “old souls,” meaning youths who expressed wisdom and insights more expected of sages. Sterling Bunch was a prodigy of that sort. His writings, in Popular Astronomy and the Weather Bureau’s Monthly Weather Review revealed him to be a mystic, a poet, and yet a versatile astronomer, a mechanical improviser, a meteorologist, and a speculator about how what we now call “electrophonic” meteor sounds could be detected using radio equipment available in the 1930s.18 James E. Clarke (1880–?)19, a Nashville Tennessee minister who Bunch corresponded with throughout his life, commented on Bunch’s character and what conditions may have formed it,

When just…eight years old (Bunch) wrote a little article for the “Children’sPage” of the weekly religious paper I edited. It was so exceptional for one so young…His opportunities were very limited in boyhood and he worked hard, but in all this he developed the qualities of idealism, fidelity, and perseverance which manifested themselves all through his life and held the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. Sometimes…what we call “disadvantages” seem to count more in high and fine development than all of the aid which can be given.20 Clarke’s character description seems apt because an early document suggests that his traits of hard work and family fidelity were being tested. Eighteen-year-old Sterling was a farm laborer, near Weatherford, Texas, and he apparently was sole support for his widowed mother and grandmother.21 At the age of 21, he published “Hope,” his first poem in Popular Astronomy. It was a poetic memoir reflecting physical and family demands upon him.

14Ancestry.com’s database for Robert Garland Brown, 1909–1993 as provided in the Duncan Family Tree. 15From page 496 of August 1945 issue of Weather Bureau periodical Weather Bureau Topics and Personnel http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/wb_topicsandpersonnel/1945.pdf Accessed on 5/25/16. 161930 US Census for Sterling Bunch, Knoxville, TN: Ancestry.com database for Sterling Bunch. 17See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate their contributions. 18Entering Bunch’s name in the SAO-NASA ADS Web site’s search engine brings up a page and a half of articles Bunch wrote: http://www.adsabs.harvard.edu/ The various topics about which he wrote illustrates this point. The list of his articles, on the site, was accessed 5/24/16. 19Ancestry.com database: James Clarke, Covington, TN in 1930 US. Census 20Clarke, James E., Sterling Bunch, an appreciation; Popular Astronomy (PA), Volume 53, 1945, pp. 474–475. 21Ancestry.com database about Sterling Bunch: 1920 US Census for Parker County Texas. Sterling (1901–1945) and Mildred (1906–?) Bunch 341

Cheer up, ye men who are weary of life, /Look up to the skies above,/Through the wid’ning rifts in the clouds of strife/Still twinkle the stars of love Despite the exigencies of providing for his family, Bunch found energy to study astronomy. These lines from another poem, written in 1926, suggest that he began sky studies very early in life,

In starry skies, long years ago/I found my Science. Heart aglow/I watched each night unfold a maze/of mystic suns and worlds ablaze/That spoke: ‘Know us and wiser grow.’ So, by his adolescence, Sterling was already an alert meteor reporter. In 1918, at the age of 17, he shared a chance observation of three brilliant meteors one early August evening. The teen reported the lengths of meteors’ paths in degrees of arc, the location of their paths between bright stars and each one’s brightness. By the end of 1919, Bunch sent Dr. Olivier his ﬁrst AMS reports on four early evenings’ watches from late November to mid-December. His 1919 watch totals were 4.3 h and 42 meteors described. Despite this promising start, Bunch did not report another meteor watch until 1924. Instead, Bunch used a four-inch (10 cm) refractor to observe the brightness of variable stars and report his results to the AAVSO, and he did so during many of the years his name was absent from AMS annual reports.22 Bunch was like many other enthusiastic amateur astronomers who spread their energies among a number of astronomical objects. Although variable stars were a distraction from meteors, his marriage also made claims on his time. In 1921, he married Mildred, who was 15 years old at the time of their union.23 So, Mildred’s 20-year-old husband suddenly had more immediate, earthly problems to solve and meteor astronomy may have had to take a “backseat” to the new star in his life. By early 1927, Bunch reported the formation of the Fort Worth Astronomical and Physical Society which he had helped found. It was group of amateur astronomers and scientists in metropolitan Ft. Worth, Texas. Bunch was very active in teaching an observational astronomy class “with an enrollment of 30 students-high school students (and) professors, and even a few society matrons.” His course was composed of ten lessons with exercises drawn from professional astronomers’ texts and using his telescope for visual demonstrations. The same year, Oscar E. Monnig joined Bunch for an introductory lesson in meteor plotting. In addition to teaching the practical astronomy course, Bunch entertained neighbors, “anywhere from 10 to 100 people every clear evening on (Bunch’s) lawn with the four-inch telescope.” In early 1928, Bunch and Monnig networked with a group of four other amateurs living in the Ft. Worth–Dallas area and established an active observational group that Charles Olivier dubbed “the Texas Observers.” During the years of their

22Compared with his early AMS reporting, Sterling Bunch was a more frequent contributor to the AAVSO during the years 1919–1922, 1925, and 1928. 231930 US Census for Sterling and Mildred Bunch in Knoxville, TN: Ancestry.com 342 Enrolled 1919–1929 existence, the Observers monitored variable stars; they performed many cooperative meteor watches, some with goals of measuring meteors’ heights in the atmosphere; and they also mounted photographic patrols of the night sky, including successful capture of three meteor spectra in 1932–1933. Sterling’s enthusiasm for meteor watches was contagious and his wife became “infected.” Mildred became an AMS member and contributed reports in 1928, 1930, and 1933, the year predicted to have a Leonid meteor storm, and the year after 1934. In August 1929, Bunch joined the Weather Bureau and after being assigned as an observer to Knoxville, TN, Dr. Olivier appointed him a regional director of the AMS for Tennessee and Kentucky. His Bureau career resulted in several transfers, to Oklahoma City, San Antonio, and Brownsville, as well as Laredo and Tyler, Texas, and on May 1, 1944, he was transferred to the Regional Ofﬁce at Fort Worth. These many career-related transfers likely disrupted Bunch’s astronomical studies. It was while Bunch served at the last posting, Fort Worth, that he died, at the age of 44, on July 28, 1945. Mildred Bunch reported to the AMS during the period 1928–1934. She watched a total of seven nights and counted 224 meteors and plotted an additional 14, for a total of 238. Sterling watched a total of 87 nights during his AMS career 1919–1936. He plotted 1048 meteors and counted an additional 1021 for a grand total of 2069.

J.J. Conboy, Jr.24

(1913–2007)25 Membership years: 1928, 1929, 193126

John Joseph Conboy’s pattern of AMS contributions suggests that he joined the AMS in response to Dr. Olivier’s monthly Meteor Notes in PA, and he continued participation while he was a teen living at home. When he entered college, in 193227, he ceased watching meteors; this was to become a frequent theme about young members which Dr. Olivier commented upon and lamented. Ofﬁcial records report that Conboy earned a master’s degree and was employed as a chemist in an Ohio hospital’s lab and as a university chemistry instructor in Oklahoma and Ohio.28 He was reported never to have married.

24Ohio Deaths, 1938–2007: John J. Conboy, Jr; Ancestry.com database for John J. Conboy. 25Social Security Death Index and Ohio Deaths, 1938–2007, in re: John J. Conboy, Jr. Both sources: Ancestry.com database for John J. Conboy 26See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 271932 Street directory in Ancestry.com database listed him as a college student. 28Three sources provided this information: Ancestry.com’s Ohio Deaths, 1938–2007 database: John J. Conboy, Jr.; 1940 US Census and Columbus Dispatch, May 1, 2007 obituary. J.J. Conboy, Jr. 343

During the three years, he reported about meteor watches, ages 14–17, Conboy worked on 15 nights and counted 227 meteors.

B.C. Darling

(1911–1996)29 Membership years: 1929–193330

Eighteen-year-old Birt Culver Darling31 began his AMS career with an impressive burst of energy, so much so that Dr. Olivier acknowledged the ﬁrst year, Michigan-based, contributor in the AMS’ 1929 annual report,

(One) of the outstanding features for 1929 are as follows…the enviable record made by our new member B.C. Darling, who observed on 120 nights. Only a person who has himself been an observer can appreciate the energy and perseverance required to work so often, frequently when meteors were very scarce.32 Olivier acknowledged Darling again the following year after Darling observed 855 meteors on 94 nights in 1930.33 But after these two phenomenal years, his productivity dropped off to 48 nights in 1931 and even lower numbers in 1932 and 1933. Darling’s observations dwindled for the same reason as did many a young observer’s: they began employment. Darling aspired to a career as a news reporter and assignments interfered with and ultimately ended his meteor career. Darling’s first big news feature was about a hotel fire on December 11, 1934, when he was 23. The article included his photograph of a building engulfed in fire and earned him considerable acclaim.34 Lansing Michigan directories throughout the 1940s indicated he remained a newspaper reporter that decade, but those in the 1950s and 1960s described him as a historian. Darling married sometime between 1940 and 1946.35 He died in Florida in 1996 at 85 years of age.36

29Social Security Death Index. 30See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 31Darling’s full name found in Ancestry.com database about him. 32Olivier, Meteor Notes, PA, volume 38, 1930, p. 175. 33Olivier, MN, PA: vol 39, 1931, p. 150. 34Lansing State Journal, Kearns Hotel Fire, December 11, 1934. Photograph by Darling found in Ancestry.com database about Darling. 35Biographical information about Darling in the 1940s and 1950s was gleaned from Lansing Michigan directories contained in Ancestry.com’s database about Birt C. Darling. 36Florida Death Index, 1877–1998 in Ancestry.com. 344 Enrolled 1919–1929

Birt C. Darling’s meteor career totals were 270 watches between 1929 and 1933 resulting in 2244 meteor observations, including 926 meteor plots in 1929.

Mrs. W.H. Edwards

(1889–after 1953)37 Membership years: 1928 and 1930–193238

Helen McC. Edwards39 performed her meteor watches from Fairhope, Alabama where she and her husband, Willard Hemenway Edwards, taught at a private school.40 This is the same city in which Grace (Bingham) Bessey41 taught at Fairhope’s School of Organic Education. Unfortunately, it was not possible to identify the school’s name where the Edwards taught, merely a tantalizing possibility they were at the “Organic School” too and that Bessey’sinﬂuence lingered and persuaded Helen Edwards to watch for meteors during the epoch when the Leonid meteor storm was predicted to return. In fact, she made a point of observing the returning Leonids one night in 1931 and she saw 23 on that occasion. Helen Edwards was alone for most of the watches she conducted but was in at least one group watch in 1932. Her meteor career totals for 1928–1932 were 9 nights of watches. During individual observation sessions, she counted 715 meteors and another 661 in group watches. During an hour and a half session on November 14, 1928 she saw 43 Leonid meteors including 2 ﬁreballs.42 Helen married Willard Edwards when she was 25 years old. The couple had a son and adopted two children, a girl and a boy.43 The Edwardses were living in Manhattan, New York when Willard died in 1953. Helen was buried in the same Farmingdale, New York Veterans’ Cemetery where he was interred.44

37Birthdate estimated from reported age of 41 on 1930 USC: Ancestry.com database for Helen Mc C. Edwards. She thrived until 1953 at least. It was the date of her husband’s interment in a Long Island NY Veteran’s Cemetery; Source: the US National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928–1962 for Willard Hemenway Edwards in Ancestry.com. 38See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate her contributions. 39Her given name and middle initial are from 1930 US Census. 401930 US Census and AMS Bulletins 10, 11, 14 and 15 (1929–1934). 41See Mrs. Bessey’s biography in Sect. 10, ASSOCIATED OR ENROLLED 1900–1918. 42Olivier, CP, Meteor Notes, PA, volume 37, 1929, p. 54. 431930 US Census for Helen McC Edwards, Fairhope, AL: Ancestry.com database. 44Source: US National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928–1962 for Willard Hemenway Edwards in Ancestry.com. C.B. Ford 345 C.B. Ford

(1913–1992)45 Membership years: 1928–1931, 193446

If any astronomer is asked which organization Clinton Banker Ford’s name is associated with, they would quickly reply “the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)!” However, Ford also reported meteor observations to the American Meteor Society (AMS) in the run-up years to the predicted Leonid storm in 1933, as well as in 1934. After 1934, he devoted most of his energies to the AAVSO in many roles: as an observer with more than 60,000 magnitude estimates to his credit, a variable star fields chart-maker, an important figure in the administration of the organization, and its largest financial contributor whose bequest has enabled the AAVSO to be comfortably funded for many years to come. Ford trained to become a professional astronomer at Brown University but the outbreak of World War II and his entry into the US Navy in 1942 put an end to finishing his doctorate. After the war, he became an investor and was so successful that he was able to retire and devote his life to variable stars and the AAVSO. The AMS is grateful to Clinton B. Ford because his bequest to it, for $100,000, allowed the Society to incorporate in 1993 and to fund some research initiatives. Ford’s meteor observation career consisted of a total of 27 nights’ watches and 557 meteors observed. In 1934 he reported the magnitudes of 12 meteors he happened to see while observing variable stars.

A.J. Klapperich

(1909–1961)47 Membership years: 1928–1930 and 193348

Alfred James Klapperich49 was interested in science and who, when he ﬁnished De Paul University,50 became a physicist.51 Judging by his AMS participation years, Klapperich engaged in meteor observations during his college years and because of an interest in the 1930s’ Leonid

45Connecticut Death Index, 1949–2001 about Clinton B. Ford, in Ancestry.com. 46See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 47Web: Illinois, Find a Grave Index, 1809–2012: Ancestry.com. 48See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 491930 US Census (USC) and Cook County, Illinois, Birth Certificates Index 1871–1922: Both sources from Ancestry.com’s database for AJ Klapperich. 50U.S. Schoolbooks about Alfred J. Klapperich: Ancestry.com. 511940 USC for AJ Klapperich in Ancestry.com. 346 Enrolled 1919–1929 returns. In 1933, the year the Leonid storm was predicted, Klapperich devoted three nights to watching for an outburst; unfortunately, the outcome for his effort was only a total of 42 meteors. His total for four years of reports was eight nights of watches and 73 meteors.

A.S. Lawrence

(1906–?) Membership years: 1927–1929 and 193252

Alfred S. Lawrence53 is another AMS member about whom there is little available information aside from his work as an AMS member. He began to report about meteor watches when he was 21 years old, in 1927 and he ended his meteor watching in 1932 after monitoring the skies for two nights and seeing a total of 135 meteors. His meteor career totals for four years, including 1932’s, were 12 nights and 193 meteors. The author has been unable to learn the nature of Lawrence’s adult occupation. The only US Census that unequivocally referenced him was the 1920 one, when he was recorded to be 14 years of age. Whatever his employment was it allowed him enough disposable income to give Dr. Olivier some ﬁnancial support. Olivier gratefully acknowledged Lawrence in a 1928 Meteor Note,

Alfred S. Lawrence has generously had published at his own expense and donated the Society several thousand blank forms for recording meteors, and is now having another set of forms for telescopic meteors as well as membership cards printed which he plans to donate. These…gifts will greatly help our work and are hereby acknowledged with sincere appreciation. Blanks will hereafter be furnished along with the meteor maps.54

J.H. Logan

(1910–1965)55 Membership years: 1927–1930 and 193256

52See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 531920 US Census for Alfred S. Lawrence: Ancestry.com database. Lawrence, 14 years old, was living with father George and mother Maud in 1920. Ancestry.com had no other data about him. 54Olivier, Meteor Notes, PA, volume 36, 1928, p. 134. 551930 US Census provided a birth year for James Logan, living with father William H. in Dallas Texas: Ancestry.com databases for both men. An Ancestry.com database, Web: Texas, Find-a-Grave Index, 1761–2012 (memorial # 27054638) provided Logan’s date of death. The grave marker for “James Harris Logan” which was pictured in the latter source provided Logan’s middle name. 56See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. J.H. Logan 347

James Harris Logan’s name often appeared as a member of the Texas Observers in accounts of their meteor campaigns in the late 1920s. He also devoted time to monitoring variable stars with an 11-inch reﬂecting telescope loaned to him by the American Association of Variable Star Observers in 1927. Logan participated in several cooperative meteor observations with Sterling Bunch, Oscar Monnig, and other Texas Observers. These watches were intended to investigate the accuracy of visual meteor workers’ plotting efforts and also to determine meteors’ heights in the atmosphere. Logan’s meteor watch career totals were 21 nights and 813 meteors reported, including 153 he plotted on AMS maps in 1929. In addition to these, he reported ten meteors’ magnitudes that he observed while monitoring variable stars in 1928. In the fall of 1929, Logan left Dallas, Texas, and entered Columbia University in New York City.57 His last meteor report was about 86 meteors he saw in a New York City group watch in 1932. By 1940, James Logan had returned to Dallas where he lived with his wife Marian, and their four-year-old daughter and three-year-old son. A brief obituary for Logan reported that he had worked for Dun and Bradstreet, a business con- sultancy ﬁrm for 33 years, serving as a manager and sales executive. When he died, he was survived by his children, his mother, and eight grandchildren.

F.F. Marsh

(1905–2010)58 Membership years: 1929–1934 and 193659

Franklin Fremont Marsh was enthusiastic about astronomy and later space ﬂight all his long life. In his twenties and early thirties, he was an AMS and AAVSO member and when NASA was formed, he applied the journalistic skills he developed on a Frederick, Maryland newspaper and became a NASA technical writer. When he retired, he moved to Merritt Island, Florida to be near the NASA launch site at Cape Canaveral. Marsh graduated from college and pursued graduate studies in Spanish at the University of Mexico. He enlisted in the US Army in 1942 and was discharged as a Captain. He married in 1945, and he and his wife had a daughter. During the Leonid watch program in the 1930s, Marsh joined forces with Leah B. Allen, Professor of astronomy at Hood College and both were members of Dr. Olivier’s Pennsylvania regional group to record the hoped-for phenomenon.

57Logan’s return address for the Texas Observers article was “Columbia University, N.Y. City, February 12, 1930.” 58Social Security Death Index and an Ancestry.com database, Web: Maryland Find a Grave Index, 1637–2012, both provided Franklin Fremont Marsh’s vital statistics. The latter database contained an obituary about Franklin Fremont Marsh. 59See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 348 Enrolled 1919–1929

Marsh’s meteor career totals were 25 night watches during which he recorded 502 meteors.

R.A. McIntosh

(1904–1977) Membership years: 1919–1921, 1925–1932, and 1934–193660

Northern hemisphere meteor observers’ discovery of active meteor showers was a work in progress from 1833 to about 1899. A comprehensive meteor shower list required many hours of observation plus the compilation of others’ meteor plotting catalogs. As of 1940, observers like W.F. Denning, E.C. Herrick, L.A. Quetelet, G. V. Schiaparelli, G.L. Tupman, and G. Zezioli, had all been involved in this cataloging effort.61 Ronald Alexander McIntosh, a New Zealand observer, attempted to accomplish the same herculean cataloging tasks for southern meteor showers in a period of only about 16 years! He had the assistance of the New Zealand Astronomical Society’s (NZAS)62 Meteor Section after its formation in 1927, but from 1919 until 1927, he was alone in his quest to map southern radiants. Helping a reader understand McIntosh’s fundamental contribution is difficult without a brief review of Southern Hemisphere astronomical history. Edmond Halley (1656–1742) was first to make a scientific survey of southern stars. He interrupted his graduate studies at the University of Oxford to travel to the South Atlantic Ocean’s St. Helena Island in 1676. The island’s 16 degrees south latitude allowed Halley to sample the hemisphere’s skies, but its cloudy weather hampered Halley’s efforts; he needed two years to record the positions of 360 stars unknown to northern astronomers. Seventy-two years after Halley’s expedition, Nicolas de Lacaille (1713–1762) sailed to the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) and spent four years, 1750–1754, measuring the sky coordinates of 9800 stars and drawing the first complete map of southern stars. He suggested 14 new constellations to organize the stars that northern astronomers had never seen and to fill the southern sky map void. Eighty years after Lacaille left South Africa John Herschel (1792– 1871) established an observatory at the Cape in 1834 and by 1838 cataloged the entire southern sky’s nebulae with an 18-in (45-cm) reflector in addition to discovering many of the hemisphere’s double stars. As a group Halley, Lacaille, and Herschel had informed practical astronomers about nearly one-half of the sky that had been inaccessible and hence invisible to it. Ronald McIntosh did a similar

60See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 61My list of nineteenth century visual observers is meant only to indicate workers whose findings would have been current at the time McIntosh observed 1919–1940. A modern list of meteor shower catalogers would include the twentieth and twenty-first centuries’ astronomers who have made photographic, radar, and video studies of meteor showers which have greatly increased the number of new showers and refined our understanding of when meteor showers occur. 62In 1946, it became the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. R.A. McIntosh 349 service as his three predecessors by cataloging meteor radiants and showers that northerners had never seen. For this, the author believes he should be ranked with the three historical astronomers as a pioneering explorer of the southern sky.63 McIntosh began to contribute meteor plots to the AMS when he was 15 years old in 1919. A year later, he charmingly inquired of Dr. Olivier if, as an AMS member, he was entitled to add “AMS” after his name, as would a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS). An impressive aspect of McIntosh’s intellect was his capacity to teach himself the mathematics needed to compute meteors’ orbits. In early 1928, he corresponded with Dr. Olivier and queried him about an aspect of orbital computation and by May, he announced that he believed he understood how to determine a meteor’s parabolic orbit. In the same year, 1928, McIntosh wrote that he intended to take university courses in trigonometry, physics, and calculus. Olivier found evidence that McIntosh had mastered all he claimed and in late October 1928, Olivier informed AMS members,

R.A. McIntosh has been observing for about 10 years and besides has given much study to the technical side of meteoric astronomy. A close examination of his records and results has convinced the writer that the work of Mr. McIntosh now may be considered as of the highest class and can be accepted by astronomers with conﬁdence in its accuracy. McIntosh was only able to hold meteor watches after the end of his late night work shift as a journalist64 for the New Zealand Herald; this often meant he could not begin observing until after 2:30 a.m. The employment-induced limitations to his meteor watches, and early dawns in the spring and summer meant he could not effectively record some showers’ activity; such was the case for the 1927 Orionids. However, employment at the Herald had some advantages too; McIntosh became his newspaper’s astronomical correspondent so that he could educate other New Zealanders about astronomy. In addition to teaching the general public, he addressed fellow astronomy enthusiasts. He reported writing articles about meteor observation for fellow members of the NZAS during 1925–1926 and in 1928 he urged fellow New Zealanders to join the AMS. In early 1928, Dr. Olivier sent a large number of gnomonic southern sky maps to NZ, as well as other Southern Hemisphere observers, to stimulate more radiant plotting.65 McIntosh and his colleagues made good use of these and sent their maps to Olivier. But in addition to contributing data to Dr. Olivier, McIntosh, and NZ

63Cuno Hoffmeister, a German meteor observer and theorist began to make southern hemisphere meteor surveys that were contemporaneous with publication of McIntosh’s Index in 1935. 64He was listed as “journalist” in 1928 Auckland West NZ Electoral Roll, p. 140

66The IAU list was found in Jenniskens, P, Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 691–741. 67Index radiants were a match for the following meteor showers that were found in Rendtel and Arlt 2009: alpha-Centaurids, eta-Aquarids, Piscis-Austrinids, South delta-Aquarids, alpha-Capricornids, and the Puppid-Velids. These six meteor showers are also listed in the 2006 IAU list. R.A. McIntosh 351

Later in life, McIntosh was elected a FRAS and became a member of the IAU’s Commission 22 on meteors. He was a lecturer at the Auckland, New Zealand Planetarium for many years. He and his wife had two children.

Oscar E. Monnig

(1902–1999) Membership years: 1927–1932 and in 1934.68

Oscar Edward Monnig was reported to have had a long-standing interest in astronomy but never took a formal course in the science; he was self-taught in all aspects of the astronomical specialties he practiced. He earned a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1925 and practiced law for five years before joining his father and uncle’s Fort Worth, Texas, wholesale dry goods business in about 1930. Monnig worked many posts in the business, which expanded to five department stores; he was its president from 1974 until it was sold in 1981. It was during his brief legal career that he joined Sterling Bunch to learn meteor plotting skills in 1927, and the two men joined Robert Brown, J. H. Logan, Blakeney Sanders, and Graham Kendall in 1928 to form the ‘Texas Observers,’ as Dr. Olivier dubbed them. Like Bunch and Logan, he monitored variable stars as well as meteors and he was simultaneously a member of the AMS and AAVSO. Monnig chronicled the Texas group’s accomplishments in the Texas Observers’ Bulletin, which he edited from 1931 to 1947. The Bulletin contained reports of the members’ projects and general astronomical information. Its usefulness and appeal created a demand for it in the 1930s and ‘40s, and it was distributed widely in USA and Canada to amateur and professional astronomers alike. The most interesting of Monnig’s meteor work involved cooperative watches with other Observers in keeping with Dr. Olivier’s recommendations to the IAU Meteor Commission in 1928. One of the adopted recommendations was that two observers should attempt to plot the same meteors in a specific sky region so that each other’s work could be compared for agreement. The second recommendation was that three observing stations be manned when observers were planning to measure meteor heights. Dr. Olivier mentioned Monnig and Bunch’s simultaneous meteor plotting during the 1927 Orionid meteor shower. Olivier commented, “Such observations are most valuable for a comparative study as to how two observers plot the same object (against the background stars)…” But, as an example of what can go wrong in this sort of work, Monnig mentioned that when he was a novice, he compared Bunch’s meteor plots on one star map to his own and Monnig noticed that he placed a

68See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 352 Enrolled 1919–1929 meteor in the same place as Bunch, but had recorded it moving in the opposite direction to Bunch’s record.69 A second use for simultaneous meteor plotting was the subject of another 1928 Meteor Note, “A valuable piece of original work has been done by Bunch and Monnig…working side by side and independently plotting the same meteors. A study of their maps will give material for finding out the probable correctness of many radiants.” Astronomers reasoned that the reality and accuracy of a radiant was improved if two independent observers recorded meteors emanating from the same radiant. But Dr. Olivier was especially interested in the second recommendation he made to the IAU meteor commission: deploying observers during a prolific shower in order to measure the heights of its meteors. No doubt the “target” shower he had in mind was the upcoming Leonids which astronomers expected would fill the mid-November sky early in the 1930s. A prolific shower increased the likelihood of success because many meteors provided more opportunities for the plotters to sketch the same meteors. And when plotters drew the same meteor, measurement of each one’s slightly different placement on the star background would allow trigonometric computation of the meteor’s height. Monnig and the Texas Observers began to gain skill in simultaneous plotting as early as August 1928.70 However, their careful work seems only to have had one successful campaign: for an expedition on July 27, 1929. Monnig and Blakeney Sanders plotted delta Aquarid and sporadic71 meteors from Burleson, Texas, J.H. Logan watched from Dallas, and Sterling Bunch from Fort Worth. The men made simultaneous plots of three Aquarids and nine sporadics. W.P. Wamer, a graduate student at Flower Observatory who performed the height calculations reported that “The mean beginning and end heights are, respectively, 117.7 km (km) and 97.4 km for nine sporadic meteors and 107.4 and 69.1 km for the Aquarids.” Surprisingly, the Observers did not mount a coordinated watch during the Leonid showers 1930–1934.72 The reasons for this may be twofold. First, Sterling Bunch was assigned by the Weather Bureau to Knoxville, Tennessee after he was hired in late 1929. Bunch was perhaps the most enthusiastic meteor observer of the Texas group,73 and he may have led more cooperative watches in Texas if he had not been

69Monnig to Olivier, letter dated July 5, 1927: in AMS archives. Of course, with practice, Monnig’s skill improved greatly! 70Monnig to Olivier, letter dated September 13, 1928 in AMS archives. 71Sporadic meteors are not from any specific shower radiant but are meteors that can arrive randomly from any part of the sky. 72A careful review of Meteor Notes for 1931–1935 disclosed that the Texas Observers were absent from the listed participants in the Perseid and Leonid seasons of those years. However Monnig did make solo watches for 1931, 1932, and 1934. 73Monnig seemed to believe some projects would suffer from Bunch’s absence. In an Oct 26, 1929 letter to Olivier, he commented about Bunch’s “…temporary if not permanent departure…His unbeatable enthusiasm will be difficult to replace.” Letter was from AMS archives box “1920s”. Oscar E. Monnig 353 sent to Tennessee by his employer.74 The second reason may have had to do with a common trait of amateur astronomers; like many amateurs, Monnig’s interest took a turn toward another astronomical specialty. Monnig’s new enthusiasm was tracking fireball paths and recovering meteorites.75 Monnig’s migration to fireball path determinations is foreshadowed by studies of two dramatic Texas fireballs in 1928. Monnig’s reports were coauthored with Dr. Olivier who was quite impressed with Monnig’s initiative to promptly locate witnesses and his industry in follow-up interviews of the best ones. Monnig’s resourcefulness won Olivier’s trust to continue to do similar duties when new fireballs fell over Texas and bordering states.76 Monnig’s growing interest in meteorites is suggested by a detailed field study he and Robert G. Brown performed of the Odessa (Texas) meteorite crater in 1934. The two went out to west Texas where Monnig reported that their “use (of) a plane table, alidade, and rod…One hundred and thirty-one readings were made…along the crater ridges and slopes… the readings were made to the nearest 0.5 foot…” Monnig joined the Society for Research on Meteorites, later renamed the Meteoritical Society at about the same year. In 1936, Monnig became interested in what became called the Crescent meteorite. He financed three expeditions to the site in Oklahoma and on the third one, Robert Brown and Sterling Bunch succeeded in finding a small piece of the meteorite. In 1946, he journeyed to the Pena Blanca River, near Marathon, Texas to follow-up on a reported meteorite fall on August 2nd. The expedition resulted in verifying that a 155-pound (70 kg.) stony mass was indeed a meteorite. These exciting adventures made long-lasting memories and in a 1985 interview with 83-year-old Monnig and 76-year-old Brown a reader can sense the deep fascination both men still had for tracking and examining these extrater- restrial bodies. It was obvious which aspect of astronomy was most important to Oscar Monnig!77 The AMS-related career totals of this multi-faceted amateur were 115 meteor watches and 2279 meteors (782 of which were plotted in 1928 and 1929). Among

74For example, Bunch led successful simultaneous Leonid watches from his new site in Tennessee in the 1930s. 75Monnig also contributed variable star observations to the AAVSO. In 1930, the AAVSO named him a regional advisor for Texas; in this role he was asked to monitor new members’ observational work and if they were competent, recommend them for AAVSO membership: Williams, T.R. and M. Saladyga, Advancing Variable Star Astronomy, Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 85. 76“Mr. OE Monnig…is officially charged with collecting such reports in Texas and the bordering states, on behalf of the AMS. Reports from these states sent to him directly will be forwarded to Headquarters for reduction and publication.” Source: Olivier and Monnig 1929, p. 281 (In Sources above). 77Monnig wrote to Olivier on September 27, 1962, “I have done nothing on systematic meteor work for some years. Even when a fireball comes along, I have grown discouraged about trying to get very many precise observations and have concentrated on getting enough for purposes of meteorite recovery.” Source: Dr. Olivier’s American Philosophical Society correspondence file. 354 Enrolled 1919–1929 his astronomical laurels was election to the American Astronomical Society in 1928, at the Society’s 40th meeting.

Miss V.J. Niebuhr78

(1910–1972)79 Membership years: 1929, 1933 and 193480

Like many of her male AMS counterparts who contributed to the AMS for a few years, Ms. Niebuhr was from America’s heartland and had a deep interest in meteors during the Leonid epoch of the 1930s. During her three years of reporting to the AMS, she watched meteors on 11 nights and plotted a total of 159 meteors. Ms. Niebuhr was a member of Reedsburg (Wisconsin) Astronomical Society and led a meteor plotting team that included another woman, her father Albert Friedrich (‘Fred’), and two other men. The group plotted 1934 Leonids on the nights of November 14/15 and 15/16 in a cooperative effort with three other Wisconsin-Northern Illinois (WI-NIL) regional groups to measure meteor heights. The Reedsburg Society members plotted 13 of the 20 meteors seen by the other 3 groups and these 13 (9 Leonids, 4 sporadics) were successfully measured for heights. Ms. Niebuhr was a 1932 graduate of University of Wisconsin at La Crosse81 became a physical therapist and held a Pennsylvania license in that profession from 1938 until her death in 1972. She was Chief of Physical Therapy at National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Silver Spring, Maryland, a post she held for 17 years before her retirement in 1971. She was the ﬁrst person to hold this post at the NIH.82 Including service during World War II, she was a US government employee for 30 years.83

78Olivier’sMeteorNoteinPopular Astronomy (volume 43, 1935, p. 377), mentions that “Miss Vida J. Niebuhr” is the observer’s first and middle names. Until this note, it was not clear that “V.J.” was a woman; she had a brother named “Verne J.” Previously Olivier merely printed her initials; maybe he received a letter from Ms. Niebuhr to clarify the issue. 79Vital statistics from Web: Wisconsin Find a Grave Index 1836–2012 in Ancestry.com database; and she is also listed in “Sorted by name” Web site for Social Security Death Master File for 13 Nov 1910–Feb 1972 80See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate her contributions. 811932 graduate: The La Crosse Alumnus, Spring 1972, p. 14. 82Ancestry.com: US City Directories, 1821–1989, Silver Spring, Maryland City Directory, 1960, p. 817. Career as Chief at NIH: The NIH Record for Feb 15, 1972, p. 2: ‘‘Vida Jo Niebuhr, the first chief of the Physical Therapy Service, Clinical Center Rehabilitation Department died on Feb 7 in West Allis, Wis., of a cerebral hemorrhage. Miss Niebuhr had served 30 years with the Federal Govt, including 17 years at the Clinical Center. Upon her retirement last August (see the NIH Record, Aug 17, 1971) she had returned to her hometown in Wisconsin.” 83World War 2 service: Wisconsin Find a Grave Index, as in Footnote 79. Tenure in government service: The NIH Record for Feb 15, 1972, p. 2. A.L. Peck 355 A.L. Peck

(1903–1973)84 Membership years: 1920, 1934, and 193585

There are very few details available about Arthur L. Peck’s personal life. He was born in Rhode Island, performed all of his meteor watches when he lived in Wisconsin, and then returned to Massachusetts, where he spent the last three decades of his life. The 1930 US Census recorded his occupation as “stenographer,” a now obsolete occupation in which a shorthand-written record was made of another person’s statements, usually in business or court settings. Peck never married.86 Arthur Peck was most intensively involved in amateur astronomy when he was a member of the Milwaukee Astronomical Society (MAS), which in turn was a member society of the WI-NIL regional group of amateur astronomical societies. And we learn the most about him when we read about his astronomical activities which are recorded in AAVSO and AMS reports in the journals of those two organizations. He was involved in just about every facet of MAS activity: meteor and variable star observations, refurbishing telescopes used in research, and the MAS’ social activities such as sponsoring public telescopic sky tours and attending local and national astronomy conferences. Beginning in September 1934, he joined the editorial board of the MAS’ Bulletin, and then he advanced to an associate editorship in January 1935 and was ﬁnally its editor in June that same year. Mr. Peck was on the MAS teams that monitored 1934’s May Eta Aquarid meteor shower, the late June Pons-Winneckid shower, August’s Perseid shower, November’s Leonids and the Geminids in December. He continued the same pace of observing in January 1935 by watching Quadrantids for three hours. However, Peck’s name disappeared from the MAS’s meteor height campaigns for the remainder of 1935 and his AMS membership lapsed after 1935. While he was a member of the AMS, Arthur Peck was credited with one watch in August 1920 and a total of 17 during 1934–1935. Dr. Olivier credited him with reporting 334 meteors during this three-year AMS career, and 56 of these were plotted in 1935. In addition, Peck reported 3 telescopic meteors he saw while engaged in variable star observations in 1934. But Peck was not entirely done with meteor work in 1935; he returned to it for the 1936 Leonids. His last contribution to meteor astronomy was in the spring of 1937 when he assisted Edward Halbach with a shortwave radio coordinated meteor watch during the Eta Aquarid shower. What accounts for Peck’s decreased interest in meteor observations? Peck was like many amateur astronomers whose curiosity about new astronomical subjects lures them away from earlier favorites. In his case variable stars beckoned. He

84Source: Social Security Death Index listing for Arthur L. Peck. 85See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 86Peck Family Tree in Ancestry.com. 356 Enrolled 1919–1929 became very active with the AAVSO; he made 660 star magnitude estimates during the summer of 1934 and 487 in 1935. Beginning in June 1936, he switched variable star interests to monitoring AAVSO-designated sky areas for novae, “new stars” that are actually already-existing faint stars that flare greatly in brightness so they are suddenly seen with the unaided eye. Peck monitored assigned sky areas for more than 40 nights in 1936. But that observational project lost its appeal too. 1937 and 1938 MAS and WI-NIL observational reports do not contain Peck’s name. Instead, he is mentioned accompanying MAS members who journeyed to attend AAVSO national meetings in October 1936 and 1937. However, Peck had one more contribution to make; he is remembered for participating in another of the AAVSO’s special research programs, one in which red variable stars were monitored telescopically using red glass filters. Peck collaborated in this project with fellow MAS member, Edward A. Halbach. For all his contributions to the AAVSO’s mission, Arthur Peck was hailed as a “Young Grenadier,” one of a number of younger generation talents who it was hoped would replace the AAVSO’s aging founders. This compliment was bestowed on him and other AAVSO luminaries like Luverne Armfield and Edward Halbach at the AAVSO’s 26th Annual Meeting in 1937.

Blakeney Sanders

(1911–2005)87 Membership years: 1928–193188

Blakeney Harmon Sanders was mentioned as one of the early members of the Texas Observers, a group of enthusiastic amateurs which coalesced in January 1928. Oscar Monnig made the earliest mention of Sanders’ participation, in a letter to Dr. Olivier, noting that Sanders had assisted Sterling Bunch during a three-station watch of the 1928 Perseids. Sterling Bunch provided a short description of Sanders when he wrote that Sanders was, in November 1928, “a young college student of Ft. Worth and one of our newest members (who showed) promise of making a real observer…” In the same letter, Bunch mentioned that Sanders plotted some of that year’s Orionid meteors and that Sanders and another man, J.T. Chesley “accidentally made simultaneous observation of a meteor on the evening of October 17…” Apparently, Olivier agreed with Bunch’s evaluation of Sanders because in his letter of December 8, 1928, Bunch replied to Olivier, “I am glad you think that Sanders is a born observer—the boy is tickled to death by what you said…he is certainly enthusiastic and ready to observe any time.”

87Social Security Death Index and the Sanders Family Tree on Ancestry.com. 88See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. Blakeney Sanders 357

Sanders’ AMS career consisted of 21 watches and a total of 545 meteors reported. On one night in 1931, Sanders recorded 20 Leonids. Sanders married Edwina Miller (1913–1996), and the couple had two sons and a daughter.89

R.C. Shinkﬁeld

(1901–1984)90 Membership years: 1928–193391

Reginald Claxton Shinkfield was an Australian member who lived in Adelaide, South Australia. He joined the Astronomical Society of South Australia in 1922 when he was 21 years old. During his 62 years of membership, he was deemed “probably the Society’s greatest amateur contributor, (having engaged) in solar studies, meteor and auroral observations, and particularly in variable stars,” according to a Society history.92 Dr. Olivier mentioned that Shinkfield was employed by the Weather Bureau at Adelaide when he described a stony meteorite that Shinkfield sent him in 1931.93 Mr. Shinkfield’s most numerous meteor watch reports were in 1929 and 1930 when he held 10 sessions each year. However, in October 1930, he joined the AAVSO and submitted 145 magnitude estimates made that month. Thereafter, he conducted fewer meteor watches and increasingly more variable star estimates for 1931–1933; so that it appears variable star observing became more interesting to him, and it claimed an increasing share of his time.94 Dr. Olivier prized data from the Southern Hemisphere observers, so, he was undoubtedly grateful for Shinkfield’s career total of 29 watches during which he recorded 448 meteors. He plotted 24 of the 112 meteors he recorded in 1929.

89These facts are from the Sanders Family Tree on Ancestry.com and shown on a Find-a-Grave. com/memorial 102337865 headstone inscription. 90Shinkfield family tree on Ancestry.com. Ancestry had very little information about this Australian observer. 91See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 92Astronomical Society of South Australia Web site: http://www.assa.org.au/info/history Accessed 5/25/16. This Web site features an article entitled: A Brief History (of the Astronomical Society of South Australia). 93Olivier, C.P., Meteor Note (MN), P.A., volume 39, 1931, p. 347. This MN contains a vivid description of an Australian fireball seen on November 25, 1930. The fireball report and description of the 92 lb (42 kg.) meteorite which caused it was Shinkfield’s work and reprinted by Olivier. 94Shinkfield made 658 variable star magnitude estimates in 1931, 648 in 1932 and 510 in 1933. 358 Enrolled 1919–1929 F.W. Smith

(1906–2006)95 Membership years: 1929–194096

Franklin Willard Smith97 shared with the author a number of personal anecdotes about Dr. Olivier and the professional astronomy establishment in the 1930s. Smith was a volunteer research assistant to Dr. Olivier for a few years.98 The author was most fortunate in being able to “interview” Mr. Smith with a set of three ques- tionnaires99 about Smith’s experiences as Dr. Olivier’s unpaid assistant, as a peer of University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) astronomy graduate students and as a witness to meteor science practices and opinions in the 1930s. When he was interviewed in 2001, he was about to turn 95 years old, but his handwriting was clear and his responses were relevant to the questions he was asked: he was a reliable informant. Mr. Smith first read about meteors in 1926 when the library at Haverford College, where he studied, put Olivier’s book Meteors on the shelf for circulation. Smith recalls that he learned to watch meteors by following the book’s instructions and he learned about the AMS by reading Dr. Olivier’s Meteor Notes in Popular Astronomy (PA). Mr. Smith wrote that he joined the AMS in 1928, the year he graduated from Haverford. After graduation, he “spent a year at Swarthmore College to take courses in celestial mechanics, orbit calculation, advanced calculus and optics.” During his volunteer association with Dr. Olivier at Flower Observatory, Olivier gave him data about fireballs that had languished in the AMS’ files for some time and asked Smith to find the fireballs’ orbits. Smith recalled, “Apparently he thought that if I could compute a comet orbit I could do a fireball trajectory.” Dr. Olivier thought well enough of Smith’s work that he communicated Smith’s article, Meteor Orbits Connected with the Pons–Winnecke Comet, to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Association (MNRAS) for publication.100 Smith’s time at Flower Observatory, up to about 1936, gave him opportunities to socialize with astronomy graduate students and learn their attitudes about specialization in meteor work. “Dr. Olivier had serious trouble with graduate students,” Smith reported. “They refused to work on meteor problems as subjects for Ph.D. theses on the ground that such a thesis would be of no help in getting a job (after

95Social Security Death Index, 1935-Current, a database on Ancestry.com. 96See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 97His full name was found on Pennsylvania Church and Town Records 1708–1985, Ancestry.com. 98Olivier reported that Smith “has been working…as a volunteer computer, particularly on fireball heights.” Source: Olivier, Meteor Notes, PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 357. 99Mr. Smith confided that he did not hear well when using the telephone and preferred writing as the best means of communication. 100“Communicated” was formal language in the Royal Astronomical Society; it meant that a member approved of another’s article and wished it to be published. Smith’s article appeared in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 93, 1932, pp. 156–158. F.W. Smith 359 graduation),” Smith confided. Dr. Olivier conveyed a tacit acceptance of the students’ appraisal because Olivier confided to Smith that he too “was paid to look through a telescope,” by which Olivier meant measuring double stars’ separations and variable star-related observations.101 Despite his interest in astronomy, Mr. Smith avoided a career in it, he recalled, because “the demand for astronomers was much less than the supply.”“Some Harvard Ph.D.s could not get a job in astronomy. I recall that one got a job with the US Department of Agriculture.” Smith’s own career path was complicated by the Depression which affected many graduates during the 1930s. He began as a draftsman at the Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation, and then as a “permanent substitute” teacher in the Upper Darby (PA) High School; and from 1938 to 1941, he was an electrical technician at a New York State School for boys with intellectual disabilities. In 1941, he relocated to Massachusetts and finished his employment years as technician and teaching assistant in physiology at Harvard Medical School. Mr. Smith was a talented and versatile amateur astronomer like many whose biographies have appeared in this book. He was a member of the AAVSO and the AMS from 1929 to 1935. Smith assumed authorship of the Zodiacal Light Notes in PA after the death of the original author, Rev. William E. Glanville, in March 1933. In this role, he shared his own observations of the zodiacal light with readers. From April 1936 to March 1938, with a recommendation from Dr. Olivier, he served as the American Amateur Astronomical Association’s editor of meteor reports submitted to the AAAA’s journal Amateur Astronomy. During his two years’ tenure, he reported AAAA members’ results from the meteor showers they monitored, recorded their meteor count contributions to the Hoffmeister–Olivier program, and calculated meteor heights from member’s meteor plots on star maps made during simultaneous meteor watches. Franklin Smith’s contributions to the AMS began with 15 brightness estimates of telescopic meteors he saw in 1928 while engaged in variable star observations. During the next 12 years, he performed 276 meteor watches and reported 1,986 meteors as well as 28 more telescopic meteors.

I.L. Thomsen

(1910–1969) Membership years: 1925, 1926 and 1928102

Ivan Leslie Thomsen, like R.A. McIntosh, was a New Zealand meteor observer who contributed observations of the southern sky’s meteor radiants. Thomsen

101Indeed, Volumes 5, 6, and 7 of the Publications of the Flower Observatory are about these subjects. Meteors do not appear in them. 102See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 360 Enrolled 1919–1929 began as an amateur astronomer; but, he ceased to be an “amateur” when he became a paid astronomical worker in 1929 at Dominion Observatory in Wellington, NZ. The principal duty there was time-determination which was an increasingly important task for this mid-latitude Southern Hemisphere station in the Pacific Ocean. In 1945, he became director of the Carter Observatory, after the death of Murray Geddes that year. Directorship there, too, was a salaried position which he kept until his death in 1969. In addition to his meteor work as an amateur astronomer and his later professional duties, Thomsen led two expeditions to observe solar eclipses in 1936 and 1957. He was elected a fellow of the RAS in 1938 and Thomsen’s leadership at Carter Observatory was recognized when asteroid 2064 was named for him. Dr. Olivier appreciated Thomsen’s resourcefulness in a 1928 Meteor Note, “… the observations of I.L. Thomsen, of Danneviske, NZ have come in. These were made on May 6, July 20, August 2 and 6, and October 19. As he was short of maps, he measured off the coordinates of the meteors and so reported them…His total was 72 meteors for the five nights.” Olivier added more praise for Thomsen and his compatriot McIntosh, “These two active members in the Southern Hemisphere are adding a most valuable contribution to the work of the AMS as the radiants in the far southern sky are as yet unknown.” Like McIntosh, Thomsen’s contributions to the AMS began when he was 15 years old, in 1925. His career totals were 213 meteor observations made on 16 nights.

