The Birth of American Astrophysics: the Development of a Science in Its Cultural Context Orville Roderick Butler Iowa State University
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Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1993 The birth of American astrophysics: the development of a science in its cultural context Orville Roderick Butler Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Butler, Orville Roderick, "The birth of American astrophysics: the development of a science in its cultural context " (1993). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 10407. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/10407 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. 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ZeebRd. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 The birth of American astrophysics; The development of a science in its cultural context by Orville Roderick Butler A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department: History Major: History of Technology & Science Members of the Committee: Signature was redacted for privacy. or ^wo^k Signature was redacted for privacy. For thte Major D^artment Signature was redacted for privacy. Signature was redacted for privacy. For the Graduate College Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1993 Copyright © Orville Roderick Butler, 1993. All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION To Hsieyun Serena Butler-Yang, who has encouraged her father in ways that she will never know, and to Xiaohua Yang, whose support and organizational skills have made finishing this dissertation so much easier. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1. THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS IN AMERICAN THOUGHT CONFLICT AND UNITY, 1830-1860. CHAPTER 2. FROM COSMIC METEOROLOGY TO SOLAR PHYSICS: POPULAR THEORIES OF METEOROLOGY AND THE SETTLING OF THE WESTERN PLAIN. CHAPTER 3. UP TO GOD AND DOWN TO NATURE: CONFLICTING COSMOLOGICAL METHODOLOGIES. CHAPTER 4. POPULAR METEOROLOGY AND THE RISE OF ASTROPHYSICS; WEATHER PROGNOSTICATORS, THE U.S. ARMY SIGNAL SERVICE AND THE DEMAND FOR LONG RANGE WEATHER PREDICTION. CHAPTER 5. FROM HENRY DRAPER TO HARVARD'S DRAPER MEMORIAL PROGRAM: THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ASTROPHYSICS AT HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. CHAPTER 6. FROM THE WEATHER BUREAU TO THE SMITHSONIAN; SAMUEL PIERPONT LANGLEY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SMITHSONIAN ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY. CHAPTER 7. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ASTROPHYSICS: JAMES EDWARD KEELER'S SPEECH AT THE DEDICATION OF THE YERKES ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY. BIBLIOGRAPHY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 INTRODUCTION Most historians have found the birth of astrophysics in the application of the spectroscope to the study of the sun and stars. They have generally traced its roots to Bunsen and Kirchhoff's 1859 paper which suggested the useful ness of the spectroscope for astronomical research and have found the development of astrophysics as a profession in the employment of the spectroscope, and other appliances in the laboratories of nineteenth century physicists, for research into the chemical and physical makeup of heavenly bodies. A history which concentrates on the role of instrumentation in the development of astrophysics is, at best, incomplete. As important as instrumentation was, and is, in astrophysical research, separating astrophysics from the intellectual questions and the cultural issues which gave rise to those questions removes from the historical record answers to some questions about the nature of the science and why it came to be a specialized professional field. Contrary to the views of the positivists, and others who see science as providing objective truth, scientific ideas do not develop in a cultural vacuum any more than political, religious or social ideas. To the extent that the motivation and even ideas for research in a field result from the impact of broader social and cultural issues, science takes place in a cultural context. The questions raised by scientists, the answers they give and the way they answer 2 those questions are often part of a response to issues raised by the broader culture. The role of these questions and answers in the birth of American astrophysics helps to illuminate one aspect of the role of a culture in the development and eventual profes- sionalization of a science. Research into the application of the laws of mechanics, and particularly the application of Newton's theory of gravitation, to the development of an understanding of the makeup and evolution of heavenly bodies, as well as the study of solar heat and its influence on the earth, took place within the context of broader cultural interest, input and demands upon the criteria which the ans wers would meet.l The nebular hypothesis was widely discussed in American literature as well as scientific papers beginning in the early 1840s. In the nineteenth century the nebular hypothesis included components which "explained" the collapse from nebulous material into stars, the nature of the sun and possible explanations of the sun's heat source. It Iprom the perspective of many modern astronomers and astrophysicists, the field of astrophysics, as it was defined at the end of the nineteenth century, was closer to the "new astronomy" then the specialized research of today. The modern self-described "astronomer" is as likely to use the astrophysical principles and study the problems reserved to the astrophysicist in the 1890s. The astrophysicist of today is more likely to specialize in the study of special ized fields of physics—high energy physics or plasma physics for example—in which stars play as much the role of a laboratory as they do the object of modern astrophysical study itself. 3 influenced American thought, providing a challenge to tradi tional theological explanations of creation and ultimately of the origin of humankind. It provided an issue around which scrutiny into the nature, role and realm of valid scientific inquiry, as well as into the interrelationship between scientific and theological truths, took place. Utilized by Herbert Spencer and his American dis ciples the nebular hypothesis became a crucial starting point for their development hypothesis and notions of progress which enamored the American public in the second half of the nineteenth century. The application of the nebular hypothesis, by Lord Kelvin and others, to calculations of the age of the solar system and the earth, created turmoil within the geological community when the results provided an inadequate time frame for then current theories of geological and biological evolution. The extra import given the nebular hypothesis by those seeking to reconcile science and religion or by those seeking to provide their philosophy with scientific credibility leavened the debate over its validity and encour aged American astronomers, along with their European counter parts, to search for a mechanism by which it might be vali dated or disconfirmed for all time. The attempts by American astronomers to affirm or falsify the nebular hypothesis can be seen as one cultural component of the development of astrophysics in America. 4 In many respects the study of the causes and nature of the sun's heat provided a more intimate connection between American culture and the rise of astrophysics in the United States. With the westward movement of the American popula tion onto the plains, land speculators, farmers and advocates of westward expansion eagerly sought after