Miss M.E. Trimmier

(1914–1993)103 Membership years: 1929, 1931 and 1934

Mary Esther Trimmier104 ﬁled all of her AMS meteor watch reports before she was 21 years of age, and her ﬁrst meteor watch was at the age of 15. She belonged to the Astronomy Club of her Chicago high school105 and perhaps it was while engaged in this activity that she became familiar with the constellations, a necessary prelude to making competent plots on star maps. Trimmier performed a total of eight watches for the AMS; during the three years, she plotted 212 meteors.106 Her only 1934 watch was a collaborative one with observers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

103Vital statistics from Social Security Death Index in Ancestry.com’s database concerning Ms. Trimmier, also known as Mary E. Johnson, after marriage. 104Ms. Trimmier’s given names were found in her enumeration for the 1920 US Census in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the household of Buford Trimmier, her father. Source: Ancestry.com. 105Lake View High School, Red and White, 1932, p. 42 (Source: Ancestry.com U.S. School Yearbooks, 1880–2012 for Mary E. Trimmier). 106See APPENDIX B for bibliographic specifics to locate her contributions. Miss M.E. Trimmier 361 during which she mapped 44 Perseid meteors. This interstate Perseid meteor observation campaign contained 16 meteors that were mapped simultaneously by Wisconsin observers. In 1935, Doris Wills, Dr. Olivier’s meteor research assistant was able to calculate the heights of two of the 16 coincidentally mapped 1934 Perseids. However, Trimmier’s greatest accomplishments as an amateur astronomer came in 1936 after her AMS membership ended, while she belonged to the Chicago Amateur Astronomical Association (CAAA). That year, the CAAA was a member society of a regional group of amateur astronomy clubs called the Wisconsin- Northern Illinois (WI-NIL) Region. The July issue of Amateur Astronomy, the WI-NIL’s journal, informed readers that Trimmier was the Chicago group’s meteor section leader. Trimmier led by example; not only did she map meteors she saw while participating in the Hoffmeister–Olivier Program (HOP), but she also monitored a sky region for the AAVSO’s Nova Search Program. The HOP required observers to watch for meteors during calendar dates when no meteor showers were known to be active. Its intent was to furnish data to German astronomer Cuno Hoffmeister which would allow his research assistants to compute the number of meteors in a volume of space near the earth and to determine whether they were gravitational captives of the sun or interlopers from interstellar space. Mapped HOP meteors did “double duty” if done while another observer was simultaneously making meteor plots; if the two observers coincidentally mapped the same meteor, its height in the atmosphere could be determined. So, Trimmier provided an efficient example to her peers by mapping rather than merely counting meteors as HOP requested. This practice resulted in the determination of at least one meteor height when Trimmier and two colleagues of the CAAA plotted the same meteor on June 27, 1936. WI-NIL AMS Meteors Director Verne Armfield commented about the trio’s accomplishment: “Special commendation to Mary E.Trimmier (and associates), for their splendid contributions, both to the HOP and duplicate height observations.” By the end of 1936, Trimmier had plotted 166 meteors for HOP during 57 h of watches. In addition to HOP meteors, she plotted another 142 meteors during 28 h of meteor shower observation for a grand total of 85 h under the sky for meteor work. This total of plotted meteors won special praise from Armfield. Trimmier’s second project while a Meteor Section leader in 1936 was unrelated to meteors but demonstrated her zeal and leadership qualities as an amateur astronomer. The AAVSO Nova Search Program, also led by Armfield (in addition to his AMS Regional Director duties), required a naked eye observer to monitor a prescribed sky region of 100 square degrees and compare the number of stars seen to those on an official star map. If the observer detected one not on the star map, she had found a “nova,” a previously faint star that brightened sufficiently to become visible to the unaided eye. By the end of 1936, Trimmier had monitored assigned sky areas for novae on 125 nights, but unfortunately not seen one. Mary Trimmier’s volunteer meteor work had its social aspects too. For instance, her 17-year-old sister, Virginia, watched meteors with her for almost two hours in 1936. And on two occasions, the CAAA’s members traveled north to Milwaukee to 362 Enrolled 1919–1929 visit and attend June and August meetings of the MAS. Ms. Trimmier made these two trips in 1936 and met Verne Armfield and Edward A. Halbach, new Meteor Director of the MAS. During the CAAA’s June visit, J. Wesley Simpson, AMS director for the Missouri–Southern Illinois region stopped in from Missouri to meet with MAS amateurs and Trimmier met him too. However, by late 1937 Trimmier’s meteor career was approaching its end. Her name vanished from the journals that published the CAAA’s and the WI-NIL region’s meteor and nova reports. In January 1938, the journal, Amateur Astronomy, reported that she had resigned leadership of CAAA’s meteor section, and the editor commented, “Miss Trimmier is one of the most accurate meteor observers in the country, a faithful, diligent worker and inspiring leader.” Observational astronomy had lost a most energetic and talented worker. Mary E. Trimmier’s mother died in 1938 and sometime after 1940 Trimmier married Austin Seward Johnson (1909–1992) and the couple had a son. Mary Trimmier Johnson may have worked as an office clerk just as she did in the 1940 US Census, but there is no published information to clarify this matter. Ms. Johnson died in 1993.107

Goodrich Watkins

(1913–2012)108 Membership years: 1927–1929109

John Goodrich Watkins was another young person who was attracted to astronomy in his teenaged years; he watched meteors and monitored variable star magnitudes from ages 14–16. His son wrote that “Harvard University110 lent him a large telescope to assist” in variable star work. John Watkins showed an early interest in intellectual topics and entered college at the age of 16, late in 1929. It seems his observational work in astronomy ended with matriculation at University of Idaho.

107McClure Family Tree (in Ancestry.com’s database for Mary Ester Trimmier): She was born January 1, 1914, in South Carolina, Died in March 9, 1993, in Chicago. Social Security Death Index conﬁrms birth and death dates for “Mary E. Johnson”. Her parents: Buford Trimmier died in 1927; Elma May Bloss died in 1938. Spouse: Austin Seward Johnson, 1909–1992, born in Nova Scotia Canada, 1909, and naturalized US citizen in 1940. They must have married after she was enumerated in 1940 USC because she is shown as “Trimmier” when enumerated with her elder sister Helen in 1940 US Census. Mary and Austin had a son but no data was given about him. 108Watkins, R. and M., John G. Watkins, Ph.D., Obituary (online). There are several short biographies, including Wikipedia’s that were accessible on 5/26/16. 109See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 110Much more likely that it was Harvard College Observatory. Goodrich Watkins 363

Watkins earned a B.S. in Education in 1933111 and his obituary reported that he earned a masters’ degree from U. of Idaho and then a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University where an outcome of his dissertation was coauthorship of a standardized aptitude test which assists orchestra leaders to determine musicians’ chair position. Watkins’ professional career was also noteworthy in that he and his wife Helen developed a school of psychotherapy and Watkins performed forensic psychological investigations. Watkins conducted a total of ﬁve meteor watches. During his three-year career; he observed 127 meteors. He also reported magnitudes of eight telescopic meteors while engaged in monitoring variable stars’ magnitudes during 1927 and 1928. When Dr. Watkins died at the age of 98, four sons and a daughter survived him, as well as ten grandchildren.

B.S. Whitney

(1903–1993)112 Membership years: 1928–1931, 1934, 1936–1938113

Balfour Stanley Whitney’s life path was similar to Lincoln LaPaz, Frederick Leonard, Ivan Thomsen, and of course, Charles Olivier’s: Whitney was an active amateur astronomer in his youth and became a professional astronomer in adult- hood. He was brieﬂy on Dr. Olivier’s staff at Flower Observatory in 1941, but the remainder of his professional career was at University of Oklahoma and its observatory. Scanning a list114 of his professional publications shows that he specialized in research about eclipsing variable stars, that is, stars whose brightness vary because, in reality the “star” is actually two stars and when one passes in front of, or behind, the other it causes the entire system’s total light output to dim. Whitney’s goal was to measure variables’ magnitude variations and from them deduce characteristics of the constituent stars and the orbits of the stars about their common center of gravity, called a barycenter. He was a tireless researcher and published his last study at the age of 75. As the reader might have guessed, Whitney was interested in observing variable stars as an amateur astronomer, and he was a member of the AAVSO; so, for the

111John Goodrich Watkins, Senior Picture in 1933 Gem of the Mountains, Volume 31, University of Idaho Yearbook, p. 54. It reported that he attended Caldwell (Idaho) High School and College of Idaho. He was a University orchestra member. Source: http://issuu.com/uidahodigital/docs/ gem1933 Accessed 5/26/16. 112Balfour Stanley Whitney’s vital statistics were found in Ancestry.com’s Kenzies Kinfolk family tree. They were also found in the Social Security Death Index, 1935-Current in Ancestry.com’s database about Balfour S. Whitney. 113See APPENDIX B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 114The list was derived from the SAO/NASA ADS search engine, by entering “Balfour Whitney” as the desired information: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/ Accessed 5/26/16. 364 Enrolled 1919–1929 years 1929, 1931, and 1934 he was a dual member of the AMS and AAVSO. Evidently, he maintained an interest in and activity with the AMS during some of his years as a professional astronomer because Olivier mentioned that he was an AMS Regional Director for Oklahoma and Kansas in 1942. During Whitney’s eight-year AMS career he reported on 2065 meteors and an additional 13 telescopic ones which were the results of 78 night watches.

References

F.L. Bradley

Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volume 35, 1927, p. 590 Olivier, C., Report of the AMS for 1919-1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Charlottesville, VA: UVA, 1929, pp. 3, 16, 167-168. Rendtel, J. and R. Arlt, Handbook for Meteor Observers, Potsdam: International Meteor Organization, 2009, pp. 163-165.

Robert Brown

Journals Logan, J. and O. Monnig, Texas Observers, Popular Astronomy, volume 38, 1930, p. 319 West, J. and D. Swann, An interview with Oscar Monnig and Bob Brown, in K. and W. Simmons eds., Meteor News, Number 67, October 1984, pp. 1-6. Archival records American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives Letter from Oscar E. Monnig to C. Olivier, dated Aug 20, 1924

Sterling (1901–1945) and Mildred (1906-?) Bunch

Journals Bunch, S., Hope, Popular Astronomy (PA), Volume 30, 1922, p. 482, Bunch, S., In Starry Skies, PA, Volume 34, 1926, p. 288 Bunch, S., Three Bright Meteors, PA, Volume 26, 1918, pp. 584-585. Campbell, L., Annual Report of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (ARAAVSO), PA, Volume 33, 1925, pp. 563 and 619 Campbell, L., Monthly Report of the AAVSO for January 1928, PA, Volume 36, 1928, p. 192 Eaton, H., ARAAVSO, PA, Volume 27, 1919, p.691 Eaton, H., ARAAVSO, PA, Volume 28, 1920, p. 555 Eaton, HO, ARAAVSO, PA, Volume 30, 1922, pp. 582 Logan, J. and O. Monnig, Texas Observers, Popular Astronomy, volume 38, 1930, p. 319 Sterling (1901–1945) and Mildred (1906-?) Bunch 365

Millman, P.M., The Texas Observers, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Volume 28, 1934 p. 162 Olivier, C., Report of the American Meteor Society for 1919-1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 5, Part 1, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1929 and 1935, p. 8 Walker, A., ARAAVSO, PA, Volume 29, 1921, pp. 590-1 Archival records American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives Letter from Sterling Bunch to C. Olivier, dated June 30, 1927

C.B. Ford

Williams, T., Clinton Banker Ford, in T. Hockey et al eds, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 1, New York: Springer, 2007, p.378 Williams, T. and M. Saladyga, Advancing Variable Star Astronomy, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 282-284

J.H. Logan

Editor, Obituary, James H. Logan, Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), Sunday, November 7, 1965, Section A, p. 29. Logan, J., O. Monnig, Texas Observers, Popular Astronomy, Volume 38, 1930, p. 318.

R.A. McIntosh

Reference Books Crowe, M.. and K. Lafortune, John F.W. Herschel, in T. Hockey, et al., Eds; Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 1, New York: Springer, 2007, p. 494. Murara, M., Nicolas-Louis de La Caille (Lacaille), in T. Hockey, et al., Eds; Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume1, New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 665-666. Williams, T., Ronald Alexander McIntosh, in T. Hockey, et al., Eds; Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 2, New York: Springer, 2007, p. 758. Yeomans, D., Edmond Halley, in T. Hockey, et al., Eds; Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume1, New York: Springer, 2007, p. 465. Journals McIntosh, RA, An Index to Southern Meteor Showers, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 95, 1935, pp. 709-718 McIntosh, RA, Meteor Rates in the Southern Hemisphere, Popular Astronomy(PA), Volume 46, 1938, p.517 Olivier, Meteor Notes, PA, volume 36, 1928 p. 561 Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, Volume 37, 1929, p.599 366 Enrolled 1919–1929

Archival records American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives Letter from McIntosh (RAM) to C. Olivier (CPO), dated Nov 5, 1920 Letter from RAM to CPO dated January 18, 1927 Letters from RAM to CPO dated March 10, April 29, and May 18, and October 6, 1928

Oscar E. Monnig

Reference books Ehlmann, A., Oscar Edward Monnig in T. Hockey, et al. Eds, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 2; New York: Springer, 2007; pp. 799-800 Journals Logan, J. and O. Monnig, Texas Observers, Popular Astronomy (PA), Volume 38, 1930, p. 319 Monnig, O. and C. Olivier, Fireball of October 7, 1928, PA, volume 39, 1931, pp. 330-3 Monnig, O. and R. Brown, The Odessa Texas Meteorite Crater, PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 34 Monnig, O. and R. Brown, Meteorite fall in Oklahoma, PA, volume 44, 1936, pp. 568-569 Monnig, O., Preliminary Report on the fall of the Pena Blanca Springs Aerolite (abstract), PA, Volume 54, 1946, p. 483 Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes (MN), PA, volume 35, 1927, p. 590 Olivier, Meteor Notes (MN), PA, volume 36, 1928, p. 134 Olivier, C.P., MN, PA, volume 36, 1928, p. 496-497 Olivier, C.P. and Monnig, OE, Texas Fireball of August 8, 1928, PA, volume 37, 1929, pp. 274-281 Wamer, W., Meteor Heights from Observations made by Texas Group, 1929 July 27, PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 340 West, J. and D. Swann: An interview with Oscar Monnig and Bob Brown, Part 2, in K. and W. Simmons, Eds., Meteor News, issue 68, January 1985, p. 3. Williams, T., Obituary: Oscar E. Monnig, Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Volume 32, 2000, pp. 1682-1683

Miss V.J. Niebuhr

Armﬁeld, L., AMS Notes for Wisconsin-Northern Illinois Region, The Milwaukee Astronomical Society Bulletin, Volume 2, January 1935, p.4 Olivier, Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volume 43, 1935, pp.377-8

A.L. Peck

Reference Book Williams, T., and M. Saladyga, Advancing Variable Star Astronomy, New York: Cambridge University Press; 2011, p. 98 Journals Armﬁeld, L., AMS Notes, Wisconsin-Northern Illinois Region, MAS Bulletin, volume 1, numbers 6, 7 and 10, 1934 A.L. Peck 367

Armfield, L., AMS Notes, Wisconsin-Northern Illinois Region, MAS Bulletin, volume 2, numbers 1 and 3, 1935 Armfield, L., AMS Notes, Wisconsin-Northern Illinois Region, Amateur Astronomy, volume 3, numbers 1 and 5, 1937 Armfield, L., AAVSO Nova Program Notes, Amateur Astronomy, volume 2, numbers 8 and 11, 1936 Editor, MAS Bulletin, volume 2, 1935 Rosebrugh, D., Amateur Astronomy, volume 3, number 9, November 1937, p.139

Blakeney Sanders

Journal Logan, J. and O. Monnig, Texas Observers, Popular Astronomy, volume 38, 1930, p. 319 Archival records American Meteor Society Ltd. Archives Letter from Oscar Monnig to Charles Olivier, dated September 13, 1928 Letters from Sterling Bunch to C. Olivier, dated November 1928 and December 8, 1928

R.C. Shinkﬁeld

Campbell, L., AAVSO Annual reports for the years ending October 1931, Popular Astronomy (PA), Volume 39, p. 603 Campbell, L., AAVSO Annual reports for the years ending October 1932, PA, Volume 40, 1932, p. 645 Campbell, L., AAVSO Annual reports for the years ending October 1933, PA, Volume 41, 1933, p. 577

F.W. Smith

Journals Editor, Amateur Astronomy, volume 2, number 4, April 1936, p.47 Smith, F., AAAA Meteor Section, Amateur Astronomy, volume 2, number 10, October 1936, p.117. Ofﬁcial records 1940 United States Census Correspondence F.W. Smith to the author, written answers to questionnaires, postmarked April 23, May 2 and May 12, 2001 368 Enrolled 1919–1929 I.L. Thomsen

Reference books Schmadel, L., Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Third Revised and enlarged edition, Berlin and New York: Springer, 1997, p. 265 Journals Anonymous, Society Business, Fellows Elected; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 98, 1938, p. 431 Hearnshaw, J., Astronomy in New Zealand, in Andre Heck, ed., Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy Volume 6., Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006, p. 68 Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volume 36, 1928, p. 323.

Miss M.E. Trimmier

Journals Armfield, L., Wisconsin-Northern Illinois Region (WI-NIL) AMS Meteor Report, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 2, July 1936, p.81 Armfield, L., AAVSO Nova Search Program, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 2, July-October 1936 Armfield, L., Meteor Section, Part II, WI-NIL Region, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 2, No 8, August, 1936, p.95 Armfield, L., AMS Meteor Notes, WI-NIL Region, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 3, March 1937, pp. 67-68 Editor, (Milwaukee Astronomical Society) Bulletin, October, 1934, p.44 and November 1934, p.48 Editor, Astronomical Discourse, November 1935, p.75 Editor, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 2, July and September 1936, pp. 87-88 and 108 Editor, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 4, No.1, January 1938, p.8. Smith, F., AAAA Meteor Section, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 2, No 10, October 1936, p.117

Goodrich Watkins

Campbell, L., Annual Report of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, Popular Astronomy (PA), Volume 35, 1927, p. 585 Campbell, L., Annual Report of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, PA, Volume 36, 1928, p. 619

B.S. Whitney

Reference book Koch, R. H, Observational Astronomy at University of Pennsylvania 1751-2007, published privately by Robert H. Koch, copyright 2008, p.74. The book is accessible online but the website has changed over time. In May 2016, it was possible to locate the book by entering the title in a search engine. B.S. Whitney 369

Journals Olivier, C., Popular Astronomy, volume 51, 1943, p. 272 Taylor, P.H., and C.P. Olivier, A Photometric Study of EZ Aquilae, Publications of the University of Pennsylvania, Astronomical Series, volume 6, Part 5, Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania Press, 1941, p. 5 Whitney, B.S., The Period of SX Cassiopeiae, Information Bulletin on Variable Stars, 1430, 1, International Astronomical Union Enrolled 1930–1936

Russell Anderson

(1910–2005)1 Membership years: 19352, 1936, 1942, 1945, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1955, 1957, 1959–1961, 1964–1966, 1968, 1969, and 1973.3

Russell F. Anderson maintained a relationship with the AMS that spanned 45 years although he did not make meteor reports every year. Nevertheless, he returned after a few years’ hiatus, including World War II, and showed that he was interested in contributing meteor counts and occasionally maps of the paths meteors made across the stars in the night sky. He was most active, counted the most meteors per year, in 1968 and 1969, somewhat late in the 1966 Leonid epoch when another meteor storm was expected. Dr. Olivier named him the Chicago area AMS Regional Director for the years 1960–1973. Russell Anderson conducted 128 watches and reported a total of 2675 meteors that he saw during the 18 years listed above. Anderson was born in Michigan City, Indiana, just to the southeast of Chicago around the curved southern coast of Lake Michigan. The 1930 and 1940 US Census enumerators recorded him as living there with his mother and father, a local food

1Vital statistics from Ancestry.com’s database, USA, Find a Grave Index, 1600s–Current, for Russell F. Anderson. The information in this Web site is identical with, perhaps derived from, two newspaper obituaries for Mr. Anderson: Obituary, Anderson, Russell F., Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), September 20, 2005, and the LaPorte (Indiana) Herald Argus, Tuesday, September 20, 2005. 2Olivier, Meteor Notes: 1935 Perseids, PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 655; and 1935 Orionids in PA, volume 44, 1936, p. 37. Unaccountably, Anderson’s name does not appear in AMS’ Annual Report for 1935. 3See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions in all other years except 1935.

© Richard Taibi 2017 371 R. Taibi, Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science, Springer Biographies, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44518-2_11 372 Enrolled 1930–1936 store owner. The only known occupational information about Anderson showed him to have been a clerk in his father’s store from 1930 to 1942.4 Despite his Indiana roots and employment history, all of his meteor reports were addressed from Chicago, Illinois. The reason for the apparent dual residences is unknown. The only available information about Anderson’s education was that he was a high school graduate.5 He enlisted in the US Army in 1942, became a Warrant Officer, and was discharged in 1945 according to a family account.6 Russell Anderson married twice, the first in 1947 in Michigan City to a woman who became an executive secretary to headmasters of the Chicago Latin School. After his first wife’s death in 1989, Anderson married a Knoxville, Tennessee, woman in 1994. Mr. Anderson was survived by his second wife, two stepdaughters, and a brother. A son, from his first marriage predeceased him. Mr. Anderson, his first wife, and their son are buried in Michigan City, Indiana where his parents are also buried.7

L.E. Armﬁeld

(1906–1977)8 He ﬁled Milwaukee Astronomical Society and later Wisconsin-Northern Illinois Regional Group’s reports with the American Meteor Society (AMS) 1933–1937. In 1935, he organized the ﬁrst ever AMS regional conference.9

4Multiple sources: Obituaries in Footnote 1 above, 1930 and 1940 US Censuses and Ancestry.com’s US World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946. 51940 US Census and from Ancestry.com’s database, US World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946. 6US WW2 Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946 and obituaries mentioned in Footnote 1. 7Obituaries cited in Footnote 1 and online records for the Greenwood Cemetery, Michigan City, Indiana. The author is grateful to Ms. Teresa Sutter, Alumni and Research Coordinator of the Latin School of Chicago for two email letters, on 5/28 and 29/15 in which she informed the author about Mr. Anderson’s first wife, Barbara’s employment with the School. 8Social Security Death Index (SSDI) and Ancestry.com’s Wisconsin Births and Christenings Index both confirm Armfields’ vital statistics. 9The 1933 Annual Report most clearly confirms Armfield’s membership status in that year. For subsequent years, Armfield’s AMS membership is implied by the roles he played in directing Leonid shower cooperative observations among Milwaukee Astronomical Society and Wisconsin-Northern Illinois Regional Group observers, as mentioned and documented in the body of this biography. He claimed regional directorship for 1938 in an article about the RG’s Olivier-Hoffmeister Program Observations; see Amateur Astronomy, Volume 4, No. 1, January 1938, pp. 7–8. Interestingly although Olivier called the program “Hoffmeister-Olivier,” Armfield consistently called it “Olivier-Hoffmeister.” L.E. Armfield 373

Introduction

Luverne Eugene Armfield10 became an early enthusiastic member of Erwin de la Ruelle’s Milwaukee Astronomical Society (MAS) which the latter organized in the summer of 1932.11 “Verne” Armfield seldom watched meteors alone and he first led several MAS members in an August 1933 meteor watch. By November 1933, Armfield had contacted amateur groups in Wisconsin and northern Illinois and suggested collaborative meteor watches. This Great Lakes area coalition became known as the Wisconsin-Northern Illinois (WI-NIL) Regional group which flour- ished for several years afterward. Armfield’s career is noteworthy for his enthusiastic pursuit of amateur astronomer organization and its use to produce scientific results for meteoric and variable star astronomy. Just as observatory directors pushed their staff observers to produce quantities of astronomical data, in so-called factory observatories, Armfield did the same by persuading local groups of amateur colleagues to collaborate with the AMS and American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO).

Early Years

Armﬁeld’s daughter was quoted in a brief online biography of her father that he and his elder brother, Herold, held many jobs during their youth in order to help their mother make ends meet. Reportedly, he and Herold were described in a local paper as “enterprising lads at an early age.” She reported that Luverne attended “Milwaukee Technical College and the Milwaukee branch of the University of Wisconsin” taking courses in mathematics and electrical engineering. A 1927 Milwaukee City directory shows that Luverne and Herold worked for the

10Armfield’s given first and middle names, Luverne Eugene, are documented in Ancestry.com’s Wisconsin Births and Christenings Index, 1826–1908. SSDI gives only his first name, Luverne. 11De La Ruelle’s vital statistics are (1879–1934) and were given in the MAS Bulletin, volume 2, No. 1, January 1935, on its cover page. A differing foundation version is that Armfield was a cofounder of the MAS, presumably with de la Ruelle: Williams, T.R. and M. Saladyga, Advancing Variable Star Astronomy, Cambridge, England and New York: Cambridge University Press; 2011, p. 102. However, the January 1935 edition of the Milwaukee Astronomical Society’s MAS Bulletin, in its memorial to de la Ruelle, identified de la Ruelle, “and a few kindred spirits” as those “who met to form” the MAS in September 1932 with de la Ruelle as the group’s chairman. Source: Boyd, A.F., Editor, MAS Bulletin, Volume 2, No. 1, January 1935, cover page. Perhaps consistent with the preceding two accounts/versions of the founder issue is a quote from MAS historian and observatory director Gene Hanson’s biography of Armfield: “In 1932 with a couple of (Armfield’s) astronomy friends, they thought they should form an astronomy club and an ad was placed in the Sunday edition of the Milwaukee Journal of September 18th (1932). `Àmateur star gazers plan an organization. Amateur students of heavenly bodies who are interested in organizing an amateur astronomical association have been asked to attend an organization meeting at 8 p.m. at the home of L.E. Armfield.” 374 Enrolled 1930–1936

Wisconsin Telephone Company: Herold was a foreman and 21-year-old (Lu)Verne an “equipment engineer.” The following year, Verne married Dorothy Elizabeth Haertel (1908–1998)12 who was to become an enthusiastic MAS meteor observer with Verne. Within four more years, 1932 the year that the MAS was organized, the couple had become parents after the birth of a daughter.13

Armﬁeld’s Astronomy Career

Armfield’s prolific observational career began in 1933, the first year that his meteor and variable star14 observations were published in Popular Astronomy. Almost from the start of his AMS membership, he directed MAS group meteor watches from his backyard. Armfield’s first published coordinated watch was of the 1933 Perseid shower with the collaboration of Dorothy, her father and six other MAS observers. Armfield divided observers into three groups located in Milwaukee and south and north of Milwaukee. The Milwaukee subgroup recorded 277 meteors, Armfield’s southern group 285 meteors and the northern group recorded 117. There is no account of how many of these meteors were plotted on star maps and how many were merely counted. It may be that this Perseid watch, involving divided groups, the most widely separated by 50 miles (80 km.) and which recorded meteors nearly simultaneously, was a training exercise in preparation for November’s Leonid shower, widely anticipated to be a recurrence of the phenomenal 1833 Leonid meteor storm. If so, Armfield was supervising a rehearsal of the observational and recording procedures needed to compute the November meteors’ atmospheric heights. In collaboration with Armfield’s 1933 Leonid campaign, a total of 25 observers staffed ten widely distributed stations in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. Doris Wills, Dr. Charles Olivier’s meteor research assistant, described the outcome of this difficult coordination effort by what she termed the “Wisconsin network.” All observers hoped to see a Leonid meteor storm like the one witnessed in 1833 when the sky was filled with thousands of meteors. Unfortunately, the meteors failed to storm and the participants’ inexperience contributed to poorer results than Armfield would have hoped for. Ms. Wills was able to deduce 18 meteors’ heights but observers’ procedural errors reduced the precision of height measurements. However, she encouraged Armfield’s confederates by commenting, “…observers

12Marriage to Armfield stated in: Vandervest Family Tree in Ancestry.com’s Public Member Trees database for Luverne E. Armfield. Dorothy’s vital statistics are documented in the Social Security Death Index under her second husband’s family name: Dorothy E. Frister. 131940 US Census, household of Carl and Dorothy Frister in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A daughter is listed, aged 8 years, born during the years Luverne and Dorothy were married. 14L.E. Armfield’s first contribution to the AAVSO was in July, 1933. Source: Annual Report of the AAVSO for the year ending October 31, 1933, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 41, 1933, p. 576. L.E. Armfield 375 throughout the network deserve special commendation for cooperating so faithfully in the detailed observing plans made by their organizer, L.E. Armfield…the observers were unusually careful in following instructions about directions in which the observations were to be made…the Wisconsin observers show much promise, and with additional experience should become an excellent source of careful and precise observations.” Armfield’s August and November 1933 campaigns captured Dr. Olivier’s attention and he acknowledged Armfield’s hard work by appointing him AMS Regional Director for Wisconsin-Northern Illinois (WI-NIL) region. By the end of 1933, the Milwaukee Astronomical Society had plotted and counted 1120 meteors, reflecting the effectiveness of Armfield’s observer organization in Milwaukee. Armfield personally mapped 102 meteors during four night watches in 1933. Dorothy Armfield counted 189 during two watches. In addition to naked eye observing sessions, Verne Armfield reported seeing 33 telescopic meteors in the process of estimating variable stars’ magnitudes and another 100 which “were a daylight shower” that he had chanced to detect!

Intensiﬁed Activity in 1934

Verne Armfield was not merely an astronomical observer and meteor watch coordinator for the WI-NIL. He was also the MAS’ Secretary-Treasurer and a member of the society’s Observatory Site Search Team. He presented lectures to the society’s members15 and gave talks to the public, as well. In his total dedication to the MAS, Armfield made his home the Bulletin’s postal address as well as the Society’s headquarters. Verne’s backyard contained telescopes that were used by MAS members to estimate variable star magnitudes and it served as a meteor watch site as well. However, Armfield yielded one duty to astronomy in the Great Lakes area. When he became WI-NIL’s regional meteor director, Edward A. Halbach16 became the MAS’ Meteor Director. The Bulletin’s contents revealed that MAS members were involved in variable star observations and the publication provided instructions about how they were to be made; but even in this second, distinctly different-from-meteors observational field, Armfield had an important role: providing members with star charts on which variable stars were identified. August, September, and October 1934 issues of the Bulletin documented Armfield’s growing interest in variable star monitoring: he amassed a total of 1136 magnitude estimates during the three months.17 Harvard

15His talk May 4, 1934, lecture was a paper about “Meteors” and “in part a summary of work done by the meteor group of the society.” Editor, Bulletin, volume 1, number 3, April, 1934. 16Halbach is the subject of another biography in this book. 17Dorothy Armﬁeld followed Verne’s example. She made 218 magnitude estimates during September and October 1934. 376 Enrolled 1930–1936

College Observatory’s Leon Campbell, the AAVSO’s Recorder, recognized Armfield’s promise as a “VSO,” a variable star observer. The October Bulletin reported, “…Leon Campbell offered a 13 inch (telescope) mirror if (Armfield) would do variable star research…(and the resulting telescope) is being used entirely for the observation of faint novae, faint variables at their minima and faint irregular variables.” This irresistible bait netted a committee of 12 MAS members to fashion a telescope to carry the mirror. Among the telescope makers were Ed Halbach and Arthur L. Peck, two men who observed for the AMS and AAVSO. Armfield was not only devoted to variable star observation, he was a regular attendee at AAVSO spring and fall meetings where his interest and energy moved him to participate in the organization’s governance. He was elected to the AAVSO Council in 1934 and served on it until 1939. For three of those years, he served as vice president. Armfield was not alone in this AMS-AAVSO organizational mul- titasking; Dr. Olivier, the President of the AMS, served on the Council as well, from 1935 to 1939. Verne’s many variable star activities did not seem to interfere with direction of the WI-NIL regional group when major showers’ maxima were imminent. Armfield led the regional group to watch the 1934 Leonid shower during its maximum. That year, he coordinated the observational efforts of four Wisconsin astronomical societies (Milwaukee, Reedsburg, Madison, and Beloit) during two nights’ watches, November 14/15 and 15/16, 1934. Their results yielded 20 simultaneously plotted meteors’ heights according to Ms. Wills’ analyses. Olivier’s Annual Report showed that under Halbach’s leadership MAS’ meteor observers had observed on an impressive 42 nights in 1934 and mapped three-quarters of the 1409 meteors credited to them. The 1934 annual report revealed that Armfield had recorded 97 more telescopically seen meteors while he monitored variable stars’ magnitudes. Armfield reported a separate accounting of the WI-NIL regional group’s accomplishments. In 1934, member groups’ observers performed watches to determine the heights of May’s Eta Aquarids, the Pons-Winnecke-ids in late June, August’s Perseids and 61 members watched the 1934 Leonids.18 WI-NIL Leonid data furnished hourly Leonid meteor rates for three of the shower’s dates near maximum and Armfield was proud to report that the observers had plotted 300 meteor paths during a total of 10 h’ observation. Armfield also alerted the region’s observers to pay particular attention to long-enduring meteor trains, should they linger after a Leonid fireball’s appearance. In that event, observers were to cease any other activity and instead draw the changing appearance and sky background of the evolving train. This was in accordance with Dr. Olivier’s wish that such recording would be given the regional observers’“best attention.” After November 1934, hopes for another Leonid meteor storm vanished, but there was a new AMS project to fill the void. In December’s Bulletin, Armfield

18Once again, Dorothy Armfield played a part in the WI-NIL region’s work; she plotted meteors’ paths during the Eta Aquarid and Pons-Winneckid campaigns. Sources: Bulletin, volume 1, no. 6, July 1934, p. 32 and no. 7, August 1934, p. 36 respectively. L.E. Armfield 377 identified another scientific meteor project for the WI-NIL region’s observers to pursue: the Hoffmeister-Olivier Program which required making half-hourly meteor counts during calendar periods when no major meteor showers were active. When the Wisconsin-Northern Illinois group contributed 2526 meteors during 98 watches in 1935, Olivier proclaimed its work “outstanding.” Armfield’s personal meteor contribution in 1935 was 58 more telescopic meteors’ magnitudes which he estimated during hours at a telescope’s eyepiece while monitoring variable stars.

1935: Milwaukee Hosted Drs. Shapley and Olivier

In 1935, Milwaukee was the venue for lectures from astronomers Harlow Shapley and Charles P. Olivier and Verne Armfield was deeply involved with these professionals’ visits. Harlow Shapley, Director of the Harvard College Observatory which hosted the AAVSO’s headquarters, presented an illustrated lecture given to the Harvard Club of Milwaukee on January 12, 1935. MAS members were invited to attend and after the lecture Armfield invited Shapley to visit with members at his home the following morning. Shapley agreed and gave a talk about Nova Herculis, a faint star that had blazed to naked eye brightness the previous December. Shapley also “cleared up every difficulty (about variable star observing) presented for discussion and in doing so left such a favorable impression on the members (of the MAS) variable star section that each and every one had a new zest for his avocation.” Shapley further impressed his audience by asking to see the society’s telescopes in Armfield’s back yard and in agreeing to a group photograph, modestly insisting that they should only think of him as “an emissary from the Harvard Observatory.” A similar visit to Milwaukee, by Olivier, to lecture the Milwaukee Alumni of the University of Pennsylvania occurred on August 9, 1935. Olivier met with AMS members and local amateur telescope makers in Chicago, Illinois, the following day, and he credited Armfield “whose efforts the meeting…made possible.” Olivier acknowledged that this meeting was his first with a group of AMS members, many of whom “he had corresponded (with) for years.” Dr. Olivier had long believed that “due to the wide scattering of (AMS) members, it has never been possible to hold a general or national meeting, yet the success of this group meeting makes (me) hope that in the future similar ones can be held and eventually one for the whole Society.” The two-hour meeting included a request from Olivier to the non-AMS members present to sketch and report long-enduring meteor trains as well as report the magnitudes of telescopic meteors they chanced to see. The amateur astronomers were also given an opportunity to get clarification about “certain points of difficulty in meteoric astronomy.” Olivier noted that “the meeting was wholly informal, yet it appeared to arouse the interest of those present.” 378 Enrolled 1930–1936

1935: The Year the Wisconsin and Missouri Regions Joined Forces

J. Wesley Simpson, Director of the Missouri-Southern Illinois Observers (M-SIO), probably startled MAS members when they read his cover article in May 1935’s Bulletin. Simpson revealed that he and Armfield had held discussions prompted by Armfield’s inspiration to form a new national amateur organization, the American Amateur Astronomical Association (AAAA); it would encompass local societies and their regional associations, the WI-NIL and M-SIO. The new AAAA would be modeled after the British Astronomical Association, formed by amateur astronomers in 1890. “Mr. Armfield’s idea that we combine the MAS, the M-SIO and the Madison, Wisconsin Astronomical Society to form the nucleus of the proposed new…Association was the first step made…The aims of the new association” explained Simpson, “are to stimulate active participation of amateurs…in the … AMS and the AAVSO…” When the AAAA became active, it would have a new journal, Amateur Astronomy (AA) that would replace the MAS’ Bulletin and the M-SIO’s Astronomical Discourse as well as the newsletters of other societies which joined it. Further, the Wisconsin and Missouri regional directors proposed that when the first issue of AA was published in January 1936 their regions’ constituent societies’ members would be “grandfathered” into AAAA membership. Simpson oriented M-SIO’s members to the AAAA in the May 1935 issue of their journal Astronomical Discourse (AD). He also explained in full detail how meteor activity direction and reporting were to proceed under the new Association. He announced that an article, “Meteor Notes of the AAAA” would be an ongoing monthly feature of AD. He explained that meteor sections of WI-NIL’s member societies would continue to be directed by Regional Director Armfield and those of the M-SIO would continue under his lead as its Regional Director. But, henceforth, the new AAAA’s Meteor Section was to be composed of the WI-NIL and M-SIO AMS regional groups that would report summary data to him for Amateur Astronomy’s records and publication. Establishment of the AAAA Meteor Section imposed another layer of hierarchical structure in which local societies, their regional groups, and the AAAA all had meteor sections and their directors. Luverne Armfield’s responsibility under the AAAA organization was to summarize local societies’ variable star results in an AAAA “Variable Star Section Notes” column published in Amateur Astronomy, like Simpson’s “Meteor Notes.” However, the two men did not wait for Amateur Astronomy’s first issue in January 1936 (also the inauguration of the AAAA); they began to publish their “Notes” in May 1935 issues of AD and the Bulletin. Beginning May 1935, until January 1936, the only publication that contained reports of the WI-NIL region’s meteor results was AD, in Simpson’s Notes column. Likewise, the only publication to print summaries of variable star observations was the Bulletin in which Armfield’s “Notes” columns appeared. L.E. Armfield 379

AAAA “Notes” in Astronomical Discourse and the MAS Bulletin

Simpson’s AAAA Meteor Notes articles revealed his openness to monitoring minor meteor showers; a more inclusive viewpoint than Armfield’s. Both regional directors followed Olivier’s instructions to make simultaneous observations of the major meteor showers in order to measure meteor heights. But, Simpson alerted AAAA meteor watchers about the maxima of minor showers, ones that were not consistently visible annually and had low hourly rates when they did appear. He did not mention his sources for this information, but they were not from Olivier who never emphasized minor showers. Simpson’s alerts about minor showers suggest that he had a greater interest than Armfield in increasing the number of meteor showers to monitor. Armfield’s reports about 1935’s WI-NIL meteor results frequently were about the number of meteors counted and the minutes of elapsed observational time, in support of the “Olivier-Hoffmeister Program.” Armfield chose to reverse the astronomers’ names, probably because of a nationalistic preference to have the American astronomer, Olivier named first. The December 1935, AD contained an article by Simpson with instructions for neophyte meteor observers so they could competently participate in the “Olivier-Hoffmeister Program.” Reading Armfield’s “Variable Star Notes” in the 1935 Bulletin issues gives some idea about the depth of his enthusiasm for variable star study. The first and most concrete indicator is a simple count of magnitude estimates Armfield made during eight months of 1935: 1829. The second indicator is Armfield’s advocacy for a new AAVSO initiative to discover novae, “new” naked eye stars that burst into visibility due to an immense brightening of faint predecessor stars. Nova Herculis’ December 1934 outburst captured public attention and this event prompted the AAVSO to form a Nova Search Committee. Armfield seized the moment’s excitement to lead an AAAA nova search effort. He announced the program in the August 1935 issue with an appreciation for WI-NIL meteor observer Frank Preucil’s initiative to send Armfield photographic negatives of star charts which Armfield could convert into search charts suitable in comparison with the sky. Armfield offered these to volunteer nova searchers among the AAAA membership. The September issue contained a note from Armfield in which he described himself as “speechless” at the enthusiastic response from amateurs interested in the nova search campaign. He listed 28 names of those who responded to his announcement. With contributions like these to the AAVSO, it was probably not a surprise to Bulletin readers when they were informed that Armfield’s stature in the AAVSO had grown. The November Bulletin reported that, “Mr. Armfield was elected a member of the (AAVSO) council, and when the Council met to appoint officers, he was chosen Second Vice President. This is a signal honor…the Association held a banquet meeting, at which Mr. Armfield was honored by being asked for a few words, and he spoke briefly on various phases of the work of the MAS.” 380 Enrolled 1930–1936

1936–1937: Armﬁeld’s Final Years of AMS Involvement

In the AMS’ 1936 Annual Report, Olivier credited Armfield for motivating WI-NIL observers to count meteors for 570 h: the group’s members counted almost 2900 meteors for the Hoffmeister-Olivier program. In the following year’s report, 1937, Olivier praised Armfield again for “succeeding in organizing cooperative (meteor) work” among members of the far-flung Wisconsin-N. Illinois Group. Eight of the group’s observers reported on 220 meteors, most of which were counted. Curiously, Armfield’s name disappeared from Dr. Olivier’s Meteor Notes column in Popular Astronomy after 1937’s AMS annual report. However, Armfield’s reports informed AAAA members about WI-NIL meteor campaigns in 1938’s issues of Amateur Astronomy. Armfield’s last personal meteor campaign was reported to be on April 14, 1938, when he and J. Wesley Simpson used short-wave radios to communicate while they performed a simultaneous meteor watch. Armfield watched from Milwaukee and Simpson from his home observatory at Webster Groves, Missouri. No simultaneous observations were announced in the article. In addition to meteors, Armfield reported the number of AAAA members who monitored designated nova search areas of the sky in each of Amateur Astronomy’s issues, 1936–1938. In February and March 1938, observers visually and photographically patrolled 7100 square degrees of the Northern Hemisphere’s sky, totaling about one-third of it!19 Some Nova Search participants examined their assigned 100-square-degree regions with binoculars. With optical aid, they were comparing 7th magnitude stars seen in the sky with “stars” plotted on specially produced sky charts. They hoped to identify a “new” uncharted star: an eagerly anticipated nova. Unfortunately, as late as December 1937, no searcher had succeeded in spotting a nova, or a comet which an observer would have been happy to discover too.

Unfortunate Events

For several years, since 1933, Armﬁeld had been coordinating AMS meteor campaigns, becoming more involved in the direction of the AAVSO, increasing nighttime hours at the 13-inch telescope in his backyard checking variable stars’ magnitudes, hosting MAS members as they performed meteor and variable star work, giving public lectures about astronomy and describing meteor and nova search results in his columns in the Bulletin and Amateur Astronomy. The strain of all this, plus employment and parental responsibilities had stressed the Armﬁelds’ marriage. Dorothy and Verne separated in the summer of 1936, and the November 1936 Amateur Astronomy’s masthead showed that its headquarters’ address,

19A celestial hemisphere contains almost 21,000 square degrees. L.E. Armﬁeld 381

Armfield’s, had changed. Due to divorce, Armfield, the journal’s publisher, had to vacate the property which had so long been the MAS’s center of activity.20 The 13-inch telescope in his backyard was disassembled, and over the following two years was refurbished by MAS members and by June 1938 was operational in the MAS’ new observatory in rural Waukesha County.21 In addition to Armfield’s domestic disarray and MAS members’ telescope and observing site deprivation, Amateur Astronomy (and because the journal was the linchpin connecting member societies) the AAAA was in financial trouble. As early as August 1936 Armfield informed AA’s readers that “…a number of contributing societies are in arrears in their payments so it will be necessary to combine the September and October issues if this money is not available by August 20.” Apparently, dues were not sent and Armfield found it difficult to continue publishing AA even when two monthly issues were combined into one. He issued a second warning about financial disaster in the August–September 1937 issue,

“Perhaps the members of our far-ﬂung organization are not aware of it, but, AA has not been self-sustaining, and…only through the gracious tolerance of our printers…the magazine made its regular monthly appearance…10 members have agreed to contribute 5 dollars per month for a 12 month period…this guarantees the publication of 10 issues of AA during the coming year…for without their general support the publication of AA would have been reduced…to 6 issues a year or perhaps discontinued…” Unfortunately, even with the members’ largesse and the printer’s forbearance, the journal folded with the June–July 1938 double issue; its cover story was the history of the MAS’s observatory and its inauguration that summer. The AAAA’s organization disintegrated after AA ceased publication. Thus ended a confederation that had grown to 12 astronomical societies and had spanned the USA: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, as well as Wisconsin.

Legacy in Wisconsin

Luverne Armﬁeld’s role in amateur astronomy is well remembered in Milwaukee- area Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Astronomical Society still exists and has an impressive array of telescopes in observatory shelters at its New Berlin site in Waukesha County. The observatory campus’ Director, Gene Hanson, himself an

20Gene Hanson, MAS historian and observatory director sent the author a MS Word-document biography of Luverne Armfield as an email attachment, and on p. 6 Hanson mentions that “…(in October 1936), Armfield had to move from his house as a result of a divorce…” 21The history of the backyard telescope’s removal and renovation and the new observatory’s development and inauguration is retold in Edward Halbach’s article: Amateur Astronomy, volume 4, number 6, June-July 1938, pp. 61–63 and 76. 382 Enrolled 1930–1936 extremely productive AAVSO member, reported that the 13-inch reflector and the domed observatory housing it are named for Armfield.22

Other Aspects of Armﬁeld’s Life in Wisconsin

During his frenetic years with astronomy, Armfield was employed by the Wisconsin Telephone Company (WTC) in Milwaukee. Public records indicate he worked there from 1929 to at least 1936. His job titles at WTC were equipment man (1929), telephone company circuit layout engineer (1930), and Wisconsin Telephone Company employee (1936).23 During World War II, specifically 1942–1945, Armfield was reported to have manufactured or polished roof prisms at an optical shop in his home or at the MAS observatory. Roof prisms are optical glass components of some optical instruments, like binoculars that were needed by the War Department for prosecution of the war.

Armﬁeld’s Later Life Story

From 1933 to 1938, Luverne Armfield’s name and exploits were frequently noted in local and regional journals like the Bulletin, Astronomical Discourse, and Amateur Astronomy and also in the national journal, Popular Astronomy. But after 1938 his name was seldom seen in print and for this reason, his later biography is more difficult to reconstruct. However, his life story from 1946 on is found briefly mentioned in genealogical sources, newspapers, and in public documents. Verne’s mother died in 1946 while living in Lafayette, Indiana. Two years later, on January 24, 1948, Verne Armfield married a second time, to Edith May Helgeson in New Albany, Indiana. In 1949, the couple had moved to where a city directory stated he was a commercial manager for the Elyria Telephone Company. Two years later he and Edith were still in Elyria and he had the same employment; but later in 1951 the Armfields moved to Fargo, North Dakota. In Fargo, Verne founded a consulting firm, Communication Consultants, Inc., using the technical and business experience he had developed while working for telephone utilities. In 1954, he was described as a communications engineer and he

22Hanson, G., 2015, op. cit. See http://www.milwaukeeastro.org/aboutMAS/about.asp. Accessed 5/23/16 where Armfield is mentioned as “the founder of the MAS” and is memorialized on the “Armfield Dome” Webpage at http://www.milwaukeeastro.org/observatories/aScope.asp. Accessed 5/23/16. “The 14 foot ‘A’ dome is named for Lavern (sic) Armfield.” 23Armfield presented a talk to fellow Wisconsin Telephone Company employees about how solar activity affected radio communication. L.E. Armfield 383 served as an advisor to seven rural telephone associations that were to buy the North Dakota Telephone Company. While living in Fargo, Verne’s enthusiasm for astronomy continued and he shared it with Fargo neighbors like he did in Milwaukee. His eldest daughter recalled that Verne and “Dewey Bergquist24, a local weatherman with WDAY, Channel 6 TV became close friends as both had an interest in the universe. They went on to host ‘Star Parties.’25 In 1960 or 1961, they were cohosts of a TV show called ‘Out of this World’ where they would explore the universe and take questions from callers.” Armfield apparently felt comfortable in front of a television audience and camera and his daughter reported that he frequently appeared on another daily TV program that was unrelated to astronomy. She reported that Verne “was very active in his church, in his professional life, and with his children.” Luverne Armfield died in Fargo in 1977 and was survived by Edith, three sons and two daughters from his second marriage as well as a daughter from his first.

L. Arslanian26

(1921–1981)27 Membership years: 1936–1939 and 194428

Leon Arslanian was born in Massachusetts, but his family relocated to San Jose, California where he made his ﬁrst AMS observation at age 15 in 1936. According to US Army records, Arslanian enlisted in 1941 as a private and was assigned to the Air Corps. At that time, he reported having two years of college education and working as an actor.29 Arslanian showed his commitment to meteor work by making an observation in 1944 while a Sergeant assigned to duty in England.30 No records were found about details of his postwar life. Arslanian counted a total of 179 meteors and plotted another 66 during the 11 watches of his AMS years.

24Albert Lloyd Dewey Bergquist (1923–1996) was found in Ancestry.com’s records. Bergquist’s last address was in Fargo and he was identified as on the staff of WDAY-TV in a 1976 Fergus Falls, Minnesota newspaper article. 25Armfield’s daughter did not clarify if this was a television program or the more typical meaning in which amateur astronomers gather with their telescopes at night and share views of celestial objects with the public. 26Dr. Olivier recorded his name as “ArslOnian” in annual reports. The correct spelling is given here. 27Social Security Death Index. 28See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 29US WW2 Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946 on the Ancestry.com Web site. 30See the 1944 Annual report. 384 Enrolled 1930–1936 Stewart R. Baker

(1911–1994)31 Membership years: 1930–193232

Stewart R. Baker contributed meteor plots during his undergraduate college years at Ursinus College near Philadelphia and while at Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA. His observational totals were 310 meteors recorded on 14 nights during three years of AMS membership.33 Baker completed four years of college and became a secondary school teacher. He was employed in that capacity in 193934 and he enlisted in the US Army in 1943.35 His wartime military service was performed in the USA and he was discharged from the Army in 1946.36 Public records indicate he lived in North and South Carolina in the years after the war.37 None of the available records about him reported that he was ever married.

James L. Black

(1906–1986)38 Membership years: 1934–1937 and 194439

James Lester Black was a Cleveland, Ohio surveyor who practiced the profession all his working life.40 When he began meteor work in 1934, he conducted 14 watches during which he plotted 205 meteors. His total contributions to the AMS were 360 plotted meteors recorded on 22 nights.

31Ancestry.com’s database: Social Security Death Index (SSDI) 32See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. For Baker’s 1931 contribution, see Table 2 in the annual report. 33Ibid. 341940 US Census. 35Ancestry.com’s database: US World War II Army Enlistment Records 1938–1946. 36Pennsylvania Veteran Compensation Application, WW2, 1950. 37Ibid. His last residence on the SSDI was listed as Spartanburg, SC. 38Social Security Death Index. 39See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 40“Ohio Deaths, 1938–2007,” on the Ancestry.com Web site, reports that he died in 1986 January 18 and his occupation was a “surveying and mapping technician.” Edward F. Bowman 385 Edward F. Bowman

(1902–2000)41 Membership years: 1932–1934, 1936, and 193842

Edward Franklin43 Bowman was a 27-year-old printer working in a Kansas City, Missouri print shop, in 1930.44 In 1933, he founded the Heart of America Amateur Astronomers which he led on group meteor counts for the AMS in 1932–1934, the years a Leonid storm was predicted. Bowman’s club counted 2178 meteors while performing 13 watches during the three Leonid seasons. In 1936, Heart of America performed another one-night group watch that netted 174 meteors; Bowman held a solo watch in 1938, his last one, in which he counted 45 more meteors. The Heart of America group has been a successful, long-enduring one whose name has changed over the past 80 years. Under Bowman’s early leadership, it “was a group formed to study astronomy as it related to the Bible.” In its most recent avatar, it is called the Astronomical Society of Kansas City (Missouri) and it hosts regular extended star parties, called the Heart of America Star Party, on a 40-acre dark sky site the club maintains 75 miles south of Kansas City. ASKC has also built a multi-telescope and dome observing site on a hilltop in Louisburg, Kansas.45 Mr. Bowman’s other astronomy-related endeavor included operating Bowman Telescope and Supply Company in Kansas City.

Milton L. Braun

(1892–1955)46 Membership years: 1934, 1936, 1939, and 194247

Milton Lau Braun48 had three careers during his lifetime: college educator, a Baptist minister-missionary, and a physicist.

41US Social Security Death Index. 42See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 43His middle name was mentioned on this Web site: Missouri, Find a Grave Index, 1812–2012 as was the fact that he had been married to Carma. They married in 1946 (see Missouri Marriage Records, 1805–2002). 441930 US Census. 45Astronomical Society of Kansas City Web site: http://www.askc.org/index.htm. Accessed on 5/24/16. Mr. Bowman announced the Heart of America organization to Dr. Olivier in 1933: See the 1933 annual report where the organization’s name appears next to Bowman’s in Table 1, the list of AMS members who contributed observations. 46Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current, in Ancestry.com database for Milton L. Braun. 47See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 48Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current: His middle name, Lau, appears in this source. 386 Enrolled 1930–1936

His educational career began in 1912, when as a 20-year-old, he taught high school subjects at a YMCA night program, to teenaged and adult mill workers in Asheville, North Carolina’s (NC) cotton mill district.49 In the fall of the same year, Braun began undergraduate studies at Ohio State University50 but graduated from Wake Forest College in 1915, a year less than the usual four-year college curriculum.51 Following graduation, Braun spent the next two years as a student-missionary in China.52 The year 1917 witnessed the 25-year-old’s ordination as a Baptist minister53 and marriage to Mary Young54, a young woman with religious and missionary interests similar to Braun’s. Reverend Braun led a Baptist congregation in Asheville for a year.55 Then, he and his wife sailed to China in 1918 to engage in missionary work and he became an instructor at a Baptist college in Beijing. Braun’s obituary reported that he was a college instructor in China until 1927, but he took some sabbaticals to earn a master’s degree from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNCCH) in 1924.56 In 1927, he returned to North Carolina and began doctoral studies in physics at UNCCH; he completed a dissertation in 1930.57 The same year, he was appointed a professor and chairman of Catawba College’s Department of Physics and Mathematics. He maintained this post at the Salisbury, NC college, until 1952.58 An obituary reported that “his research in the elasticity of rubber was of value to industry and recognized by his fellow scientists.” It also stated that in 1949 he was a consultant to “the Oak Ridge, Tennessee Nuclear Research Center.” As his professional stature grew, he was named Vice President of the NC Academy of Science

49YMCA will open Branch near Mills, Asheville Citizen (Asheville, NC), Saturday, January 20, 1912, p. 10. 50Social Happenings, Asheville Gazette-News, (Asheville, NC), Thursday, September 12, 1912, p. 5. 51Asheville Citizen (Asheville, NC), Monday, May 31, 1915, p. 8. 52Asheville Citizen (Asheville, NC), Sunday, January 28, 1917, p. 10. 53Asheville Citizen (Asheville, NC), Sunday, January 28, 1917, p. 10. 54Asheville Citizen (Asheville, NC), Thursday, January 4, 1917, p. 6. 55Cornerstone will be laid tomorrow,, Asheville Citizen (Asheville, NC), Saturday, August 11, 1917, p. 3. The article describes the establishment of the church for a congregation of which Braun was pastor. 56Illness Fatal to Catawba’s Dr. Braun, Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), Tuesday, February 15, 1955, p. 1. 57Doctors of Philosophy, Greensboro Daily News, (Greensboro, North Carolina), Wednesday, June 11, 1930, p. 2. The dissertation title was: “Electrodeless Glow Discharge” (reported in Charlotte Observer on June 11, 1930). The 1930 US Census reported that he was an instructor at UNCCH, presumably as he completed his doctoral degree. 58His career at Catawba College was reported in two North Carolina newspapers: Illness Fatal to Catawba’s Dr. Braun, Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, North Carolina), Tuesday, February 15, 1955, p. 1; and Dr. Braun Dies, The Robesonian (Lumberton, North Carolina), Tue February 15, 1955, p. 6; as well as in Physics Today, July, 1955: online: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/ magazine/physicstoday/article/8/7/10.1063/1.3062079. Accessed on 8/18/14. Milton L. Braun 387 in 1938; and its President, 1944–1946. In 1947, he became Chairman of the Southeast Section of the American Physical Society.59 Despite all his academic and professional activity, Braun maintained a ministerial vocation: he officiated at a couple’s marriage in 1934.60 Dr. Braun and his wife witnessed two Perseid fireballs at dusk on August 12, 1933. These were “earth grazers,” meteors that enter the earth’s atmosphere when the radiant is low in the sky; they skim across the sky, almost completely crossing the dome of the sky overhead. Braun became acquainted with the American Meteor Society after his written report was redirected to Dr. Olivier and Olivier contacted him.61 Braun began collaborating with Olivier by fielding a team of 21 Catawba College students to count meteors from November 14–17, 1934. Dr. Braun assigned students to watch several compass azimuths in an effort to count as many Leonid and sporadic meteors as possible. This was done to help Dr. Olivier establish hourly meteor rates during the shower and to refine the date of the Leonids’ maximum activity. The Catawba team counted a total of 814 meteors during the four nights’ watches.62 Dr. Olivier named Dr. Braun an AMS Regional Director (RD) in recognition for the 1934 campaign. The RD’s role was training and supervising members in AMS methods. Leaders also collected members’ reports and local citizens’ fireball accounts to be forwarded to AMS Headquarters at Flower Observatory in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. A fireball seen in the early morning hours of May 6, 1936, gave Braun an opportunity to fulfill the investigatory aspect of his role. The Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC) reported that Braun intended to travel seventy miles to Wilkes County, NC “to investigate the meteor reported(ly) found there… (and he planned) to obtain samples and to gather facts from nearby residents.”63 Unfortunately, the historical record has no report of the outcome of this expedition, or if it occurred. However, an earlier Daily News account recorded Braun’s claim that he was “…seeking reports from other (people) who might have witnessed the (fireball’s) light.”64 AMS Regional Director Braun organized two more meteor counting campaigns at Catawba College, in 1939 and 1942.65 A local newspaper reported that in 1942

59Illness Fatal to Catawba’s Dr. Braun, Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), Tuesday, February 15, 1955, p. 1 60Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), Wednesday, January 2, 1935, p. 6. 61Letter from Milton L Braun to Science News Letter/ Science Service in re: two Perseid earth- grazer meteors seen August 12, 1933. The letter was redirected to C.P. Olivier and is preserved in the AMS Archives box labeled “1930s.” 62Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 43, pp. 117–118. 63Astronomy Expert to Study Meteor,, Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), Tuesday, May 12, 1936, p. 5 64Night watchman reports seeing brilliant light, Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), Wednesday, May 6, 1936, p. 11. 65See AMS annual reports for 1939 and 1942. 388 Enrolled 1930–1936 he arranged to teach a special class in astronomy, presumably with an observational laboratory assignment as a component of it.66 The wartime campaign(s) were especially rewarding because the 30 observers involved counted 656 meteors during ﬁve night watches.67 After 1942, Dr. Braun may not have been able to take time from college and professional association duties in order to arrange more meteor campaigns. He died in 1955, survived by his wife, a brother, and a half brother.68

Herbert A. Burns

(1910–1997)69 Membership years: 1930–193270

Herbert Alexander71 Burns came from a well-to-do family that lived in a village north of New York City. His father Alexander owned greenhouses and operated a ﬂorist business since 1910.72 The Burns family lived in a home valued at $100,000 in 1930; the equivalent value of such a home is $1.4 million in 2012 dollars. The family also had two servants living with them.73 The 1940 US Census recorded Herbert’s occupation as “ﬂorist,” suggesting that he had continued in the family business, perhaps assuming ownership after his father’s retirement or death. Herbert apparently enjoyed a privileged lifestyle because steamship records in the Ancestry.com Web site indicate he took annual cruises to warm-weather locales like the Caribbean and Hawaii from 1932 to 1952. He married in 193674; no available records could be found to indicate whether or not the couple had children.

66Catawba Offers New Courses, Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), Sunday April 19, 1942, p. 10: “Dr. Milton Braun, head of the Physics Department is teaching a course on astronomy during the second semester.” 67See 1942 AMS annual report. It is not clear from the report whether the watches occurred during one or more meteor showers. 68Dr. Braun Dies, The Robesonian (Lumberton, NC), Tuesday, February 15, 1955, p. 6. 69US Social Security Death Index. 70See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 71His middle name was given in the Ancestry.com database category Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage, and Death Announcements, 1851–2003. 72The 1910 and 1920 US Censuses report his ﬂorist business, as well as the 1930 Census. 731930 US Census. 74Marriage announcement in Ancestry’s Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage, and Death Announcements, 1851–2003: “Special to NY Times March 4, 1936, Miss Nancy Elise Cable to Herbert Alexander Burns…She was a graduate of Miss Beard’s School, Orange NJ and NY School of Fine and Applied art.” Herbert A. Burns 389

Mr. Burns’ meteor career consisted of 16 nights’ watches during which he plotted 275 meteors on AMS star maps. His AMS contribution years suggest that he held meteor watches while attending college and they ended after he graduated.

E.E. Friton

(1915–1994)75 Membership years: 1934–1937, 1940–1944, 1950–1953, 1956, 1960–1965, 1967, 1969, and 1971–197376

Nineteen-year-old Edwin Elmer Friton77 shared J. Wesley Simpson’s78 passion to build a community observatory in their hometown, Webster Groves, Missouri. By 1934, Simpson’s celebrity for educating the general public about ﬁreballs and other astronomical events had earned the goodwill of people in the greater St. Louis area and in particular, that of Harry Koken, a wealthy amateur astronomer who bequeathed his 12-inch (30 cm) reﬂecting telescope to Simpson. Twenty-year-old Simpson was eager to house the telescope in an observatory to be named for Locksley Place, the street on which his family lived. Simpson’s efforts attracted Friton who responded by rushing to build two telescopes in time for the Observatory’s inauguration in October 1935. Friton appropriately had a proprietary interest in the observatory, considering the “sweat equity” he put into in it; he was described as its Assistant Director, subordinate to Simpson, in a May 1937 issue of a national magazine intended for the amateur astronomy audience in the US79 Fellow amateur astronomer Stuart O’Byrne80 recalled that, “Friton was a member of the group that maintained the Locksley Observatory…which held classes in observational astronomy during the late 1930s.”81 In addition to educating the general public, Edwin Friton wrote astronomically informative articles for other amateurs in Astronomical Discourse (AD), a journal begun by J. Wesley Simpson. Just as he was second-in-command at Locksley Observatory, Friton was Associate Editor of AD. But, the two young men did not ignore the primary objective of an observatory: recording astronomical events. These two prodigies, Simpson and Friton, mapped out an ambitious observational program to accomplish during 1936, using Locksley’s telescopes: observing

75Social Security Death Index: Ancestry.com database for Edwin Friton. 76See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 77Full name found in Ancestry.com’s Public Family Trees: Benton1_2013-04-25_AutoBackup Tree. 78See J. W. Simpson’s biography elsewhere in this book. 79Amateur Astronomy, volume 3, number 5, May 1937, p. 89. 80See Stuart O’Byrne’s biography in this Chapter. 81Stuart O’Byrne wrote a memorial piece about Friton for AAVSO Newsletter, 13 August 1994, p. 11. 390 Enrolled 1930–1936 variable stars and the planets. Furthermore, they intended to monitor meteors and the zodiacal light as well and when daylight intervened, they planned construction of more equipment and the mathematical reduction of observational data.82 Edwin Friton was the son of a St. Louis, Missouri jeweler83 and he developed a life-long astronomical career in the St. Louis area. He was like one of many amateurs profiled in this book, in that he simultaneously participated in the AAVSO and AMS citizen science programs. AAVSO records revealed that 18-year-old Friton made his first variable star observation on February 15, 1933. While monitoring variables that year, he recorded the first of 35 telescopic meteors he was to report to the American Meteor Society. Friton eventually reported over 3400 variable star observations during a 50-year-long membership ending in October 1983.84 Friton’s first venture in meteor astronomy was on November 15, 1933, when he joined the AMS’s Missouri-Southern Illinois (MO-SIL) observers to record Leonid meteor rates. J.W. Simpson directed the regional group’s observers in a meteor count, their role in Dr. Olivier’s campaign to monitor the Leonids’ performance when the stream was expected to bombard the earth with thousands of meteors per hour.85 Friton was evidently impressed with Simpson’s leadership in 1933–1934, and he joined the American Meteor Society in 1934.86 Simpson was an energetic and charismatic director of the MO-SIL region; he was Founder, Developer, and Director of Locksley Observatory, editor of Astronomical Discourse, and an astronomy educator for the St. Louis area public as well. In fact, it was Simpson’s initiative to lead local amateurs in meteor watches that persuaded Dr. Olivier to name him a Regional Director, a voluntary position in which Olivier authorized Simpson to speak for him and the AMS on meteoric issues. Under Simpson’s influence, Friton became an avid meteor observer; during 1934–1937, Friton reported nearly 1800 meteors that he mapped and counted on 85 nights’ watches.87 When Simpson decided to attend college in 1938, he left a leadership vacuum which no one filled, with the expected results: meteor watches nearly ceased.88 The region’s performance had a tepid revival in 1939 and 1940 when group members reported an annual total of almost 300 meteors, sums that were vastly inferior to the average of 5000 per year when Simpson directed the group.89

82Astronomical Discourse, volume 2, no. 12, November 1935, cover article, p. 71: The New Locksley Observatory Program. 831930 US Census, for Walter Friton’s household: Ancestry.com. 84AAVSO archivist, Michael Saladyga communicated this information, as well as other biographical data about Friton in an email message to the author, dated 5/19/15. Friton’s telescopic meteor observation appeared in Dr. Olivier’s 1933 Annual Report in Popular Astronomy (PA). 85Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 42, 1934, pp. 98–99. 86Friton’s name appeared for the ﬁrst time as a member in the AMS’s 1934 annual report. 87These data from AMS’ 1934–1937 annual reports. 88Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 47, 1939, p. 145. 89Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 49, 1941, p. 151. E.E. Friton 391

Like Simpson, Edwin Friton spent 1939–1940 pursuing a personal agenda too. The 1940s report to AMS headquarters disclosed that 21-year-old Mary Ellison (1919–1998)90 had joined MO-SIL for two meteor watches that year.91 Edwin and she met and they married on June 28, 1940.92 The couple also joined forces to count meteors in 1941, 1943, and 1944.93 Friton emerged as MO-SIL’s director in 1950, but until then, the region’s observers accomplished little for the AMS; they reported only 423 meteors from 1940 to 1943.94 Friton used some of these “hiatus” years during and after World War II to pursue college studies; he earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Washington University on June 12, 1947.95 Dr. Olivier announced to Popular Astronomy (PA) readers in 1950 that he had named Edwin Friton as the AMS’ regional director in the Missouri–Southern Illinois region.96 Friton held the position until 1973 when the AMS eliminated regional directorships from its management structure.97 Friton’saffiliation with the AMS is last mentioned in a 1983 Omaha, Nebraska, newspaper article in which Friton informed the paper’s readers about the cosmic origin of an extremely brilliant fireball that had alarmed the public in Missouri and three surrounding states.98 So, Edwin Friton’s career with the AMS spanned 50 years, 1933–1983, just as long as his participation with the AAVSO. During those five decades, he watched meteors on 133 nights and reported 2510 to AMS headquarters. He also directed the Missouri–southern Illinois region’s campaigns from 1950 to 1973 and reported its results: members counted 6549 meteors.99 Edwin Friton seemed to prefer those meteor investigations which brought him in contact with the general public. Over 50 years, he interpreted meteor events to it

90Vital statistics from: Mary Louise Ellison, Benton1_2013-04-25_Autobackup Family Tree in Ancestry.com’s Public Family Trees database. 91Ibid. 92Missouri Marriage Records 1805-2002, Ancestry.com’s database for Edwin Friton. Their marriage is also mentioned in the Benton1Public Family Tree site. 93Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 53, 1945, p. 508. 94Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 54, 1946, p. 247: under heading “Missouri-SIL Group, near St. Louis, MO.” 95Kelly Brown, Special Collections Library, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri: email to the author on 5/20/15. 96Friton, E. and C. Olivier, The Missouri-Illinois Fireball (FB) of 1950 October 4: PA, v. 59, 1951, p. 443. 97Meisel, David D., Director and C.P. Olivier, Director Emeritus, Meteor Report for 1973, AMS No. 195, Geneseo, NY: State University College (SUC) at Geneseo, New York, 1974 March 22. 98Fireball Meteor Flashes over Midwestern States, Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), June 15, 1983, pp. 31 and 33. Friton’saffiliation with the AMS is cited in the newspaper’s account. This article was contained in GenealogyBank.com’s database of newspaper articles about Edwin Friton: Accessed 5/19/15. 99Friton’s personal and MO-SIL meteor statistics were derived from the AMS annual reports cited in this biography’s heading, but in addition for 1941–1944, see Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 53, 1945, p. 508. 392 Enrolled 1930–1936 and used crowd-sourcing techniques to obtain data about meteor showers and fireballs. It was typical of Friton to step forward to debrief the public following a startling meteoric phenomenon; for example, in 1957 he informed the public that three recent fireballs were of solar system origin and the impossibility of predicting their fall.100 In advance of dramatic meteor showers, like the 1946 Draconids101 and 1967 Perseids102, Friton alerted the public about an opportunity to see them and asked watchers to submit their individual meteor counts to him. When he believed that meteorites may have fallen from a detonating fireball, Friton asked the public to contact him, as he did in 1955 and 1958.103 Friton was a diligent and energetic fireball investigator and after one occurred in full daylight, on October 4, 1950, he gathered 145 eyewitness reports and personally interviewed the most promising informants using a surveyor’s transit and compass to measure altitudes and azimuths of beginning and end points of the fireball’s path.104 Dr. Olivier thought so highly of Friton’s fireball investigations that he gave Friton senior authorship on three reports the two men published.105 Stuart O’Byrne knew Friton for sixty years since their work together in the MO-SIL region and especially since the early 1940s when Friton was made an honorary member of the St. Louis Astronomical Society. O’Byrne recalled that Friton’s “…many skills in electronics, chemistry, and mathematics proved invaluable in astronomical activities…” such as guiding St. Louis’ Moonwatch artificial satellite tracking program of the 1960s. O’Byrne commented to that Ed Friton was “a good telescope and instrument maker and Ed often shared his talents with others.” Friton was a long-time advocate of amateur astronomers’ organizations and he “…attended many of the Astronomical League conventions both Regional and National” before his death in 1994.106

100St. Louis Fireballs Called Asteroids or Chips of Planets, Moberly Monitor-Index (Moberly, MO), Mon, November 11, 1957, p. 2. 101Meteor Shower Expected to be visible Oct. 8,9,10; Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune (Chillicothe, Missouri), Sat., September 21, 1946, p. 2. 102Perseid meteor data asked by society, Daily Capital News (Jefferson City, Missouri), Saturday, August 12, 1967, p. 2. 103Pieces of Brilliant Meteor Hunted in the St. Louis Area, Moberly Monitor-Index (Moberly, MO), Monday, July 11, 1955, p. 5; and Seeks Information on Meteor’s Fall, Daily Illinois State Journal (Springﬁeld, IL), Wednesday, July 9, 1958, p. 6. 104Friton, E. and C. Olivier, The Missouri-Illinois Fireball of 1950 October 4: PA, volume 59, 1951, pp. 443–446. 105Friton, E. and C. Olivier, The Missouri-Illinois FB of 1950 October 4: PA, v. 59, 1951, pp. 443– 446; Friton, E. and Olivier, C, Illinois and Missouri Bolide of 1961 Sept 10/11 AMS No. 2380 in Meteor Reports of the AMS for 1965, Flower and Cook Observatories Reprint 164, 9/28/1964, p. 15; and Friton, EE, C. Olivier, Fireball of 1969 June 5.46, AMS no. 7609, in Meisel, D. and C. Olivier, Meteor Reports of the AMS for 1969,in Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, p. 10. 106Edwin E. Friton, by O’Byrne, S., AAVSO Newsletter, August 13, 1994, p. 11. A copy of this memorial was kindly sent to the author by Michael Saladyga, AAVSO archivist. E.E. Friton 393

When Edwin Friton died in January 1994, he was survived by three children and two grandchildren.107

Murray Geddes

(1909–1944)108 Membership years: 1931–1936109

Twenty-two-year-old Murray Geddes discovered observational astronomy soon after beginning a teaching career in his hometown on the North Island of New Zealand. According to a New Zealand contemporary, Ivan Thomsen, Geddes “soon became prominent as an assiduous observer of meteors, sunspots and variable stars.”110 Assiduous indeed! He plotted the paths of almost 1400 meteors on AMS star maps in 1931, during 55 night watches.111 And, on August 14 of the same year, Geddes discovered an 8.5 magnitude comet too: it is now designated C/1932 M2.112 This comet was watched intensively by astronomers during a three-year period, 1932–1935, and these allowed a deﬁnitive orbit to be calculated in 1937. Geddes’ discovery earned him two distinguished prizes: the Donohoe from the Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc and the Donovan Medal from Australia.113

107Edwin Elmer Friton (death notice), St. Louis Post Dispatch, January 26, 1994. Mary Louise Ellison (1919–1998) died in Tucson, Arizona, in 1998: Benton1_2013-04-25_Autobackup Family Tree in Ancestry.com’s Public Family Trees database. 108Geddes’ vital statistics and much of the background information for this biography were obtained from two sources: 1) Thomsen, I., Murray Geddes, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 105, 1945, pp. 88–89; and 2) Williams, T., Murray Geddes, in Hockey, T. et al., editors, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 1, A-L, New York: Springer, 2007, p. 411. 109See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 110Thomsen, I, 1945, op. cit., p. 88. 111In addition to 42 nights and 866 meteor plots announced in the 1931 Annual Report, Olivier reported that Geddes performed 13 more watches after the 1931 report went to press; during those 13, he mapped another 502 meteors: Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 163. The author does not know to whom Geddes’ sunspot and variable star reports were given; the AAVSO Annual Reports did not contain his name for 1931–1935. 112Kronk, G., Comets a Descriptive Catalog, Hillside, New Jersey and Aldershot, U.K.: Enslow, 1984, p. 127 and Williams, T. 2007, op. cit. Kronk reported that the orbit was determined to be hyperbolic: its orbit will never return it to the sun and it was only seen just once by humans in the 1930s. 113The comet was observed visually and photographically from 1931 to 1935. For a list of George van Biesbroeck’s articles concerning Comet Geddes in PA, insert the term “Comet Geddes” in the SAO/NASA ADS search engine: http://www.adsabs.harvard.edu/. Accessed 5/24/16. Van Biesbroeck’s article about the comet’s orbit: Publications of Yerkes Observatory, volume 8, 1937, p. 3 394 Enrolled 1930–1936

Geddes’ most systematic work, from 1932 to 1942, concerned the Aurora Australis and his work may have been the first detailed study of the southern aurora’s appearances, frequency, and statistics. His auroral work brought him early recognition in 1932 when he was appointed section Director of the New Zealand Astronomical Society’s Auroral and Zodiacal Light observers. In that capacity Geddes organized 700 observers from every part of New Zealand to carry out visual observations of the aurora. Auroral research brought him in contact with scientific investigators; he collaborated with a Norwegian physicist, Carl Stormer, in photographic measurements of the altitudes in the atmosphere at which auroras occurred.114 Geddes’ work earned him membership and important posts in astronomical societies; he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1935 and when the New Zealand Astronomical Society received a royal charter, he was named a vice president of its Southern Branch, 1938–1939. He became President of the entire society, 1940–1941. Geddes was also a member of the British Astronomical Association and the Astronomical Society of France as well. In 1939, he was appointed Director of New Zealand’s new Carter Observatory and in this position he began systematic measurement of double stars and published observations he made of Mars during its 1939 opposition.115 Geddes earned a master of arts degree in physics from New Zealand’s Otago University in 1937. In addition to suiting him to become the Observatory’s director, knowledge of physics also led him into technical work on radar. With the Japanese invasions of 1941, Geddes joined the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve and eventually his knowledge of radar and aircraft direction led to a transfer to the Royal Navy’s Admiralty Signals Establishment. While on active duty in 1944, in Glasgow Scotland, Geddes died after a sudden illness, at the age of 35.116 A year after his death, the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (RASNZ) established the Murray Geddes Memorial Prize for the New Zealand resident who makes an important contribution to astronomy. During his membership in the AMS, Geddes plotted 3226 meteors during watches on 110 nights. Although fellow New Zealander Ronald McIntosh did not specifically identify RASNZ contributors to his Index to Southern Meteor Showers, Geddes’ meteor plots undoubtedly furnished data for many of the radiants McIntosh listed.117

114Thomsen, 1945, op. cit., pp. 88–89. 115Thomsen, 1945, op. cit., p. 89. 116Thomsen, 1945, op. cit., p. 88. 117McIntosh, RA, An Index to Southern Meteor Showers, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 95, 1935, pp. 709–718. K.E. Gell 395 K.E. Gell

(1901–1989)118 Gell filed reports with the American Meteor Society in 1930, 1931, and 1933. Gell filed a report with the AMS in 1931 during his only year of paid membership.119 However, he served as Central New York State Regional Director in 1933 in anticipation of the expected Leonid storm.120 Kenneth Edward Gell received dispensation from the author’s usual rule that a person should have made three years of meteor watch reports to Dr. Olivier in order to merit a short biography in this book. Dr. Gell (Ph.D. in History121) was excused because he stepped forward to direct four Upstate New York citizen scientists’ meteor counts during the 1933 Leonid meteor shower maximum. Without Gell’s instruction and direction, these observers’ data would not have been furnished to the AMS.122 Dr. Olivier conferred the title of regional directorship on Gell for that service to meteor science, although Gell did not act in that capacity after 1933.123 Although now there is no means of querying Gell why he did not do more meteor work, the author speculates Gell was distracted by his high school teaching career124 and because he was in the process of earning a master of education degree from Harvard University, awarded in June 1934.125 Gell might have wanted to hold more watches because he had a history of anticipating when they would be useful and he made advance preparation for them. Gell demonstrated this in 1931. Dr. Olivier recognized Gell’s foresight when, while commending several observing teams scattered across the USA, he wrote, “Mr. K. E. Gell of East High School, Rochester, N.Y. was ready with a(n observation) party for five nights.”126 During that campaign, Gell and another observer were able to count 710 meteors during a five-hour watch on the morning of November 16, 1931.

118US SSDI: 6 July 1901–December 1989; Ancestry.com database for KE Gell. 119See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. Gell actually made his first data contribution, as a non-member, in 1930. In retrospect, the watch, for the Leonid meteor shower, was the first time Gell focused his attention on this shower. On November 14, 1930, Gell counted 18 meteors, seven of which were Leonids, during a four hour watch: Olivier, Meteor Note, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 39, 1931, p. 40. 120Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 42, 1934, p. 42. 121See Gell’s biography in a short on-line note about him on a 2008 Web site about the “GELL PRIZE,” a foundation he and his wife Geraldine bequeathed to a literary organization in Rochester, New York, at http://www.wab.org/gell-poetry-prize/gell-prize-2008-winner/. Accessed 5/24/16. 122Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 42, 1934, pp. 42, 99 and 102 (see Remark #35). 123Olivier, C.P., 1934, p. 42 op. cit. 124“Gell Prize” Web site, 2008, op. cit. The 1930 and 1940 US Censuses, enumerated in Rochester, New York, in Ancestry.com’s database about Gell also report that he was a high school teacher. 125Candidates for Harvard Degrees at Commencement Exercises Today, Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), June 21, 1934, p. 7: “Master of Education: Kenneth E. Gell.” 126Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 46. 396 Enrolled 1930–1936

Their watch session was held, by their good fortune, during the night when the Leonids rained down most strongly; the two observers’ meteor counts were calculated to be a rate of 79 meteors per hour after Dr. Olivier corrected the rate to compensate for imperfect sky conditions.127 A few biographical anecdotes about Gell may be of interest. Kenneth Gell was raised in Rochester, New York, by William Gell, an uncle who emigrated from England, and his US-born wife, Jennie.128 In 1932, early in his teaching career, Mr. Gell and his wife bought a wooded 24-acre (9.7 ha) property near Naples, New York as a summer retreat. At the end of Gell’s life, in 1988, the Gells donated their estate to Writers & Books, a Rochester-based literary organization. “W&B” transformed the property into a writers’ residence and training center. The Gells also endowed an annual prize to be awarded to the author of an original volume of poetry that was judged to be the best by a W&B-appointed expert. Gell Prizes have been awarded every year since 2008.129

J.W. Graham

(1910–1958)130 Membership years: 1933, 1935–1937, 1942, 1945, 1946, 1948, 1950–1953, 1956131

Julian Wallace Graham132 was born in Illinois133 but lived in Oregon the majority of his life. All his meteor observation reports were addressed from Salem. Graham had an active interest in astronomy beginning in 1933, when besides meteor watches and reporting four ﬁreballs, he wrote the editor of Salem’s newspaper, the Oregon Statesman, to correct a published error about the planets.134 His contributions to the AMS continued, with several gaps throughout his adult life

127Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 50. Most meteor watchers would consider a rate of 79 meteors an hour to be excellent. When meteors appear once a minute or more frequently, the experience is thrilling. 128Both the 1910 USA and 1915 New York State Censuses report that Kenneth lived in his uncle William and aunt Jennie’s household in Rochester: Ancestry.com’s database for Kenneth E. Gell. 129See the Writers and Books Web site about the “GELL PRIZE:” http://www.wab.org/gell- poetry-prize/gell-prize-2008-winner/. Accessed 5/24/16. 130Moorehead-Hoag Family Tree database in Ancestry.com’s Public Family Trees database; and also: Oregon Death Index, 1898–2008. 131See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 132A death notice reported his middle name to be “Walter”: J.W. Graham Succumbs, Oregon Statesman (Salem, Oregon), Tuesday, July 22, 1958, p. 5. 1331920 and 1930 US Censuses, in response to a Census question of where a person was born. 134A post card and two letters from Graham to C.P. Olivier, described ﬁreballs he and his brother had seen all dated in the fall of 1933: September 12, September 30, and October 14. His letter to the editor was in the Oregon Statesman, Sunday, November 26, 1933, p. 12: Newspapers.com database. J.W. Graham 397 although in most years, he conducted only one or two watches. However, an exception was the 27 night watches he performed in 1935. By the end of his life, he had reported 47 night watches and 1437 meteors that he had counted.135 Julian Graham served in the US Navy during World War II.136 He was a farmer after the war and he married in 1957137, the year before his death. He was survived by his wife, mother, a brother, and a step-son.138

Gordon Green

(1920–1992)139 Membership years: 1936–1939, 1943, 1946, 1948, and 1950.140

Sixteen-year-old Richard141 Gordon Green’s first report to the American Meteor Society was exactly the type most desired by the Society’s director, Dr. Charles Olivier. Olivier had repeatedly urged the Society’s members to keep meteor watches on clear nights for three or more hours per night and to sketch each meteor they saw on star charts he provided for them. So when Green, a new member, sent Olivier a report of seven 1936 summer nights’ results, Olivier was likely pleased. Green’s star maps had 168 meteors recorded representing the outcome of 27 h of sky watches he had conducted in July and August. The maps were mute testimony to how well prepared Green was to study meteors. They bore witness to an observer who had memorized the constellations well enough so that he could quickly find the appropriate map, sketch the meteor’s path, and return to monitoring the sky. Just as useful for Olivier’s research plan, Green had recorded the sky conditions during his watches, enabling Olivier to calculate the hourly rates that Delta Aquarid and Perseid meteors had appeared. Green’s first report was a tour de force.142 Green sent Dr. Olivier similar reports during the remainder of his high school years and in 1939, the year after high school. In 1938, Green persuaded some friends to assist him in watches whereas the other years’ were solo ones. When Gordon enlisted in the US Army in 1942, a military document recorded that he had worked in “civil occupations in the manufacture of electrical machinery

135These meteor observation data are from the AMS Annual Reports for the years noted in the heading of this biography. 136Dr. Olivier noted that Graham was serving in the “USN” in the 1945 Annual Report. 137Public Records, Marriage Applications, Oregon Statesman, Tuesday, August 27, 1957, p. 5. He was also reported to be a “cemetery worker for the (Salem, Oregon) city park department.”“J.W. Graham Succumbs, Oregon Statesman (Salem, Oregon), Tuesday, July 22, 1958, p. 5. 138J.W. Graham Succumbs, Oregon Statesman (Salem, Oregon), Tuesday, July 22, 1958, p. 5. 139US Social Security Death Index (SSDI) 1935-–2014: “Richard G. Green.” 140See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 141Full name found in SSDI listing. 142Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, volume 44, 1936, p. 500. 398 Enrolled 1930–1936 and accessories.” This suggests that after high school graduation, the Pittsfield, Massachusetts youth began to work with his father, Verner, who was a foreman for an electrical device manufacturer.143 During the war, Green served with the 30th Engineer Battalion in the European combat theater and was a Technician Fifth Grade. He was probably trained in map-making which was the Battalion’s assignment and this experience likely influenced his future choice of civilian education and occupation.144 Green returned to AMS membership and to meteor observations soon after discharge from the Army. In 1946, most amateur astronomers were alert to the fact that Comet Giacobini-Zinner had crossed earth’s orbit a few weeks before the comet’s debris-caused meteor shower occurred. New material ejected from the comet was expected to enrich the meteor stream with more meteoroids and many of these were destined to burn in the earth’s atmosphere.145 Meteor watchers did not want to miss a possible meteor storm that would ensue as the earth crossed the stream and Green was no exception. Gordon watched the northwestern sky for an hour on the evening of October 9 and witnessed a strong shower. He reported 65 meteors, more than one a minute despite full moonlight. His data, along with many other observers’ furnished the information Dr. Olivier needed to describe what came to be called the “Draconid meteor storm.”146 Green’s 1946 report was made from Burlington, site of the University of Vermont (UVM) and Green may have been there to take a few classes toward a bachelors’ degree. In any case, UVM’s 1948 yearbook recorded that he was a full-time freshman. In that same year, Green met Barbara Newman Beal also a UVM freshman and his future wife.147

143The 1940 US Census of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and for Verner Green’s household, recorded that Richard Green had finished high school and that Verner was employed as a foreman in electrical manufacturing. Ancestry.com’s “US Army WW2 Enlistment Records, 1938–1946” contains a record that Richard Green enlisted in 1942 as a private, having completed 4 years high school and had an employment history of “civil occupations in manufacture of electrical machinery and accessories.” The Army document also recorded that Green was unmarried in 1942, was 72 inches (1.8 m) in height and weighed 151 lb (69 kg). 144Richard Green, Former Resident, Weds in Vermont, The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts [MA]), Saturday, March 24, 1956, page 4, reported his WW2 Army unit. The “30th Engineer Battalion’s” mapping responsibility was reported in Stein, B.J., P.J. Capelotti, US Army Heraldic Crests: Complete Illustrated History of Authorized Distinctive Unit Insignia, Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1993, p. 113. A description of the Technician rank was found in Wikipedia with the search engine entry of “Technician Fifth Grade,” on 7/30/15. Men with this rank were in the same pay grade as a Corporal. 145Van Biesbroeck, G., Comet Notes, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 54, 1946, p. 363. 146Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 55, 1947, p. 265. “Draconid” refers to the fact that this meteor shower radiates from the constellation Draco. 147Ariel, volume 61, 1948, University Archives, University of Vermont. The Freshman Class section of the yearbook contains a mention of “Green, Richard G. Liberal Arts, Pittsfield Massachusetts” on p. 212; on p. 209: “Beal, Barbara N., Liberal Arts, Burlington, Vermont.” Gordon Green 399

A newspaper article announcing Green and Beal’s wedding in 1956 reported that he had graduated UVM in 1949 and Barbara in 1951.148 The same article reported that Green was a geophysicist149 who was employed by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey and that the newly married couple was to live in Washington, D.C. In retirement, the Greens lived in Longmont, Colorado, where Richard Gordon Green died in October, 1992. During a meteor-watching career of 46 watches, he reported a total of 865 meteors to the AMS. Barbara died in 2005 after a career as a highly regarded piano teacher. The couple was survived by a daughter, a son, and a grandson.150

Edward A. Halbach

(1909–2011)151

Halbach ﬁled Milwaukee Astronomical Society’s meteor reports with the American Meteor Society in 1935, 1939, 1942, 1944, 1945, and 1947152.

Family History

Edward Anthony Halbach’s father, John, died in 1923, when Edward was 14 years old. When he graduated high school in June 1926, his mother, Eva, moved the family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in time for Edward to matriculate at Marquette University. Marquette was, and is now, administered by the Jesuits, a religious order of Roman Catholic priests who have graduate academic degrees and become experts and teachers in many academic disciplines. As a result of Jesuit training, Halbach was imbued with a desire to excel in both the secular and spiritual worlds and to promote scientiﬁc and civic progress.

148Richard Green, Former Resident, Weds in Vermont, The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, MA),, Saturday, March 24, 1956, page 4. Ms. Prudence Doherty, Special Collections Librarian, University of Vermont confirmed Green and Beal’s graduation dates, 1949 and 1951, respectively, in the UVM Bulletin: the April 1951 edition, p. 227 for Green, and the April 1952 edition on page 231 for Beal. 149Green reported being a geophysicist too in an application for a marriage license: Vermont Marriage Records, 1909–2008 for Richard Gordon Green (Ancestry.com). 150US Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current, is a Web site that contained an excerpt from an obituary: Barbara Newman Beal Green, 80, of Longmont died, Daily Times-Call, (Longmont, Colorado), September 15, 2005. Both of the Greens’ SSDI information reported that their last Social Security payments were sent to an address in Longmont, Colorado. Ancestry.com’sUS Public Records Index, Volume 1 database showed Longmont addresses for the Greens in 1983 and 1993. 151US Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014 in Ancestry.com. 152See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 400 Enrolled 1930–1936

The 1930 US Census reported that Eva Halbach’s Milwaukee household included three daughters and 21-year-old Edward. The young women were all employed by the Wisconsin Telephone Company and supported the family while Edward studied electrical engineering during his junior year at Marquette. Eva’s ﬁnancial plan also included renting rooms to four young men whose rent payments helped support the Halbach family.

Making of an Engineer

Edward Halbach’s undergraduate degree was a Bachelor’s of Electrical Engineering, conferred in June 1931. He continued at Marquette for a master of science degree in physics. He wrote a thesis with an electrical engineering topic153 and he graduated in June 1933. Halbach was not content with physics coursework alone, he took seven courses at Milwaukee State Teacher’s College, from June 1932–June 1933, to qualify for a Wisconsin State Teachers Certificate which he earned at the same time as the MS degree from Marquette. Among the education courses, he took two in teaching methodology for mathematics and physics.154 Halbach’s academic preparation suggests that he intended not only to practice engineering but also to communicate science-related subjects to non-scientists as well as engineering students. Even while he took undergraduate and graduate courses from 1928 to 1933, Halbach was employed in a half-time cooperative program wiring control panels, developing insulation products and as a commercial photographer. Like many Americans, employment, even for a graduate engineer like Halbach, was difficult to find during the Great Depression and as late as the winter of 1934–1935 he was fortunate to find work supported by the Civil Works Administration doing industrial research.155 He was at last able to find full-time employment with the Rundle Manufacturing Company, in 1935, as a chemical laboratory assistant “in the porcelain-enameled sanitary ware industry.”156 A man had to accept the work he could get!

153His M.S. thesis was: “Experimental Study of Proposed Ampliﬁcation Methods of Measuring Small Charges or Discharges of Electricity.” Source: Halbach’s Marquette University Faculty Record, dated February 26, 1937. Source: Marquette University Archives, Raynor Libraries, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 154Halbach, E., Marquette University Faculty Record, dated Feb. 26, 1937. Source: University Archives, Raynor Libraries, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 155Ibid. 156Ibid. The employment title is copied from Halbach’s self-written employment history in his Faculty Record. Edward A. Halbach 401

Astronomy: A Scientiﬁc Pastime

It was about the time that Halbach struggled to ﬁnd full-time employment that he discovered amateur astronomy. His biography, posted by the Milwaukee Astronomical Society (MAS), recorded how this came about, “When Ed Halbach… began his engineering career, he looked for an activity to occupy his free time…in 1932, Ed saw an advertisement in the Milwaukee Journal announcing the formation of an astronomical society. Here, Ed found an activity which could channel his energy.”157 Halbach dated his MAS involvement as beginning in 1935,158 but he authored an article in the March 1934 issue of the Society’s Journal about Cornell University’s use of a motor-mounted mirror to measure a meteor’s time duration.159 Halbach was a versatile MAS participant frequently involved in its many activities. In 1934, he was part of a 12-member team that built a telescope and mounting to accommodate the 13-inch-diameter mirror donated by the AAVSO so that faint variable stars could be monitored.160 When he addressed two Milwaukee community groups in October 1934, Halbach began what became a lifelong part-time career of astronomy education talks.161 For the December 1934 convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he supervised the preparation of a display that publicized the MAS’ scientiﬁc efforts.162 Foreshadowing future solar eclipse expeditions he would conduct, he published an article in June 1935, describing how MAS members could make movies of eclipses.163 On September 16, 1937, the MAS showed its faith in his guidance by electing him President.164 Halbach’s longest duration contribution to the MAS was to serve as its observatory director for 34 years, beginning in 1942.165

157The Halbach biography is at, http://www.milwaukeeastro.org/articles/Ed_Halbach.pdf. Accessed 4/17/15. 158Halbach, E., 1937, op. cit. 159Halbach, E., Meteor Observations, Monthly Publication of the MAS, volume 1, number 2, March 1934, page 4 of the issue. 160Armﬁeld, L., Harvard 13-inch Reﬂector, MAS Bulletin, volume 1, number 9, October 1934, cover article. 161Halbach, E., Did You Know?, MAS Bulletin, Volume 2, Number 1, January 1935, p. 3. 162Ibid. 163Cooke, R. and EA Halbach, Making Motion Pictures of an Eclipse, MAS Bulletin, Volume 2, Number 6, June 1935, Cover article, p. 21 of the volume. 164Halbach, E., 1937, op. cit. This honor was recorded in someone’s handwriting under the Faculty Record’s sub-heading, “Membership in Learned Societies.” 165Williams, T., Getting Organized: A History of Amateur Astronomy in the US, Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Dissertation Services, 2001, p. 195. 402 Enrolled 1930–1936

Variable Stars

In 1934, Halbach began reporting variable star magnitude estimates to the AAVSO.166 He was an indefatigable variable star observer and by the end of his life, he had reported more than 100,000 magnitude estimates. This accomplishment earned him placement among the top 25 AAVSO observers at the organization’s centennial in 2011.167 In late 1936, the AAVSO recognized Halbach’s observational skill mastery and made use of his public education proclivities by naming him Regional Advisor for Wisconsin whose role was to train neophytes to monitor variable stars.168 In 1940, he was elected to the AAVSO’s governing Council to help direct the organization’s mission; he served until 1943. In 2003, the organization thanked him for 70 years of contributions by awarding him a William Tyler Olcott Distinguished Service Award that is given for “outstanding contributions in promoting variable star astronomy through outreach and education.”169

Meteors and Technology

In meteor studies, Halbach found opportunities to use his electrical engineering talents. His inventive mind developed meteor duration timers and multi-observer recording pens170 and he built a shortwave radio that enabled him to determine when a plotted meteor was seen simultaneously by another radio-using observer. These innovations during the 1930s were early examples of how Halbach used electronic and technical expertise in the service of science. Fortunately for the American Meteor Society, Halbach emulated several MAS members by watching meteors.171 His name does not appear in AMS Annual

166For example, he reported monitoring 32 variable stars in July and August 1934 and made 133 magnitude estimates of them during those two months: Campbell, L., Monthly Report of the AAVSO for July and August 1934, PA, volume 42, 1934, p. 464. Halbach was not credited with any variable star observations in 1933 or before: Campbell, L., Annual Report of the AAVSO for the year ending October 31, 1933, PA, volume 41, 1933, pp. 576–577. 167Williams, T. and M. Saladyga, Advancing Variable Star Astronomy, The Centennial History of the AAVSO, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 334. When this book was published, Halbach was number 22 out of a list of 100 top observers. 168Ibid., p. 93. An article in Amateur Astronomy (AA) carried an announcement of Halbach’s new AAVSO role: Fisher, M., Milwaukee News Notes, in AA, volume 3, number 1, January 1937, p. 12. 169Williams, T. and M. Saladyga, 2011, op. cit., p. 342. 170Accounts of these devices are in the pages of Amateur Astronomy, volumes 2 and 3, 1936 and 1937, respectively. Dr. Charles Olivier mentioned a device Halbach had invented in 1935: “a most ingenious recording machine…that permitted four observers to record…the time of a meteor’s appearance…simultaneously and independently…really a species of quadruple chronograph.” Source: Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 498. 171Especially, Luverne Armﬁeld whose biography is also presented in this book. Edward A. Halbach 403

Reports until 1935, but the MAS’ Bulletin reported that Halbach made photographs of the Eta Aquarid meteor radiant during the maximum of that shower in May 1934. While other members watched visually and intended to map any meteors seen, Halbach exposed film for three hours; unfortunately, he did not capture any meteor trails.172 With characteristic energy, Halbach soon immersed himself in meteor observation. In August 1934, he announced his leadership of the “(MAS’) program of continuous observations for meteors” which had “a three-fold purpose: determining radiant points of minor showers, hourly rates, and providing instructions and practice in meteor plotting.” Halbach hoped the program would attract members who would become skilled meteor-path mappers in time for November 1934’s Leonid shower, the last opportunity for a meteor storm, astronomers thought.173 Halbach led four Milwaukee observers on the night of November 14/15, 1934, and two on the 15/16th. When their maps were compared to Wisconsin observers’ from Reedsburg, Madison, and Beloit, and to Illinois observers’ in Chicago, Oak Park, and Watertown, Luverne Armfield, coordinator of the Wisconsin–Illinois region’s efforts, found “twenty-one time coincidences…on the night of the 14–15, and thirty-seven on the 15–16, a fairly good percentage” of the total of all seven locations’ observers’ meteor plots.174 A key phrase in Armfield’s report is “fairly good percentage;” the exact figures were 58 coincidences out of 562 plots made at all four observation sites on both dates for a 10 % coincidence rate. These simultaneously mapped meteors were the scientific “gold” that leaders like Halbach and Armfield hoped to get for astronomers like the AMS’ Dr. Olivier. The star maps of simultaneously seen meteors from 50-to-60-miles-apart (80–100 km) sites could yield, by trigonometric calculation, the real heights of meteors in the atmosphere and Olivier eagerly sought these data during the 1930s. Halbach undoubtedly saw the inefficiency in this meteor height procedure: a total of 33 observers and data recorders were needed to map 58 simultaneously seen meteors during hours of aggregated monitoring time over two nights. Halbach’s innovation was to use two-way short-wave radio communication so that two widely separated meteor-path mappers could inform each other if they had mapped the same meteor. It was two years before he could find a cooperative radio amateur; finally, he was able find one in Carroll Frank Oakley (1899–1969)175, a Washburn Observatory staff astronomer. Halbach built his own shortwave radio and put his plan into action during the 1936 Orionid meteor shower. He reported to Amateur Astronomy readers that on the night of October 19/20 he and Oakley made radio contact with each other at midnight and that “(they) had the surprise of a lifetime for

172MAS Bulletin volume 1, number 6. July 1934, p. 32. 173Halbach, E., Meteors, MAS Bulletin volume 1, number 6. August 1934, p. 34. 174Armfield, L., AMS Notes, Wisconsin-Northern Illinois Region (WI-NIL), MAS Bulletin, Volume 2, No. 1, January 1935, p. 4. 175Social Security Death Index for “C. Oakley”: Ancestry.com’s database for Carroll F. Oakley. The Oakley Family Tree in Ancestry.com’s Public Member Family Trees revealed his middle name, “Frank” and his vital statistics of 1899–1969. 404 Enrolled 1930–1936 the first five or six meteors to appear…were seen simultaneously by both observers…Plotting of meteors was then begun and in 66 min, nine duplicate plots were made.” Halbach exulted, “more duplicate plots were made in one hour than (two observers) ever succeeded in making in a whole night of work…” using the traditional non-radio method.176 Two months later, R.D. Cooke, another MAS member, reduced Oakley and Halbach’s data. His analyses yielded nine heights, but not of complete meteor paths; instead, he was able to find five path-end heights and 4 beginning heights. The end-of-path points varied in height from 45 to 93 km (28 to 58 miles) and the beginning ones from 104 to 141 km (64 to 87 miles).177 Halbach and Oakley followed this inaugural trial with another for the 1936 Leonids.178 The results of their second shortwave radio-assisted watch were atmospheric heights of six Leonid meteors’ beginning and end path points, and another two meteors’ endpoints as well as the height of one beginning point.179 It is impossible to discover Ed Halbach’s personal career meteor totals, e.g., total number recorded and number of night watches. What frustrates efforts to find them is that he chose to send Dr. Olivier statistics for the number of nights the MAS’ members watched meteors and how many they plotted rather than citing his own tally. So, since he was the MAS’ meteor section leader, he is really “the man behind the scene” in AMS Annual Reports when the MAS is credited with meteor data: The report years in the heading of this biography are such group reports to AMS headquarters. In addition to sending data, Halbach supported the AMS in some material ways; for instance in 1939 Dr. Olivier thanked him for taking the initiative to make printer’s plates for improved star charts members used to plot meteor paths. In a further act of generosity, Halbach sent Olivier a total of 13,000 charts printed from the plates. Olivier wrote, “Halbach is to be heartily commended for carrying out a difficult task undertaken purely for the love of science… our results will conse- quently be more nearly accurate.”180 Halbach’s letter to Dr. Olivier on March 27, 1962, shows that the two men were in contact, perhaps sporadically for decades after Halbach’s most active years with the AMS. In the letter, Halbach gave Olivier permission to use his name in a report about a fireball seen in 1952. In the same

176Halbach, E., Coordinated Meteor Observations, Amateur Astronomy (AA), volume 2, number 11, November 1936, pp. 126–127. 177Cooke, R., Preliminary Report of Duplicate Meteor Observations October 19–20, 1936, AA, volume 3, number 1, January 1937, p. 6. 178Armﬁeld, A., AMS Meteor Notes, WI-NIL Region, AA, volume 3, number 1, January 1937, p. 6. 179Cooke, R., The Leonid Meteors of November 15–16, 1936, AA, volume 3, number 2, February 1937, pp. 19–20. 180Olivier, C., Meteor Notes from the American Meteor Society, PA, volume 47, 1939, pp. 264– 265. Halbach had more maps printed and sent to Olivier a second time in February 1948. Source: Letters to Dr. Olivier dated January 22 and February 4, 1948, and response to Halbach dated January 27, 1948. All letters are from Olivier’s American Philosophical Society (APS) correspondence ﬁle. Edward A. Halbach 405 letter, Halbach apologized that he had no recent telescopic meteor data to send because he had “not been observing variables (stars) through the last six months.”181

Academic Career at Marquette University

Halbach left industrial research on February 1, 1937, when he was hired as a mathematics instructor at Marquette’s College of Engineering. In September 1937, he continued at Marquette, but his title had changed to “instructor of electrical engineering.” Halbach’s academic rank improved further when he was promoted to Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering on May 24, 1943.182 Marquette’s 1943 Hilltop yearbook revealed that he was a faculty advisor to the Marquette Engineer, a quarterly publication for all in the college’s engineering community.183 Halbach was last cited as a faculty member in the 1945–1946 university catalog.184

The Professor Married

Ed was a bachelor, living with his mother and sisters as late as 1940.185 However, he met Jane Roth (1917–2007) and they married in Milwaukee in July 1942.186

Scientiﬁc Work During Solar Eclipses

In his ﬁnal years at Marquette, Halbach kept current about new aspects of scientiﬁc astronomy in which he could participate. Among them he read about Bertil

181Letter from Edward Halbach to Dr. Olivier, dated March 27, 1962: Source is Olivier’s APS ﬁle. 182Marquette University Faculty Record of Edward A. Halbach. 183Hilltop Yearbook, Milwaukee: Marquette University, 1943, p. 163. 184In an April 13, 2015, email to the author, Michelle Sweetser, Marquette Archivist perused Marquette University’s “catalogs and bulletins to determine when (Halbach) appears to have left Marquette’s employment and (she) found that he was listed amongst the faculty in the 1945–1946 catalog, but was not listed in the 1946–1947 catalog. “We assume he left at that point in time,” she concluded. 1851940 U. S. Census, enumerated for the household of Eva Halbach in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Living with Eva are two of her daughters and Edward, age 31, whose occupation is “teacher (in) college”: Ancestry.com database for Eva Halbach. 186Smolinski, Engelbach, Roth, Panﬁl, Sharkey family trees in Public Family Trees in Ancestry.com. 406 Enrolled 1930–1936

Lindblad’s (1895–1965), insightful method to precisely time two phases of a total solar eclipse and to use these timings to measure distances between remote places on the earth’s surface and to determine the geometry of its continental land- masses.187 The method required precise measurement of a solar eclipse observer’s geographical position, possession of a precise clock, a motion picture camera, and the use of a prism in front of a telescope’s objective lens to capture the sunlight’s spectrum, called the “flash spectrum,” at the moments when the moving, eclipsing moon begins and ends a total eclipse. Halbach decided to engage in this new astronomical specialty as his next scientific project. He planned to use Lindblad’s method during a solar eclipse that passed over Pine River, a small town west of Lake Winnipegosis in Canada’s Manitoba Province on July 9, 1945. Halbach’s expedition party arrived six days before the eclipse in order to perform “preparations and rehearsals (for recording the eclipse): camera mountings were built, test exposures made, electric power plant and wiring installed…radio antenna masts erected and receivers set up to utilize the Bureau of Standards (WWV short wave radio) time signals…” His party included his wife among the six MAS members present and its seventh member was John Edwin Willis (1901– 1979)188, a US Naval Observatory Associate Astronomer.189 Willis’ role was to determine the camp’s “exact latitude and longitude” by means of an instrument he designed, a “pendulum astrolabe.” Despite poor weather preceding the eclipse’s onset, the sky was clear at the crucial time, sunrise on July 9 and Halbach’s movie camera recorded the eclipse through a telescope with “a 25-degree objective prism.” Halbach wrote that, “It was learned later that this was the only camera used on this continent in collaboration with Professor…Lindblad of the Stockholm Observatory.” When Halbach sent the expedition’s report to Popular Astronomy,he had not yet developed the motion pictures.190 A later report about the expedition’s results disclosed that the motion picture film was overexposed and that Lindblad’s team could not analyze it for geodetic purposes. However, despite this failure, the

187Transactions of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), London: IAU, 1962, pp. 170–171: Commission 13. Commission des Eclipses du Soleil…Geodetic and Time of Contact Determinations. 188Social Security Death Index Master List indicates, “John Willis born 27 April 1901 579-32-4713 (in D.C.) Death Master File says died July 1979.” The author admits there is some uncertainty that these are the correct vital statistics. However, the Knaack/Willis Family Tree (Ancestry.com) reported that his birthdate is “about 1901” and the cited Social Security Number (SSN) indicates it was a Washington, DC-assigned SSN, which is consistent with Willis’ Washington, D.C., worksite, at the US Naval Observatory, in 1935–1936 when citizens were assigned SSNs. 189Annual Report of the Naval Observatory, 1928 edition, which recorded, “Promotions:…to be Associate Astronomer: John E. Willis, Dec. 16, 1927” Source is Google Books: https://books. Google.com/books?id=mk87AQAAIAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. Accessed 4/23/15. 190Halbach, E., The Milwaukee Astronomical Society Expedition, Pine River, Manitoba, PA, volume 53, 1945, pp. 317–318. Edward A. Halbach 407

US Army Map Service was able to extract useful data from the film that confirmed a hypothesis about the sun’s visible surface, its photosphere.191 Halbach’s 1945 expedition was a success in another respect too: his leadership of a scientific team and its establishment at a remote research station earned him leadership of a subsequent solar eclipse expedition in May 1948. For this occasion, May 8–9, the National Geographic Society (NGS), the US Army’s Map Service, Engineers, and Signal Corps, the Navy, Air Force, Bureau of Standards, Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the State Department all played roles. Observing stations were located at Mergui, Burma (now Myanmar), where Halbach was assigned, Bangkok, Thailand, in China near Nanking, in Korea near Seoul, Hokkaido, Japan, and on two Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska. The goal was, again, a geodetic one, “to measure…not only the precise distance between two given points on the earth’s surface, but also to locate the exact position of those points on the globe.” All US participants trained for two weeks and were flown by the US Air Force to their eclipse stations on April 1, 1948. Unfortunately, for Halbach and his party, clouds prevented the accomplishment of geodetic work.192 Nevertheless, Halbach’s efforts were recognized by the NGS’ Board of Trustees which unanimously awarded him its Franklin L. Burr prize of $500193, equivalent in purchasing power to $4900 in 2014.194 Halbach embarked on four more eclipse expeditions during his lifetime and a 50–50 % mix of cooperative and uncooperative weather persisted; attempts in North Carolina (1951) and Maine (1963) were greeted with clear skies while trips to Labrador (1954) and to Somalia (1955) were not.195

More Participation in Scientiﬁc Aspects of Astronomy

Halbach played still more astronomy-related roles during his long lifetime. He was Director of the Milwaukee area Moonwatch volunteers, who monitored the paths of artiﬁcial satellites in the sky during the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1962 Halbach

191Henriksen, S., The Solar Photospheric Gradient, Astrophysical Journal, volume 120, 1954, pp. 521 and 528. 192Mayall, M., Variable Star Notes, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (JRASC), volume 64, number 4, 1970, p. 263. 193“Halbach Rewarded for Trip to Burma” (unnamed newspaper clipping, January 14, 1949, dateline Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This clipping was contained in Smolinski, Engelbach, Roth, Panﬁl, Sharkey family trees in Public Family Trees in Ancestry.com. And, the award is mentioned in, Obituary, Edward A. Halbach, Estes Park Trail Gazette, posted on line 3/24/2011: http://www. eptrail.com/ci_17692225?source=most_viewed. Accessed 4/14/2015. The award is also documented in Williams, T. and M. Saladyga, 2011, op. cit., p. 199. 194Measuring Wealth calculator: http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/relativevalue.php. Accessed 4/26/15. 195Mayall, M., 1970, op. cit., p. 263. 408 Enrolled 1930–1936 was involved in directing to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory a piece of the reentered Sputnik 4 space satellite that had embedded itself in a Manitowoc, Wisconsin Street.196 Edward Halbach was also fascinated by grazing occultation observations. In this telescopic work, observers watched the moving moon’s edge approach a star and recorded when the star disappeared behind darkened lunar mountains and reap- peared in valleys. This spectacle of a ﬂashing star at the moon’s edge was called a “grazing occultation” because the moon appeared to pass so closely by the star. This work was best accomplished by a team of observers arranged on the earth so that their combined records revealed the height of lunar mountains and depth of the valleys. Halbach’s 1966 contribution was to invent an “event” recorder that presented an observation team’s pattern of mountain and valley sightings on a single roll of paper along with the time each event was noted. The recorder device was a cable three km. (2 miles) long that had event input stations, where the observers watched, every 0.16 km. (0.10 mile), so that as many as 19 observers could participate on the “graze” team. Results from a successful team observation mapped the mountains and valleys on the edge of the moon.197

Another Service to Amateur Astronomy

In 1947, the Astronomical League was founded and Edward Halbach served as its ﬁrst President. While its leader, he played a substantial role to help it prosper in the years after its commencement.198

Employment After Marquette University

Halbach’s obituary reported that, “As an engineer with AC-Delco in Milwaukee, he worked on missile guidance systems for the Apollo and Titan space programs. Working for Allis-Chalmers, he developed several electro-mechanical devices for diesel locomotives.” Sometime before he retired he also worked for “Siemens-Allis…” 199

196McCray, W., Keep Watching the Skies!, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2008, pp. 207–209. 197Solarsystem.nasa.gov: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/DOCS/IOTA_Observers_Manual_all_ pages.pdf. Accessed 4/26/15: scroll to page 262 on this document. 198Williams, T., Edward Anthony Halbach, in T. Hockey, et al., eds., Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 1, New York: Springer, 2007, p. 461. 199Edward A. Halbach, Estes Park Trail Gazette (Estes Park, Colorado), March 24, 2011. A similar obituary was published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on March 25, 2011. The Edward A. Halbach 409

Volunteering After Retirement

Ed and Jane Halbach retired in the late 1970s, to Estes Park, Colorado, on the eastern side of Rocky Mountain National Park. Ed continued his lifelong passion to volunteer: as a designer of housing and to serve on the board of directors of the local Habitat for Humanity organization. He performed repairs on his parish’s church and donated his engineering services when parish buildings needed renovation. He never neglected astronomy: He continued variable star observation until well into his mid-90s. Jane predeceased Ed, in 2007, after 65 years of marriage. He died just two weeks before his 102nd birthday, the father of six children, grandfather of 18 and great-grandfather of ﬁve.200

William L. Holt

(1878–1946)201 Membership years: 1934, 1936, 1937, and 1944.202

William Leland203 Holt was a physician dedicated to public health medicine and, at the time of his AMS contributions, was State of Maine’s Health Department division director responsible for control of communicable diseases.204 A Harvard University graduate, Holt also graduated from Harvard University Medical School in 1905 and had served in several states’ health departments preceding his appointment in Maine in 1929.205

(Footnote 199 continued) author has not confirmed the claims in these obituaries, but assumes the family source is reasonably accurate. 200Edward A. Halbach, Estes Park Trail Gazette (Estes Park, Colorado), March 24, 2011. 201Birthdate: US Passport Applications, 1795–1925, dated August 8, 1906: William Leland Holt swore he was born December 20, 1878, at Colorado Springs, Colorado. Source: Ancestry.com. Date of death: Michael Saladyga, AAVSO archivist reports that the Archives has a letter from Holt’s wife, Polly, dated October 20, 1946, in which she reported his death earlier that month. The author is grateful to Dr. Saladyga for sharing this information. 202See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 203Holt’s middle name was found in an online Google Books citation from Catalogue of Copyright Entries: Books, Volume 6, Issue 1, Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, Copyright Office, 1910, p. 1225. The copyright was for The Venereal Peril; a popular treatise on venereal disease: their nature, course, symptoms and prevention, New York: The Altrurians, 1909. 204Dr. William L. Holt Succeeds Dr. Coombs, Lewiston Evening Journal, January 25, 1929, p. 1. The 1930 US Census, enumerated for Augusta City, Kennebec County, Maine reported that Holt was “physician” (for) State Department of Health.” 205Lewiston Evening Journal, January 25, 1929, p. 1; Op. cit. 410 Enrolled 1930–1936

Dr. Holt ﬁrst became aware of the AMS when his friend and fellow Harvard alumnus Robert M. Dole206 suggested that Holt send Dr. Olivier a report of the 140 Leonids Holt and some friends had seen the morning of November 16, 1932. “I hope to learn from (Dole)… how properly to record a meteor shower and then to join the ranks of the meteor chasers,” Holt wrote Olivier.207 The physician made good on this goal when he and Dole mapped 98 meteors during a joint watch in 1934. In 1936, Holt, Dole, and D. Milne counted 390 meteors during the course of ﬁve watches. The doctor’s most skillful work was plots of 292 meteors on AMS star maps in 1937. His last reported observation was made in 1944 when he described 42 meteors he saw one night.208 Dr. Holt joined the ranks of variable star observers too, in the same year he became a member of the AMS: 1934. AAVSO records report that Holt made 17,433 observations of variable stars between 1934 and his death in October 1946. His wife, Polly, informed Leon Campbell, the AAVSO’s Recorder, that Holt had died suddenly two days after undergoing surgery and soon after being told he had furnished the AAVSO its one millionth observation.209

Hideo Inouye

(circa 1922–2009)210 Membership years: 1935–1937 and in 1951.211

Thanks to a letter Hideo Inouye wrote Dr. Charles Olivier in January 1937, we have an engaging sketch of a young Japanese man, perhaps 15 years old, who was preoccupied with intense study for a high school entrance examination. At stake

206See Robert M. Dole’s biography elsewhere in this book. 207Wm. L. Holt to C.P. Olivier, letter dated November 16, 1932, found in the AMS Archives’ 1930s box. Holt’s report was listed in Popular Astronomy, volume 41, 1933, p. 53 in Olivier’s report about the 1932 Leonid meteor shower. Holt was not then a member of the AMS. 208See the AMS annual reports for 1934, 1936, 1937, and 1944. 209Polly D. Holt to Leon Campbell, letter dated October 20, 1946. Michael Saladyga, AAVSO archivist kindly shared this information with the author in an email letter on July 2, 2015. 210Birthdate was estimated from a statement he made to Dr. Olivier that he hoped to pass an examination that would admit him to a “high school” in the fall of 1937. The writer assumed a similarity between the Japanese school-grade-and-age correlation as it exists in the USA, where “high school” often begins in 10th grade and most students in the USA are 15 years old then. It is certainly possible that this suggested date of birth is incorrect by one or more years. Source: Hideo Inouye to Charles P. Olivier, letter dated January 15, 1937. The letter was found in the AMS Archives storage box marked “1930s.” After the first draft of this biography, the writer was introduced to Mr. Seiichi Sakuma by the AAVSO’s archivist, Dr. Michael Saladyga. Mr. Sakuma was a friend of Mr. Inouye’s and estimated his birthdate as about 1922 and reported Inouye’s death occurred in October 2009. 211See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. Hideo Inouye 411 was whether he would be admitted to his first choice: Matsuyama High School. He confided to Olivier, “If I failed (sic) I will go to Tokyo Physical School and I will study some higher course of mathematics and Sience (sic) especially astronomy and mathematical geography.” Inouye was unclear whether the Tokyo school was necessarily an unfortunate outcome for him, or maybe he intended to mean it was his “Plan B” or fallback choice. Whichever was his meaning, he stated clearly, “There is a terrible strain on one’s mind when he is working such pressure.” Despite occasional minor syntax and spelling mistakes, Hideo wrote intelligible English in precise cursive handwriting. He was also quite sophisticated mathematically: he included in the letter calculations of the Leonid meteors’ orbit which he deduced from his own meteor watch. Inouye commented that his calculated meteor orbit compared well with the Leonids-producing comet’s orbit calculated by A.C.C. Crommelin, a respected English astronomer and comet expert. Inouye was clearly very bright and must have had a fine education which included intensive study of the English language and mathematics.212 In the same letter, Inouye informed Dr. Olivier he had purchased and read selected parts of Meteors, Olivier’s 1925 textbook that updated astronomers with the latest information about meteoric astronomy. Inouye questioned Olivier about three mathematical passages in the book, asked for clarifications, and pointed out what he believed was an error. The young man took a scholarly approach to meteor science, which complemented his 1935 and 1936 meteor reports: a total of 29 watches from which he produced 359 plotted meteors. In addition to 1936’s naked eye meteors, Inouye sent a report about 79 telescopic meteors he had seen. This elicited a concerned warning from Olivier, to whom Inouye had confided having eye problems. Olivier counseled,

“… if you intend to try to make astronomy your life work, you have got to learn to take care of (your eyes.) You are very young and have already been threatened with a serious disease of the eyes. I consider it most foolish for you to undertake telescopic observations of meteors for a good year to come. You are taking undue and unnecessary risks with your eyesight.” In response to Inouye’s request for Bonner Durchmusterung (BD) star chart tracings of faint star ﬁelds, Olivier replied,

“I am unwilling to encourage you in this work. Until you have gotten your eyes into perfect condition again, I am not sending you the trace for the BD chart as I think you would use it with the telescope for such a purpose that would be bad for you at this time. In the future, when the doctor has…given you permission that is another thing.” Olivier closed his letter wishing Inouye well and good luck with summer 1937 naked eye meteor watches.213 Inouye not only conducted 44 naked eye watches in 1937 during which he plotted 252 meteors, but the impetuous youth plotted another 132 which he

212Hideo Inouye to C.P. Olivier, a letter dated January 15, 1937. 213C.P. Olivier to Hideo Inouye, a letter dated June 3, 1937. 412 Enrolled 1930–1936 observed while scrutinizing star ﬁelds he identiﬁed on BD star charts.214 There are no existing letters between Inouye and Olivier to clarify the charts’ source. Olivier obliquely commented on this episode in their relationship in one Meteor Notes installment,

“An important series of telescopic meteor observations has just come from one of our active Japanese members, Hideo Inouye….made with field glasses, aperture 26 mm, power 5, diameter of field 8.6 degrees. He observed the first four days of August, watching the Delta Aquarid (meteor) radiant. He sends me tracings of the B.D. maps upon which he has plotted the 75 meteors.” Perhaps recognizing the hopelessness of deterring Inouye’s zeal, Olivier continued, “He further sends a (data) table including the interval 1935-10-21 to 1936-10-9 with the computed rates for 55 dates, including 4965 min of observations and 344 meteors.” Olivier ended the report about Inouye’s work by praising him and wishing him safety in the face of Imperial Japan’s Chinese invasion, “Inouye is an excellent observer and I hope he will not be drafted for the war in China.”215 We know Inouye escaped the draft because he wrote a highly mathematical article for a 1939 issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS). However, its dateline informs us that he did not get his first high school choice: his address was the Tokyo College for Physics and Chemistry, Tokyo, Japan.216 Inouye continued meteor observations too, in 1939 and 1941 but they were exclusively published in a Japanese Astronomical Association journal.217 After graduation from the Tokyo College, Inouye began a career as a middle school teacher and simultaneously audited courses in the Imperial Kyoto University’s Astronomy Department. He was barred from earning academic credit because Imperial Universities only granted degrees to graduates of senior high schools; the Tokyo College was not one of those. Nevertheless, Inouye continued to pursue an astronomical career and in 1943 he published a manual, How to Observe Faint Meteors with a Telescope. His efforts were recognized and he spent the war years as an astronomer at an observatory in Beijing, China. In 1946, Inouye resumed teaching in Japan where he taught at several senior high schools until he retired at age 60, in about 1982.218 After WWII, Inouye resumed an active career as an amateur astronomer. He rejoined the AMS in 1951, when he observed meteors from Tokyo on six nights and plotted the 57 meteors he saw.219 Inouye served as the Project Moonwatch

2141937 AMS Annual report. 215Olivier, PA, Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 45, 1937, p. 497; this MN was dated 1937 October 5. 216Inouye, H, Determination of Meteor Velocity from Zenith Attraction, MNRAS, volume 99, 1939, p. 738 ff. The article was dated 1939 June 24. 217Email letters from Seiichi Sakuma to the author, dated 8/4/15 and 8/8/15. 218Ibid. 2191951 AMS Annual Report. Hideo Inouye 413 coordinator for Tokyo during the late 1950s when telescopic tracking was an important way to monitor Soviet artiﬁcial satellites’ orbits.220 Inouye’s contributions to astronomy and astronautics were recognized when minor planet 7442 was named Inouehideo, in 1995.221 Hideo Inouye was married and the couple had a son. His wife died in August 2009, and he died two months later.222 Acknowledgement: The author is indebted to Seiichi Sakuma, a colleague of Inouye’s and who provided many details to the author about Inouye’s post-WWII career.

Mary L. Jewett

(1898–1994)223 Membership years: 1934–1939 and 1941–1943.224

Mary L. Kemmer lived her entire life in east Tennessee. She married Earl Brainard Jewett in 1915 when she was 17 years old. The Jewetts lived in Grandview, in Rhea County225. Rhea was the only east Tennessee County which voted to secede from the Union during the Civil War and was where the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial” was tried to prevent the teaching of evolution in Tennessee.226 Mary Jewett had three children and did most of her meteor observing during her marriage to Earl Jewett. Seven years after Earl’s death in 1942, she married Humphrey Alonzo Porter, a widower who had 16 living children by two deceased wives. She continued to live with him until his death in 1961. In addition to the loss of two husbands, Mary Jewett Porter suffered the death of her only daughter in 1978. When Mary died in 1994, she was survived by two sons.227 The writer does not know how Mary learned about the AMS, but perhaps it was as a result of Dr. Olivier’s crowd-sourcing efforts using local newspapers to alert

220Email letter from Seiichi Sakuma to the author, dated 8/4/15 and 8/8/15. For a detailed history of Project Moonwatch see W. Patrick McCray’s book, Keep Watching the Skies!, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2008. A description of the Japanese program is on pp. 132–134. 221Email letter from Seiichi Sakuma to the author, dated 8/4/15. 222Ibid. 2231930 and 1940 US Censuses imply an 1898 birthdate. The Dieterich-Krvanich Family tree in Ancestry.com’s Public Family Trees collection concur on Mary’s vital statistics: 1898–1994. Dates of Birth and Death also confirmed in US Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current, for Mary Jewett. Her grave marker reads: “Mary Porter Jewett.” 224See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate her contributions. 2251930 and 1940 US Censuses for the household of Mary and Earl Jewett in Tennessee. 226Rhea County, Tennessee—Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_County,_Tennessee. Accessed 5/24/16. 227Humphrey Porter, Hill Families of Rhea Co TN Family Tree: in Ancestry.com’s Public Family Trees. 414 Enrolled 1930–1936 the public about the Perseid and Leonid meteor showers. However, it happened, she was enthusiastic enough about meteor work to join the Society rather than remain unaffiliated as many hundreds of people did during the 1930s. Mary’s first annual report to Olivier consisted of six nights’ watches in 1934 that netted her a total of 122 meteors. That first experience must have persuaded her to learn how to map meteors because she sent Olivier a total of 165 meteor plots she made in 1935 and 1936. From 1938 to 1943, she counted and reported 188 more meteors as a result of 16 night watches, including eight vigils after Earl’s death.

Jack T. Kent

(1908–1999)228 Membership years: 1935–1937229

In 1931, twenty-three-year-old John (Jack) Thurston Kent wrote a master’s degree thesis that was a mathematical investigation of Bessel functions.230 These have important engineering applications including one optical one dealing with the ability of a telescope to distinguish ﬁne details in a distant object and to “separate” the components of a double star.231 Four years later, Kent made his ﬁrst meteor watch report to Dr. Olivier about the 1935 Perseids.232 The Perseids are for many long-term meteor watchers the “gateway” shower which leads to an “addiction” to meteor watching. And so it was for Kent who mapped eight Perseids from Jackson, Tennessee, site of Lambuth College, where he earned an A.B. degree in 1930.233 Kent mapped 88 more meteors in 1935 during three additional watches that he planned later in the year. In 1936, he assembled fellow meteor enthusiasts for group watches just before and after he began an instructorship at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (A&M) where he was hired to teach mathematics and astronomy.234 Dr. Olivier cited Kent for “special mention” when he gathered two groups of observers in 1936. One of them included his new wife Pauline (nee Oates) as a member. Kent’s groups

228Social Security Death Index provided Kent’s vital statistics. 229See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 230Kent, Jack Thurston, Expansions in series of Bessel functions, Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas 1931. Master’s degree thesis, 104 pp. The title of Kent’s thesis was provided by Geoffery Stark, Reading Room Supervisor, Special Collections Library, University of Arkansas, in an email message to the author on 7/21/15. 231See Wikipedia entries about “Bessel function” and “Angular resolution.” 232Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 655. 233See the “Biographical Note” on the Web site: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tamucush/00074/ tamu-00074.html#a0. Accessed 5/24/16. 234Ibid. Jack T. Kent 415 in 1936 watched meteors on 14 nights and reported a total of 664 to Olivier. In 1937, his first full year on the A&M faculty, he made nine more watches by himself during which he plotted 323 meteors.235 Unfortunately for the AMS, this was the final year he contributed observations.

Texas A&M Astronomer

From 1945 to 1950, Professor Kent led a group of A&M colleagues in presenting radio talks about astronomy, mathematics, and mathematicians.236 In 1951, Kent received a Ford Foundation Fellowship237 to serve as a research associate at Yerkes Observatory. In 1951 and 1952, Kent published studies of binary stars’ orbits that resulted from his work at Yerkes under the tutelage of R.G. Hall.238 Following their publication, Kent was promoted to an associate professorship in 1952.239 During the mid-1950s the Bryan, Texas, newspaper reported that A&M Professor Kent continued public education in astronomy. In 1954 and 1956, he organized “star parties” in which the public was invited to look through Texas A&M’s 12-inch (30 cm) reﬂecting telescope. The 1956’s session was organized for the public to view Mars at an opposition when it was unusually close to the earth.240 By 1957 and 1958, Professor Kent had broadened his interest from investigating stars’ orbits to tracking those of artiﬁcial satellites’: he led the Brazos County Moonwatch observers. In 1957, the goal was to monitor the Soviet Union’s Sputnik satellite whose launch caught the USA by surprise. In 1958, Kent led the Brazos Moonwatch team to track the Vanguard satellite, the American response to the

235See AMS Annual Reports for 1936 and 1937. The Kents were married in 1936: Arkansas Marriage Index, 1933–1939 in a listing for Jack T. Kent. The Index was found in the database for Kent in Ancestry.com. 236Texas A&M University: INVENTORY OF THE JACK T. KENT RADIO SCRIPTS: 1945– 1950. “The Jack T. Kent Radio Scripts (1945–1950) consist of…sixteen legal size ﬁle folders… contain manuscripts of radio lectures on mathematics, mathematicians, and the solar system by Jack T. Kent, Albert Edward Finlay, WE Ross, Roger Valentine McGee, Walter Lee Porter and James Wendell Ross, which were aired on radio station WTAW-AM in College Station, Texas between 1945 and 1950.” http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tamucush/00074/tamu-00074.html#a0. Accessed 5/24/16. 237Ibid. See Biographical Note in the Web site. 238Kent, Jack T., The Parallax and Mass-Ratio of 48 Cassiopeiae, The Astronomical Journal, No. 1188, volume 55, 1951, pp. 243–245; and Kent, Jack T., The Orbit of ADS 784, The Astronomical Journal, No. 1203, volume 57, 1952, pp. 233–234. 239Biographical Note. Source: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tamucush/00074/tamu-00074. html#a0. Accessed 5/24/16. 240Burchard, E., Summer is Here it brings Heat and Star study, The Eagle, (Bryan, Texas), Monday, June 21, 1954, p. 3; and Public May Watch Mars from Campus, The Eagle, Sunday, September 16, 1956, p. 13. 416 Enrolled 1930–1936

Soviets’ artiﬁcial “moon.”241 Kent’s Moonwatch work in Texas, like similar efforts across the USA and abroad were encouraged by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in an effort to keep abreast of Soviet rocketry developments. The Moonwatch program had a populist character because the regional groups recruited amateur astronomers as observers.242 The national defense aspect of the program made Operation Moonwatch newsworthy but astronomers like Kent were also interested in the scientiﬁc astronautical issues underpinning satellite orbits. In 1969, he published a mathematical study of the perturbing effects of the sun, moon, the earth’s shape, and atmospheric drag upon satellites’ ground paths.243 Jack Kent became emeritus Associate Professor in 1975 and lived another 24 years.244 Texas newspaper articles from the 1950s reported that Jack and Pauline Kent had a daughter and a son.

Mohd. A.R. Khan

1881–circa 1962245 Membership years: 1932–1954246

Mohammed Abdur Rahman Khan lived most of his life in south-central India during the ﬁnal six decades of the Raj, England’s colonial rule of the subcontinent. Before India was granted independence, in 1947 the entire subcontinent was ruled by many local princes in hundreds of realms that had not been a uniﬁed country before the English conquest. The region on the Deccan plateau around Hyderabad, where Khan spent the majority of his life was ruled by a Muslim sovereign named the Nizam. Hyderabad was his seat of power, and after independence, it became the capital of the newly created Andhra Pradesh state. Osman Ali Khan, the Nizam was an extremely wealthy ruler who valued education and he established schools and a college in Hyderabad.247

241Moonwatch Summoned Tonight, The Eagle (Bryan, TX), Thursday, October 24, 1957; and Vanguard Rocket Seen Here, The Eagle, Friday, March 21, 1958, p. 8. 242For an excellent historical summary of the Moonwatch Program, see: McCray, W.P., Keep Watching the Skies!, Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2008. 243Kent, J.T., and H. R. Betz,, Ground Traces of Artificial Earth Satellites, Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1969, pp. 91–109. 244Biographical Note. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tamucush/00074/tamu-00074.html#a0. Accessed 5/24/16. 245Khan’s autobiography and contains his birthdate. His date of death may be as early as 1961, but Charles Olivier wrote an unpublished memorial article about him in August 1962 which suggested that 1962 was the year of Khan’s death. The memorial piece was found in Olivier’s American Philosophical Society correspondence file. 246See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 247Hyderabad state/Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyderabad_Deccan. Accessed on 5/24/16. See text under the heading “During the British Raj.” Mohd. A.R. Khan 417

Mohd. Khan acquired an interest in astronomy in primary school when he examined astronomical charts including a picture of “a shower of meteorites, possibly of Pultusk, in 1868 (which) made a profound and life-long impression.” He progressed through middle and high schools located in the Nizam’s college where he studied physics and chemistry taught by a Prof. Andrews, whose teaching “captured (his) heart in favor of experimental science.” In 1898, he was admitted as an undergraduate to Nizam College and majored in a sequence of courses named physiography “as it ensured a continuation of some physics and chemistry along with an introduction to geology and astronomy, subjects leading to field work and observation of heavenly bodies, which I was delighted to indulge in…” He graduated from Nizam College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1901, and after “voracious reading” in higher mathematics, astronomy, Muslim history and modern English literature,” he was appointed as an assistant lecturer at the College. Comet Halley’s appearance in 1910 further stimulated his desire to study astronomy and he used astronomical articles published in Nature to guide his frequent meteor and planetary observations.248 Khan was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1911 but had already accumulated leave that he would use for an education sabbatical. In April 1911, 30-year-old Khan sailed to England to study at University of London and after two years of study took examinations for the Bachelor of Science degree. He returned to India at the end of 1913 to resume teaching as a Professor of Physics at Nizam College. In June 1914, he was notified that he had been granted a degree with honors in physics and chemistry. Professor Khan’s biography reports his efforts to urge Nizam College to construct laboratories to supplement what had been only textbook-based education and by 1921 he had succeeded. Khan made major contributions to science education in Hyderabad; he wrote science experi- ments to be used by students and after being appointed Vice-Principal he was asked to select new mathematics, physics, and chemistry faculty. By 1918, Indians across the colony were becoming increasingly dissatisfied and impatient with British rule. Hyderabad locals believed English curricula and instruction in English had inhibited students’ ability to assume scientific, technical, and literary occupations. They, like other Indians, wanted to groom young people to lead an independent region, if not a nation. The Nizam was urged to endow a university “on modern lines, making Urdu (the indigenous language) the medium of instruction, and English, a compulsory second language.” The Nizam assented to the plan in 1918 and this began early organization of an institution to be named Osmania University. One of Professor Khan’s roles was to assist by translating bachelor’s level physics books into Urdu. Khan was a moderating influence in the radical linguistic nationalism and he counseled against wholesale replacement of all physical terms by Urdu words. His moderate role was resented by a faction of local educators and Khan described years of institutional sniping that resulted in a

248Khan’s description of his observations implies that they were unaided eye studies. On page 316 of his autobiography, he mentioned that there was a “Nizamiah Observatory” with “a large equatorial (refractor).” However, he never specifically stated using it. All of the biographical details given to this point are from pages 1–12 of My Life. 418 Enrolled 1930–1936 temporary loss of favor with the Nizam. However, by consistent constructive pursuit of science education at the new institution he was named Principal, the university’s president, in 1924–1926 and 1932.249 It was during the academic and political conflict of Khan’s second principalship at the University (1932–1934) that Khan confided “I utilized my sleepless nights in watching for meteors.” Meteor watches became his respite from distress. The year 1932 was the year Prof. Khan’s name first appeared in Professor Olivier’s Meteor Notes although Khan had been observing meteors and reporting his results to English journals, such as Nature and The Observatory, and to A.S. King the Meteor Section chief of the British Astronomical Association in earlier years. For example, he reported seeing “a splendid shower of Lyrid meteors in the small hours of the morning” of April 22, 1922. This was the same meteor outburst that Henry Norris Russell, vacationing in Greece, reported to Dr. Olivier and was the first Lyrid outburst seen since 1803. Prof. Khan apparently did all of his astronomical watches with unaided eyes. In addition to meteors, he mentioned watching “with the naked eye,” Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus, disappear behind the dark limb of the moon in the early 1920s as well as some bright comets and the zodiacal light. Evidently, his contributions to English journals were frequent and impressive because Alfred Fowler, a professional astronomer, nominated him for fellowship in the Royal Astronomical Society; Khan was elected in 1927. But it was after he retired from Osmania University in 1934 that he became most active in meteoric astronomy. He contributed meteor reports to Dr. Olivier annually from 1932 through 1954, a span of 23 years. He performed 44 watches in 1937, 52 in 1938, 90 in 1940, and his most productive year was in 1942 when he watched meteors on 118 nights, an average of once every three nights throughout the year. In 13 of the 23 years, he scanned the skies on 50 or more nights. Khan’s meteor statistics will be very difficult to surpass; his career totals were 1176 watches, during which he reported on 12,733 meteors and 8708 of them were plotted on star charts. Following Khan’s death in 1962, Charles Olivier wrote a memorial article in which he extolled the Indian’s long-time contributions to the AMS:

By the death of Prof. Khan…the AMS lost one of its most eminent and oldest active members. In 1937 (sic)250 he began a correspondence with (Olivier) and to send copies of his numerous and carefully made observations. His reports continued to arrive up to and including 1954, after which advancing years forced him to stop this exacting type of night work…His work had special value due to distance of his station from those of other meteor

249He was listed as a Principal for 1924–1926: http://www.osmania.ac.in/ArtsCollege/exdeans. html. Accessed 5/24/16. 250The date, 1937, was what Olivier wrote, but cannot be correct in light of Khan’s 1932 reports to AMS. Olivier’s American Philosophical Society correspondence ﬁle is of no help in establishing the earliest date correspondence was received because the earliest letter is dated 1941. Perhaps Olivier’s citation of 1937 was a typographical error which he did not correct. Mohd. A.R. Khan 419

observers…So far his work has been used here in studies of meteor magnitudes, long-enduring trains, ﬁreball rates and colors, and especially… the hourly rate catalog covering nearly every hour of every night in the year. They are currently being used in a study of ﬁreball radiants and other uses for his data will undoubtedly be found. Professor Khan had married and the couple had two sons and two daughters.

George P. Kirkpatrick

(1914–1973)251 Membership years: 1933–1938252

George Kirkpatrick’s biographical details were very difficult to discover. Learning the dates of his birth and death alone required the assistance of the AAVSO’s archivist, Dr. Michael Saladyga and the author’s stubborn perusal of a Social Security-related online finding aid labeled “Sorted by Name.” However, the reader will realize that many of Kirkpatrick’s life events are still obscure, for instance, what was the middle name hidden by that “P.”? Much clearer are the details of dual careers as a member of the AMS and AAVSO that he conducted almost simultaneously from 1932 to 1939. The AAVSO’s careful record-keeping and Dr. Saladyga’s scrupulous data retrieval give the AAVSO earliest claim to 18-year-old Kirkpatrick’s observational efforts; his first variable star observations were submitted in October 1932, using a 1–1/4-inch (3 cm) refractor. Kirkpatrick continued to send variable star magnitude estimates until September 1939 when his career total was 5275 in number.253 The aperture of his telescopes kept pace with the years too; his refractors progressed from the 1–1/4 inch to a 3 inch (7.6 cm) in 1934 and finally to a 4 inch (10 cm) in 1937. Kirkpatrick was not only passionate about variable star work but also about the organization itself because records show he attended the AAVSO’s Annual Meetings 1935–1937 and a Spring Meeting in 1936; he presented talks about

251These vital statistics are from Social Security Death Master File (SSDMF) based on GPK’s self-reported age when he applied to the AAVSO for membership: 18 years of age. Mr. Kirkpatrick’s date of birth, as given in the SSDMF is August 31, 1914. He was given a Social Security Number of 109-14-1270 while residing in New York State. His vital statistics were subsequently found in the Social Security Death Index, which showed a last residence of Edison, New Jersey. The author wishes to thank Dr. Michael Saladyga, AAVSO Archivist, for his assistance in providing the AAVSO’s information about George P. Kirkpatrick. 252See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 253Kirkpatrick is listed in Campbell, L., Shapley, H. and AAVSO, Observations of variable stars by the AAVSO, Annals of Harvard College Observatory, volume 104, Feb. 1, 1936, p. 4: “Kp Kirkpatrick, G.P., New York, NY.” This volume covers Auguset 1935–January 1936. This is the earliest reference in print, to his variable star contributions. 420 Enrolled 1930–1936 sunspots at each.254 Kirkpatrick also participated in the AAVSO’s Nova Program conducted by Luverne Armfield from April 1937 to April 1938.255 When Kirkpatrick applied for AAVSO membership in August 1933, he mentioned that he had been a member of the AMS “since the end of June 1933.”256 He wasted no time beginning to watch meteors and sent three reports to Dr. Olivier about observations of the 1933 July Delta Aquarid and August Perseid showers’ maxima. The three sessions totaled almost 400 min’ observation during which he plotted 54 meteors.257 By the end of 1933, after six months’ membership, Kirkpatrick had mapped the paths of 266 meteors during 14 nights’ watches and he sent a magnitude report about one meteor he happened to see while observing variable stars.258 Many amateurs joined the AMS expressly to be a part of scientific scrutiny of the Leonid meteors predicted to storm in November 1933 and 1934. Kirkpatrick has no exception and took part in Dr. Olivier’s formal campaigns to organize and syn- chronize meteor watchers’ efforts so that meteors’ atmospheric heights could be computed. In 1933, Kirkpatrick was assigned to participate in the “Northeastern network’s” cooperative watch. AMS members and interested citizen scientists watching from New Jersey, New York, and southern New England were assigned by Dr. Olivier to work together under the direction of AMS Regional Director R.B. Butler. Kirkpatrick was one of only four observers who submitted competent sky mappings of meteors. His work enabled AMS Headquarters to compute atmospheric heights of three sporadic meteors’ beginning and end points on November 14/15 and 16/17, 1933.259 Kirkpatrick was also a team observer for a similar effort involving the 1934 Leonids. In that campaign, twelve multistate meteor mapping teams provided the data for 46 meteors’ heights.260 Kirkpatrick’s observational contributions to the AMS spanned six years, 1933– 1938. His career total statistics were 592 meteors plotted on sky maps during 44 nights’ watches. He also sent Dr. Olivier magnitude estimates of 101 meteors seen as he monitored variable stars in his telescopes during the same six years.261

254Saladyga, M., Kirkpatrick, Information about George P. Kirkpatrick in the AAVSO Archives, a compilation made on 5/1/15. The compilation was sent as an email attachment to the author by Dr. Saladyga on 5/1/15. 255Armﬁeld, L., AAVSO Nova Program Notes, Amateur Astronomy, volume 3, number 4, April 1937 to volume 4, number 4, April 1938. 256Saladyga, 2015, op. cit. Dr. Olivier announced his admission to AMS membership in early 1934, in Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 42, 1934, p. 97. 257Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 515. 258Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 42, 1934, pp. 155–156. 259Wills, D., Meteor Heights, 1933 Leonid Epoch, Part II State Groups, PA, volume 42, 1934, pp. 274–276. 260Wills, D., Meteor Heights, 1934 Epoch, Part I, Eastern Group, PA, volume 43, 1935, pp. 309– 311. 261See Appendix B for the AMS’ Annual reports for 1933–1938. George P. Kirkpatrick 421

A Kirkpatrick family tree reports that George P. Kirkpatrick married and at the time of his death in Edison, New Jersey, was the father of a daughter and a son and he had a granddaughter.262

J.H. Kusner

(1903–1983)263 Membership years: 1932, 1933, 1936, and 1939.264

Joseph Harrison265 Kusner’s academic and administrative career brought him to most corners of the USA during his lifetime. He graduated from a Philadelphia high school and then the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) in 1924.266 In 1927, he married and began to teach mathematics at the University of Florida in Gainesville267; he remained on the mathematics faculty while earning a Columbia University master’s degree and by 1933, a doctorate from UPenn.268 Still in Gainesville during the Second World War, he served in the US Army Air Force with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Dr. Kusner was chief of navigation training for

262Kirkpatrick family tree, in the Public Family Trees of Ancestry.com. Accessed 5/1/15. 263North Carolina Death Index: Joseph Harrison Kusner, born January 6, 1903, died August 9, 1983, at a Veterans’ Administration Hospital. And the SSDI confirms that Joseph Kusner 518-30-7363 was born January 6, 1903, and died in August 1983. Source: both death indices came from Ancestry.com’s database for Joseph H. Kusner. 264See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 265North Carolina Death Index provided Kusner’s middle name: Joseph Harrison Kusner. Source: Ancestry.com. 266J.H. Kusner is shown in an individual portrait among his senior classmates, in UPenn’s yearbook, The Record of the Class of 1924, p. 96. In a short biography, it is mentioned that he attended West Philadelphia High School. This source was found among the items in Ancestry.com’s database for Joseph H. Kusner under the heading: All US School Yearbooks, 1880–2012 at Ancestry.com. 2671927–1946 City Directories of Gainesville, Florida, report he was an instructor at University of Florida (US City Directories, 1821–1989, Ancestry.com). His 1927 marriage to Juanita Vail is documented in Ancestry.com’s Robert Vail Family File. The 1930 US Census, enumerated in Gainesville, Florida reveals that Joseph H Kusner was married to Juanita, and he was a “teacher at University of Florida.” 268Kusner’s military career during World War II is briefly described in a newspaper article: New Idaho College Offers Hope on GI Education, San Francisco Bee, April 9, 1947, p. 3 (Source: GenealogyBank.com’s database for Joseph Kusner under its Historical Newspapers category.) The date that Kusner’s doctorate was awarded is surmised from an excerpt from an online history of the University of Florida’s Mathematics Department: “…instructor Joseph Kusner, A.B., is listed as directing the seventh masters thesis…awarded in June 1933. This apparent mystery is resolved by consulting later catalogues, which reveal by that time, Kusner had received his doctorate from Pennsylvania (apparently then a center for the new research field in the US of topology) and held the rank of Assistant Professor.” Source is: Ehrlich, Paul, Mathematics at the University of Florida in Gainesville, the first 65 years, Chapter 5: The Early History: 1911 through the 1930s the Simpson Years http://www.theral.net/chapter5.htm. Accessed 5/24/16. 422 Enrolled 1930–1936 the Air Force and later was sent to Langley Field, Virginia, to supervise a radar school. After the war, the nation’s pressing need to provide college and technical training to returning veterans led a four-state committee to hire Dr. Kusner as President of the Farragut College and Technical Institute, sited at a decommissioned US Navy facility at Lake Pend d’Oreille near Athol, Idaho.269 Kusner’s tenure there, 1946–1947, ended in his resignation when he was unable to quickly secure the training equipment necessary to fulfill educational promises made to veterans for training in a wide variety of trades.270 Two sources show that he was an administrator for the US Munitions Board 1952–1964.271 He resided in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, at the time of his death,272 and he was buried in a Salisbury, North Carolina veterans’ cemetery.273 Dr. Kusner’s service to meteor astronomy, during the 1930s, occurred while he was on the University of Florida’s Mathematics Department faculty. It may be that Kusner first became intrigued by Dr. Olivier’s meteor work while he completed his doctoral work at UPenn in the early 1930s. However, Dr. Kusner decided on contributing data to the AMS, he organized and conducted group watches from the very beginning of his directorship, commencing with 1932’s Leonid meteor shower. That year, the Florida Regional Group counted and mapped 496 meteors during two nights’ observations.274 Kusner’s Gainesville group next made simultaneous observations spanning August dates when the maximum of 1933’s Perseid meteor shower was due. From August 10 to 14, 1933, Florida’s observers mapped 79 Perseids on AMS star charts and counted 56 more.275 In early 1934, Dr. Olivier congratulated Dr. Kusner, along

269San Francisco Bee, April 9, 1947, p. 3, op. cit. 270Several Idaho and California newspapers carried articles, 1946–1947 recounting the promising start and frustrated failure of the Farragut College. The articles were found in GenealogyBank.com’s Historical Newspapers in its database for Joseph Kusner. All were accessed on 1/9 and 1/10/15. 271An official source is digitized by Google Books: United States Civil Service, Bureau of the Census, Official Register of the United States, Washington, D.C.: US Printing Office, 1952, p. 105. Kusner’s post war career is also mentioned in passing in an article about his daughter’s equestrian accomplishments: Champ Equestrian Only Wisp of Girl, Morning Star (Rockford, Illinois), November 15, 1964, p. 5. Source: GenealogyBank.com’ s Historical Newspapers category in its database for Joseph Kusner. 272Information in the Social Security Death Index reports that Joseph Kusner’s last residence was in Harper’s Ferry West Virginia. Source: Ancestry.com’s database for Joseph H. Kusner. 273Ancestry.com’s database, US Veterans Gravesites, ca. 1775–2006, reports Joseph Harrison Kusner was a Lt Colonel in the US Army (Air Force) in World War II. He was interred August 12, 1983, at Salisbury National Cemetery, Salisbury, North Carolina. 274Dr. Olivier introduced the Florida Group in his 1932 Annual Report (PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 110: “We now have state groups, with active leaders, in…FL…which are on watch for great fireballs and make prompt efforts to gather data thereon, as well as on the more prominent showers.” And Dr. Kusner was specifically cited as being a new AMS member on p. 111 of the same Meteor Note. On page 113, Table 1 cited the Group’s two night vigils and their total of meteors observed. 275Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 515. J.H. Kusner 423 with other Regional Group directors for the hard work done to coordinate simultaneous cooperative watches in order to compute the heights of 1933’s Leonid and sporadic meteors.276 Dispersed over a large portion of central Florida, the Florida group fielded seven citizen scientists besides Kusner to watch Leonids on five November nights. From November 14 to 18, 1933, group members counted 136 meteors and mapped 38 more.277 Although chances had vanished after 1933 for the long-expected and hoped-for Leonid meteor storm, the Florida Regional Group persisted in keeping meteor watches in 1936 and 1939. In 1936, they plotted 483 meteors on AMS star maps278 and in 1939, 15 group members pooled their talents to map another 331 meteors during three nights’ watches.279

Louise M. Larrabee

(1884–1962)280 Membership years: 1932 (as a non-member) and as a member in 1935, 1936, and 1938–1940.281

Louise Monroe282 Larrabee was born one month earlier than Charles Olivier, in rural northeast Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna County, just south of Binghamton, New York. When she was 16 years old, in 1900, she and her 13-year-old sister lived with their mother, Kate, on the grounds of Pennsylvania’s Bloomsburg State Normal School, which is today Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Kate, a clerk at the School, was an important life model for Louise: a woman could ﬁnancially support herself by employment at a learning institution.283 In addition, Louise experienced the allure of higher education and aspired to it.

276Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 42, 1934, pp. 41–42. 277Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 42, 1934, p. 98 278Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 46, 1938, pp. 155 279Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 48, 1940, p. 151. 280Date of birth found in numerous passenger lists of ships sailing between Honolulu, HI and other ports, for example, a sailing from Yokohama, Japan on August 18, 1933 to Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii: source, Honolulu, Hawaii Passenger and Crew lists, 1900–1959 in Ancestry.com database for Louise M. Larrabee. Date of Death was found in an obituary in a League of Women Voters’ newsletter: KeMea Koho Poloka, League of Women Voters, volume 12, no. 7, Honolulu: League of Women Voters, February 1962, front page. 281See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate her contributions. 282Directory of Alumnae and Non-Graduates, Baltimore: Goucher College, 1915, p. 130. This directory gives her middle name of Monroe. 2831900 US Census: Kate L. Larrabee, age 44, married 17 years (1883), lived in a boarding house or dormitory with her two daughters, Louise aged 16 and Beatrice, aged 13. Kate’s husband was not with them but evidently still alive because she stated she was married. Kate was born June 1855, Louise March 1884 and Beatrice July 1886. Kate was a “clerk” at the School and her 424 Enrolled 1930–1936

Five years later, in 1905, Louise began college studies at Baltimore, Maryland’s Goucher College.284 Founded only twenty years earlier, the institution was “ﬁrmly committed to excellence in liberal arts and sciences education” for women and had been founded by Reverend Goucher of the Methodist Episcopal Church,285 a church to which Kate Larrabee belonged and made small donations.286 In college, Louise trained herself in home economics and perhaps as part of her professional development, she taught the subject at a girls’ seminary in Honolulu in 1909.287 Her sojourn in the Territory of Hawaii was short term because Larrabee graduated from Pennsylvania State College in 1910 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Home Economics.288 After graduation in 1910, Louise returned brieﬂy to live with her mother, now widowed.289 Louise soon won a teaching position with the Barber Memorial Seminary, an elementary and secondary school for African American girls located in Anniston, Alabama.290 The following year, 1911, found her back in Hawaii teaching domestic science and serving as a matron at the girl’s seminary where she

(Footnote 283 continued) daughters were students. They were living on the grounds of Bloomsburg State Normal School in Town of Bloomsburg, Columbia County, Pennsylvania; Enumeration was on 15 June 1900. Source: Ancesty.com’s database for Kate L. Larrabee. For the academic years 1901–1902, 1905– 1906, and 1906–1907, Mrs. Kate L. Larrabee was listed as Custodian of the Study Hall at the Bloomsburg Literary Institute and State Normal School; source for 1905–1906: http://archive.org/ stream/calms05bloo/calms05bloo_dvju.txt. Accessed 5/24/16. 284Directory of Alumnae and Non-Graduates, 1907, by Goucher College (Baltimore), p. 93. This is a Google eBook: https://books.google.com/books?id=I_wSAAAAIAAJ&dq=louise+larrabee +honolulu&=gbs_navlinks_s. Accessed 5/24/16. 285History: Goucher College, http://www.goucher.edu/about/who-we-are/history. Accessed 5/24/16. 286The Minutes of the…Session of the Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, volumes 36–38 (Google eBook), Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference of M.E. Church, 1904, pp. 179 and 188, under the heading, “Bloomsburg.” Page 188’s listing is for “Mrs. Kate Louise Larrabee.” 287Hawaiian Almanac and Annual for 1910, Honolulu: Thos. G. Thrum, 1909, p. 201: “Kawaiahao Girl’s Seminary…Matron and Domestic Science-Miss Louise M. Larrabee.” 288Source: Pennsylvania State College Alumni Association, Alumni Directory, 1913, Alumni Association, Penn State College Registers, State College, Pennsylvania: Alumni Association, 1913, p. 224: “ Larrabee, Louise M., B.S. (Home Economics);” On p. 222 is the heading “Class of 1910.” Source: Google ebook. 2891910 US Census entries for both Louise and Kate L. Larrabee: Ancestry.com’s databases for both women. 290Directory of Alumnae and Non-Graduates, 1915, Baltimore: Goucher College, p. 130. This is a Google eBook. Information about the Barber Seminary is from: Yale Digital Content, Barber Memorial Seminary records, 1901–1940. Web site: http://discover.odai.yale.edu/ydc/Record/3470725. Accessed 5/24/16. Louise M. Larrabee 425 interned in 1909, now renamed the Mid-Paciﬁc Institute291; she held this position until 1915.292 During the 1920s, except for a teaching stint in Clallam County, Washington State in 1920293, the historical record indicates that Ms. Larrabee almost annually sailed between the USA mainland and the Territory of Hawaii, probably to visit her family. She departed the mainland in August and returned in June in accordance with her school year employment calendar.294 Larrabee had been taking graduate level courses at the University of Hawaii since 1922, but in 1929 she became a candidate for the master’s degree in education.295 Until 1930, Larrabee showed no interest in astronomy. However, that year she completed her master’s degree thesis, a 160-page syllabus entitled, A one semester course of study in astronomy for a senior high school.296 Not only did it earn her a master’s degree297 it provided the lesson plan for years of astronomy classes she taught at William McKinley High School298, perhaps the ﬁrst high school established in the Territory. Evidently, part of the syllabus included a class about meteor astronomy because Larrabee’s high school students and astronomy club members made systematic Orionid meteor counts that won Dr. Olivier’s praise for the data

291Formerly named the Kawaiahao Girls’ Seminary where she taught in 1909. Source: Paul Turnbull, Welcome to the Mid-Pacific Institute, http://www.midpac.edu/about/welcome.php. Accessed 5/24/16. 292Goucher College, 1915, op. cit. Her employment at the Institute/Seminary is also documented in: Thrum, T., Compiler, All about Hawaii, Hawaiian Almanac and Annual for 1913, Reference Book of Info and Statistics, 1912, Honolulu: TG Thrum, p. 201 (this is a digitized Google book). This entry mentions her affiliation as being Kawaiahao Girls’ Seminary. She is listed as Matron and Domestic Science. Accessed: 28 November 2011. 2931920 US Census: she is a public school teacher in Clallam County, Olympic peninsula, Washington state. Source: Ancestry.com’s database for Louise M. Larrabee. 294All Honolulu, Hawaii, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1900–1959, Ancestry.com’s database for Louise M. Larrabee. The database shows sailings from 1920 to 1957. 295University of Hawaii, Quarterly Bulletin, Directory of Officers and Students 1929–1930, volume 8, no. 3, Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1929, p. 26 296Amazon.com advertises the existence of the syllabus with this title but it is not available due to being out of print. 297Quarterly Bulletin of the University of Hawaii, Directory of Officers and Students 1930–1931 volume 9, no. 3, Honolulu: U of Hawaii, October 1930, p. 23. 298The 1930 and 1940 US Censuses recorded that she was a public school teacher in Honolulu. Source: Ancestry.com’s database for Louise M. Larrabee. The author assumed the unnamed high school was McKinley because that affiliation is mentioned in a 1936 Meteor Note: PA, volume 44, p. 37. This high school was established in 1865 and renamed “President William McKinley High School” in 1907 to honor McKinley, “whose influence helped to bring about the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States” Source: “President William McKinley High School”; source: http://www.mckinley.k12.hi.us/history.html. Accessed 5/24/16. 426 Enrolled 1930–1936 they furnished the AMS in 1935 and 1938.299 Olivier complimented Larrabee and her students for

“a splendid set of counts for several nights…from a longitude from which data are especially valuable…It is safe to say that to many of these young people who took part (in watching 1938’s Orionids) it will be something they will remember with pleasure and… help them to have a juster (sic) view of what science attempts to teach.” 300 Olivier lauded Larrabee’s example too, “We congratulate her on having been able to interest so many young persons, all members of the ‘Hui Hoku’ (Star Society) of Mc Kinley High School.”301 He prodded other teachers to follow her example by adding, “Why cannot science teachers in other schools to say nothing of colleges… undertake a similar campaign?”302 We can understand Olivier’s glee at the Hawaiian data when we note that in 1935 eleven of her students counted 495 meteors during four nights’ watches.303 And in 1938, over 60 students counted Orionids, recording a total of 1074 over five nights.304 For both years, Olivier was able to compute the Orionids’ hourly rates from the students’ data; these were statistics that he eagerly wanted. Ms. Larrabee not only supervised her students’ work while they counted meteors but she was actively engaged in the same effort; her personal total, for 1935–1940, was eight night watches and a total of 179 meteors that she counted or plotted herself. This total of night watches does not include the 21 more she supervised while she coached students in their counts. Larrabee did not report any meteor watches during the World War II, and most likely, nighttime activity was discouraged during the war; Hawaii was almost “on the front” of the Pacific war, having been attacked in December 1941. She did not return to meteor work after the war. Larrabee’s activities during her retirement years were identified in a 1962 death notice by the Hawaiian chapter of the League of Women Voters (LWV). Larrabee joined LWV in 1951 “and served in many (LWV) capacities…(such as) Voters Service, National and Local programs…(her) credits include church activity, membership in 30 organizations and she aided students at University of Hawaii in securing housing.”305

2991935: Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 44, 1936, pp. 37–38; 1938: Olivier, Meteor Notes, PA, volume 47, 1939, pp. 89 and 91. 300Olivier, 1939, op. cit., p. 89. 301Olivier (1936), op. cit., p. 37. 302Olivier, 1939, op. cit., p. 89. 303See the 1935 Annual Report, PA, volume 44, 1936, p. 214. 304See the 1938 Annual Report, PA, volume 47, 1939, p. 147. 305Editor, Louise Larrabee, KeMea Koho Poloka, League of Women Voters (newsletter), volume 12, number 7, Honolulu: League of Women Voters, Feb. 1962, p. 1 Joseph Leerman 427 Joseph Leerman

(1894–1963)306 Membership years: 1936–1940, 1943, and 1944307

Joseph Leerman, a Russian Jew, immigrated to the USA in 1914 three years before the Russian revolution. Leerman stated he had worked as a baker when he left Odessa in Imperial Russia.308 But, in the 1920 US Census of Philadelphia he reported employment as a “stitcher” of steamer trunks’ cloth lining. Joseph married Ida, an émigré from Kiev in 1920309 and by 1930, Joseph was proprietor of a Baltimore, Maryland grocery store and the couple was parents of a daughter and a son.310 In 1940, Joseph was self-employed in a new Baltimore endeavor, a café in which he and Ida worked 70 h a week and in which his daughter worked as a waitress.311 These details suggest the social and familial settings in which Leerman, an urban dweller, decided to become a meteor astronomer. There were at least two possibilities about how Mr. Leerman became shooting starstruck. One was that he was a subscriber to Popular Astronomy, had read Dr. Olivier’s accounts about meteor phenomena, and decided to heed the professor’s pleas for readers to become new AMS members. The second was that he became acquainted with Paul Watson,312 an active Baltimore variable star and meteor observer. In fact, both Leerman and Watson watched the 1936 Perseid meteors on the night of August 12/13, but Leerman remained in Baltimore with his daughter as a co-observer while Watson plotted meteors from a rural site in the center of the Free State. In addition to the August watch, however, Mr. Leerman held a separate two-hour vigil on the predicted maximum date for the Delta Aquarid meteors: July 29/30. This fact implies that Leerman was knowledgeable about when to make the July watch and that he was capable of planning it without guidance from Watson.313 Mr. Leerman made all 59 of his career’s observations from urban Baltimore and counted a total of 714 meteors for Dr. Olivier’s hourly rate research. Joseph Leerman was survived by his wife and children when he died in 1963.

306US Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014. The Find-a-Grave Index, 1600s-Current site shows that burial was in Knesseth Israel Anshe Kolk Wolyn Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland. The 1894 birthdate is on Leerman’s grave marker, but Ancestry.com’s database, Pennsylvania, US Naturalization Originals, 1795–1930 reported that his birthdate was May 15, 1893. There is little doubt the two dates are for the same man, but 1894 was accepted for this biography. 307See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 308Ancestry.com: Pennsylvania, US Naturalization Originals, 1795–1930. 3091930 US Census of Baltimore, Maryland, in which he reported marrying at age 26. Ida’s birthplace was reported in the 1920 US Census. 3101930 US Census of Baltimore, Maryland, household of Joseph Leerman. 3111940 US Census of Baltimore, Maryland, household of Joseph Leerman. 312See Paul S. Watson’s biography in this chapter. 313Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, volume 44, 1936, pp. 501–502. Leerman’s daughter showed independence as an observer: she watched Perseids for one-half an houron the night of August 13/14, by herself. 428 Enrolled 1930–1936 Eppe Loreta

(1908–1945)314 Membership years: 1933–1940315

Giuseppe Loreta was an avid amateur astronomer who monitored the skies over Bologna, Italy. He had a doctorate of laws degree and was a librarian in the city of Bologna governmental building.316 In 1928, he began to publish the results of his frequent night watches in Gazette Astronomique, a monthly French-language journal which was published by the Societe d’Astronomie d’Anvers317 in Belgium. His ﬁrst article was a summary of the magnitude estimates he had made of the variable star R Scuti over a two-and-a-half-year interval beginning in 1925.318 Loreta examined almost every celestial object visible from Bologna using 45-mm (1.8-inch) binoculars; variable stars’ magnitudes, asteroids’ magnitudes, the extent of the sunlit lunar crescent and the earthlit portion of new moons all fell under his scrutiny and were reported to the Gazette. Loreta lowered binoculars from his eyes to watch lunar eclipses and the zodiacal light and these were also described to the Gazette’s readers. Hardly an issue was published without a notice of what Loreta had seen. He was especially fascinated by objects’ light variations, for example, how asteroids’ brightness waxed as the earth approached closest to them at opposition and then waned as it drew away. Brightening and dimming variable stars intrigued him as well and he was an energetic member of the AAVSO. Loreta scrupulously measured light changes by comparing stars and asteroids’ brightnesses to those of stars with unchanging magnitudes. He identiﬁed the correct “niche” for the varying objects between two stars of known brightness and he documented each observation with the names and magnitudes of these comparison stars.319

314Loreta’s birth date is from an Italian Web site: http://www.astropa.unipa.it/Library/Astronomi/ frameset.html. Accessed on 5/24/16. His date of death is in some doubt, although the Web site cites 1945. Two death dates were published: 1944 (Dermul, A., M. Eppe Loreta, Gazette Astronomique, vol. 28, 1946, pp. 5–6) and 1945 (Popular Astronomy, vol 54, 1946, p. 204: “Dr. Eppe Loreta died in Bologna, Italy, on September 5, 1945.) 315See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 316Letter from Eppe Loreta to Charles P. Olivier, dated November 26, 1936. The letter was found in the AMS’ archives box “1930s.” 317Anvers is the French name for the city of Antwerp. 318Loreta, Observations visuelles de l’etoile variable R Scuti du 24 juillet 1925 au 19 decembre 1927. Gazette Astronomique, volume 15, 1928, p. 11. This journal is digitized and available on the SAO/NASA ADS Web site. 319For instance two measures of RS Oph, a variable star which is also a recurrent nova: Loreta, E., RS Ophiuchi, Gazette Astronomique, volume 20, 1933, p. 153. See also his article about asteroid Eros’ magnitude changes: Observations des variations d’eclat d’Eros, Gazette Astronomique, volume 18, 1931, pp. 37–41 (in French, but his method is understandable even to the non-French reader). Eppe Loreta 429

Dr. Loreta made his debut as a meteor observer and AMS member by reporting the yield of seven nights’ watches made during 1933.320 His first meteor article in the Gazette was about the results of a 1934 watch for the Draconid meteor shower.321 Loreta soon joined meteor height and long-enduring meteor train reporting campaigns that Dr. Olivier urged AMS members to pursue. Loreta communicated with other Italian meteor observers, and often, they were able to see the same brilliant fireballs. In such cases, Loreta sent Olivier all observers’ geographical data and the distances between himself and the others’ sites, as well as each observer’s notes on the sky coordinates of fireballs’ appearances and disap- pearances.322 From such data, Dr. Olivier or Ms. Doris Wills, Olivier’s assistant, was able to compute the fireballs’ heights. Loreta’s ever-present binoculars allowed him to watch fireballs’ trains long after they vanished to the unaided eye. He made sketches of the trains as stratospheric winds twisted and moved them past background stars. These sketches and the times they were made permitted estimates of the speed of high-altitude winds. In one letter, Loreta sketched the distortions and movement of a-4 magnitude fireball’s train he witnessed on July 28, 1936; he mentioned that he was only able to see the train for 10 s without the binoculars but he could monitor it for 100 s with the instrument.323 Olivier was so impressed with Loreta’s method that in his next Meteor Note, Olivier “urge(d) each (AMS observer) to have an opera or field glass at hand when observing meteors and to try to follow with it the changes of any conspicuous train. Any observable drifts or alterations of shape or size should be plotted on the map or drawn on a separate sheet…”324 Loreta’s meteor height and train drift observations were also published by Dr. Peter M. Millman, a Canadian Harvard College Observatory-trained meteor astrophysicist in his Meteor News column in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (JRASC). Millman sometimes reproduced Loreta’s reports in more detail than did Dr. Olivier in his Meteor Notes. Loreta’s sketches of distorted meteor train shapes as well as graphical presentations of meteor shower rates

320Olivier, C. P., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 42, 1934, p. 155. 321Loreta, E., Observations d’etoiles filantes le 9 octobre 1934., Gazette Astronomique (GA), volume 21, 1934, p. 160. 322Two frequent collaborators were “Madame C. Corucci” who watched from Livorno and a Monsieur Walter who observed from Schio, Italy: Letters from Eppe Loreta to Charles P. Olivier, dated 26 August and 18 November 1936 respectively. The letters were found in the AMS’ archives box “1930s.” A longer list of Loreta’s confederates was given in an article by Peter M. Millman in Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (JRASC), volume 33, 1939, pp. 387–391. 323Letter from Eppe Loreta to Charles P. Olivier, undated except for Olivier’s note of “1936” at the top. All letters between Loreta and Olivier were found in the AMS’ Archives box labeled “1930s.” The author translated the letters. 324Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 44, 1936, p. 439. 430 Enrolled 1930–1936 appeared in Millman’s articles.325 Millman as well as Olivier praised Loreta’s work.326 The English-reading world began to see Loreta’s variable star observations in 1933, the same year that his name debuted on the AMS’ Annual Report. The AAVSO’s September 1933 report showed that Loreta had sent five magnitude estimates of four variable stars as part of his application for membership.327 Loreta must have furnished the Association with his earlier years’ estimates because the AAVSO’s Archivist, Michael Saladyga, reported that Loreta sent observations dating back to October 1927; Loreta sent the AAVSO a total of 22,396 observations as of September 1940.328 In 1936, the AAVSO Council sent a letter of commendation to Loreta for his devotion to variable star work.329 In spite of his accomplishments and approval from North America, Loreta was dissatisfied with his achievements. In a November 18, 1936, letter to Dr. Olivier, Loreta confided his anguish about how difficult it was to be first to discover a nova. He wrote that he lost a chance for this distinction330 when his discovery notice to two Italian observatories concerning the sudden brightening of variable star RS Ophiuchi in 1933 was not forwarded to the clearing house for such matters, Harvard College Observatory. In 1936, his ambitions were frustrated again when a Japanese amateur astronomer detected the earliest phase of Nova Lacerta’s outburst before Loreta could see it with his binoculars. He admitted to Olivier how much an AAVSO gold medal awarded331 for such discoveries would have helped compensate him for the money he spent to pursue astronomical work. Dr. Olivier was moved by Loreta’s lament and he offered to advocate for him by writing to Italian astronomers and the National Education Minister in Rome. Loreta

325Millman, P.M., Meteor News, JRASC, volumes 30 and 33, 1936 and 1939, p. 416–418 and pp. 387–391, respectively. 326See a Millman quote from 1936: Meteor News, JRASC, volume 30, 1936, p. 416. 327Campbell, L., Monthly report of the AAVSO for September 1933, PA, volume 41, 1933, pp. 499 and 513. 328Saladyga, M., http://www.aavso.org/recognition. Accessed 5/24/16. 329Williams, T.R. and M. Saladyga, Advancing Variable Star Astronomy, Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 101. 330Leon Campbell documented Loreta’s loss of primacy to Leslie Peltier for discovering RS Ophiuchi’s outburst in 1933. Campbell stated: “(Peltier’s) prompt notification to Harvard and Yerkes furnished the possibility of spectrum plates being secured…To be sure, E. Loreta…had found the star rising and at maximum…a few days earlier but word reached the professional astronomer too late to allow spectrum plates to be taken at those critical times.” (PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 441). A month later in the AAVSO Monthly Note for September 1933, Campbell reclassified Loreta’s role to “co-discoverer with Mr. Peltier for the recent rise of Nova RS Ophiuchi.” (PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 499.) The latest development in this saga is a recent posting by the AAVSO which gives Loreta full credit for the original discovery: “The 1933 outburst was first detected by Eppe Loreta…from Bologna, Italy…An independent discovery of this activity was made several days later by Leslie Peltier…” Source, accessed on 5/24/16: http://www.aavso. org/vsots_rsoph Dr. Thomas R. Williams, AAVSO historian kindly informed the author of this notice and the AAVSO Web site source. 331Williams and Saladyga, op. cit., pp. 98 and 343. Eppe Loreta 431 was pessimistic about the outcome of such efforts because, in Loreta’s opinion, Italian astronomers ignored amateur astronomers in general and him in particular. Another obstacle to professional acceptance was Loreta’s doctorate, which was in law and not in mathematics and physics which was a prerequisite for an astronomical post. Nevertheless, Olivier made an attempt to get Loreta a paid position in Italian professional astronomy. In May 1937, Olivier informed Loreta that he had contacted the Italian Ambassador in Washington, D.C., with a recommendation that Loreta be given an observatory position. Olivier wrote Loreta that the Ambassador was impressed with the recommendation and the Ambassador told him it was forwarded to the Ministry of Education in Rome. However, the outcome was just as Loreta had predicted: Italian “authorities” reported that Loreta’s theoretical training was deficient and he was therefore ineligible for a position at an observatory. Olivier urged Loreta to get additional academic training while continuing his excellent observational work; he believed that the combination would surely bring Loreta advancement to a professional post. Loreta greatly appreciated Olivier’s intercession but did not obtain and probably was not able to afford, additional education. He remained an amateur astronomer, claiming in one letter to Olivier that observational astronomy was its own reward writing, “My enthusiasm for the heavens is very great…Long live astronomy! I am fortunate for this; I love the heavens, its stars, its meteors.” In 1939, Dr. Olivier reflected on Loreta’s career, writing, “I regret to say that, as far as I know, Loreta has never received proper recognition in Italy for his excellent work, nor the encouragement there which he deserves. However, he is highly appreciated elsewhere and I hope that his native land will accord him more recognition when it is realized what his reputation is abroad.”332 Loreta continued reporting to Dr. Olivier through 1940, but the US declaration of war on Italy on December 11, 1941, ended mail communication between the two nations. Life in Bologna during the war was perilous; the Allied air forces bombed it twice in 1943 resulting in hundreds of deaths and casualties. Two years later, the Battle of Bologna, a major Allied offensive against the Nazis occurred on April 9 to 21, 1945.333 Despite the devastation and wartime privations, Loreta continued his astronomical observations. On January 27, 1943, he sent a German language report to Astronomisches Nachtrichten (AN) with estimates of comets’ magnitudes.334 His last report to AN was received on April 3, 1944; it listed estimates of variable stars’ magnitudes he made during 1942 and 1943.335 Dr. Eppe Loreta died near the end of the war. Two conflicting reports of his death were published. The Gazette Astronomique’s editor admitted that its report came from a local Antwerp newspaper that had confused names and facts. That

332Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 47, 1939, p. 496. 333See “Battle of Bologna” on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bologna. Accessed 5/24/16. 334Loreta, E., Heiligkeiten von Kometen, AN, volume 274, 1943, p. 133. 335Loreta, E., Veranderliche Sterne, AN, volume 275, 1947, p. 189. 432 Enrolled 1930–1936 paper’s version was that Loreta had been killed in a 1944 summary execution.336 Without citing its source, Popular Astronomy carried a notice that he had died in Bologna on September 5, 1945.337 Whatever the cause, Loreta’s death was unti- mely and had he lived, he would no doubt have made many more contributions in several ﬁelds of astronomy. Dr. Curvin Gingrich, PA’s editor aptly eulogized the Italian amateur, “Dr. Loreta was well known for his work on long-enduring meteor trains, novae, variable stars, etc. He was one of the most ardent of the European meteor observers, and his death is a great loss to meteoritic study.”338 AMS Annual Reports show that from 1933 to 1940, Loreta watched meteors on more than 140 nights and during these he mapped and counted more than 3700 meteors. In addition, he submitted reports about 16 telescopic meteors, many of which contained descriptions of long-enduring meteor trains.

R.W. Miller

(1914–2000)339 Membership years: 1931–1933340

Robert W. Miller, Jr.341 watched meteors during the years when the Leonids were predicted to storm, 1931–1933. Miller counted members of 1932’s Perseid meteor shower and these data, from August 11 and 12, furnished rate information which Dr. Olivier published in a summary report.342 Although his address in 1932 was Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, near the Flower Observatory, he did not participate with Dr. Olivier’s “local” regional group campaign in that year. However, Miller’s report of one night’s results during the 1932 Leonid shower, 17 meteors on November 15, was cited in Olivier’s summary report.343 Miller’s meteor watch statistics’ totals for 1931–1933 were ﬁve night watches and 219 meteors mapped or counted.

336Dermul, A., M. Eppe Loreta, GA, volume 28, 1946, pp. 5–6. Perhaps Dr. Olivier was referring to this version when he wrote that Loreta “was murdered by the Gestapo.” Olivier did not elaborate or cite his source in an article in Meteoritics, volume 1, p. 369. 337Gingrich, C., Dr. Eppe Loreta, PA, volume 54, 1946, p. 204. 338Ibid. 339Social Security Death Index: Robert W. Miller was born Sept 30, 1914, given a Social Security Number while working in Florida (SSNs were only given after 1935 and Miller resided in Florida then.), and he died November 13, 2000. 340See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 341The 1930 US Census, enumerated in Altoona, PA, on April 16, 1930, indicated that household’s head was Robert W. Miller, a 44-year-old mechanical engineer employed by old Pennsylvania Railroad. His wife was named Edna and their son was Robert W. too, aged 16 years. Source: Ancestry.com database for Robert W. Miller. 342Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 577. 343Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 54. R.W. Miller 433

Miller relocated to Miami, Florida, in 1933 where and when he conducted his last meteor watch.344 The 1940 US Census reveals that he had married and was employed as a mechanics helper in the power industry. The 1945 Florida State Census reported that the couple had a three-year-old son; Miller was then employed as a pattern maker for an unspeciﬁed industry.345

Stuart L. O’byrne

(1905–2006)346 Membership years: 1931–1933, 1951, 1953, and 1960347

Webster Groves, Missouri, was an enthusiastic center of meteor observation in the early 1930s. A careful reading of AMS reports for 1931–1933 reveals four people and one community group with a Webster Groves address that engaged in watches and reports to the AMS. The town boasted the Webster Groves Nature Study Society (WGNSS), a community-based naturalist organization founded in 1920 by 85 adult and 30 child nature enthusiasts who were keen to study “birds, bugs, and botany.”348 But the group also ﬁelded a meteor watch contingent of up to 4 people in 1931 and 1932, so it is clear that members broadened their naturalist efforts to astronomy for special occasions, like the Leonid shower.349 It is tempting to guess that all these townspeople collaborated on speciﬁc projects, but there is no clear evidence on which to base such a conclusion. The AMS Annual Reports list only individuals’ names along with the WGNSS group as if they worked independently. Nevertheless, with so much “meteor fever” in the air, it is not surprising that one of the meteor devotees, Stuart O’Byrne, who had strong interests in several aspects of

344Dr. Olivier’s 1933 Annual Report shows a Miami address for Miller, as does the AMS membership list included in the AMS Bulletin 15 (1934). 345Both 1940 and 1945 Censuses were found in Ancestry.com’s database for Robert W. Miller. 346“Sorted by name” Web site, offers a search algorithm for consulting the Social Security Death Master File. It reports: Stuart O’Byrne “was born 23 Sept 1905, received SSN# 487-22-7332 (indicating Missouri)” and Death Master file indicates, he died 15 April 2006. Source: http:// sortedbyname.com/. Accessed on 5/24/16. The Social Security Death Index substantiates these vital statistics too. 347See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 348Webster Groves Nature Study Society Web site, http://www.wgnss.org/about-wgnss.html. Accessed on 5/24/16. On this Web site, click on “More,” and scroll down to “About WGNSS.” 349Sources: AMS Annual Reports for 1931 and 1932. 434 Enrolled 1930–1936 nature study, would become intrigued with meteor study and begin his contributions to the AMS.350 O’Byrne’s AMS contributions were concentrated in the years when the Leonids were likely to storm, 1931–1933. After those years, he contributed a night or two watches’ results in 1951, 1953, and 1960. During a total of 28 watches in his career, O’Byrne counted and sometimes described 725 meteors. In addition to naked eye meteor watches, O’Byrne used a telescope to report variable star magnitude estimates to the AAVSO 1931–1934.351 Stuart O’Byrne’s employments were difficult to discover and only three official documents were helpful; their various types suggest that O’Byrne was a man of many talents. In 1930, the US Census revealed that he worked as a field assistant for an entomological organization, clearly showing that he was able to turn a naturalist’s interests into paid employment. The 1940 Census enumerator recorded that he was a hospital orderly in a St. Louis medical facility.352 The last record, a 1943 St. Louis City Directory, reported that he was employed as a lofts man353,a technician who creates life-size patterns for parts of ships or airplanes based upon an engineer or draftsman’s scale drawings. There was no mention of that last employer but given the Directory’s 1943 publication date, it seems likely that O’Byrne was involved in war production work. O’Byrne was married in 1942 to May (alternately spelled Mae) Brinkmeyer (1918–2003).354 May was a good match for O’Byrne because, as later documents would show, she had a lively interest in the natural sciences. O’Byrne’s avocational interests and accomplishments are better documented than his employment. A 1933 newspaper article reported that 27-year-old O’Byrne had made a device he called a “stararium” from scraps of “paper, wood, wire, and parts of an old flashlight (torch).” The device projected 850 artificial stars onto a three-foot (1 m)-diameter half-dome and reportedly accurately showed the rotation

350The other meteor-watching individuals from Webster Groves were J. Wesley Simpson, subject of another biography in this book, Simpson’s cousin J. F. Hickerson and Simpson’s brother A.M. Simpson. 3511931 AAVSO sources: Campbell, L; PA, volume 39, 1931, pp. 603–4 and vol 40, 1932, pp. 45, 109. 1932 AAVSO report was in Campbell, L., PA, volume. 40, 1932, pp. 644–5; 1933 AAVSO report was in Campbell, L., PA, volume 41, 1933, pp. 576–8; 1934 AAVSO sources: Campbell, L; PA, volume 42, 1934; pp. 332, 390–1, 463–4, 592–3 and volume 43, 1935, pp. 5–60 and 115–6. 352The 1940 US Census asked the public about their educational attainments. O’Byrne reported his formal education ended after four years of high school. 3531943 St. Louis, Missouri, City directory 1943: “loftsman” in St. Louis; wife is named Mae or May. Lived in WG. US City Directories, 1821–1989 in Ancestry.com database for O’Byrne. 354They were married in St. Louis: Source: Ancestry.com database for May Brinkmeyer, All Missouri Marriage Records, 1805–2002, accessed 11/29/14. She was 24, born about 1918, about 12 years younger than the groom. Stuart L. O’byrne 435 of the constellations in the course of the night.355 By completing such a project, O’Byrne demonstrated some of the drafting and mechanical skills that were going to be important to his future work as a lofts man. A 1950 Missouri newspaper article mentioned that O’Byrne was President of the St. Louis Amateur Astronomical Society and he had informed the newspaper’s readers that a nighttime flash which lit up the entire countryside on December 10, 1950, was a fireball. The article mentioned that the Society conducted a watch for the 1950 Geminids. Two years later, O’Byrne, his wife, and nine-year-old daughter watched Perseids during the shower’s maximum. A 1952 newspaper article reported that O’Byrne mapped Perseid meteors which his wife and daughter had pointed out and that young Jane “outscored adult watchers…with her individual (hourly) count of 17 fiery particles…” Dr. Olivier’s 1952 Annual Report contained the two female O’Byrnes’ report of 104 meteors seen that one night.356 In 1957, O’Byrne was “in charge of Operation Moonwatch” in St. Louis during the International Geophysical Year when an important astronomical project was to monitor the Soviets’ Sputnik satellite in order to determine its orbit around the earth.357 In 1971, the O’Byrnes moved to Silver City, New Mexico, for their retirement years. They joined the Southwest New Mexico (SWNM) Audubon Society in April 1971, and numerous newspaper articles from 1972–1977 document their involvement and leadership in astronomical and ornithological outings for Society members and the public. A 1972 article reported that Stuart used a 10-inch (25-cm.) reflecting telescope to show attendees the planets and other celestial objects during outdoor sessions of the Society.358 May predeceased Stuart in 2003 and he entered a retirement home at some point but continued to observe the sky with a small astronomical telescope from the yard and window of the home until his death. The editor of the SWNM newsletter aptly summarized Stuart’s myriad contributions to astronomical popularization in one comment in his memorial following Stuart’s death in 2006, “Stuart was a lifelong amateur astronomer, sharing his extensive knowledge of the universe with thousands of schoolchildren, fellow amateurs and members of the general public at the star parties in Missouri and New Mexico.”359

355Old Flashlight and Other Scraps Make “Stararium,” The Indiana Progress (Indiana, Pennsylvania), February 1, 1933, p. 2. Source: Newspapers.com, http://www.newspapers.com/ image/9795481 Downloaded 7/4/2014. 356Observer Here for Meteorite (sic) Shower, Mexico Ledger (Mexico, Missouri), August 12, 1952, p. 2. 3571957 Red “Moonlet” Over St Louis Twice a Day, Moberly Monitor-Index and Democrat (Moberly, MO), Oct. 7, 1957, p. 8, St. Louis dateline. 358Audubon Society Schedules Friday Meeting, Silver City Daily Press (Silver City, New Mexico), August 2, 1972, p. 2. 359Source: Editor, Longtime Chapter Member Dies at Age 100, The Ravens Newsletter, Southwest New Mexico Audubon Society, June-August 2006, volume 38, No. 3,p.2. 436 Enrolled 1930–1936 P.O. Parker

(1886–1960)360 Membership years: 1933–1937 and 1939, 1940361

Patrick Owen362 Parker participated in organized amateur astronomy by reporting meteor observations to the AMS from 1933 to 1940 and variable star observations to the AAVSO beginning in 1938. Employment by the Southern Railway Company as a telegrapher and freight agent in two small towns gave him access to rural dark skies. He watched the night sky from Cohutta, Georgia (1933–summer 1937), and Ooltewah, Tennessee (fall 1937–1944); the two villages are about 16 miles (26 km) east of Chattanooga, Tennessee.363 High school graduates, Parker and his wife Johnie were born in Georgia as were their parents. The couple had one daughter.364 Parker’s name first appeared in Popular Astronomy (PA) when he collaborated with an AMS regional group, called the Kentucky–Tennessee (KY-TN) Group by Dr. Olivier and led by Sterling Bunch, one of the founding members of the Texas Observers. That first meteor watch was for the 1933 Leonids; Parker plotted 31 meteors during a five-hour vigil during the night of November 15/16. He was the regional group’s southernmost team member. All of the observers mapped meteors on AMS star charts during the nights when the Leonid meteors were predicted to be most numerous. The hope was that members would by luck map the same meteors which were identified by their appearance times. Because observers were located miles apart their sketches showed different placements of the meteor among the maps’ fixed stars. The displaced meteor tracks furnished data used by Dr. Olivier or his assistant Doris Wills, to calculate the meteors’ heights in the atmosphere. For the 1933 campaign, Parker’s star maps did not contain observations simultaneously

360US, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918, dated June 5, 1917 (Ancestry.com), revealed his birthdate as December 22, 1886. Death date found in Georgia Deaths, 1919–1998 (Ancestry.com) and in Coleman Family Tree in Ancestry.com’s Public Family Trees. 361See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 362He gave his first given name to the enumerator of the 1940 US Census. His middle name, “Owen” appeared on his draft card now digitized on Ancestry.com’s database: US, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918, dated June 5, 1917. 363In a letter to C.P. Olivier dated January 4, 1938, Parker informed Olivier that Southern Railway had transferred him to Ooltewah, Tennessee, during 1937. Enclosed with the letter was AMS report forms showing that Parker’s observation site had changed from Cohutta Georgia to Ooltewah in the fall of 1937. 364Biographical information gleaned from the 1920, 1930, and 1940 US Censuses. P.O. Parker 437 made with other observers’, so no heights from his data could be obtained. Even so, his data were useful in Olivier’s ongoing collection of meteor hourly rate data.365 In a reversal of luck, eight of Parker’s 1934 Leonid plots corresponded to other group observers’. Parker’s mapped meteors were crucial to determining the only atmospheric heights resulting from the KY-TN group’s work.366 Patrick O. Parker mapped meteors most of the years he collaborated with the AMS’ regional group. It was only in 1936 that he simply counted meteors, but even those 191 were useful to help establish hourly meteor rates. He paid AMS dues yearly from 1934 to 1940, but did not send reports in 1938. A partial explanation may be that in the spring of that year, he began estimating variable stars’ magnitudes and reported the results to the AAVSO.367 He may not have had time for both variable star and meteor observations and had to make a choice. Nevertheless, he resumed meteor observations and sent reports the following two years. His AMS career contributions were a total of 443 meteors reported during 21 watches, 1933– 1940. Parker continued a career as an AAVSO observer until nearly the end of his life. AAVSO records indicate that he made a total of almost 6600 observations with a six-inch (15 cm) reflecting telescope beginning in 1938 until the final one in 1959. In 1956 and 1957, he attended the Society’s Annual Meetings, when he was photographed with the other attendees.368 In the 1950s, Parker’s energetic involvement with amateur astronomy organizations was greatly appreciated and earned him respect and affection from colleagues in the southeastern USA. He wrote a monthly column entitled “Planet Notes” for the Atlanta Astronomy Club’s Report from 1947–1955 and Parker served as secretary of the Southeast Region of the Astronomical League until just before he passed away from cancer in 1960.369

365Wills, D. in Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 42, 1934, pp. 97 and 393–394. 366Wills, D. in Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 458–459. The author, Doris Wills called the KY-TN regional group by her own label: the Southern Appalachian Observers. Olivier and Wills never did concur on one label for several of the AMS regional groups, calling them two or more names for the same groups. 367Annals of Harvard College Observatory, volume 107, no. 3, p. 1, dated 1/1/1939. 368Email letter from Michael Saladyga, AAVSO archivist, to the author on 7/6/15. Dr. Saladyga provided a Web site link to the group photographs: http://www.aavso.org/group-photographs. The author was able to access these on 5/24/16. 369Two letters by Leonard B. Abbey, Jr. to Margaret Mayall, AAVSO Director, provided helpful information about Mr. Parker’s contributions to amateur astronomers’ organization. The letters dated September 22, 1955, and January 13, 1960, are from the AAVSO’s archives and were summarized for the author by Dr. Saladyga in an email letter on 7/6/15. A brief death notice was published by Sky and Telescope, volume 19, number 5, March 1960, p. 287. 438 Enrolled 1930–1936 J. Fraser Paterson

(1886–1955)370 Membership years: 1933, 1935, 1936, 1942, and 1945371

Biographical information about John372 Fraser Paterson is most easily verified for the years 1928–1949 but his origins and death are subject to conjecture. He lived, worked, and made astronomical observations from Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia, during the 1930s and 1940s. Official Australian records reveal that he married Evadne Jean Gilliland in 1928 in Broken Hill373 and that they lived there from 1930 to 1949 where he was employed as an electrical welder.374 Broken Hill375 is an isolated community in Australia’s “outback.” It continues to be a lead and zinc mining center today, but extraction activity was greater in the 1930s and during World War II when Paterson filed reports about meteors, the zodiacal light376,

370These statistics are based upon the following research and logic: Paterson’s wife, Evadne’s 1899 birthdate suggests that Paterson was born earlier in the nineteenth century, assuming men tended to marry women younger than themselves. Paterson’s vital statistics below his name in the biography’s title above are for a “John Paterson” who was born in Quorn, South Australia, in 1886 and who is likely the same man who was 15 years of age in a 1901 Census and who died in 1955 in West Australia. There are several alternative “John Patersons” listed in Ancestry.com’s Australian database who might have been the amateur astronomer; his identity among them is debatable but the following sources make a reasonable case that the amateur astronomer lived from 1886–1955. Sources for this conjecture: Evadne Elizabeth Jean Gilliland’s 1899 birthdate: Zaloum Family Tree, Ancestry.com; Australia Marriage Index, 1788–1950 for John F Patterson who married Evadne E J Gilliland in 1928 in NSW at Broken Hill, Reg. No 4228. 1901 NSW Australia Census indicates “John Paterson” was 15 years of age and born *1886: Census Dist. 29, Glen Innes (municipality), County Goughs, Central ward. Ancestry.com linked this person in the 1901 Census with John Fraser Paterson’s data from Election Rolls, so it seems likely that the positively identified Paterson (in the Electoral Rolls) is the adolescent in the 1901 Census. Probable DOB: 7 January1886 (I selected it because of 1886 birthdate was consistent with 1901 Australian Census; the astronomer’s father: John Patterson, mother: Ruth Harrison; he was born in Quorn, South Australia: Australia Birth Index, 1788–1922, p. 237, vol. 366. Finally, All Australia Death Index, 1787–1985 indicates that Paterson died 1955 at Swan, West Australia; and this man’s parents were the same as the man’s born in 1886: John and Ruth. 371See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 372“John,” his first name was found in “All Australia Electoral Rolls, 1903–1980” in Ancestry for electoral years 1930, 1936, 1937, 1943, 1949. 373Australia Marriage Index, 1788–1950 for John F Patterson who married Evadne E J Gilliland in 1928 in NSW at Broken Hill, Reg. No 4228. 3741930 Roll listed him as John Fraser Paterson, an electric welder; who lived with Evadne, his wife, at 13 Argent Street. 1936, 1937, 1943, and 1949 Rolls cite the same information as the 1936 Roll. 375http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Hill_New_South_Wales. Accessed 5/24/16. 376He contributed to Rev. W.E. Glanville’s Zodiacal Light Notes: PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 178. He reported the appearance of 16 evening ZLs that he witnessed from November 17–December 30, 1932. J. Fraser Paterson 439 the Aurora Australis377, and about unusual sky phenomena such as paraselenae, spurious “moon” images refracted by ice crystals in clouds.378 His astronomical interests were phenomena that occurred in large sections of the sky, and his concentration on them suggests he preferred sky watches using his unaided eyes; using a telescope either did not appeal to him or was beyond his financial means. Paterson demonstrated an intense interest in astronomical and meteorological phenomena visible from Broken Hill and his newspaper outreach to townsfolk about them was likely an interesting facet of the town’s intellectual life. Paterson’s interests ranged beyond his locale in the Australian desert to anthropological and geological aspects of the greater South Pacific area. He was a member of a New Zealand Polynesian Society379 and a 1948 letter he wrote to Dr. Olivier revealed an interest in a meteor crater discovered in West Australia380. John Fraser Paterson’s contributions to the AMS consisted of 27 nights’ watches during which he counted 235 meteors. An interesting event in Paterson’s meteor career was a discovery in February 1936 of a possible minor shower whose radiant was in the “vicinity of epsilon Carinae.” Paterson saw a recurrence in 1945, suggesting that the shower may have been a consistently occurring one. Dr. Olivier urged continued follow-up observations to determine whether the shower occurred annually.381

W.J. Persons

(1910–1966)382 Membership years: 1931–1934.383

377Anon, The Aurora Australis, Interruption to Flying Doctor Service, Barrier Miner, Friday 19 Sept 1941, p. 1, “Mr. J. Fraser Paterson said today that the Aurora Australis seen last night was something unusual for the latitude of Broken Hill.” http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/3436101. Accessed 5/24/16. And, Anon., Arc of Aurora Australis Witnessed in Broken Hill, Barrier Miner, Thursday, January 3, 1946. “(It) appeared about 11 o’clock last night (January 2, 1946)…which was observed by Mr. Fraser Paterson.” http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/48461994. Accessed 5/24/16. 378Paterson, J. Fraser, Natural Phenomena, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW: 1888–1954), dated Sept 5, 1932 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/3443607. Accessed 5/24/16. In this article, Fraser asked, “Local residents who are interested in astronomy and meteorology…to supply information to me (address 13 Argent street) concerning the number of Paraselenae (mock moons) observed during the present year” He informed participants that “copies (of their reports)…shall accompany my usual monthly reports to British and American astronomers.” 379Editor, Journal of the Polynesian Society, volume 33, 1924, p. x. Paterson was listed as a member in 1923–1924 and at that time had a General Post Office address in Auckland, New Zealand. 380Dr. Olivier’s American Philosophical Society correspondence file has a letter from Paterson dated Nov. 17, 1948, in which he sent an article from The Walkabout, an Australian magazine. 381Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 44, 1936, p. 326 and volume 53, 1945, p. 236. 382Social Security Death Index. 383See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 440 Enrolled 1930–1936

William Judson384 Persons was content to spend a lifetime in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Born in 1910, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kalamazoo’s Western State Teacher’s College in 1931 and was a four-year member of its Science Club.385 His mother, Mary, was college-educated and a teacher386 before her marriage;387 she shared William’s enthusiasms for meteor watching and politics,388 and she joined his efforts in both. William’s father, Herbert, taught his son the skills William needed to assist him and continue Herbert’s heating and sanitation business after 60-year-old Herbert died in 1939.389 The 1940 US Census, enumerated in Kalamazoo, informs us that William had married Frances and the couple had a two-month-old son they named John. After Persons ceased participation in the American Meteor Society in 1934, his avocational energies were focused on reestablishing the state’s Prohibition Party390 and contending for many Michigan

384Informant: Stuart-Whiting 08-24-2014_05-12-2014—Ancestry.com’s Public Family Trees listing for William J. Persons. In the same Ancestry.com Public Family Trees listing, there are other trees citing Persons’ middle name. 385Ancestry.com’s “US School Yearbooks, 1880–2012” database for William J. Persons has 1927, 1930, and 1931 citations with photographs of Persons in the Brown and Gold Yearbook for Western State Teachers College. All of the citations mentioned that he was a member of WSTC’s Science Club. He was granted an A.B. degree in 1931. 386The 1900 USC contains two enumerations for Mary R. Kingsbury, born March 1876. On June 1, 1900, she was found in Des Moines, Iowa, and was a college student. She was enumerated again on June 19, 1900, living with her widowed mother, in Rock Grove Township, Iowa, and she claimed “teacher” as her occupation. Both enumerations were found in Ancestry.com’s database for Mary R. Kingsbury. 387In 1906 Mary Kingsbury married Herbert E Persons: Albert Henry Wrench Family Tree, a Public Member Family Tree in Ancestry.com’s database for Mary R. Kingsbury. 388Source for her political office-seeking is an online Webpage: The Political Graveyard Index to Politicians: Perryshafer to Petersmarck: http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/perryman-petersen. html#652.56.20. Accessed 5/24/16. Mary Kingsbury Persons was a frequent political candidate of Michigan’s Prohibition Party. She was a candidate for state offices during 1944–1960 time period. 389The Persons family business was documented by the following: City directory for 1939: “Persons, H.E. and Wm. J., Septic Tank construction, and trouble corrected, Furnaces, chimneys and cisterns cleaned, inspected and repaired.” The 1940 US Census showed that W. J. Person was engaged in furnace and septic tank cleaning. The 1943, 1945, and 1950–1959 Kalamazoo City Directories had listings for “furnaces, furnace repair and septic tank services” performed by William J. Persons. Ancestry.com’s database for William J. Persons was the source for all of the above information. Herbert Persons’ vital statistics: 1900 US Census enumeration for Herbert E Persons, whose father was named Judson, reported that Persons was born April 1879; location of the enumeration was, Center Township, Calhoun County, Iowa, on June 13, 1900. Herbert Persons died December 27, 1939: Source is United States Find a Grave Index in Ancestry.com’s database for Herbert E Persons (as was the 1900 US Census.). 390Prohibition Party Seeks Ballot Spot, Ludington Daily News (Ludington, Michigan daily), November 3, 1939, p. 8. Source: Newspapers.com, downloaded on 7/5/2014. Persons was reported to have approached state officials about the procedure necessary to allow the Prohibition Party to “seek its old place on the ballot.” Persons was reported to have “designated himself as chairman of the group” seeking reinstatement of the party. He was successful in doing so as witnessed by the W.J. Persons 441 state elective offices from 1937 to 1960.391 Mary Persons died in March 1966392 at age 90 and William followed her in June of the same year at only 55 years of age.393 Persons’ AMS participation spanned the four years that Dr. Olivier expected the Leonid meteor storm to return during the 1930s. As the four-year Leonid storm “season” progressed, Persons broadened his role from individual observer to an observing group coordinator; Persons’ was one of three small meteor watch teams that Olivier aggregated into a “Michigan Regional Group” when he wrote his Meteor Notes. Persons began AMS reporting in 1931 by mapping 399 meteors on AMS star charts.394 But, for the 1932 Perseid shower maximum, Persons had trained three other Kalamazoo citizen scientists, his mother among them, to assist him in counting meteors; Mary Persons counted meteors for two and a half hours during watches on August 11 and 12, 1932. The foursome’s total for August 10–12, 1932, was 663 meteors.395 In 1934, Persons coordinated simultaneous observations with R.J. Wilson who observed from Byron Center, Michigan, 40 miles north of Kalamazoo. Their first effort, mapping Perseids, was made at 10 p.m. to midnight

(Footnote 390 continued) number of offices sought by Persons and other Prohibition Party candidates. See the following footnote. 391Source for Persons’ political office-seeking is an online Webpage: The Political Graveyard Index to Politicians: Perryshafer to Petersmarck: http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/perryman- petersen.html#652.56.20. Accessed 5/24/16. Persons was a nearly perennial Prohibition Party candidate for numerous state and national posts, all unsuccessful in outcome, in 1941, 1942, 1947– 1953, and 1956–1964. He ran for Michigan (MI) State highway commissioner; MI State House of Representatives; Presidential elector; MI State Board of Agriculture; MI State auditor general; University of MI Board of Regents, and MI state treasurer. 392Mary R. (Kingsbury) Persons died March 4, 1966: Laura Parker/ Seal Family (Public) Tree from Ancestry.com’s database for Mary R. Kingsbury. 393Two family trees in Ancestry.com’ database for William J. Persons, the Sykes Family Tree and the Stuart-Whiting 08-24-2014_05-12-2014 Family Tree, report William’s death as being on June 27, 1966. The Stuart-Whiting Tree reports that he was born on September 26, 1910, so that he was 55 years old at death. This “Tree” and others in Ancestry.com’s, cite the same vital statistics and the fact that “Judson” was Persons’ middle name. 394For 1931 and the following years, consult Olivier’s annual reports in PA, as cited in the AMS Annual Reports’ Sources Guide. When specific nights’ observing campaigns are discussed, their PA citations will be given for the reader’s convenience. As an example from Persons’ 1931 total, Dr. Olivier printed 1931 Leonid rates (PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 50 which shows that for Persons’ morning watch on November 16, 1931, he observed with Professor John Fox and 22 students of Western State Teachers College. This huge group counted 80 meteors in 30 min under poor atmospheric conditions. The following morning, he watched alone for 45 min and counted (probably) 29 meteors. 395Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 40, 1932, pp. 579–580. William Persons’ total number of meteors observed in 1932 is subject to debate. Olivier credited him with 221 made without assistants (see 1932 Annual report), but the author counted a total of 431 at least: 145 Persons reported July 7 to August 7, 1932 (volume 40, p. 579), plus 286 meteors he reported for September to December 1932 (volume 40, p. 286). The author used the 431 figure for Persons’ grand meteor total 1931–1934. 442 Enrolled 1930–1936

Eastern Time, August 5, 1934.396 This session’s goal may have been a training exercise in preparation to do simultaneous meteor mapping during the Leonid shower in November 1934. In any case, their August cooperative watch did not result in a published report of meteor heights. But their November campaign did. The two men mapped Leonid meteors for just over three hours on November 15–16 and were successful in drawing simultaneous meteor plots of the same four zero to ﬁrst magnitude Leonids, observed between 3:00 a.m. to 4:45 a.m. local time. Doris Wills, Dr. Olivier’s meteor height computer, was able to calculate the four meteors’ heights in the atmosphere: from 76 to 122 km. (47 to 76 miles) above the earth’s surface. In her Popular Astronomy report, she commended the two men, “Three of these four heights have unusually small (error) deviations. (Their) plotting was apparently good… (and) their timing was excellent also.”397 William J. Persons’ grand total meteor statistics for 1931–1934 were 50 night watches and 1286 meteors mapped or counted. He began his career making individual observations but multiplied his own effectiveness by training other amateur astronomers to assist him.

Frank Preucil

(1905–1996)398 Membership years: 1933–1936, 1938, 1940–1942, and 1944–1947399

Frank Matthew Preucil, Jr.400 helped investigate a September 29, 1938, meteorite fall, only the second known to have fallen in the State of Illinois. Preucil, Joliet (Illinois) Astronomical Society’s (JAS) research coordinator was asked to assist by his friend Ben Hur Wilson, a Joliet High School science teacher who decided to investigate after reading about the meteorite’s fall. The two men learned that a four-pound (1.8 kg) stony-iron meteorite penetrated the roof of the McCain family’s garage, then pierced the roof of the McCains’ Pontiac Coupe, perforated the passenger’s seat cushion, and only came to rest in the cushion’s springs after breaking through the car’s ﬂoorboard and denting its mufﬂer. Preucil’s photographs of the Benld401, Illinois meteorite, damage it made and the local people involved illustrated an article in Popular Astronomy.402 Although Preucil was known among

396Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 42, 1934, p. 468. 397Wills, D., PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 458. 398Preucil’s vital statistics were found in the Social Security Death Index. 399See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 400Mr. Preucil’s full name was found in an obituary notice: Frank Matthew Preucil, Jr., tribunedigital-chicagotribune. 401This village’s name is pronounced “Ben-L-D,” named after Ben L. Dorsey a prominent land- owner at the time. 402Wilson, B., The Benld Meteorite, PA, volume 46, 1938, pp. 548–558 Frank Preucil 443 the members of the Wisconsin-Northern Illinois (WI-NIL) Regional group of meteor observers, chronicling the Benld fall gave him nationwide recognition among PA’s readers. Preucil’s astronomical accomplishments began in 1933 when he participated in WI-NIL’s program to map Leonid meteors’ paths among the stars. Preucil observed from Joliet in cooperation with observers in Chicago and Wisconsin. They hoped to coincidentally map the same meteors from sites miles apart; the simultaneous plots of the same meteors enabled astronomers to calculate meteors’ heights in the atmosphere. When the regional group’s meteor plot data were reduced, 18 meteors’ heights resulted although not all of the heights were rigorously determined.403 In addition to meteor watches, 1933 was the year Preucil began to estimate variable stars’ magnitudes and send his observations to the AAVSO. His variable star observing continued from October 1933 to September 1935.404 As he did so, he kept a record of meteors which happened to pass through his telescope’s visual field. Dr. Olivier had asked AAVSO members to report the magnitudes of meteors seen in the course of variable star work and Preucil complied: he sent 69 telescopic meteors’ magnitudes for the years 1934 and 1935.405 An examination of AMS annual reports indicated that Preucil generally sent the JAS members’ meteor counts to AMS headquarters, making his AMS-database contributions of a group nature and not exclusively his own: From 1933–1947, the society’s members counted 1484 meteors on 39 watches, for various AMS campaigns. During the same span of years, Preucil mapped and counted 328 meteors, the data from 23 nights’ sessions. Preucil’s wife Marjorie took an active interest in meteor work too; she counted 24 meteors for the Hoffmeister-Olivier Program in three hours of watches in 1935.406 Frank M. Preucil, Jr., had a successful, decades-long lithographical career in the printing industry.407 His greatest achievement in the field was becoming an expert in color reproduction fidelity and inventing a “densitometry” process that measured

403Wills, D., Meteor Heights, 1933 Leonid Epoch, PA, volume 42, 1934, pp. 274–277 404October 1933 is the earliest found: Campbell, L., Monthly (and 1933 Annual) Report of the AAVSO, PA, volume 41, pp. 576–577. He is credited with nine observations for October 1933, but unaccountably, there is no mention of him in the annual report for the year ending October 31, 1933. He was also listed in Campbell’s Monthly Report of the AAVSO for December 1934, PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 116; and in the monthly report for September 1935: PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 593 405See AMS Annual Reports for 1934 and 1935. 406Marjorie Preucil’s work: Armﬁeld, L., AMS Meteor Report of the WI-NIL Region, Astronomical Discourse (AD), volume 2, number 10, 1935, p. 62; and AD, volume 2, number 12, 1935, pp 74–75. For Preucil’s group and individual reports, see the AMS Annual Reports for the years in this biography’s heading, except for 1940, for that, see PA, volume 49, p. 439. 407The 1930 and 1940 US Censuses’ occupational descriptions: Ancestry.com’s database for Frank M. Preucil, Jr. 444 Enrolled 1930–1936 the density of color inks.408 His interest in the history of color reproduction led him to amass a library of books on the subject.409 Frank and Marjorie Preucil married at age 19, and they had two sons and a daughter. His wife, children, eight grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren survived him.410

Hope S. Pruett

(1885–1950)411 Membership years: 1935–1937, 1943, 1944, and 1946.412

Fidelia Hope Sully’s parents Frank and Fidelia Polly (nee Peck) Sully relocated their family from a Minnesota farm to Dayton, Oregon, sometime before Hope’s birth in 1885.413 The 1900 US Census revealed that Frank, 53 years old, was farming in Dayton. After her husband died in 1908414, Polly found a new family home in McMinnville, Oregon just a few miles to the west of the farm.415 Hope attended McMinnville’s College, later renamed Linﬁeld College, and joined the Zeta Chi sorority there. She likely met J. Hugh Pruett while the two were simultaneously enrolled as students at McMinnville College.416 They became engaged on August 19, 1916, after Hugh returned from graduate school at the

408Frank Matthew Preucil, Jr., tribunedigital-chicagotribune edition, October 21, 1996. 409Harrison, C. and Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, Frank M. Preucil Collection: A Catalog of the Special Collection at the Edward H. Wadewitz Memorial Library of the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, Chicago: Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, 2002. Online editorial review in Amazon.com. Accessed 5/3/15. 410Frank Matthew Preucil, Jr., tribunedigital-chicagotribune edition, October 21, 1996. 411Hope Sully, Snodgrass Clan family Tree, in Public Family Trees database of Ancestry.com. 412See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate her contributions. 4131880 US Census of Glencoe Township, Minnesota families and the household of Frank Sully and his wife, Fidelia Polly (Peck). The couple had a daughter Marian and son, Guy. Frank Sully was reported to be a farmer. The 1900 US Census for Dayton, Oregon listed Hope, age 15 whose birthplace was Oregon. Source: Ancestry.com’s US Census database. 414Frank Sully died in 1908 at Portland, Oregon, as per Sheila Frances Whipple family Tree in Ancestry.com. 4151910 US Census for the household of Fidelia Sully in McMinnville, OR. 416The Linfield College (formerly McMinnville College) Registrar’sOffice shared with the author PDF scans of Fidelia Hope Sully and James Hugh Pruett’s “Record(s) of Credit.” When compared they showed that the two students were simultaneously enrolled from 1907–1909. The Records did not show if the two attended the same classes in the same quarter nor did they show the students’ grades. The Registrar’sOffice staff member reported that Pruett was granted an A.B. in 1911 and Hope “does not have a degree posted.” Email message and attachments to the author dated July 17, 2015. Linfield College Archives provided a second set of scans of college yearbooks spanning the years 1903–1911. They revealed that Pruett and Sully were simultaneously registered as students from 1904–1906 and 1907–1910. Hope S. Pruett 445

University of Chicago417. The couple married less than two weeks later on August 31. Shortly afterward, in the fall of 1916, the Pruetts travelled south to Hugh’s new teaching position at a high school in Medford, Oregon, near the California border.418 Hugh’s teaching career was interrupted in 1918 by service in the US Army’s Signal Corps.419 After he was discharged in 1919, the couple moved to Walla Walla, Washington, where Hugh resumed high school teaching.420 The year 1920 was stressful for the couple because Hugh’s mother died421, and they relocated from Walla Walla to Eugene, Oregon, after Hugh was appointed to an assistant professorship at the University of Oregon (UO).422 Unfortunately, the early 1920s continued to be difﬁcult: in 1923, Hope suffered the loss of her mother.423 Sometime during their early marriage years, Hugh developed a fascination with astronomy, a subject he taught at UO. Perhaps through life with an amateur astronomer, Hope too developed an enthusiastic interest in stargazing. She and Hugh built Evergreen Observatory in 1930. It was an open-air garden enclosure from which several telescopes were used.424 Professor Pruett’s astronomy students used it most often but Eugene’s citizens queued up to look through the telescopes as well.425 Hope and Hugh joined the AMS in 1934, and they made their ﬁrst joint meteor watch in 1935. By 1936, they had organized the Oregon Group of amateur astronomers and in that year, six members reported a total of 618 meteors to the AMS. The Oregon Group had the most successful meteor campaigns during August’s Perseid meteor shower: The sky was clear in most years and many volunteers could be coaxed outside because of summer night temperatures. The Pruetts counted meteors with the Group during its Perseid campaigns in 1937, 1943, and 1944; group members counted an aggregate of 2408 meteors during these three years. The most spectacular meteor show Hope saw was in October 1946. That year Comet Giacobini-Zinner had crossed earth’s orbit a few weeks before the annual shower occurred and it had enriched its meteor stream with many more meteoroids

417Engagement is Announced, Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, OR), August 20, 1916, Sunday, p. 10. 418Ibid. 419See the biography of J. Hugh Pruett elsewhere in this volume. 4201920 US Census for Walla Walla, Washington, which enumerated the household of “James Hugh Pruett.” 421In 1920 J Hugh’s mother, Barbara Harpole Pruett died at age 75: SnodgrassClan in Ancestry.com’s Public Family Tree database. 422Hugh Pruett Photographs, PH195, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon (UO), Eugene Oregon, 97403–1299. http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll/photo/fpruett. html. Accessed 5/24/16. A Biographical Sketch on the Web site provided this information. 4231923 Fidelia Polly (nee Peck) died: as per Sheila Frances Whipple Family Tree in Ancestry.com. 424Pruett, J.H., An evergreen observatory, Popular Astronomy, volume 41, 1933, p. 479ff. 425Hugh Pruett Photographs, PH195, op. cit. 446 Enrolled 1930–1936 destined to burn in the earth’s atmosphere.426 On the evening of October 9, the Oregon Group saw a night sky filled with meteors. They rained down so heavily that in five minutes Hope counted 272 of them and in a 35-minute interval she saw a total of 819.427 From 1935 until 1946, Hope Sully Pruett watched meteors on 13 nights and counted a total of 1448 meteors for AMS director Charles Olivier’s use in research. When Hope died in 1950 she was survived by Hugh who died five years later.428 The Pruetts had no children.

J. Hugh Pruett

(1886–1955)429 Membership years: 1932–1940, 1942–1950, and 1952–1955.430

Family Background and Early Life

James431 Hugh Pruett never described how or when he became fascinated with astronomy.432 Just like many amateur astronomers, Pruett’s family background had no astronomers. His father was a Baptist minister and teacher who wrote religious articles for newspapers. His parents were pioneers who trekked from Missouri to Oregon in 1848. At age 21, Hugh began study at Linﬁeld College in McMinnville, Oregon, and he earned an A.B. degree in 1911.433 He taught at McMinnville high school until he decided to take three quarters of graduate physics courses

426Van Biesbroeck, G., Comet Notes, Popular Astronomy, volume 54, 1946, p. 363. 427Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, volume 55, 1947, pp. 263–264. 428Mrs. J. Hugh Pruett Dies, Daily Capital Journal (Salem, OR) Friday, September 8, 1950, page 2. See Hugh Pruett’s biography for an account of his death in 1955. 429Oregon Death Index, an Ancestry.com database. 430See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 431J. Hugh Pruett Photographs, PH195, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon (UO), Eugene Oregon, 97403–1299. http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll/photo/fpruett. html. Accessed 5/24/16. A Biographical Sketch in the Webpage provided Pruett’s first given name. 432Very often, as exemplified by many AMS members in this book, a lifelong amateur astronomer shows an interest in astronomy during their adolescence. 433Pruett’s McMinnville College (later became Linfield College) Record of Credits kindly sent the author by Linfield’s Registrar does not state the nature of Pruett’s major subject when he received his A.B. in 1911. However, he had registered for college algebra, geometry, trigonometry, “an- alytics,” astronomy, general and organic chemistry, qualitative and quantitative chemistry, physics, German, and French along with liberal arts English, philosophy, and history courses. The Record did not contain the grades Pruett earned for any of the courses. J. Hugh Pruett 447

(fall 1915–spring 1916) at the University of Chicago.434 When he returned to McMinnville in the summer of 1916, he proposed to Hope Sully435, another Linﬁeld graduate436, and they married in late August 1916.437 At the end of World War I, from 1918–1919, 32-year-old Pruett served in the US Army’s Signal Corps Meteorological Division.438 After discharge, Pruett resumed his educational career by teaching science at Walla Walla, Washington’s high school,439 but after a brief stint there he became a faculty member at the University of Oregon (UO) in the fall of 1920.440

AMS’ Needs and Personal Interests Coincide

During the 1930s, Dr. Olivier emphasized the atmospheric aspects of meteoric astronomy over the celestial ones. He seemed more interested in gathering data on fireballs and their lingering upper atmosphere gas trains instead of locating meteors’ radiants among the stars, as he had done in the 1920s. Pruett’s zeal to investigate fireballs developed at a very opportune time: simultaneously with Dr. Olivier’s evolving research interests. Between 1932 and his death in 1955, Pruett collected eyewitness reports, deduced fireball trajectories, and sent reports of 25 fireballs to AMS headquarters in Pennsylvania.441 In 1951,

434Pruett’s University of Chicago Graduate School course transcript reported “A” and “B” grades in “Elem. Mathematical Phys., Adv, Exp. Phys: Light; Electricity & Mag’sm and Adv.Exp.P: Molecular P & Heat” as well as two chemistry quantitative analysis courses during fall 1915, winter and spring 1916 terms. Aside from one undergraduate Astronomy course at Linfield College, Pruett’s graduate academic records do not show the usual astronomy courses in celestial mechanics, practical astronomy, or astrophysics that an astronomy major would often take. Source of Pruett’s transcript: An “officially sealed and signed transcript” from University of Chicago’s University Registrar regarding James Hugh Pruett, student number 57,845, was sent on July 24, 2015, to the author through the US mail. 435She was born Fidelia Hope Sully in 1885: SnodgrassClan Family Tree in Ancestry.com’s Public Family Trees database. 436Engagement is Announced, Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, Oregon), Sunday, August 20, 1916, p. 10. 437SnodgrassClan Family Tree and the Evarts, Hussey, Zumwalt, Crow, Schmitz 2012 Family Tree in Ancestry.com’s Public Family Trees both attest to the marriage. 438University of Oregon, Catalogue 1922–1923, Announcements 1923–1924, Eugene, Oregon: University of Oregon Press, 1923, p. 13. 4391920 US Census for Walla Walla, Washington, which enumerated the household of “James Hugh Pruett.” 440University of Oregon, Catalogue 1922–1923, Announcements 1923–1924, Eugene, Oregon: University of Oregon Press, 1923, p. 13. 441Many sources were consulted to locate Pruett’s fireball total: AMS Annual Reports and Olivier’s Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, volumes 39–59, 1931–1951; Flower Observatory Reprints, Nos. 49 (1939)-67 (1946); AMS Annual Reports 1951–1958 published in Meteoritics, Journal of the Meteoritical Society and later reprinted as Flower Observatory Reprints, Nos. 99, 448 Enrolled 1930–1936

Dr. Olivier praised Pruett’s work: “To date Prof. J. Hugh Pruett…is the person who has been most successful in gathering reports in great numbers on very many fireballs and in numerous cases, has made partial or full solutions for their atmospheric paths.” Addressing other AMS members, Olivier pointedly commented, “What (Pruett) has done, others could do if they used an equal amount of effort and judgment.” And Olivier challenged, “Cannot at least a few such persons be found?”442 Olivier frequently praised Pruett’s energy and efficiency in securing fireball data; in one instance Pruett amassed 86 eyewitnesses’ testimonies for a fireball’s study.443 When J. Hugh Pruett’s name appeared in a 1934 list of AMS members’ names, Olivier had already appointed him Regional Director (RD) for the northwestern USA.444 Pruett’s “field promotion” from ordinary membership was likely due to the Oregonian’s fireball-sleuthing. Dr. Olivier appointed RDs to “act as a local director or leader” of a group of AMS members. The RDs were “authorized to release to the local press certain requests for observations or to give out proper information in the name of the…American Meteor Society.” This role distinguished its tenant from ordinary members because “no other active member is authorized to mention membership in the AMS in any newspaper article…” unless approved in advance by Olivier.445 Appointment as an RD was Olivier’sofficial seal of approval for diligent contributions to the Society.

Educator and Publicist

By the time he was named an RD, Pruett had already shown a talent for publicity. In 1932, Pruett began to attract press attention as an astronomy educator who informed the public about astronomical phenomena like 1932’s solar eclipse and the Leonid meteor shower.446 He had become an astronomy popularizer in the course of his

(Footnote 441 continued) 103,104, 115, 119, and 131; and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory/NASA Astrophysical Data System using “J. Hugh Pruett” for a search criterion. 442Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 59, 1951, p. 160. 443Olivier, C.P., Fireball of 1945 January 7/8, in Meteor Notes from the AMS, Flower Astronomical Observatory Reprint No. 66, Philadelphia: Publications of the University of Pennsylvania; pp. 9–10. This report was originally published in Popular Astronomy, volume 53, April 1945. 444Olivier, C.P., AMS Bulletin No. 15, August 18, 1934. 445Ibid. 446A search of Newspapers.com’s contents for “J. Hugh Pruett” for 1925–1930 found no articles about Pruett or astronomy in Oregon newspapers. But a search for 1930–1932, found two: Study of Eclipse Blocked by Clouds; Local view is good, The Eugene Guard (Eugene,OR), August 31, 1932, p. 1; and Shower of Meteors…(Leonids), The Eugene Guard, November 13, 1932, pp. 1–2. J. Hugh Pruett 449 academic career. Pruett was Assistant Professor of Physics447 at the University of Oregon’s (UO) Extension Division and he taught astronomy in one course for adults interested in the subject. As an adjunct to the class, Pruett and his wife, Hope, built an observatory at their home in Eugene, Oregon, in 1930. The Pruetts’ Evergreen Observatory was most often used by UO astronomy students for a laboratory requirement, but the community’s citizens and groups were invited as well.448

“Act as a Local Director or Leader”

A second expectation of an RD, in addition to fireball investigation, was to organize local AMS members to make observations for specific types of meteor data which Dr. Olivier identified. In the 1930s, Olivier was keen to amass hourly meteor counts. He wanted to be able to specify the number of meteors per hour an observer could expect to see each hour of every night of the year. But in addition to discovering all 365 nights’ hourly rates, Dr. Olivier was intent on learning hourly rates occurring during major meteor showers, such as August’s Perseids. In the latter circumstance, the goal was to identify the date when the shower’s rate was most intense. Finding a shower’s maximum hourly rate required an RD to organize observers to stand watches for the three or more nights when a shower was predicted to be at maximum strength. RD’s labors were not finished after the watches were performed; he needed to ask each participant for her449 data, which included the date, the time interval spent looking for meteors, and the resulting count as well as sky conditions that prevailed during the watch. The reader can imagine the time and care needed to organize and then query 10 observers, as Pruett did for the Oregon Group’s four-night Perseid campaign in 1943 when the total yield was 891 meteors! Data collection for the 1943 campaign was even more complicated by having observers in Idaho and South Dakota as well as several sites in Oregon.450 As difficult to conduct as was 1943’s campaign, it paled in comparison with Pruett’s trials to record the peak rate of a 1946 meteor storm. Dr. Olivier advised AMS members that early October’s Draconid meteor shower was likely to be intensely strong on the night of October 9/10. That night, Pruett, his wife, and 28

447University of Oregon, Catalogue 1922–1923, Announcements 1923–1924, Eugene, Oregon: University of Oregon Press, 1923, p. 13. 448A UO Libraries biographical sketch about Pruett contains an image of Prof. Pruett’s students clustered around the observatory’s 10-inch (25-cm) reﬂecting telescope. J. Hugh Pruett Photographs, PH195, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon (UO), Eugene Oregon, 97, 403–1299. http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll/photo/fpruett.html. Accessed 5/24/16. 449Especially during World War 2, when men were away in combat, US women stepped forward in greater numbers than during peacetime to furnish meteor data for the AMS. 450Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, volume 51, 1943, p. 562. 450 Enrolled 1930–1936 observers in Oregon and Washington states had clear skies and counted a total of 23,400 meteors. Five of the observers with the clearest skies had an hourly rate of 4000 meteors and the Pruetts each counted 300 meteors during one ﬁve-minute interval: All these accounts implied rates of one meteor or more per second!451

An Appreciation

Each of Dr. Olivier’s Regional Directors chose aspects of Olivier’s research agenda to address. Pruett is to be admired for accepting the challenge of coordinating group members’ activity despite their wide geographical dispersion. The Oregon Group members, depending upon the year in question included people living in the Dakotas, Idaho, and Washington state as well as several cities in Oregon. Nevertheless, Pruett oriented them to AMS standards for meteor observation and then collected members’ data after a shower. One indication of Pruett’s effectiveness as a data harvester was the Oregon Group’s total meteor count from 1936 to 1950: 30,320 meteors. Hourly rates computed from these found their way into Dr. Olivier’s hourly meteor rate catalogs which provided future meteor observers with information about how many meteors per hour they could anticipate seeing each hour of any clear moon-free night. Another claim Pruett had to distinction was having supplied Dr. Olivier with 25 thorough fireball reports during a 24-year AMS career. In fact, Pruett’s meteor data output was almost uninterrupted from 1932 until he died in 1955. One of two hiatuses was in 1951, when he may have deliberately suspended meteor quests following Hope’s death in September 1950.452 Professor Pruett received two academic honors near the end of his life: Linfield College awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1946 and the Oregon Academy of Science praised his “outstanding work” in 1951.453 Dr. Olivier eulogized Pruett by writing, “we became very good friends…in every way his scientific integrity and energy were clearly shown. It will be almost impossible to fill the place in our Society left vacant by his death.”454 J. Hugh Pruett died at the age of 69 years in September 1955.455 He was survived by a sister.456

451Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, volume 55, 1947, pp. 263–264. 452SnodgrassClan Family Tree and the Evarts, Hussey, Zumwalt, Crow, Schmitz 2012 Family Tree in Ancestry.com’s Public Family Trees both attest to her death in September 1950. 453J. Hugh Pruett Photographs, PH195, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon (UO), Eugene Oregon, 97403–1299. http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll/photo/fpruett. html. Accessed 7/11/15. 454Olivier, C.P., In Memoriam: J. Hugh Pruett, AMS Annual Report for 1953, Meteoritics, volume 1, 1955, p. 366. 455J. Hugh Pruett Photographs, op. cit. 456Letter from Della P. Blaisdell to C.P. Olivier, dated October 20, 1955. Source: Dr. Olivier’s American Philosophical Society correspondence ﬁle. G.W. Ridley 451 G.W. Ridley

(1910–1997)457 Membership years: 1930–1934458

Gordon Walter Ridley459 made an energetic start as a meteor observer when he conducted 80 watches and reported on 2010 meteors in 1930. Dr. Olivier praised this performance by commenting in the 1930 Annual Report, “(Ridley) made a record which will be hard indeed to surpass…Every meteor is entered fully on the record sheets as to time and magnitude and nearly all are plotted.”460 Ridley continued reporting to the AMS for the remainder of the Leonid storm years, 1931– 1934. His entire meteor reporting career consisted of 126 watches and a grand total of 4198 meteors. Dr. Olivier noted that in 1932 Ridley had observing “assistants” who helped him make 726 observations and they were likely Boy Scouts, members of a troop he led in that year.461 The 1930 and 1940 US Censuses reveal that Ridley was employed as a clerk; in 1940, he worked in that capacity for the Southern Paciﬁc Railroad. Ridley enlisted in the US Army, at San Francisco, in February 1941. Enlistment records mention that Ridley was unmarried, six feet tall and weighed 152 lb; he informed the recruiter that he had ﬁnished four years of high school, and his civilian occupation was as a typist.462 Ridley was still a soldier in 1946, living in Richmond, Virginia, with his wife Margaret.463 Public records report that Gordon Ridley returned to California, where he was born and watched meteors; in 1985 and 1993, he lived in San Francisco.464 He died in 1997.

457California Death Index, 1940–1997 from Ancestry.com’s database for Gordon Walter Ridley. 458See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 459Full name given in the above California Death Index. 460Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 39, 1931, p. 150. 461Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 41, 1933, pp. 112–113; and Santa Cruz (California) Evening News, August 1, 1932, p. 6 downloaded from Newspapers.com on 7/5/14. 462Source: US WW 2 Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946 in Ancestry.com’s database for GW Ridley. 463Source: Richmond VA City Directory in Ancestry.com data base (US City Directories, 1821– 1989). 464Source: US Public Records Index, Volume 1, Ancestry database for GW Ridley. 452 Enrolled 1930–1936 J. Wesley Simpson

(1914–1977)465 Membership years: 1931–1938, 1944, and 1952466

Carter John Wesley Simpson emerged from adolescence by shortening his given name and proclaiming a new identity. Whereas his parents informed the 1920 and 1930 US Census enumerators that their son was “Carter,” young, emancipated Simpson identified himself in 1932’s Popular Astronomy and in a 1933 Kansas City Missouri street directory as “J. Wesley Simpson.”467 From then on, when he described his astronomical exploits, he was “J. Wesley Simpson, amateur astronomer.” This new astronomer was to pursue one observational project after another until the end of his life. He could not wait to get started. Simpson and his one-year-older first cousin, J. Fletcher Hickerson,468 began the Missouri-Southern Illinois Observers (M-SIO) about 1931, the same year Simpson sent his earliest meteor and variable star observation results to the AMS and AAVSO.469 The two were lucky that a brilliant sound-producing bolide startled people near St. Louis in January 1932. Its explosion raised public awareness of meteoric matters and brought new members to the fledgling M-SIO.470 Simpson and Hickerson made meteoric work a family affair by persuading family members to count meteors with them too. Hickerson’s 59-year-old mother counted Leonids with Simpson in 1931; and Simpson’s seven-year-younger brother, Andrew Murray471,

465Simpson was found identified as “John Simpson” in the US Social Security Death Index (SSDI), 1935–2014: as Social Security Number (SSN) 497-05-7788, Last residence League City, Galveston County, Texas. He was born 27 April 1914, and died January 3, 1977. His SSN indicates it was assigned to him while a resident of Missouri. 466See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. However, one exception is for 1938s data submission, which is to be found in Popular Astronomy, volume 47, 1939, p. 265. 467Simpson’s parents are Roy B. and Elizabeth Henley Simpson. In 1920 USC, under a listing for Roy B., young Simpson is named “Curter” or “Carter.” In the 1930 USC, he was again called “Carter”! When he was listed in a 1933 Kansas City Mo Directory, he was “Simpson, J. Wesley lab(orer) residence at 1719 Woodland Av”: (Ancestry.com: US City Directories, 1821–1989). His parents respected his wish to be renamed because when their household was enumerated in 1940, they reported that their oldest son, visiting with them at the time, was J. Wesley Simpson. 468J(ohn) Fletcher Hickerson (1912–2012) as reported in Ancestry’s Web: Texas Find a Grave Index, 1761–2012 and in SSDI. 469Simpson began contributing to the AAVSO in November 1931 (Campbell, L., Annual Report of the AAVSO for the Year ending October 31, 1932., PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 645.) His name first appears among the non-member AMS contributors of meteor counts in the AMS’ 1931 annual report. 470Dr. Olivier reported that Simpson energetically gathered statements from fireball witnesses in early 1932 and sent his findings to Olivier for Olivier’s analysis. Meteor Notes, PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 357. 471Andrew Murray Simpson (1921–1961) is listed in Ancestry.com’s USA Find a Grave Index 1600s to Current. He is buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, San Mateo Co, California. His death is also listed in California Death Index, 1940–1997, SSN 499 05 2939. He was born in Missouri and died in San Francisco. J. Wesley Simpson 453 counted meteors with his brother and cousin each year from 1932 to 1934 and again in 1936.472 New members were also attracted by Simpson’s promotion of his astronomical exploits in local newspapers. In 1934, his celebrity, as a 20-year-old astronomer, brought him an introduction to Harry Koken, a prominent St. Louis industrialist. Impressed by the young man, Koken bequeathed Simpson his 12-inch reflecting telescope. Simpson added the reflector to some modest equipment he had assembled earlier in an observatory named after the street on which his family lived, Locksley Place. When the Locksley Observatory’s roll-off roof became inoperable, Simpson was able to solicit donations and volunteer manpower so that he could strengthen its construction and install a rotating dome. Many of those observatory repair volunteers became the M-SIO’s members. Simpson used the Koken reflector for faint variable star magnitude estimates which were welcomed by the AAVSO.473 Simpson also publicized the M-SIO’s achievements in a journal he edited, Astronomical Discourse (AD). He used this platform to advocate his preference for observations that furthered scientific knowledge and argued that doing so was the highest form of amateur astronomical activity, more worthwhile than recreational stargazing and telescope making. He circulated AD among other amateur societies, such as the Milwaukee Astronomical Society and other member societies of the regional Wisconsin-Northern Illinois (WI-NIL) Group headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Simpson’s outreach to the Wisconsin groups led to friendships with Luverne Armfield and Edward Halbach, prominent members, and AMS observers in the Wisconsin-based society.474 Simpson’s passion for scientific meteor watches led him to coordinate an elaborate meteor campaign in Southern California during the summer of 1933. He, Hickerson, and other group members travelled to Mt. Wilson in order to count Delta Aquarid and Perseid meteors. Simpson was quoted in a San Diego newspaper as saying that the group “counted 742 meteors” during a three-night mountaintop Aquarid meteor watch in late July.475

472The Hickersons and A. Murray Simpson’s contributions were made as non-AMS members; their results were recorded in each year’s Annual Reports’ Table II (2) listing, where Olivier placed these statistics. See the AMS Annual Reports’ Sources Guide for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate their contributions. 473Simpson actually began contributing to the AAVSO in November 1931 using some small refractors; he observed 14 variable stars and made 89 magnitude estimates for a total of 116 for 1931; for November 1931–October 1932 his total was 428 variable star observations: Campbell, L., Annual Rep of the AAVSO for the Year ending October 31, 1932., PA, volume 40, 1932, p. 645. The large reﬂector permitted Simpson to estimate magnitudes of much fainter stars which were very desirable data for the Association. 474History of the Missouri Group’s formation and early years is taken from Williams, T.R., Getting Organized: A history of Amateur Astronomy in the USA, 2000, Rice University doctoral dissertation, Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Dissertation Services, pp. 199–202. 475Evening Tribune, San Diego, California, July 31, 1933, p. 11: High Record set by Meteors’ Fall-. And in the same paper on August 9, 1933, p. 2 for the quote about the group’s total meteor count. 454 Enrolled 1930–1936

Simpson and Hickerson’s goals for the 1933 Perseid meteors were more ambitious still. They divided their party in two with Simpson’s team to perform watches on Mt. Wilson and Hickerson’s from Mt. La Crescenta. The two had borrowed reticles from Dr. Thomas Poulter (1897–1978) whose research team was to use identical ones at the South Pole during the Byrd Antarctic expedition. Reticles were designed by Poulter to be used by observers unfamiliar with the constellations but whose recorded observations of reticle sections traversed by a meteor could be used to determine meteor paths. The Missourians intended to use the reticles in simultaneous meteor observations in order to determine meteor heights. Not content with the height program alone, Simpson asked local California newspapers to assist him in coordinating an area-wide Perseid watch. With their help, Simpson asked southern Californians to make half-hourly meteor counts and to send them to him at his Los Angeles address.476 From 1931 to 1937, Dr. Olivier credited Simpson with having counted or plotted 7320 meteors during 221 watches. During the same interval, Fletcher Hickerson reported 1226 meteors on 55 nights. Olivier overﬂowed with praise for Simpson and the M-SIO group, commenting in the 1937 Annual Report that the group had a

“…splendid record of achievement…This group alone has done far more meteor observing than is done annually…in some of the larger European countries. They cannot be too highly commended for this outstanding record. Much of the credit naturally goes to Simpson who has been their leader and who has spared no personal effort to make his group keep up their interest.” The AMS Director published a summary table of the group’s observational statistics for 1931–1937 to illustrate its accomplishments. Group members had performed an aggregate of 457 night watches during which they had counted 37,859 meteors, an average of 5400 meteors a year.477 With such routine productivity from Simpson and his group, it is understandable that Olivier lapsed into grumpy disappointment when Simpson’s 1938 data summary failed to arrive at AMS Headquarters. Dr. Olivier groused, “J.W. Simpson, who up to 1938 had, for a number of years, directed the Missouri-Southern Illinois group with conspicuous success, went off to college. As a result the known activity of the group dropped to nearly zero while in the previous seven years they had averaged over 5000 meteors annually.”478 From experience, Olivier knew that meteor research suffered when AMS members abandoned the Society to go to college. It was even worse when the defector was a charismatic group leader: a group’s effectiveness evaporated. However, this time Olivier’s lament proved premature. Simpson was delayed in mailing Olivier his 1938 data. When he did so, Olivier found the Missourian had watched meteors on 122 nights in 1938 and reported he had counted 3616 meteors.

476The 1933 Perseid campaign was described in two issues of the Evening Tribune, (San Diego) August 9, 1933, p. 2 and August 12, 1933, p. 2. 477Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 46, 1938, p. 154. 478Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 47, 1939, p. 147. J. Wesley Simpson 455

And his group’s data added another 2818 meteors to the AMS database.479 But even though 1938 was another bountiful year for the AMS, courtesy of J. Wesley Simpson, such years were not to continue. Olivier knew that like most of his young assistants, Simpson was bound to reduce or end his reports when he began college. But in Simpson’s case, it was meteor observing and socializing related to it that were the bane of a college degree. Official records at Southeast Missouri Teacher’s College in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, indicate that Simpson was enrolled as early as 1934 but failed to earn a degree.480 Simpson’s prodigious meteor observing may have had a role in his failure to graduate. He performed 76 watches in 1934, 20 in 1935, and 21 more in 1936.481 Probably equally responsible was Simpson’s whole-hearted embrace of an idea conceived by Luverne E. Armfield, the Wisconsin-Northern Illinois regional meteor director: forming a consortium of amateur astronomy clubs into an American Amateur Astronomical Association (AAAA) modeled after England’s British Astronomical Association. Armfield and Simpson had discussed the idea in early 1935 and Simpson announced that the Milwaukee Astronomical Association (MAS), the M-SIO, and the Madison, Wisconsin Astronomical Society were to form the nucleus of the AAAA as soon as the first issue of the AAAA’s new journal, Amateur Astronomy (AA) was published in January 1936.482 For two years, the AAAA was a vibrant confederation and eventually 12 amateur clubs from California to New York were members,483 but by July 1938, AA suspended publication because organizational members did not financially support it.484 When the journal ended so did the AAAA, it was the “lifeblood” that kept the AAAA alive. Unfortunately, financial problems caused Simpson to withdraw the M-SIO from AAAA in March 1936, soon after the AAAA began.485 When it returned in May 1937486, Simpson became the AAAA’s meteor director whose responsibility was to

479Olivier, C.P., Meteor Notes, PA, volume 47, 1939, p. 265. 480Simpson’s enrollment at Southeast Missouri State Teachers College at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, is documented in its yearbooks for the years 1934–1936. The 1934 edition of Sagamore, p. 125, listed “J.W. Simpson” as a YMCA member: Ancestry.com, “US School Yearbooks” database. The 1936 edition mentioned a “J.Simpson” on pp. 45, 97, 98, 105, and he was listed in an index on p. 189. On p. 45 is a picture of a “John W. Simpson” who belonged to YMCA. On p. 98, the Mark Twain Society is pictured and reported it was “reorganized” in the winter quarter of 1935 when “John Simpson” was a member. Page 105 has YMCA members pictured with John Simpson as one of them. In an email to the author on 7/1/2014, a librarian at Southeast Missouri University’s Special Collections Library reported that Simpson did not earn a degree in the years 1934–1939. 481Sources are the AMS’s annual reports for 1934, 1935, and 1936. 482Simpson, J., American Amateur Astronomical Association, MAS Bulletin, Volume 2, number 5, May, 1935, pp. 17–18 and 20. 483Amateur Astronomy, Volume 4, No. 5, May 1938, p. 58. 484Armfield, L., Forward, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 3, No. 7, August–September 1937, Cover page (p. 115). 485Amateur Astronomy, Volume 2, No. 3, March 1936, p. 33. 486Amateur Astronomy, Volume 3, No. 5, May 1937, p. 89 (cover). 456 Enrolled 1930–1936 publish member societies’ meteor reports and activities as well as stimulate observers’ interest in monitoring active major and minor meteor showers. Whether M-SIO was participating in AAAA or not, the AA’s pages often contained accounts of Simpson’s varied activities, such as a visit with Armfield and the MAS in June 1936 in which he mentioned a meteorite hunt he was conducting that summer.487 But, by 1939, Simpson decided to sacrifice the joys of meteor astronomy and settle down to college studies. Simpson lived with Fletcher Hickerson and his wife in a section of Baytown, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Both young men attended college classes. Hickerson was employed as a chemist in a nearby oil refinery and Simpson supported himself by janitorial work in a public school.488 Simpson was serious about earning a college degree. He confided to a North Carolina newspaper,

“I realized two years ago I had gone as far as I could without a college degree so I came down here (Texas) where I wasn’t known and started digging in. After Lee Junior College (located in Baytown), I intend to enter Texas university (sic) and after I get a couple of degrees there I’m going to go back to my observatory in St. Louis. Then I believe I’ll be ready to go someplace in this star study business.” 489 Apparently the 26-year-old was serious in his intentions and earned an associate’s degree in 1940 from the college.490 A year later, an Olympia, Washington, newspaper carried a St. Louis dateline story about Simpson. The newspaper reported that Simpson intended to relocate from St. Louis to Miami, Florida “with his observatory” which he estimated to contain $15,000 (equivalent to $245,000 in 2012 US dollars491) worth of equipment. The story also printed a Simpson claim that, “he believes he has contributed more observations of shooting stars than any other amateur in the nation and says he’s witnessed about 50,000 in ten years.”492 The same year, 1941, Dr. Olivier informed PA’s readers that Simpson had moved to a Miami address and was then Regional Director for Florida, southern Georgia, and the West Indies.493 Simpson maintained a Miami address throughout most of World War II, beginning employment as a department store manager in 1942 but by 1943 and 1944 he reported he was a navigator ﬂying for the Air Transport Command, for

487Amateur Astronomy, Volume 2, Numbers 7 (p. 88) and 8 (p. 98.) 488On April 9, 1940, Simpson was enumerated for 1940 US Census at Wooster (a suburb of Baytown, Texas) near Houston living with J. Fletcher Hickerson his cousin. JWS was listed as a school janitor with only one year of college education. Hickerson had completed two. Source: Ancestry.com’s database concerning J. Wesley Simpson. 489Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), Sunday April 21, 1940, p. 56. 490Ms. Evonne L. Morris, Lee College Assistant Registrar, confirmed Simpson’s attendance in 1940 and that he earned an Associate Degree although the institution did not record the subject area. Email from Evonne L. Morris to the author on 6/30/14. 491The equivalence was found with MeasuringWorth.com’s calculator for commodities: https:// www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/. Accessed on 5/24/16. 492Morning Olympian, (Olympia, WA), Sept 18, 1941, p. 9, dateline St. Louis. 493Olivier announced JWS’s address change in his Meteor Notes dated January 17, 1942, in PA, volume 50, 1942, p. 95. J. Wesley Simpson 457 which he ferried military materiel to Africa and “the Orient” during the war.494 He maintained the AMS regional directorship during the war and in that role in 1943 informed Miamians about how unusual a fireball was that had occurred; it had a very-long-enduring train which lasted five minutes.495 Dr. Olivier was impressed with Simpson, and some other AMS members who, although performing wartime service, still managed to “(get) in a few hours on meteors”; in 1944, Simpson had managed to perform nine watches and count 255 meteors. Olivier commented that Simpson’s on-duty watches were “…most interesting…(and were) observations made by him when on trans-Atlantic flights. For these the plane’s place cannot be given, but this does not affect the value of the hourly counts.”496 By 1944, J. Wesley Simpson had married and the couple later had two daughters.497 Simpson’s postwar employments were in technical fields. Public records mentioned in 1956 Simpson was an electronics technician employed by Hewlett-Packard and lived in Palo Alto, California.498 In 1968, he was employed at Lockheed Electronics Company in Houston, Texas.499 Simpson continued his interest in meteoric astronomy after the war. The AMS’ 1952 Annual Report mentions that he filed reports from Palo Alto where he performed 18 watches and counted 374 meteors. A 1954, San Mateo, California, newspaper article reported, “J. Wesley Simpson of Palo Alto has been appointed regional director of northern California for the American Meteor Society…Simpson has been an active member of the AMS for 23 years.”500 Simpson continued his duties for the AMS until 1960, when J.P. Bagby became Regional Director.501

494Ancestry.com’s database for J. Wesley Simpson contains a Miami city directory address for the years 1942, 1944, and 1945, all of which listed his occupations. On an AAVSO Nomination Blank, dated April 27, 1944, Simpson wrote that he was a “navigator-Pan American Airways, Africa and Oriental” and that “for the duration of the war, navigates for Air Transport Command.” The form was a PDF document shared with the author, courtesy of Thomas R. Williams. 495A newspaper story in the Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), June 19, 1943, p. 14, contains the Miami dateline story about a ﬁreball and Simpson’s comments about it. The same story records Simpson’s status as an “air navigator.” 496Olivier’s comments on Simpson’s aerial meteor watches are from Olivier’s Meteor Notes, PA, volume 53, 1945, p. 236. 497Ancestry.com’s Florida Marriage Collection, 1822–1875 and 1927–2001 has a record that John Wesley Simpson married Virginia Helen Kohlmann, in Broward County in 1944 (volume 908, Certiﬁcate NO. 17575, Florida Department of Health). 498Palo Alto CA City Directory 1956: “J. Wesley (Virginia H) electronic tech Hewlett-Packard h 847 Bruce Dr., (Ancestry.com: US City Directories, 1821–1989). 499Simpson’s byline to, The Libration Clouds: a Status Report, Review of Popular Astronomy, volume 62, 1968: states “Lockheed Electronics Company, Houston, Texas.” In addition, amateur astronomer Paul Maley reported (in a 1985 letter to T.R. Williams) meeting Simpson while both were employed at Lockheed. 500The Times (San Mateo, CA) June 28, 1954, p. 20. Surprisingly, the AMS’ 1954 Annual Report contained no information about this appointment. However, the Report failed to mention the names of any other Regional Director. 501Bagby’s name appeared in a list of Regional Directors in the 1960 Annual Report. 458 Enrolled 1930–1936

The final bit of information about Simpson’s astronomical career comes from three articles he wrote while living in Houston, Texas, in 1967 and 1968. All three were about the same subject, interplanetary dust particles that theoretically could orbit the earth in fixed positions, called Lagrangian points. The gravitational fields of the massive earth and moon create these zones in the plane of the moon’s orbit, such that the two fields “cancel each other out” and very small bodies are not attracted to either the earth or the moon and they remain concentrated in the gravity-null Lagrangian points. Simpson reported 502 that his visual and photographic searches for the large, faint, dust clouds had been successful, confirming the clouds’ photographic discovery by a Polish astronomer, Kazimierz Kordylewski in 1961503. Simpson’s findings were not the final word in this matter. Other observers failed to find the clouds and even satellite investigations in 1975504 and 2009505 were inconsistent in their results. Perhaps, the best conclusion about the putative and elusive libration clouds is the summary opinion by an astronomer who published a mathematical exploration of the possibility that such clouds could exist. He wrote, “It may be possible that interplanetary matter disintegrates around these (libration) points and forms a temporary cloud or swarm, but it will disperse into space in the course of time. The objects which Kordylewski and Simpson observed might be such dispersing clouds.”506 It may be that Leonid meteoroids, which were returning in large numbers to the earth’s orbit in the 1960s, and especially in 1966, were the bodies that furnished the disintegrating interplanetary matter that Kordylewski and Simpson detected. J. Wesley Simpson’s address at the time of his death was League City, Texas, a Houston suburb.507

502Simpson, J.W., Dust-Cloud Moons of Earth, Physics Today, volume 20, 1967, p. 39ff; Lunar-Libration-Cloud Photography, NASA Special Publication, NASA-SP-150, 1967, p. 97ff; and in 1968: The Libration Clouds: a Status Report, Review of Popular Astronomy, volume 62, pp. 10– 13. 503Dobbins, T., Kazimierz Kordylewski, in T. Hockey, et al., eds., Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, volume 1, New York: Springer, 2007, p. 653 504Ibid. The OSO-6 satellite detected the clouds’ particles. 505In 2009, the Japanese satellite, Hiten, directed through the earth–moon Lagrangian zones found no increase in particles, and hence, no “clouds.” Source: NASA, National Space Science Data Center, Hiten, NSSDC/CO SPAR ID: 1990-007A, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog. do?sc=1990-007A. Accessed on 5/24/16. 506Sekiguchi, N., On the Theoretical Possibility of the Libration Cloud, The Moon, volume 2, Issue 2, p. 135. 507Simpson’s address was reported by the Social Security Death Index (see Footnote 465) and by Dr. Michael Saladyga, AAVSO archivist. Simpson joined the variable star organization in 1931 and contributed 1378 observations until 1948: email communication by Dr. Saladyga to the author on 7/8/15. G. B. Skinner 459 G. B. Skinner

(1910–1997)508 Membership years: 1935, 1945, 1947–1950, and 1954.509

Gerald Bradford510 Skinner’s observing history is a puzzle. He began reporting meteors in 1935, after those years most likely to have produced a Leonid meteor storm: 1932 and 1933. He was an atypical first time observer too because he was 25 years old when he filed his first report with the AMS. Many AMS members who file reports on multiple years, like Skinner, began to watch and report meteors when they were in their teens. Perhaps Skinner watched meteors before he joined the AMS in 1935 but did not make a formal report. However, we know Skinner maintained an interest in meteors for 19 years because his seven known annual reports were made during this time span. Another puzzle is why he reported so few meteors during the two years he mounted the most watches: 1950 and 1954. For example, he scanned the sky for 23 nights in 1950, yet was only able to count 88 meteors; and in 1954 he mapped 43 meteors on star charts as a result of 16 nightly vigils. The most likely reason for such a disappointing yield from so much work was his observation site: the city of Brockton, Massachusetts. Urban light pollution most likely undermined Skinner’s efforts. His meteor career totals were 52 watches and a total of 369 meteors described and plotted.511 The majority of biographical information about Gerald Skinner is limited to the years his parents were interviewed for the US Censuses, 1910–1940. He was the youngest of four children born to Vernon and Grace (nee Marble) Skinner. Vernon was employed as a city policeman in 1910, a shoe factory fireman in 1920 and died before the 1930 Census. Grace was longer-lived and reached the age of 64 years by the date of the 1940 census. Gerald was listed as living in his parents’ home during the four census enumerations. He had an eighth grade education and joined the US Army in 1926. His military service was likely intermittent because he was reported to be a shoe factory employee in 1930 and a farm laborer in 1940 Censuses. Presumably he served on active duty during World War II. Several public records show that he was a Massachusetts resident all his life. He was buried in the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.512

508The following online databases (available in Ancestry.com) contain Skinner’s vital statistics: Massachusetts Death Index 1970–2003; US Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014; US Veterans Gravesites, 1775–2006. 509See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 510US Veterans Gravesites, 1775–2006, an Ancestry.com database contains Gerald Bradford Skinner’s full name. 511Dates and meteor statistics were abstracted from the AMS Annual Reports for the years in the biography heading. 512Information sources for this paragraph are the 1910–1940 US Censuses of Brockton, Massachusetts for the household of Vernon Skinner (1910 and 1920) and Grace Skinner (1930 and 1940). Skinner’s service entry date and facts of burial in a veterans’ cemetery are to be found in 460 Enrolled 1930–1936 Claude H. Smith

(1910–1985)513 Membership years: 1936–1938, 1942, 1945–1947, 1949, and 1953. He was Regional Director for central New York, 1938–1953.514

Comet Country…

The lake district of central New York State is bounded on the north by Lake Ontario, the easternmost of North America’s Great Lakes. Three of New York’s largest cities are nearby: Rochester is on the southern shore, Buffalo to the lake’s southwest, and Syracuse to its southeast. Dominating the interior of the district are the 11 Finger Lakes, and strewn between them are picturesque rural hamlets. In spite of the lake district’s frequent cloudiness, the region was the site of many comet discoveries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Lewis Swift (1820–1913) who lived in Rochester and William R. Brooks (1844–1921), in Geneva, discovered thirty or more comets between them from 1862 to 1911. Only seven miles (11 km) east of Geneva is Waterloo, the home of Claude Hoster515 Smith, a highly regarded American Meteor Society (AMS) member. Astronomer William Brooks was still active in Geneva when Smith was a boy and the comet hunter’s reputation may have been a source of inspiration to the youngster.

And Meteors Too

Smith ﬁrst showed a passion for meteor work by reporting 138 meteors during a two-and-half-an-hour vigil on the night of August 11/12, 1936. One hundred and

(Footnote 512 continued) Ancestry.com database: US Veterans Gravesites, 1775–2006: “Service Start date: 20 July 1926… (and the fact that he was) Buried in Mass National Cemetery, Bourne, Massachusetts.” A photograph of his grave marker is to be found in another Web site: US Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current. It shows the inscription, “Pvt. US Army.” Lifelong residency in Massachusetts is suggested by five address listings in Ancestry.com’s US Public Records Index, Volumes 1 and 2 for Gerald B. Skinner. Participation in World War 2 as a soldier is speculative based upon Skinner’s burial in a veterans’ cemetery (a right of US military veterans.) However, no specific information could be found on the Ancestry.com Web site about Skinner’s service during the war. 513Mr. Smith’s vital statistics were provided by Mr. Donald H. Smith, Claude’s son, and Donald’s wife Gladys in an email letter to the author on 8/30/15. 514See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 515Smith’s son Donald informed the author of Claude’s middle name during a phone interview on 8/30/15. Claude H. Smith 461 four were Perseid meteors. When the Perseids and the 34 non-Perseids were combined, they yielded an hourly rate of 52 meteors: almost one a minute had flashed above the rural countryside of central New York.516 Smith counted another 227 meteors in 1937517 and the following year he decided to specialize on the brightest members of the meteoric species: fireballs. He did not have long to wait to see one. Central and western New York residents who happened to be outdoors at 7:25 p.m. on April 12, 1938, saw a brilliant bluish fireball meteor that many estimated to be a third the moon’s diameter. In his new role as the American Meteor Society’s Regional Director, Smith asked nearby newspapers to run an article in which he asked the fireball’s eyewitnesses to contact him. Smith sent volunteering eyewitnesses a copy of the AMS Bulletin which queried them about what they had seen. He informed newspaper readers he was especially interested “to learn of persons who may have found any stones believed to be meteorites.”518 Sixty people responded to the articles and Smith personally interviewed some of the people who wrote him. He took the initiative to analyze the most useful reports and then he deduced the ground path and distance the fireball had travelled in the atmosphere. As a reward for Smith’s energetic and thorough investigation, Dr. Olivier, the AMS’ scientific director, gave him senior authorship of the final published report about the fireball, explaining, “the greater part of the work was done by (Smith).”519 By 1953, Smith was senior author of four more reports of fireballs seen above upstate New York. Smith and Olivier predicted that meteorites fell from two of these four fireballs and the two men described where they thought the rocky and metallic remnants would be found if a diligent search was made. These four were all spectacular but one fireball seen in 1949 exploded miles up in the air and people on the ground heard the detonations throughout an 80 air mile (130 km) region from Buffalo, New York, to Warren, Pennsylvania. Olivier expressed such confidence in Smith’s investigations and analyses that he wrote, “As Claude H. Smith has had considerable experience in working on fireball heights the projected path derived by him is taken by me as correct, also the derived heights of beginning point (and) explosion points.”520

516Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 44, 1936, pp. 501 and 504. 517See the AMS Annual Report for 1937. 518Meteor Data Sought Today, Director of Society in Search of Individuals who saw “Fire Balls,” The Daily Messenger (Canandaigua, NY), Monday, April 25, 1938, p. 3 519Smith, C.H. and C.P. Olivier, The New York Fireball of 1938 April 12, in Meteor Notes, PA, volume 46, 1938, p. 402–403. 520The four reports were contained in Olivier’s Meteor Notes articles, published in PA: volume 48, 1940, pp. 325–326 (Fireball of 1938 July 26); volume 56, 1948, pp. 39–40, (The New York Fireball of 1947 June 27/28); volume 58, 1950, pp. 181–184 (The Pennsylvania Fireball of October 26, 1949); and in Reports of the AMS, Reprint No 79, Flower and Cook Observatories, (The Fireball of 1953 September 28). 462 Enrolled 1930–1936

Autodidact

Claude Smith’s fireball expertise was the outcome of an ability to teach himself new and abstruse aspects of any topic that appealed to him. Smith enjoyed learning and exercising his intellect but he was not content to remain an armchair dilettante; he rolled up his sleeves and did field work too. In addition to fireball investigations, Smith ventured across New York State in pursuit of ethnological and geological treasures. His elder son, Donald recalled521 being pressed into service as an adolescent field assistant when his father searched for Native American artifacts in nearby counties; for diamond-like quartz crystals in distant Herkimer County522; and when his father drove into western-most New York to comb suspected meteoritic strewn fields with powerful magnets.

A Life in Central New York’s Lake District

Claude Smith lived in the Waterloo and Geneva region all his life. He was employed by the Patent Cereal Company in positions of increasing responsibility and ultimately became the ﬁrm’s Assistant Secretary-Treasurer. He worked three decades for Patent until it was sold to an Illinois company in 1957.523 When the company left Geneva, Smith opened an independent food store south of the town.524 Smith married in 1933 and the couple had two sons who graduated from universities in New York State. His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1964. Smith’s sons survived him when he died in 1985.525

521Mr. Donald H. Smith furnished the information about Smith’s ﬁeld expeditions during a telephone interview on August 30, 2015. 522For a journalist’s interview about Smith’s interests in quartz crystals, see a digitized newspaper article: Emmons, E.T., Herkimer Diamonds, An Empire State Geological Phenomenon, The Geneva Times (Geneva, NY), Wednesday, August 16, 1961, cover page. Accessed 8/2/15. It was found in New York State Digital Library-Fulton History; fultonhistory.com by entering the search terms “Claude H. Smith Geneva NY.” Claude H. Smith wrote a book describing “Herkimer (County) Diamonds” and how they could be found: Let’s Hunt for Herkimer Diamonds. A Google search found a list of vendors for Smith’s book, published in 1950, 47 pp. and illustrated. 523Smith’s employment at Patent Cereals is documented in the 1930 and 1940 US Censuses. Donald Smith reported that his father had been the ﬁrm’s Assistant Secretary-Treasurer. Sale of the company is documented in Guide to the Patent Cereals Company Records, 1888–1957, Collection Number: 1931, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Cornell University Library: http:// rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM01931.html. Accessed 5/24/16. 524Smith was mentioned as proprietor of the store in Emmons, op. cit. Mr. Donald Smith also mentioned that his father “owned an independent food store.” 525Smith family information courtesy of Donald H. Smith, provided in a telephone interview on 8/30/15 and in an email letter on 8/31/15. H. Stackpole 463 H. Stackpole

(1919–1995)526 Membership years: 1936–1938527

Howard Willard Stackpole II528 and Leon Arslanian529 were high school buddies at San Jose (California) High School.530 Stackpole was the son of a successful jew- eler531 and Arslanian the ﬁrst-generation American stepson of a hotel chef who had immigrated to the USA from Armenia in 1906.532 Stackpole was one year of high school ahead of Arslanian but despite ethnic and age differences they had two interests in common: meteor astronomy and acting.533 Stackpole and Arslanian’s meteor work occurred while they were high school students. Their two joint observations were in 1936, but Stackpole continued observations by himself in 1937 and 1938. Stackpole’s AMS career ended when he received his high school diploma, but from 1936–1938, he plotted 210 meteors during 12 watches.534

526Social Security Death Index for “Howard W. Stackpole.” 527See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 528US, Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936–2007: full name listed in January 1947 application. HWS’ suffix, “II” is reported in a newspaper article with his photograph at age 9: The Evening News, San Jose, CA, Thursday, September 27, 1928, p. 19: Page for Women, Four Handsome Children who are the Pride of Their Homes (with four photographs of children): “two interesting sons of Mr. And Mrs. Howard Willard Stackpole; Robert Irving who is 7 years of age, and Howard Willard II, his senior by 2 years.” 529See Arslanian’s biography elsewhere in this book. 530Stackpole is listed as a San Jose High School student in the school’s 1935 yearbook, The Bell of 1935, p. 39 (10th grade). The yearbook was for the “School year of 1934–1935”: Ancestry.com’s US School Yearbooks, 1880–2012. Leon Arslanian is documented in the same Ancestry database too: San Jose High School The Bell 1936, p. 77. “L. Arslanian” is listed in a yearbook article, “California Scholarship Federation: Gold pins signifying life membership in the C.S.F. were presented to…” a number of SJHS students, Arslanian among them. 531The 1920 and 1930 US Censuses enumerated for San Jose California and the household of Howard W. Stackpole report that HWS was a jeweler and owned his own business. His prominence in his trade is reported in, Horologists, Jewelers End Conventions, San Diego Union, Friday Morning, March 1, 1940, p. 15: “…Howard Stackpole, San Jose, was elected “3rd vice president” of the California Retail Jewelers Association (Assn) and the Horological Assn of California.” The two organizations elected him jointly, apparently. 5321930 US Census of San Jose California and the household of Jack H. Arslanian, who was born in Armenia and immigrated in 1906, and worked as a hotel chef. 533Both men claimed occupational histories of acting when they enlisted in the US Army in 1941 (Arslanian) and 1942 (Stackpole): Ancestry.com’ database, USA, World War I Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946. 534See the AMS Annual Reports’ Sources Guide for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 464 Enrolled 1930–1936

Both young men attended college before the USA entered World War II and Stackpole ﬁnished three years of undergraduate study before military enlistment in 1942.535 His role in the Army during the war is unknown, but he graduated from college in 1943.536 All that could be discovered about Stackpole’s career following the war was a notice that he had earned a graduate teaching certiﬁcate in 1953 to teach life and physical sciences to California high school students.537 Mr. Stackpole died in 1995. There is no evidence that he and Mr. Arslanian resumed their acquaintanceship before the latter died in 1981.

William R. Stone

(1852–1942)538 Membership years: 1936–1941.539

If William Royal540 Stone had a motto, it might have been, “You’re never too old to do something new.” His career as a meteor observer would have been a good example of it. Mr. Stone ﬁrst seriously recorded meteors when he was 79 years old. A good rhetorical question would be, “Why?” A likely guess is that he had been attracted to the science by Dr. Olivier’s frequent newspaper articles about Leonid meteors in the early 1930s. William Stone had ancestors listed in the Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Books and his father, Solomon A. Stone, served in a Union Army heavy artillery unit at the end of the Civil War.541 Solomon and William were born in Massachusetts but when William married Agnes McBrayne,542 a Connecticut (CT) native, the couple made New Britain, CT, their home. All three of their children were born there.543

535US WW2 Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946 for Howard W. Stackpole: Ancestry.com’s database. 536University of California, The Ninety-first Commencement Exercises, June 18, 1954, California Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, Certificates, Degrees and Honors, August–September, 1953, Page 50: Graduate Division, Curriculum for the Training of Teachers, Certificate of Completion (School of Education) to Howard Willard Stackpole (AB 1943), ''Major: Life Science; Minor Physical Science…Carmel” Source Google Books, search terms, “Howard Willard Stackpole.” 537Ibid. 538California Death Index 1940–1997, an Ancestry.com database. 539See Appendix B for bibliographic specifics to locate his contributions. 540Torrence Family File 2014 (from Ancestry.com’s Public Family Trees). Specifically, Stone’s full name is cited in this family tree history for Stone’s father, Solomon Amidon Stone. 541Ibid. 542Ibid. 5431900 US Census of William R and Agnes Stone’s household in New Britain city, Hartford County, Connecticut. William R. Stone 465

William supported his family by employment in clerical positions. Sometime after Agnes died at age 61 in 1913544, Stone and his daughter Lillian, a nurse, left New Britain. The 1920 US Census recorded that William lived in Lillian and her husband’s household in Yuma, Arizona. Ten years later, the three were living in Santa Barbara, California. William Stone was still a lodger in Lillian’s home in 1940545 and presumably when he died in 1942. He was survived by a son, Royal, and by Lillian and her daughter. Stone had a second daughter who the writer believes predeceased him.546

Octogenarian Meteor Watcher

Mr. Stone was not an AMS member when he sent in his ﬁrst counts of 1932’s Perseid and Leonid meteors. However, this did not mean the 80-year-olds was a neophyte to naked eye astronomy; he knew the names and locations of some inconspicuous constellations, such as Hydra, Lynx, and Monoceros. And before these ﬁrst reports, he had studied AMS Bulletin 12 in which Dr. Olivier elaborated his requirements for competent meteor reports.547 Furthermore, Stone fully complied with Dr. Olivier’s request that meteor watches last several hours at a time. Stone counted 1932’s Perseids for 11 h and its Leonids for nine hours more and then he furnished detailed notes about each of the 181 meteors he had seen that year.548 Stone had “hit the ground running” in meteor astronomy at the very beginning of his career. Stone sent watch reports for the Delta Aquarid, Perseid, Orionid, and Leonid showers in 1933 and the 1934 Perseids before he joined the AMS in 1936. It is almost as if he considered himself in training before he could aspire to membership in Dr. Olivier’s research program. By late 1933, he had begun plotting meteors’ paths on constellation maps that Dr. Olivier sent conscientious observers.549 Plotting implies another level of observer sophistication: The reporter needs to

544Ancestry.com’s Connecticut Deaths and Burials index, 1650–1934: Agnes M Stone. 5451920 US Census (USC) enumerated for William H. English and Lillian M. English in Yuma, Arizona; 1930 USC for the Englishes’ household in Santa Barbara, California; and 1940 USC for Lillian English’s household in Santa Barbara. 546See listing for Solomon A. Stone in Torrence Family File 2014 (Ancestry.com Public Family Trees). William and Agnes’ second daughter is listed in the 1900 USC as a member of their household in New Britain, CT, but is not listed in the Torrence family tree. 547Letter from “Wm. R. Stone” to “Flower Observatory,” dated November 18, 1932. Source: AMS archives box “1930s.” 5481932 Perseids: see Olivier, C., Meteor Notes (MN), Popular Astronomy (PA), volume 40, 1932, pp. 496 and 500. 1932 Leonids: see MN, PA, volume 41, 1933, pp. 53 and 55. 5491933s showers: Olivier, C., MN, PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 462; volume 41, 1933, p. 579; volume 42, 1934, pp. 42 and 44; and the 1933 AMS Annual Report. 466 Enrolled 1930–1936 know the constellations sufﬁciently well to correctly place the meteor’s path on the map. By 1937, William Stone’s careful work had earned special praise from Olivier,

At Santa Barbara we have an active observer, Wm. R. Stone, who writes me he has passed his 85th birthday in September. This did not in the slightest prevent him from observing the (1937) Leonids for three nights in succession, the longest observing period being 41/2 h, nor was he discouraged because he saw no meteor in the ﬁrst two hours of his watch! He was rewarded by 21 later. His plotting is good and his records are in perfect form.550 Stone’s last report consisted of 27 Quadrantid meteor plots that he had made during watches on three January 1941 mornings. It was a year later that Dr. Olivier was informed of Stone’s death. On January 28, 1942, Olivier advised AMS members,

Word has come of the recent death at 89 years of age of one of our most faithful members, Wm. R. Stone of Santa Barbara. So is removed from our ranks the man who holds, so far as my knowledge goes, the world’s record for an active meteor observer in that he made regular observations up to the age of 88. Nor were his periods of observing short, they usually covered from 3 to 4 hours, well into the second half of the night. His last report was for (six hours’ watch of the 1941) Quadrantids! What an example he set to the average AMS member who is from less than a quarter to perhaps half his age. The news of his death was received with real sorrow.551

Sally Urquhart

1914–1990552 Membership years: 1931–1933553

Helen Sally Margaret Urquhart mapped meteors554 during the years when the Leonid shower was expected to ﬁll the sky with meteors. She was like many other multi-year observers during the early 1930s in that she devoted time and effort to meteor study when meteors were likely to be most abundant: during the expected

550Olivier, C., MN, PA, volume 46, 1938, p. 44. The quote is extracted from Olivier’s 1937 AMS Annual Report which was published in 1938. 551Olivier, C., MN, PA, volume 50, 1942, pp. 156–7. 552Social Security Death Index indicates she is “Helen S. Urquhart, born 25 January 1914, died March 1990”: Ancestry.com. 553See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate her contributions. 554“Miss Urquhart said that she became interested in observing meteors because she was deaf and therefore was cut off from most other activities. She did a very good job of observing.” Source: Letter from F.W. Smith to author, dated May 2, 2001. Mr. Smith was a volunteer computer at Flower Observatory 1929–1936 and in that capacity reviewed much of the AMS correspondence. Sally Urquhart 467

Leonid meteor storm. She was one of the adolescent citizen scientists who swelled AMS membership during the Leonid epoch; she performed watches while living with her parents Arthur Grant and Jessie (nee Aulls) Urquhart in Detroit, Michigan. During her 1931–1933 AMS membership, Ms. Urquhart watched meteors on 22 nights and plotted 433 meteors. Her earlier years spent perfecting solo meteor recording skills gave her the conﬁdence to assume team leadership for the 1933 Leonid campaign: Three Detroit colleagues counted 71 meteors while she plotted 12 on November 15.555 Urquhart’s participation in the AMS ceased after 1933, perhaps because she began employment. Her father, a lawyer, died in 1935.556 The University of Michigan’s records showed that she was enrolled as an extension student in the 1938–1939 academic years.557 She continued her education at Michigan State College in East Lansing during 1939 and 1940.558 Urquhart enrolled for further education, possibly of a technological nature at Northwestern University559, after her mother died in 1946.560 This was the last available information about Ms. Urquhart as this biography was written in 2014.

Paul S. Watson

(1905–1986)561 Watson ﬁled reports with American Meteor Society in 1930 and 1931 while a non-member; and as a member: 1932–1934, 1936, and 1939 562

Maryland’s Academy of Sciences was formed in 1797 as an amateur scientiﬁc society and it was incorporated one hundred years later.563 In 1938, the Academy’s

555PA volume 42, 1934, pp. 98 556Arthur Grant Urquhart, 1880–1935: Ancestry.com database. 557University of Michigan’s Register of Students has a “Sally Margaret Urquhart,”“extension” student from Detroit July 1938–June 1939: Ancestry.com’s database. 558Pictures of her are in 1939 and 1940 issues of Wolverine a yearbook for Michigan State College in East Lansing. She is listed as “S. Urquhart” and was a member of Chi Omega sorority while a student there: Ancestry.com database for “Sally Urquhart.” 559Her photograph appears in the 1946 yearbook, Syllabus, for Northwestern Technological Institute; apparently a division of Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. She was a member of a student group named “WoCs” (Women off campus). 560Jessie Nathalie Aulls Urquhart, 1877–1946: Ancestry.com database. 561Social Security Death Index reported that he was born in 1905 and died in May 1986 in Pasadena, Maryland (Ancestry.com database for Watson. 562See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 563History, Maryland Science Center, http://www.mdsci.org/about/history/. Accessed on 5/24/16. 468 Enrolled 1930–1936

Board of Directors named a 33-year-old bank clerk564 and amateur astronomer, Paul S. Watson, as the Academy’s new Curator of Astronomy.565 Among other interpretive duties, Mr. Watson used the Academy Observatory’s 8-inch (20 cm) Alvan Clark refractor to show Baltimore citizens the moon and bright planets.566 The Academy was fortunate to attract such an experienced and dedicated amateur for the position; Watson had begun his telescopic explorations of the sky as 15-year-old when, in 1920, he submitted his ﬁrst variable star magnitude estimates to the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO).567 Watson continued to monitor variable stars for several of the ensuing 16 years568 and in 1936 his dedication was recognized by the AAVSO when he was named Regional Advisor for Maryland, in which role he mentored neophyte observers as they acquired magnitude estimation skills necessary for variable star work.569 In the context of his long-term variable star work, it seems likely that Watson’s contributions to the AMS from 1930–1936 were motivated by the era’s fascination with Leonid meteor storm prospects, especially since the 1932–1934 watches were conducted in support of the Flower Observatory Regional Group’s efforts to determine meteor heights.570 But in addition to cooperating with a programmatic effort like Olivier’s, Watson was an alert sky watcher who recognized novel meteoric events and reported them. He made meteor history when he and two younger amateurs, Joseph B. Field (1911–2000)571 and Frank Oertel (1915–?),572 spotted an unexpected outburst of meteors from the Gamma Delphini region during

564The 1930 US Census recorded the 25-year-old occupation as “Accounting clerk in a bank.” At the time, Watson was unmarried and living in his father’s household. Source: Ancestry.com’s database about Paul S. Watson. 565The 1940 US Census enumerator recorded Watson’s occupation as “Curator of Astronomy, Maryland Academy of Sciences: Ancestry.com’s Watson database; and Watson’s career as Curator is mentioned in: Former Curator, The Capital (Annapolis, MD), Friday, July 13, 1973, p. 20. The article states: “Paul S. Watson of Pasadena has retired as Curator of Astronomy for the Maryland Academy of Sciences, a position he held for 35 years. Watson, 68, whose retirement was effective July 1, has been given the title, “Curator Emeritus of Astronomy.” 566Clark Telescope, Maryland Science Center; http://www.mdsci.org/science-encounters/ observatory/clark-telescope/. Accessed 5/24/16. 567Annual Report of the AAVSO, 1920–1921, PA, volume 29, 1921, pp. 590–591 568Watson is cited in AAVSO Monthly and Annual Reports in Popular Astronomy: 1922 and 1923, volume 31, 1923, p. 617; 1927, volume 35, 1927, p. 585; 1931, volume 40, 1932, p. 109; 1932, volume 40, p. 645; 1933, volume 41, 1933, p. 578; 1934, volume 42, 1934, pp. 464; and 593 and volume 43, 1935, p. 60; 1935, volume 43, 1935, p. 594. 569Williams, T. and M. Saladyga, Advancing Variable Star Astronomy, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 93: Table 8.1, AAVSO Regional Advisors 1936. 570Source for the 1932 Leonids: Olivier, C., PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 52; for 1933: volume 42, 1934, p. 97; for 1934: Volume 43, 1935, p. 28. 571Baltimore Sun obituary, September 14, 2000, edition. Field volunteered at the Maryland Academy of Sciences from 1926–1996. 572Only an entry in the 1930 US Census could be found for Oertel; he was 15 years old that year: Ancestry.com. Paul S. Watson 469 an early evening sky watch in June, 1930.573 Watson’s entire career with the AMS consisted of 12 watches and a total of 344 map-plotted meteors.574 Watson’s 1932–1934 watches were made from Sykesville, a rural northern Maryland site, where Joseph L. Woods (1890–1963), an amateur telescope maker and friend of Watson’s, had established an observatory. Woods, a machinist and manufacturer575, not only constructed a 12-inch (30 cm)-diameter reflecting telescope but adapted it for astrophotography.576 Using it, the two men took many variable star field photographs for the AAVSO577 and made “an extensive series of (visual) estimates” of variable star EZ Aquilae for a paper that Dr. Olivier published in 1941.578 During the 1932 Leonid watch, Woods succeeded in photographing a long-enduring meteor train. In the 1930s, Olivier coveted any graphical represen- tation of a train because of its potential to reveal the directions of high-altitude winds. Olivier commented excitedly, “Mr. Woods…got a photographic plate of one of the trains with nine, ten-second exposures, at intervals of ten seconds. The writer knows of no similar feat…”579 The sequential photographic images allowed an objective depiction of how a meteor train’s shape evolves as high-altitude winds blew on it. In contrast, most contemporary meteor train image series were hand-drawn by visual observers whose artistic deficits could cause representational errors.

573Olivier, CP, Meteor Notes, PA, volume 38, 1930, p. 442. Watson, Field, and Oertel’s observation is also mentioned in this book in the chapter about the AMS’ accomplishments in the 1930s, under the heading “Brief Intense Showers…” 574See AMS Annual Reports for 1930–1939 in Popular Astronomy. 575Joseph L. Woods (Sr.) was described in the 1930 US Census (USC) as a “manufacturer in (his) own business” and in the 1920 USC as a “mechanic.” Sources are the Ancestry.com database for Joseph L. Woods, Sr. 576See Woods’ article, Watson, P. and J. Woods, Photography with a small reflector, PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 423ff for a description of the telescope, especially the experimentation performed to enable guiding the reflector during an exposure. Even though Watson is cited as an author, the author’s address at the end of the article is Woods’ and he is likely the senior, if not only, author of it. 577Koch, R., Observational Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, 1751–1996; privately published, 2008, p. 68. The book is available online by entering its title in a search engine. Woods briefly described his experiences using telescopic photography for estimating variable star magnitudes: Woods, J., Notes on celestial photography, PA, volume 44, 1936, p. 145. 578Taylor, P. and C. Olivier, A photometric study of EZ Aquilae, Publications of the University of Pennsylvania, Astronomical Series, volume 6, part 5, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1941, p. 5. Note that Robert Koch, op. cit., cited in Footnote 573 above, wrote that “Woods, Watson and another amateur, P.G. Crout (1898–?) contributed photographic magnitudes of EZ Aquilae, which were incorporated in the Olivier & Others (published in 1961) omnibus light curve of that object”: Source is p. 68 of Koch’s book. 579Olivier, C., PA, volume 41, 1933, p. 52. It is not clear from Olivier’s account if Woods used the telescope for this photograph or if he used a short-focus lens. Woods himself did not mention this photograph. 470 Enrolled 1930–1936

In 1937, Woods machined the components for two 12-inch reﬂecting telescopes which when assembled were ﬁtted with mirrors made by the Fecker Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Paul Watson was given one of the telescopes and when he died, his estate presented it to the Howard (County, Maryland) Astronomical League in 1999. The League refurbished the instrument and hopes to begin using it at the League’s observatory in the spring of 2015.580 Newspaper articles in Maryland and Washington, D.C., from 1941–1965, documented that Paul Watson continued to popularize astronomy. In 1941, 1950, and 1953, the (Washington, D.C.) Evening Star printed notices about lectures by Watson to the National Capital Astronomers in Washington.581 In 1945, he alerted western Maryland newspaper readers that the Leonid meteor shower was to occur. As late in his career as 1965, he advised the same readership about the Perseid meteor shower and that “as many as 50 meteors per hour…many…quite bright” would occur on August 12 “at 4 a.m.”582 In addition to these local public announcements and presentations, Watson supervised the preparation of “Graphic Time Table(s) of the Heavens” under the aegis of the Maryland Academy of Sciences.583 The Time Table gave Watson a national audience when it appeared in Popular Astronomy in the late 1940s. The Time Table was a chart which when carefully inspected provided the reader with many astronomical data, such as rising times of the sun, moon, and planets. After a long observational and interpretive career in astronomy, Paul Watson retired as the Academy’s “Curator Emeritus of Astronomy” on July 1, 1973,584 and he died 13 years later.

580Howard Astronomical League Web site, see “HAL History”: http://www.howardastro.org/ aboutus.php. Accessed on 5/24/16. 581Evening Star, May 4, 1941 (p. 25); May 29, 1950 (p. 16), April 26 (p. 36), and May 1, 1953 (p. 43). Note that the 1941 article mentions that Watson is “Dr.” The 1940 US Census shows that Watson reported only two years of college. 582Meteor Shower (Leonids) Is Expected Tonight, The Daily Mail (Hagerstown, MD), November 15, 1945, p. 2. 1965: An article with no title, Cumberland Evening Times (MD), Wed August 11, 1965, p. 10. 583Two examples could be found; one in PA, volume 56, p. 33A, and another, in 1968, was an announcement that the 1969 edition would be available by writing the Academy: 1968: Area Astronomers May Obtain Graphic Time Table, The Cumberland News (MD), Wed. Oct. 30, 1968, p. 8: “Tristate area residents…may obtain the 1969 edition of the Graphic Time Table of the Heavens, published by the Maryland Academy of Sciences…prepared by Paul S. Watson, curator of Astronomy…giving the rising and setting times of the sun, moon, and naked eye planets… provides data on eclipses and much other astronomical information.” After Popular Astronomy ceased publication in 1951, Sky and Telescope published the Time Table and did so as recently as 2014. 584Former Curator, The Capital (Annapolis, MD), Friday, July 13, 1973, p. 20. J.D. Williams and the Arizona Observers 471 J.D. Williams and the Arizona Observers

(1909–1964) Williams ﬁled meteor reports with the AMS from 1931 to 1934 and he served as a Regional Director for Arizona.585 John Davis Williams (1909–1964) began his astronomical career at age 22 when he began to watch meteors in cloud-prone Pennsylvania only 132 miles (210 km) north of Flower Observatory where Dr. Olivier was director. His passion to plot meteors inspired him to relocate to Tucson, Arizona, and there he enlisted three young amateurs to join his observational projects: David F. Brinegar, Robert Knabe, and Talbot T. Smith. As he grew older and developed his mathematical talents, Williams’ career-path led him away from astronomy. He became a consultant to the US military during World War II and a future-oriented thinker at the RAND Corporation where he urged US policy makers to consider social and sci- entiﬁc problems that the country would confront in the mid-twentieth century.

Biographical Sketch

John Williams was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania the same year Frederick Leonard founded the Society for Practical Astronomy and the year before Comet Halley became a naked eye spectacle in the heavens. Williams’ father was president of the bakery that his grandfather founded, the J.D. Williams Bakery. Not content with mere ownership of a bakery, Paul Havens Williams attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. John’s mother, Elizabeth, was active in local charities. Paul Williams died in 1925, when John was 16 years old. His mother married again to a man who lived in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania where Elizabeth, John, and a sister relocated. John married twice, the first time at age 19 in 1929. A daughter was born from the first marriage and a son and two daughters from the second.586 In autobiographical comments, Williams confided he “had a mediocre career as a schoolboy. No one got less out of good prep schools, so I withdrew (at age 13 from eighth grade) and devoted the rest of my teen years to pool, a 1912 Mercer run- about, and to reading philosophy, science, and mathematics…Science looked like the path to knowledge of life and its meaning, I thought, so I decided to pursue

585See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. 586Fitzpatrick, Frances Williams; John Davis Williams, Ancestry.com’s Web: Pennsylvania, Find a Grave Index, 1682–2012-, Find a Grave Memorial number 18539589. Ms. Fitzpatrick’s, (JDW’s eldest daughter) Find a Grave Biography is very helpful in establishing facts about JD Williams’ life. 472 Enrolled 1930–1936 it.”587 Williams was the beneﬁciary of a trust fund that relieved him of needing to support himself, his young wife, and daughter. Having his own means allowed him to leave Pennsylvania in 1932, at age 23, to pursue science “mostly as a volunteer member of the staff of the Steward Observatory” in Tucson, Arizona.588 When he arrived in Arizona, he conducted one of the most remarkable observational campaigns in AMS history during a three-year period, from 1932 to 1934.

Arizona Meteors

Charles Olivier referred to “special work” that Williams was conducting in Arizona, that it “was carefully planned” but the author is not aware of any description of this project in Meteor Notes, Olivier’s monthly column in Popular Astronomy. However, Olivier commented that Williams’ work “should give more deﬁnite answers to certain (meteoric) problems than have yet been attainable.” Indeed, a mere inspection of the meteor statistics that Williams amassed from 1932 to 1934 suggests that he was carrying out a preplanned project, perhaps with mentorship by Steward Observatory staff members.589 He selected years for the project when the Leonids were predicted to return to the skies in huge numbers. The early 1930s were expected to produce a prodigious number of Leonid meteors so that Williams could hope for an abundant data yield within the span of only three years. In 1932, 23-year-old Williams watched the clear Tucson sky on 111 nights and plotted 5966 meteors. In 1933, he observed 137 nights and plotted 9161 meteors; Olivier wrote that Williams’ performance in 1933 “sets a new world record for any observer.” John watched only 17 nights in 1934, but plotted another 1273 meteors and described another 38 that he saw through a telescope. Perhaps he observed so

587RAND Corporation Memorial, John Davis Williams 1909–1964, In Memoriam, Santa Monica, California: RAND Corporation, circa 1965. Williams’ autobiographical material was quoted by R. D. Sprecht in remarks made at the memorial. This RAND memorial was kindly provided to the author by JDW’s son, Paul Havens Williams II. Information that JDW withdrew from school at age 13 was family information provided by Ms. Williams-Fitzpatrick in an April 19, 2012, email to the author. 588Ibid. JDW’s trust fund was reported by PH Williams in an email to the author dated March 10, 2014. 589Williams authored an article in 1933 citing an affiliation with Steward Observatory: Williams, J. D., The Use of Reticles for the Observation of Meteors, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, volume 45, 1933, pp. 175–179. The article described beneficial and detrimental effects of two types of reticles when used to record meteors. Williams reported that he used a reticle with a “centrally located cross-wires” configuration while he made plots for the AMS. In a study of 702 of his own observations, he reported his conclusion that its use did not reduce meteor rates recorded when compared to non-use of the reticle. Further, he reported that he was able to see “60 percent more 5th and 6th magnitude meteors…when the reticle was used.” It is interesting that the 24-year-old felt free to deviate from standard AMS meteor recording practices; Dr. Olivier asked observers to avoid any obstructions when viewing the sky. Williams’ intellectual independence is starkly clear. J.D. Williams and the Arizona Observers 473 comparatively few nights because he had collected the amount of data that he needed to complete his project. Together with the 31 nights, he observed from Tunkhannock in 1931, he had plotted the paths of 17,000 meteors. Williams’ published report of his Arizona work finally appeared in 1939 when “Relative Frequencies of Meteor Magnitudes” was printed in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. “Frequencies” was a study of his observational data, but it also evaluated the human eye’s limitations on meteor perception. Williams used statistical methods to compensate for his and any human observers’ visual defi- ciencies and adjusted the observational data to correct for them.590 Eleven years after Williams’ paper, Dr. Olivier cited the study in a Proceedings article, but Olivier analyzed only one portion of the earlier paper, about telescopic meteors, a secondary topic Williams had addressed in 1939.591

The Arizona Observers

Shortly after his 1932 arrival in Tucson, Williams formed an observing partnership with three young men who collaborated with him in his meteor work.592 There are no details about how they met but perhaps by the mediation of staff at Steward Observatory or the University of Arizona. David Brinegar’s association with Williams was longest lived593, but reports in Meteor Notes suggest that the four men’s meteor-watching partnership dissolved after 1934. David Franklin Brinegar (1910–1998) contributed meteor reports to the AMS from 1932, the year Williams arrived in Tucson, until 1934.594 He plotted a total of 4883 meteors on 100 nights of watches during the three years. Brinegar completed three years of college education by the time he enlisted in the US Army in 1942, and he was a First Lieutenant when assigned to the Adjutant’sOfﬁce Publication Department at the Pentagon in 1944.595 Brinegar began his newspaper career as a newspaper copy reader before the war and after

590Williams, J.D., Relative Frequencies of Meteor Magnitudes, Astronomical Journal. Volume 48, No. 1110, 1939, pp. 100–103. 591Olivier, Charles P., Some Results from Data Secured by the AMS: Telescopic Meteors, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, volume 94, no. 4, August 1950; pp. 327–335. 592David Brinegar reported that Williams supervised his and his partners’ work: Arizona Daily Star, October 8, 1965. 593Williams’ son reported that Brinegar knew his parents “since the 1930s” when Brinegar wrote a 1965 memorial about JD Williams: P.H. Williams’ email to the author on February 16, 2014. 594Brinegar’s vital statistics are from the Social Security Death Index found in Ancestry.com. His AMS reports are mentioned in the 1932–1934 AMS Annual reports in Popular Astronomy: see the AMS Annual Reports Source Guide for bibliographic information. 595US Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946, an Ancestry.com database; and Pentagon service reported in Tucson Daily Citizen, June 27, 1944. 474 Enrolled 1930–1936 separation from the service became an executive editor of one Arizona newspaper.596 David Brinegar married; he and his wife had one daughter. Robert George Knabe (1918–2012) was 15 years of age when he joined efforts with John Williams in 1933. Robert made 3841 naked eye and 810 binocular meteor plots during his two years of AMS membership.597 His unaided eye plots were made on 70 nights’ watches, but the number of nights of binocular work was not reported. Williams found the data from Knabe’s binocular observations to be particularly useful as he cited them in two publications he wrote in 1939.598 Olivier praised Robert in the 1934 AMS Annual Report, for the “great increase in the number of telescopic meteors (reported), due mostly to a remarkable series of observations by R. Knabe.”599 Knabe pursued a career in the petroleum industry, as an oil and natural gas exploration geologist. His work took him to Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, France, Libya, Australia, and Iran before settling in Houston, Texas, in retirement. Robert married twice and when he died at age 94, he was survived by two sons, ﬁve grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. His obituary reported that he was an enthusiastic tennis player and he last played at age 93.600 Talbot Truxton Smith, Jr. (1917–1992),601 was the third Arizona observer who plotted meteors under John Williams’ supervision. He was 15 years old when he began meteor watches in 1932 and he sent reports to the AMS until 1934. In addition to 800 meteors he plotted during 32 nights’ watches, Smith also recorded 18 telescopic meteors.602 Smith’s father was a Tucson newspaper editor and he continued the family tradition in the newspaper business as a proof reader.603 Talbot married in 1942.604 The three Arizona observers contributed almost 10,000 meteor plots and over 800 telescopic observations in a four-year period in an impressive accomplishment under Arizona Regional Director J.D. Williams’ leadership.

5961940 US Federal Census mentions him as a copy reader and a February 5, 1967, edition of the Lawton (Oklahoma) Constitution-Morning Press, reports that Brinegar was the executive editor of the Arizona Daily Star newspaper and that he was injured during a typographers’ strike. 597The total of 202 of Knabe’s binocular meteors were recorded in 1935; they are cited in the “telescopic meteors” table in Olivier’s 1935 Annual Report. Robert apparently did not perform any naked eye watches in 1935. Robert’s AMS reports are mentioned in the 1933–1935 AMS Annual reports in Popular Astronomy: see the AMS Annual Reports Source Guide for bibliographic information. 598Williams, J.D., Binocular Observations of 718 Meteors, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 81, No. 4, 1939, pp. 505–520; and Williams, J.D., Relative Frequencies of Meteor Magnitudes, Astronomical Journal, vol. 48, No. 1110, 1939, pp. 100–103. 599Olivier, Meteor Notes, PA, volume 43, 1935, p. 178. 600Anonymous, Obituary, Robert G. Knabe, Houston Chronicle, August 31, 2012. 601US, SSDI, 1935-Current, in Ancestry.com database for Talbot T. Smith, Jr. 602See the AMS Annual Reports Source Guide for bibliographic information for 1932–1934. 603Ancestry’s US City Directories, 1821–1989 as found in a Tucson, AZ City Directory, 1948. 604Tucson Daily Citizen, April 7, 1942. J.D. Williams and the Arizona Observers 475

Williams’ Academic Career After the Leonid Epoch

John Williams recalled that at “…age 25 (1934)…my friends had convinced me that it would be easier to base a career (in science) on some educational union cards than not…Being deadly serious, I was able to map out a three year program for a degree in astronomy.” 605 His friends may have been on the staff of University of Arizona’s (UAZ) astronomy department and Steward Observatory and by 1937 Williams had a Bachelors of Science in Astronomy.606 On the way to the degree, in 1935, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society after being nominated by Astronomy Department chairman, Edwin Francis Carpenter (1898– 1963).607 Williams was accepted for graduate work at Princeton University, where he was also an astronomy and mathematics instructor from 1938 to 1940.608 A fellow graduate student recalled that Williams “was developing a thesis on meteors that depended on careful statistical analysis. Most of (Williams’) time was spent (with) his chief mentors Howard Percy Robertson (1903–1961) and Samuel Stanley Wilks (1906–1964). His research was going well, as attested by the two papers in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society and the two in the Astrophysical Journal and one in the Astronomical Journal, all within a two year period.”609 Williams’ mentors were men who worked at the advanced frontiers of their disciplines. Dr. Robertson was a mathematical physicist who investigated Einstein’s general theory of relativity and applied the results to cosmological problems;

605RAND Corp. Memorial, John Davis Williams 1909–1964, In Memoriam, Santa Monica, California: RAND Corporation, circa 1965, p. 3. 606Anonymous, American Men of Science, 10th edition, Volume 4, Physical Sciences, 1961. The quotation excerpt regarding Williams was printed in the RAND Corporation’s memorial cited in Footnote 605, on p. 6. An alternative explanation of who influenced Williams came to the author’s attention from Franklin W. Smith, a volunteer computer at Flower Observatory from 1929 to 1936. Smith reported that Williams “became acquainted with the astronomers of the Harvard-Cornell Arizona Expedition. They convinced him that if he was that much interested in meteors he should have more education.” Smith was familiar with many of the AMS members in the 1930s, through their correspondence. Source: Letter from FW Smith to the author, dated May 2, 2001. 607Anonymous; Society Business: Fellows elected; Candidates proposed; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 95, Feb. 1935; p. 302 608American Men of Science, op. cit. 609Mosteller, F. comments in RAND Memorial to JD Williams cited in Footnote 605, Mosteller referred to the following studies by Williams: Williams, J.D., Binocular Observations of 718 Meteors, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 81, No. 4, 1939, pp. 505–520; Systematic Biases of Meteor Directions,, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 81, No. 4, 1939, pp. 521–524; A Method for the Determination of Stellar Diameters, Astrophysical Journal, vol. 89, No. 4, May 1939, pp. 467–471; Relative Frequencies of Meteors, Astrophysical Journal, vol. 92, No. 3, November 1940, pp. 424–433; and finally, Relative Frequencies of Meteor Magnitudes, Astronomical Journal, vol. 48, No. 1110, 1939, pp. 100–103. 476 Enrolled 1930–1936 a biographer reported he “played an important part in the work of Einstein…”610 Professor Wilks was a mathematical statistician who developed sophisticated statistical analyses and Princeton’s statistics courses.611 Both men helped Williams develop his native mathematical abilities. Wilks’ influence is particularly clear in the statistical analyses Williams used in his publications using Knabe and his own meteor data from the early 1930s. Williams’ five papers turned out to be the culmination of his professional astronomical career; he did not continue in graduate school to write a dissertation for the Ph.D. However, he achieved one academic milestone; in 1940, he was elected to membership in the American Mathematical Society.612 Professors Robertson and Wilks were in attendance at the Spring meeting of the mathematical society when the announcement was made.

Wartime Consultant

Beginning about 1940, fascist attacks on and invasions of European and Asian countries prompted academics to volunteer to their services to the US armed forces. John Williams wrote, “I gradually became aware that there were a lot of malevolent forces loose in the world…which could put a serious crimp in the contemplative life which I liked. The only buffer in sight was our military establishment… I resigned from (Princeton) university in mid-1940 and began to bootleg my wares (mathematical statistics and mechanics) into the armed services.”613 His Princeton mentors did the same, Robertson in 1939 and Wilks at about the same time. Welcoming all the mathematicians and scientists’ help was a National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) which referred appropriate specialists to the military services needing them. As the military’s mathematical expertise needs became clearer, the NDRC set up an Applied Mathematics Panel (AMP). Samuel Wilks headed one of the AMP’s Statistical Research Groups (SRG) at Princeton.614 Williams used his skills under many of these scientiﬁc manpower acronyms during World War II. His wartime research bibliography is three pages long and indicates the military needed his statistical talents to improve its bombing and artillery accuracy; a sample title being “Formula for Probability of Hitting with a Train of

610Taub, A.H., Prof. H.P. Robertson, Nature, volume 192, 1961, pp. 797–798. And Bogdan, T.J., Howard Percy Robertson, in Hockey, T. et al. eds., Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Volume 2, New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 978–979. 611Mosteller, F., Samuel S. Wilks: Statesman of Statistics, American Statistician, volume 18, No. 2, April, 1964, pp. 11–17. 612Anthony, M.L.; 369th Meeting of American Mathematical Society in Washington, D.C., April 26–27, 1940: www.ams.org/journals/bull/1940-46-07/S0002-9904-1940-07230-1/S0002-9904- 1940-07230-1.pdf. Accessed 5/24/16. 613RAND Memorial, 1965 JD Williams quoted in, op. cit., p. 3 614Rees, M. Warren Weaver, 1894–1978; National Academy of Sciences Memoir, Washington, D. C: NAS, 1987, pp. 517–518; and Mosteller, F., 1964, op. cit. p. 8. J.D. Williams and the Arizona Observers 477

Bombs,” which he wrote in June, 1942.615 Besides assisting the military during the war, Williams made beneficial professional contacts; one in particular which benefitted him after the war was with Warren Weaver (1894–1978), a mathematician and physicist who was director of the natural sciences program of the Rockefeller Foundation before the war and who was appointed director of the AMP during it. Weaver was also a keen judge of scientific talent.616

Research ANd Development

As World War II drew to a close, Williams decided that he liked the intellectual stimulation of collegial wartime research and opportunities to solve scientiﬁc challenges. Williams noted,

“Our military establishment and its scientiﬁc auxiliaries were being dismantled…though it seemed to me that the problems of national defense…were more formidable than ever. At this time the Air Force was setting up a venture, called Project RAND to study the long-term problems of air warfare at the level of the planet, or beyond, and I was invited (by Warren Weaver617) to take part. I could not resist. Project RAND led, after a couple of years, to the creation of the RAND Corporation, a hybrid organization which sought useful concepts from government, industry, and the university, where problems, information, and inquiring minds may come together to promote the national security and welfare.” 618 Williams was one of RAND’s ﬁrst employees with an ID badge number 5.619 He designed the layout of the corporation’s building in Santa Monica, California, so that staff members of different academic disciplines would cross paths in the course of a day, believing that this would lead to synergistic exchanges of ideas and therefore improved project outcomes.620 During his years on the RAND staff, he became the director of its Mathematics Department in 1948 and in 1960 he was promoted to its Research Council.621 His role at RAND was sometimes to consider how operations could be improved; for example, when more computing power was needed, he and colleagues surveyed available computing machines in 1949 and found them inferior, so RAND engineers built their own with an improved

615RAND Memorial, 1965, op. cit., pp. 9–11. 616Rees, 1987, op. cit., pp. 498–501. 617Mirowski, Philip; Machine Dreams: Economics Becomes a Cyborg Science, Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002; pp. 210–211, especially Footnote 54 on p. 211. 618RAND Memorial, 1965, JD Williams quoted in, op. cit., p. 4. 619Profile of John Williams, RANDom News, May, 1956. 620RAND Corporation, Frequently Asked Questions, RAND’s first building…in Santa Monica was designed by a RAND mathematician: http://www.rand.org/about/faq.html. Accessed 5/24/16. 621RAND Memorial, 1965, op. cit, Vitae, p. 6. 478 Enrolled 1930–1936 design.622 However, he also wrote thought-provoking articles for policy makers in which he asked them to anticipate the nation’s educational needs, social changes due to increased population, and about how the US needed to be competitive in space technology. His wish was to encourage policy makers to create a country in which problems were anticipated and solved before they became a crisis.623 “Astronomers have begun the search for intelligent life on other worlds,” he wrote sometime before his death in 1964, “(His) suggestion was a proposal for a search for intelligent life on earth.”624 J.D. Williams died of a heart attack at age 55, still on the staff of RAND Corporation. When he died, he left behind his second wife, Evelyn, and their three children: a son, Paul, and two daughters Tacy and Beth, and his daughter from his first marriage, Frances. David Brinegar memorialized his friend in the Arizona Daily Star. Brinegar appealed, unsuccessfully, to the University of Arizona to award a posthumous doctorate to Williams in consideration for wartime service that led him to abandon plans to complete his doctorate.625

R.H. Wilson, Jr.

(1911–1989)626 Membership years: 1930, 1932, and 1933627

Raymond Hiram Wilson, Jr. was one of a few professional astronomers mentioned in this book who began their observational careers as an amateur meteor observer. Wilson’s postdoctoral career was in double-star studies, which his mentor Dr. Olivier maintained as his second astronomical specialty and the one that enjoyed more acceptance among colleagues compared to meteor science.

622Jardini, D., Project Air Force, Doctoral Dissertation in History, Carnegie Mellon University, 1996, p. 34. 623On a related theme, Williams had for some years been interested in a mathematical “theory of games” in which explicitly reasoned courses of action were examined so that a person, or a country, involved in a win–lose competition could achieve the best outcome. Originally when the theory was developed by John von Neumann (1903–1957) and Oskar Morgenstern (1902–1977) in the 1940s, it was applied to wartime scenarios and it continued to be during the “Cold War.” However, RAND colleagues who were game theorists prevailed upon Williams to write a popular treatment of the theory so that the public could apply its analytic principles to peacetime situations; the result was his 1954 engagingly written book: The Compleat Strategyst. A second edition was printed in 1966 and is still available in several languages. 624RAND Memorial, 1965, op. cit., JD Williams quoted on p. 5 and see his Bibliography pp. 7–8. 625Arizona Daily Star, October 8, 1965. 626Source: US Social Security Death Index recorded in Ancestry.com’s database for Raymond H. Wilson, Jr.: 1911 to 1989, last residence Fairfax City, VA. 627See Appendix B for bibliographic speciﬁcs to locate his contributions. R.H. Wilson, Jr. 479

Wilson’s earliest AMS contribution was making 15 watches in 1930, his senior year at Swarthmore College628, where he majored in mathematics. His next two years of watches were conducted while a graduate student in astronomy at UPenn and simultaneously an observing assistant at Flower Observatory. Wilson abandoned meteor observation after 1933, but by that year’s end he had performed 21 watches and reported 418 meteors during the meteor science portion of his career. Wilson earned a master’s degree in 1933 by writing a thesis in which he computed the orbit of one star as it rounded the center of gravity (barycenter) in a double-star pair. This paper was described as a perceptive and sophisticated analysis. Three years later he completed a Ph.D. dissertation for which he invented a device, used at the eyepiece end of the Flower Observatory refractor, to enable him to measure the angular distance between component stars in a binary system. The doctoral topic, binary stars, continued to be his professional interest for the next six years as well as the improvement of measurement methods.629 In 1942, he joined the US Navy and was assigned to the Ofﬁce of Naval Research where he worked until discharged in 1946.630 Wilson’s later career included a post with NASA as Chief of Applied Mathematics in 1963631 and attendance at a Tampa, Florida, meeting of the American Astronomical Society in 1970.632 A 1989 obituary reported that Raymond H. Wilson, Jr., had attained the rank of Commander in the US Navy before retiring and that he had been an instructor at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Other teaching positions had been at Temple University and UPenn in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and at the University of Ismar in Turkey. Wilson was survived by his wife, a daughter, a brother, a sister, and two grandchildren.633

628Swarthmore College Yearbook for 1930 lists Raymond Hiram Wilson as a mathematics major. 629Koch, R.H., Observational Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, 1751–1996; privately published, 2008, pp. p. 74–75. The book is available online by entering its title into a search engine. 630Ancestry.com’s database: Pennsylvania Veterans Burial cards, 1777–1999: World War II veteran of the US Navy. He enlisted 1942, discharged 1946, Buried Duncannon PA. This official record confirmed Wilson’s vital statistics. 631The NASA position is mentioned in passing about Wilson’s role in the controversy about whether Mars’ moon, Phobos was hollow and could have been a Martian artificial satellite! The source is: http://www.rense.com/general20/eisenhowerWH.htm. Accessed 5/24/16. 632The American Institute of Physics has an image of Wilson in its Emilio Segre portrait collection. This online site lists Wilson’s middle name as “Hiram.” The image was taken at an A.A.S. meeting at Tampa, Florida in 1970. https://photos.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/ photos/wilson-raymond-h-b1. Accessed on 5/24/16. 633Obituary, Raymond H. Wilson, Jr., The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), Tuesday, December 26, 1989, p. B2. This source was found on the GenealogyBank.com website. 480 Enrolled 1930–1936 References

L.E. Armﬁeld

Book Williams, T.R. and M. Saladyga, Advancing Variable Star Astronomy, Cambridge, England and New York: Cambridge University Press; 2011, pp. 98-111 and 346-347. Journals Armfield, L., The Harvard 13-inch Reflector, Bulletin, Volume 1, number 9, October 1934, Cover article. Armfield, L., AMS Notes for the WI-NIL Region, Bulletin, Volume 1, number 10, November 1934, pp. 48 and 52. Armfield, L.E. and H. Gaebler, Variable Star Observations, Bulletin, Volume 2, numbers 3-12, May-December 1935. Armfield, L.E., Nova Program Notes, Bulletin, Volume 2, number 8, August 1935. Armfield, L.E., Nova Program Notes, Bulletin, Volume 2, number 9, September 1935, p. 31. Armfield, L., Forward, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 3, No.7, August- September 1937, Cover page (p. 115). Armfield, L., AAVSO Nova Program Notes, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 3, number 10, December 1937, p. 155. Armfield, L., AAVSO Nova Program Report, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 4, numbers 2 and 3, February and March 1938, pp. 18 and 29. Editor, Bulletin, Volume 1, number 1, February 1934. Editor, Bulletin, Volume 1, number 2, March 1934. Editor, Bulletin, Volume 2, number 2, February 1935, p. 8. Editor, Bulletin, Volume 2, number 9, September 1935, p. 30. Editor, Annual Meeting of the AAVSO, Bulletin, Volume 2, number 11, November 1935, p. 39. Editor, Amateur Astronomy Volume 2, number 6, June 1936, p. 75. Editor, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 2, number 8, August 1936, p. 97. Editor, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 4, number 5, May 1938, p. 58. Houston, W., Bulletin, Volume 1, number 3, April, 1934, p. 11. Houston, W., Bulletin, Volume 1, number 4, May, 1934, p. 23. Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volume 41, 1933, pp. 514-515. Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volume 42, 1934, p. 42. Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volume 42, 1934, pp. 154-156. Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volume 43, 1935, p. 180, See Tables II and III. Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volume 43, 1935, pp. 498-499. Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volume 44, 1936, pp. 212-214. Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volume 45, 1937, pp. 159-162. Olivier, C., Meteor Notes, Popular Astronomy, Volume 46, 1938, pp. 154 and 156. Simpson, J., The American Amateur Astronomical Association, Bulletin, Volume 2, number 5, May 1935, cover page, pp. 17-18 and 25. Simpson, J., Meteor Notes of the AAAA, Astronomical Discourse, Volume 2, number 13, December 1935, pp. 84 and 86. Simpson, J., AAAA Meteor Section, Amateur Astronomy, Volume 4, number 5, May 1938, p. 56. Wills, D., Meteor Heights, 1933 Leonid Epoch, Part II, State Groups, Popular Astronomy, Volume 42, 1934, pp. 275-277. Wills, D., Meteor Heights, 1934 Leonid Epoch, Part II, State Groups, Popular Astronomy, Volume 43, 1935, pp. 377-378. L.E. Armfield 481

Newspapers Anonymous, No Change: RTA Official Clarifies Telephone Status, Walsh County Press, Park River, North Dakota, July 8, 1954, page 1. Editor, Luverne E. Armfield (obituary), Fargo Forum, Fargo, North Dakota, April 25, 1977. Correspondence Gene Hanson, to the author, an e-mail on 1/30/15 with a biography about Luverne Armfield attached. Websites Stenhjem-Armfield, C., Luverne Armfield, a Short biographical excerpt which was originally submitted to My Armfield Family, A Northern Branch with Southern Roots on 28 Apr 2008; Source: Ancestry.com’s Public Member Stories database about Luverne Armfield. Armfield-Stenhjem, C., North Dakota Family Group Sheet of the Luverne Eugene ARMFIELD Family: This source was best found by using a search engine, on 5/23/16. City Directories for Elyria, Ohio, Ancestry.com’s City Directory database. 1927 Milwaukee, Wisconsin City Directory in Ancestry.com’s U.S. City Directories, 1821–1989 Database 1929 Milwaukee, Wisconsin City Directory in Ancestry.com’s U.S. City Directories, 1821–1989 Database United States Census for Milwaukee, WI for the home of Luverne Armfield: Ancestry.com’s U.S. Census database.

Mohd. A. R. Khan

Khan, Mohd. A.R., My Life and Experiences, Krishnavas International printers, 1951 The autobiography was found online, on 5/24/16 at: http://archive.org/stream/ mylifeandexperie029154mbp/mylifeandexperie029154mbp_djvu.txt. Olivier, C., Prof. Mohd. Abdur Rahman Khan, unpublished article found in Dr. Olivier’s American Philosophical Society correspondence ﬁle, dated August 15, 1962.

Eppe Loreta

Charles P. Olivier Correspondence Collection, American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Eppe Loreta (EL) to Olivier (CPO), dated. November 18, 1936, November 26, 1936, June 13, 1937. CPO to EL, dated May 29, 1937. Appendix A American Meteor Society Data Published After 1936

The following reports contain data recorded by the American Meteor Society’s members during the Society’s ﬁrst 25 years of existence, 1911–1936. They were published after 1936 and some were after Charles Olivier’s retirement in 1954. Putting members’ data into print so many years after it was acquired demonstrated Charles Olivier’s appreciation for their hard work and his dedication to meteor science. Olivier, C.P., Long Enduring Meteor Trains, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 85, No.2, January, 1942. Olivier, C.P., Long Enduring Meteor Trains, Second Paper Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 91, No.4, October, 1947 Olivier, C.P., Long Enduring Meteor Trains and Fireball Orbits, Third Paper, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 101, No. 3, June, 1957 Olivier, C.P., Catalog of Hourly Meteor Rates, Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics, Volume 4, No.1, 1960. Olivier, C.P., Catalogue of Fireball Radiants, Flower Observatory Reprint No. 146, 1964 Olivier, C.P., Long Enduring Meteor Trains, Fourth paper, Flower and Cook Astronomical Observatory, Reprint No. 189, 1969.

© Richard Taibi 2017 483 R. Taibi, Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science, Springer Biographies, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44518-2 Appendix B Guide to Sources American Meteor Society Annual Reports

For 1911–1913: All members’ names and observational statistics are from Olivier, Charles P. “126 Parabolic Orbits of Meteor Streams.” In Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia, 1914, pages 459–460. For 1914–1918: All members’ names and observational statistics are from: Olivier, Charles P., 349 Parabolic Orbits; Report of the AMS for 1914-1918’, Publication of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 2, 1921, Charlottesville, VA: U of VA; pp. 226–239. For 1919–1925: All members’ names and observational statistics are from: Olivier, C.P, Report of the AMS for 1919–1925, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Volume 5, Part 1, Charlottesville, VA: U VA, 1929, pp. 8–17. All of the following AMS Annual Reports were authored by Charles P. Olivier in his “Meteor Notes” and published in Popular Astronomy 1927–1951. Only the volumes, years, and pages are cited below: 1926: Volume 35, 1927, pp. 286-287 1927: Volume 36, 1928, pp. 132-134 1928: Volume 37, 1929, pp. 176-178 1929: Volume 38, 1930, pp. 174-177 1930: Volume 39, 1931, pp. 149-154 1931: Volume 40, 1932, pp.95-96 and 163-165. 1932: Volume 41, 1933, p. 112 1933: Volume 42, 1934, p. 155 1934: Volume 43, 1935, p. 179 1935: Volume 44, 1936, p. 213 1936: Volume 45, 1937, p. 160 1937: Volume 46, 1938, p. 155 1938: Volume 47, 1939, p. 147 1939: Volume 48, 1940, p.151 1940: Volume 49, 1941, p. 149

© Richard Taibi 2017 485 R. Taibi, Charles Olivier and the Rise of Meteor Science, Springer Biographies, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44518-2 486 Appendix B: Guide to Sources American Meteor Society Annual Reports

1941: Volume 50, 1942, p. 96 1942: Volume 51, 1943, p. 272 1943: Volume 52, 1944, p.242 1944: Volume 53, 1945, p. 351 1945: Volume 54, 1946, p. 246 1946: Volume 55, 1947, p. 214 1947: Volume 56, 1948, p.152 1948: Volume 57, 1949, p. 213 1949: Volume 58, 1950, p. 235 1950: Volume 59, 1951, pp. 36 and 158

From 1951 to 1955, Dr. Olivier published annual reports in two journals, the Meteoritical Society’s Meteoritics journal and in the Flower and Cook Observatories (FCOR) reprints. For 1951, Meteoritics, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1953, p.83 For 1952, Meteoritics, Vol 1., No. 2, 1954, pp. 258-259; and also Flower &Cook Observatories, Reprint (FCOR)* 99, p.259 For 1953, Meteoritics, Vol 1., No. 3, 1955, pp. 366-368; FCOR 103, For 1954, Meteoritics, Vol 1., p. 514, and also FCOR 104 For 1955, Meteoritics, Vol 1., p. 516, and also FCOR 104 From 1956 to 1968, Dr. Olivier published annual reports as FCORs.* For 1956, Meteor Reports AMS for 1956, FCOR 115, p.5 For 1957, ibid. For 1958, ibid. For 1959, FCOR No. 119, p. 5. For 1960, FCOR No. 131, p. 5 For 1961, FCOR No. 137, p. 7 For 1962, FCOR 143 For 1963, FCOR 149, pp. 7-20 For 1964, FCOR 155, pp. 9-12 For 1965, FCOR 164, pp. 8-9 For 1966, FCOR 179, pp. 7-11 For 1967, FCOR 184, pp. 6-9 For 1968, FCOR 190, pp. 5-8 *Flower &Cook Observatories Reprints are available from University of Pennsylvania Archives.

1969-1971 annual reports were issued from Leander McCormick Observatory, University of Virginia For 1969, Meisel, D.D. and CP Olivier, Meteor Reports of the AMS for 1969, Publications of Leander McCormick Obsy (no volume provided in copy), Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia, pp. 4-6 For 1970, Olivier, CP, Frederick, LW & Meisel, D.D., Meteor Reports of the AMS for 1970/ Publications of Leander McCormick Obsy (no volume provided in copy), Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia, pp. 3 and ff. Appendix B: Guide to Sources American Meteor Society Annual Reports 487

For 1971, Olivier, C.P., L.W. Frederick, and D.D. Meisel, Meteor Reports of the AMS for 1971, Bulletin 193, Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory, Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia, 1972, pp. 5-10

The ﬁnal two annual reports listed are the most recent that are relevant to this book. They were published by the Department of Physics, at the State University of New York at Geneseo. For 1972, Olivier, C.P., L.W. Frederick, and D.D. Meisel, Meteor Reports of the AMS for 1972, Bulletin 194. Department of Physics, Geneseo, NY: State University College of New York (SUCNY), April 17, 1973, pp. 9-11. For 1973, Meisel, David D., Director and C.P. Olivier, Director Emeritus, Meteor Report for 1973, AMS No. 195, Geneseo, NY: SUCNY, 1974 March 22 Index

A American Meteor Society, 125 AAVSO. See American Association of annual number of meteors observed, 19, 30, Variable Star Observers 169 Abbe, Cleveland (1838–1916), 60. See also 1919–1929, table of, 148, 149, 155, Weather Bureau 159, 169 advocate for long enduring meteor trains, grand meteor totals, 1930–1936, table 190, 376, 432 of, 234 advocate for ‘photographic meteorgraph’, total of Leonid meteors, 1930–1936, 60 table of, 197, 214 and Henry A. Peck, 59, 81 total of Perseid meteors, 1930–1936, editor of the Monthly Weather Review, 82, table of, 239, 243 309, 340 data archives, 234 Luminous Meteor Committee (American dual members of AMS and AAVSO, 75 Astronomical Society), 59, 62, 274 ﬁrst (earliest) members, 43 role in 1913 Olivier-Denning controversy, inaugurated in 1911, 41, 43, 48, 95 119 low membership 1921–1925, 124, 125 Aitken, Robert Grant (1864–1951), 31, 130. and factors responsible for, 232 See also Lick observatory membership increase, 77, 95, 123, 149, 287 Alcock, George (1913–2001), 275 role of Leonids in 1930s in, 175, 227, Alden, Harold Lee (1890–1964), 281. See also 352 McCormick observatory role of ‘Meteor Notes’ in, 159, 163, contributor of telescopic meteors, 319 217, 225, 441 American Association Of Variable Star membership, long-term active, 200 Observers (AAVSO) membership numbers, 77, 89, 139 Charles Olivier’s relations with, 35 1911–1918, 95, 148 dual members of American Meteor Society 1915–1930, 125 and AAVSO, 75 1919–1929, 148, 149, 155 members who made telescopic meteor 1930–1936, 174, 197, 200, 270, 468 reports, 76 membership rosters and statistical telescopic meteor observations, and, 77, summaries, 90, 123, 148, 197 231, 234, 412 1915–1918, 88, 90, 95, 321 American Astronomical Society 1919–1929, 148, 149, 155 Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of 1930–1936, 174, 197, 200, 270, 468 America, and, 58 Stalwarts 1900–1936, 291, 292 Luminous Meteor Committee, 59 observational procedures, standardized, 51 Meteor Committee in 1917, 62, 75, 109, ofﬁcial approval by American Astronomical 113, 119, 224 Society, 62

American Meteor Society (cont.) C Olivier’s Leadership style Campbell, William Wallace (1862–1938), 31, contrasted with AAVSO’s, 140 135 impact of on AMS membership, 174 Canada purpose for, 52 history of meteor work, 272 Regional Groups 1930–1936, 214 Celestial mechanics. See Gravitational Regional Groups’ directors 1930–1936, astronomy 223 Central Meteoric Bureau, 162 Society for Practical Astronomy, Birkenstock, Charles and, 52, 162 relationship to, 51 Chant, Clarence A. (1865–1956), 272 Stalwarts (members), 291 Charlottesville, Virginia, 3, 8, 9, 17, 75, 99, top achievers, 1914–1925, 120 183, 316, 327 total number of meteor orbits, 1911–1918, Cincinnati Observatory, 10, 14–16, 80. 95, 160 See also Stone, Ormond AMS. See American Meteor Society Classical astronomy, 12, 143, 185, 191, 260, Astrometry, 12, 59, 155. See also Classical 276 astronomy astrometry and, 12 Astronomers astrophysics, competition with, 187 astrophysicists, 58, 141, 143, 145–148, gravitational astronomy and, 12 188, 260 Schlesinger, Frank and, 71, 135, 144, 165, classical astronomers, 12–14, 58, 144, 148, 176, 180, 189 155 Cleminshaw, Clarence (1902–1985), 195, 196, Astronomy 230 gravitational, 12, 23, 95, 101, 103, 108, Comets, 13, 14, 19, 38, 104, 167, 301, 418, 118, 148 460 meteor, 20, 39, 41, 42, 129, 133, 139, 148, Comets, book, 177, 187, 188 149, 155, 159, 173–175, 184, 197, 199, Halley, 32, 34, 36, 38, 187, 417 213, 226, 242, 251, 270, 275, 300, 337, meteors and, 19, 38, 188 355, 422, 465 Cook, A. Grace, 128. See also British Astrophysics Astronomical Association astrophysicists and their “lines of descent”, Curtis, Heber Doust (1872–1942), 15, 31, 32, 143 34 classical astronomy, competition with, 187 Czechoslovakia history of meteor work, 273, 274 B Baden-Powell, Reverend Professor, 274 D Barnard, Edward Emerson (1857–1923), 31, Dartayet, Martin Horacio (ﬂourished 1926– 99, 101, 113, 164 1952), 270 Barton, Samuel (1882–1958), 184, 194, 254 Dawson, Bernhard H. (1891–1960), 70, 112, Belgium 198, 271 history of meteor work, 271 Declination, 12, 14, 16, 22, 102, 118, Birkenstock, Charles. See Central Meteoric 239, 325 Bureau Denning, William Frederick (1848–1931), 24, Boothroyd, Samuel Latimer (1874–1965), 263, 36, 104, 274 266 biography and bibliography, 36 British Astronomical Association, 105, 106, controversy with Olivier 1913, 24, 36 119, 223, 272, 275, 378, 394, 418, 455 Denning’s meteor catalogs, 95 Director A. Grace Cook, 128 long-enduring radiants, 103, 116, 119 Director J.P. Manning Prentice, 128, 275 stationary radiants, 39, 51, 104, 108, 111, Bureau Central Meteorique. See Central 119, 146, 274, 312 Meteoric Bureau De Roy, Felix (1883–1942), 179, 259, 271 Byrd Antarctic expedition, 261, 270, 454. IAU Commission 22 Meteors, and, 129, See also Poulter, Thomas 272, 351 Index 491

Dole, Robert Montgomery (1884–1966), 121, coordination with Olivier for fireball 306 investigation, 128, 167, 175, 235 Double star astronomy, 27, 30, 33, 41, 130, influence on Millman and Hoffleit, 267, 272 184, 194, 478 Shapley, Harlow and, 267 history of, at Flower Observatory, 184, 186, Flower observatory 187 18-inch Brashear refractor, 136 International Astronomical Union Director’s residence at, 136, 176 Commission 26, 130 sky conditions at, in 1930s, 221, 396 other astronomers, contemporaries of France Olivier’s, 43 meteor work, absence of in Meteor Notes, performed by Olivier at 275 Flower Observatory, 168, 358 Frost, Edwin B. (1866–1935), 70, 142, 145 Lick Observatory, 31–34 McCormick Observatory, 33, 41 G Dual members of AMS and AAVSO. Germany, 276 numbers of, by year, 77 Hoffmeister, Cuno, 276, 277 Niessl, Gustav von, 276 E Gravitational perturbation, 241. See also 1899 Elkin, William Lewis (1855–1922), 59, 113 Leonids England Greg, Robert Philips (1826–1906), 274 history of meteor work, 274 Guth, Vladimir (1905–1980), 273 Luminous Meteor Committee (British Association for the Advancement of H Science), 59, 62, 274 Hale, George Ellery (1868–1938), 58, 141, Estonia 142, 145 history of meteor work, 275 Hayes, Alice (nee Olivier) (1920–2015), 7, 134 Herschel, Alexander Stewart (1836–1907), F 104, 107, 274. See also W.F.Denning Ferris, Elise (nee Olivier) (1925–2013), 178 biography, 107 Fireball (meteor), 81, 85, 166, 168, 197, 235, theory of stationary radiants, 108 338, 461 Hoffmeister, Cuno (1892–1968), 167, 216, crowdsourced observations in the 1930s, 232, 260, 276, 277, 280. See also 245 Hoffmeister-Olivier program Hoffmeister, Cuno and, 167, 216, 260, 276, Hoffmeister’s 1925 fireball catalog, 277 361 Hoffmeister-Olivier program, 216, 218, interstellar theory, 88, 167, 256, 259, 260, 219, 278, 279, 359, 361, 377, 380, 270, 276, 278, 361 443 July 25, 1929 fireball, 168, 253, 254 hyperbolic fireball velocities, 189, 232, meteorite dropping, 236 256, 260 Niessl, Gustav and, 167, 260, 276 interstellar meteors, 260, 280 Olivier’s method of investigation, 95, 119, von Niessl’s fireball catalog, 260 255, 263, 266 Hoffmeister-Olivier program, 216, 218, 219, Olivier-Wylie conflict about investigation 233, 278, 279, 359, 361, 377, 380, 443. methods, 252, 254 See also Cuno Hoffmeister sound-producing, 236, 329, 452 Hourly meteor rates, 52, 161, 212, 215, 232, Wylie’s method of investigation, 254, 255 233, 387, 437 yearly totals of fireball reports, 1930–1936, Hoffmeister-Olivier Program, and, 232 235 in 349 Parabolic Orbits (1920), 95, 115, Fisher, Willard James (1867–1934), 128, 266, 120, 124, 322 272 Hubble, Edwin (1889–1953), 145, 155, 260 492 Index

Hydrographic Ofﬁce of the U.S. Navy, 85, 86, Leonid meteor shower, 18, 188, 194, 214, 242, 228 308, 395, 414, 422, 448, 470. See also Meteor storm I 1898 Leonids, 24 International Astronomical Union (IAU) 1899 Leonids, 18, 20, 22, 23, 39, 327 Olivier’s membership in Commission 22, 1899 Leonids, press reactions to, 19 Meteors, 106, 129, 270, 272 1900 Leonids, 22, 25 Olivier’s membership in Commission 26, crowdsourcing counts of, in 1930s, 243 Double Stars, 130 yearly totals 1930–1936, table of, 235 Olivier’s Presidency of Commission 22, Lick observatory, 30–34, 38, 187, 272 1925–1935, 272, 275 Loreta, Eppe (1908–1945), 280, 431 Lost Cause, The, 9, 10, 39. See also J Charlottesville, Virginia Japan Louisville Astronomical Society, 221 history of meteor work, 281 Luminous Meteor Committee (British Jupiter, gravitational inﬂuence, 22. See also Association), 59, 62, 274 1899 Leonids gnomonic star maps, prepared in 1860s, 69, 95 K Luminous Meteor Committee, 59, 274. Khan, Mohammed A. R. (1881–circa 1962), See also American Astronomical Society 241, 292, 416, 417 King, Alphonso (1882–1936), 118, 177, 179, M 265 Maltsev, Viktor A., 263, 282 Koep, John (1898–1949), 316–319 McCormick observatory, Leander, 16, 19, 41, Philip Trudelle, work with, 160, 294, 316, 70, 99 319 Directors, 16 Pons-Winnecke comet’s meteors, 160, 316 Mitchell, Samuel, 28, 46, 50, 70, 99, Komaki, Koziro (1903–1969), 281 124, 126 Oriental Astronomical Association, Meteor Stone, Ormond, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 18, Section Director, 281 19, 28, 30, 31, 50, 110 image of, 25 L refractor, 26-inch, 9, 15, 16, 26, 46, 48, 96, Lankford, John (author), 193 131, 163, 318 Lapaz, Lincoln (1897–1985), 116, 148, 198, staff members 1900–1928, 123, 136 213, 219, 321, 324, 363 McIntosh, Ronald (1904–1977), 161, 224, 281, Ohio regional group leader, 219 292, 348–350 Radio control for simultaneous meteor Index of southern meteor radiants, 350 plots, earliest, 219 Merrill, Paul (1887–1961), 32, 34, 148, 187 Wichita Kansas group leader in 1916, 93 Meteor Leonard, Frederick Charles (1896–1960), 74, comets as ‘ parent bodies’, 19, 160 236, 268 Commission 22, International Astronomical member of the AAVSO, 74 Union, 106, 129, 270, 272, 275 member of the AMS, 52, 74 grand totals, 1930–1936, 234 monthly register of the SPA, 52, 57 interstellar, 88, 167, 256, 259, 270, 276, Olivier’s opinion of, 52 361 Society for Practical Astronomy, 51, 52, 70, plotting on a star map, 25, 34–36, 69, 95, 74, 88, 268, 323, 471 156, 212, 229 Society for Research on Meteorites (later shower, cause of, 18, 19. See also Meteoritical Society), 236, 268 Meteoroid Index 493

sporadic, 24, 166, 196, 215, 216, 221, 227, Wilson, L.J. and, 54, 220, 238 266, 352, 423 Meteor rates storm, 19, 20, 77, 161, 173, 199, 214, 222, catalogs, 232, 234, 450 344, 371, 398, 423, 459 Hoffmeister-Olivier research program, 216, total observed 1911–1918, 95, 148 218, 278, 380 yearly totals of Perseids and Leonids, Meteors (book), 23, 110, 117, 119, 128, 133, 1930–1936, 234 166, 188, 253, 274, 275, 358. See also Meteor heights Olivier, Charles P. 1919–1925, 165 arguments against stationary radiants, heights, average for the Leonids and 312 sporadics, for 1932–1934, 228 Meteor showers Meteorites Eta Aquarid, 38, 48, 118, 160, 224, 355, AMS members search for in the 1930s, 237 403 Harvey Nininger and, 236, 237, 269 and Comet Halley, 32, 34, 38, 187, 417, Society for Research on (SRM), 236, 251, 471 268, 270, 323, 353 Leonid, 18, 188, 194, 214, 242, 308, 395, Meteoritical Society 422 Farrington, Oliver Cummings (1864–1933) Orionid, 37, 118, 166, 351, 403 Meteorites, 269 controversy with Denning over radiant, Leonard, Charles Frederick, and, 236, 268 103, 116, 118, 119, 128 Nininger, Harvey Harlow, and, 237 Perseid, 27, 44, 217, 233, 274, 422, 432, Olivier’s opinion of, 237 445, 470 Society for Research on Meteorites (SRM), plotting method, 111 origin in, 268 radiant, 34, 105, 263, 287, 403 Wylie, Charles Clayton, and, 236 relationship to comets as a ‘parent body’, Meteoroid, 19, 22, 36, 88, 108, 147, 236, 256, 19, 160 260, 270, 278, 398, 445, 458. See also Meteor trains Meteor; Meteor Shower long enduring, 87, 190, 197, 212, 215, 245, Meteor outbursts, 223, 240, 241 376, 432 Alpha Monocerotids, 241 shift of AMS attention to during the 1930s, April 15, 1931- McLeod- Corona Borealis, 62, 141 240 velocities of long enduring train drifts, 65, Draconids, 241, 392 224, 236, 260 February 23, 1936- Paterson- near Eta Midwest Meteor Association, 270. See also Carinae, 241 Wylie, Charles Clayton June 10, 1930- Watson, Oertel and Field- Millman, Peter MacKenzie (1906–1990), 267, Gamma Delphinids, 240 272 November 21, 1935- Mohammed A.R. Mitchell, Samuel A. (1874–1960), 28, 99. Khan- Alpha Monocerotids, 241 See also McCormick observatory October 19, 1935- Whitcombe- near Mira, and Olivier at Yerkes Observatory, 70 240 role in assisting AMS, 53, 64, 140 October 9, 1933- Draconids startled Monnig, Oscar E. (1902–1999), 77, 158, 168, European sky watchers, 241 221, 236, 237, 269, 341, 351, 353 Meteor photography, 167, 222, 223, 230, 238 AAVSO, role in, 77, 351 AMS members and, 223 AMS, role in, 168, 237, 351 Boyles, A. and W.G. Montgomery’s Texas Observers, 221, 237, 347, 352 photographs of a 1935 Leonid, 239 Olivier opinions about, 238 N Pruett, J.H., Perseid photograph, 238 Naval Observatory, United States (USNO), 10, slow emulsion speeds, 130 16, 22, 27, 83, 85, 86, 117, 128, 133, 252, Williams, J.D.’s suggestion for exposures, 406 238 Newcomb, Simon (1835–1909), 10, 59, 136 494 Index

Newton, Isaac (1642–1727), 11, 22. See also efforts to increase AMS membership, 77, Astronomy, gravitational 136, 159 Niessl, Gustav von (1839–1919), 260, 276 Elkins’ meteor research, Olivier’s analysis fireball catalog, 260 and publication of, 223 interstellar meteors, 260 eyesight, change in, 185, 411 Fisher, Willard James, collaboration with, O 128 Olivier, Charles Pollard (1884–1975) Flower Observatory, directorship (1928– 126 Parabolic Orbits (1914), 88, 89, 111 1954), 78, 137, 157, 184, 186–189 and AMS members’ contributions, 71, full professorship, quest for at University of 95, 112, 233, 272, 342 Virginia, 134 arguments against stationary radiants, graduate school astronomical projects, 27, 312 28 175 Parabolic Orbits (dissertation), 52 graduate students’ disdain for meteor arguments against stationary radiants, theses, 159, 188 111 high school astronomical projects, 25 349 Parabolic Orbits (1920/1921), 115, influence upon foreign meteor astronomers 120, 124, 322 and programs, 282 and AMS members’ contributions, 71 International Astronomical Union arguments against stationary radiants, Commission 22, Meteors, 106, 129, 115 270, 272, 275, 351 agenda for future meteor research, 65 Commission 26, Double Stars, 130 American Association of Variable Star Presidency of Commission 22, 1925– Observers, collaboration with, 287 1935, 272, 275 American Meteor Society Report for 1919– July 25, 1929 fireball controversy, 168, 1925, 118, 120, 121, 150, 160, 165, 253, 254 282, 298 leave from University of Virginia, to write American Philosophical Society, 190, 191, Meteors, 128 197, 235, 276, 278 Leonard, F.C., Olivier’s opinion of, 269 election to, 1932, 191 lifelong meteor interest, speculations about, publications by, 25, 33, 71, 270, 282, 38 326, 474, 475, 483 lifestyle of observatory director, 180 at Lick Observatory 1909–1910, 131, 153 marriage to at Agnes Scott College, 1911–1914, 42, 49, Henrietta Roberta Ninuzza (nee 99, 288 Seymour), 1936, 179 boyhood in Charlottesville, Virginia, 39 Mary Frances (nee Pender), 1919, 131 career and family demands 1921–1930, 125 Meteors (book), 23, 110, 117, 119, 128, Comets (book), 177, 187, 188 133, 166, 253, 274, 275, 312 controversy with Opik about radiants, 265 ‘Neighbors’ membership and role in, 191 controversy with Wylie about fireball newspaper appeals to watch Leonids and investigations, 168, 254 Perseids, 234 daughters, 134, 177, 287 parenting style, 183 Alice Dorsey Olivier Hayes (1920– Pennsylvania, University of, 183, 195, 223, 2015), 132 287, 358, 377, 421, 423, 471 Elise Pender Olivier Ferris (1925– Professor of Astronomy, 223, 287 2013), 133 political convictions, 183 decline in AMS membership 1921–1925, professorial style, 88 role in, 136, 305 public lectures, 157 Denning, controversy with, about stationary radiant definition, 95, 110, 113, 117, 119, radiants, 39, 65 224, 263, 266 double star research in 1911, Olivier’s dissertation, 95, 108, discoveries, 130 111 Index 495

in 1917, American Astronomical Pickering, Edward C. (1846–1919), 26, 46, 47, Society Meteor Section, 75, 109, 59, 61–63, 74, 309 119 Pollard, Benjamin (1850–1877), 4, 6 research objectives for meteors in the Pollard, Charles William (1825–1864), 3 1930s, 224 Pollard, Frances Baylor (1822–1868), 3 religious practices and beliefs, 183 Poulter, Thomas Charles (1897–1978), 258. report of the AMS for 1919–1925, 118, See also Byrd Antarctic Expedition 120, 121, 150, 156, 160, 165, 282, 298 fate of meteor data, 258 and AMS members’ contributions, 120 interstellar meteors, 260, 280 arguments against stationary radiants, Olivier’s support for, 280 160 Prentice, J.P. Manning (1903–1981), 128. Schlesinger, Frank, 127, 189, 191, 259 See also British Astronomical Association assistance from in quest for full Pruett, J. Hugh (1886–1955), 446 professorship, 134 Public mentoring from, 33, 42, 478 AMS relations with, 46 Social philosophy, 35 crowd sourcing, 317 undergraduate astronomical projects, 25 expectations of, 22 variable star research, 184, 376 Virginia, University of, 18, 20, 25, 90, 100, R 124 Radiant catalog, 115, 241, 350 graduate years, 27 Radiants professorships at, 99, 100, 134 1917 Meteor Committee, recommendations undergraduate years, 25 for criteria, 117 Olivier, George Wythe (1842–1923), 4, 132, combined observations, 111, 112 327 criteria for, in Olivier’s 1911 dissertation, Olivier, Katharine Roy (nee Pollard) (1848– 99 1910), 6, 17 long enduring, 38, 110, 197, 216 Olivier, Mary Frances (nee Pender) (1896– Maltsev’s opinions about, 264 1934), 131, 132 McIntosh’s Southern Hemisphere radiants; chronic illness and hospitalizations, 177, his Index, 350 287 number determined each year 1930–1936, death, 288 199 marriage to Olivier 1919, 131 Olivier’s doubts about real existence of, Olivier, Ninuzza (nee Seymour), 178–180, 192, 115 288 Opik’s opinions about, 264, 265 Opik, Ernst Julius, 71, 275 Orionid meteors, 47, 111, 166, 356 controversy with Olivier about radiants, plotting method to determine, 35 265 stationary Harvard-Cornell Arizona Expedition 1931– alpha and beta Persei, 110, 116 1933, 263 and Cook, A. Grace, 312 Orbit, Meteor, 24, 47, 63, 95, 101, 160, 411 and Prentice, J.P. Manning, 128 challenges in determining, 101 Arguments Against in 126 Parabolic derived from meteor plot and radiant, 24 Orbits, 111 elements, 36, 37 arguments against in 175 Parabolic radiants too error-prone to calculate, 264 Orbits (Olivier’s dissertation), 37 arguments against in 349 Parabolic P Orbits, 71 Peck, Henry Allen (1863–1921), 59, 81, 113 arguments against in American Meteor and Cleveland Abbe, 59, 81 Society Report for 1919–1925, 118 Perseid meteor shower, 44, 217, 233, 274, 422, arguments against in Meteors, 25, 34 432, 445, 470 Epsilon Arietis, 439 crowdsourcing counts of, in 1930s, 243 Orionids, 30, 37, 48, 56, 103, 118, 119 yearly totals 1930–1936, table of, 234 Regional Groups 496 Index

Regional Groups (cont.) Ernst Opik and the Harvard-Cornell Arizona/J.D. Williams, 215 Arizona Expedition 1931–1933, 263 Catawba College, 215 trained astrophysicists, 58, 141 Colorado Groups/Alpha Nu Fraternities, Simpson, J. Wesley (1914–1977), 452 215 AAVSO, role in, 77 directors, 51, 119, 168, 192, 193, 235, 373, AMS, role in, 140 409, 448, 468 Missouri-Southern Illinois Regional Group, Florida Group/Professor J.H. Kusner’s, 216 218 Flower Observatory/Local Group, 21, 135, Simpson, Thomas McNider, Jr. (1882–1965), 185, 189, 193, 195, 214, 226, 254, 287 43, 44, 46. See also AMS ﬁrst members Honolulu Group/Larrabee’s students, 217 Smith, F.W. (1906–2006) Michigan Group, 217 criticism of Olivier’s ﬁreball investigations, Milwaukee Astronomical Society 195, 259, 358 Group/Wisconsin and Northern Illinois Smith, J.B. (1885–1963), 47. See also AMS Group, 217 First members Missouri Group/Missouri-Southern Illinois Olivier’s earliest collaborator, 47 regional group, 218 Orionids meteor map (image), 115, 119 New York (Central) Group, 219 Society for Practical Astronomy, 51. See also Northeastern Group, 219 American Meteor Society, 51, 52, 70, 74, Ohio Group, 219 88, 268, 271, 471 Oregon Group, 220, 445, 449, 450 Meteor Section, 53, 111 South Carolina Group, 25, 220 Meteor Section’s meteor totals 1912–1913, Tennessee-Kentucky Group/Appalachian 169 Observers, 220 Solar eclipse, 1900, 25, 406, 448 Texas Observers, 158, 213, 221, 326, 339, Solar eclipse, 1905, 27, 252, 360, 406 347, 351, 356 South Africa Utah Group, 222 observatories’ roles, 348 Reticles (and Reticules) Stalwarts J.D. Williams’ critique of their use, 261 examining chronological age issues, 292 Opik and, 259 motivation for long-term AMS Poulter and, 259 participation, 292 Royal Astronomical Society occupations, summary of, 293 Eddington, Arthur Stanley, 101 Stone, Ormond (1847–1933), 10 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Stoney, George Johnstone (1826–1911), 22 Society, 100 Wesley, W.H, 101 T Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 69, Telescopic meteors 253, 267, 272, 273, 429 AAVSO, observational role, 75 Russell, Henry Norris (1877–1957) In 349 Parabolic Orbits, 163 and 1922 Lyrid meteor outburst, 72 in AMS Report for 1919–1925, 163, 164 observers with 40 or more reported, 1930– S 1936, 194 Safford, Truman Henry (1836–1901), 10 total number reported, 1911–1918, 95 Schlesinger, Frank (1871–1943) yearly totals reported 1930–1936, 234 assistance for Olivier, 191 Texas observers J. Lawrence Smith grants, and, 191 meteor spectra in 1932 and 1933, 158, 188, President of the American Astronomical 272, 342 Society, 191 Theobald, John A. (1888–1969), 251, 257 Seymour, Ninuzza, 179 Trowbridge, Charles C. (1870–1918), 83, 192, Shapley, Harlow (1885–1972), 15, 78, 130, 325. See also Meteor trains 142–147, 155, 175, 192, 193, 260, 262, Trudelle, Philip. See John Koep 263, 267, 268, 272, 280, 377. Index 497

U Williams, J.D. (1909–1964), 471 Union Of Soviet Socialist Republics (Russia), Arizona Meteor Group, 215, 236 129 Wills, Doris M. (1902–?), 195, 196 meteor work carried out by amateur meteor heights calculations 1932–1934, astronomers, 157 228 Mirovedenie, 282, 283 Wilson, Herbert C. (1858–1940), 16, 52 Cincinnati Observatory assistant to Ormond V Stone, 10, 14 Vanderbilt fellows, 28, 43, 46, 318 editor of Popular Astronomy, 52 benefits of fellowship, 46 Wilson, Latimer J. (1878–1948), 53, 54, 112, Graham, Palmer Hampton, 43, 49 198, 220, 221. See also Society for Practical residence at McCormick Observatory Astronomy (image), 45 Woods, Joseph L., Jr. (1890–1963), 186, 216, Simpson, Thomas McNider, 43, 44, 46 469 Smith, James Brookes, 43, 47 Wylie, Charles Clayton (1886–1976). See Variable stars, 26, 28, 54, 75, 186, 189, 277, Midwest Meteor Association 341, 347, 357, 363, 377, 390, 393, 401, conflict with Olivier about fireball 402, 420, 428, 437, 468 investigation methods, 168, 254 Cepheid, 144–146 fireball of July 25, 1929, 168, 253 eclipsing binary stars, 144 group meteor counts, 257, 385 long period, 47, 194 Olivier’s confrontation about J.W. Mira (Omicron Ceti), 26, 33, 34 Simpson, 454 novae, 13, 356, 361, 376, 379, 432 Olivier’s evaluation of Wylie’s meteor work, 259 W Tilden (Illinois) fireball and meteorites, Wamer, William P. (1908–1964), 184, 187, 1927, 253 189, 195, 198, 220, 352 Watson, Fletcher Guard (1912–1997), 268 Y cooperation with Olivier, 268 Yamamoto, Issei (1889–1959), 281 Watson, Paul S. (1905–1986), 240, 427, 468, Yerkes observatory, 58, 99, 101, 254, 415 470 Olivier, in 1913, 70 Weather Bureau, 65, 79, 81, 83, 84, 164, 174, Young, Charles Augustus (1834–1908), 141 220, 253, 309, 324, 325, 340, 357. See also Young, Reynold Kenneth (1886–1977), 69, 88, Cleveland Abbe 272 Monthly Weather Review, journal of, 80, gnomonic star maps and, 69, 95, 272, 274 82, 88, 221, 309, 325, 340 Lick Observatory and, 272 short history of, 79