Abstract
The rivalry came to a head over the question of intramercurial planets. Basically, Watson was a believer, Peters a skeptic; Watson a supporter of Le Verrier, Peters otherwise. Interest had never been so intense as on the eve of the Great Solar Eclipse of July 29, 1878, the last total eclipse of the sun visible from the United States during the 19th century. Fanned by Le Verrier’s recent transit predictions, public interest in Vulcan was at its height, and the eclipse seemed a good opportunity to settle the vexed question once and for all. It would be, in a sense, Vulcan’s last stand.
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Notes and References
John A. Eddy, “The Great Eclipse of 1878,” Sky and Telescope 45, 340 (1973).
C. H. F. Peters to E. S. Holden, June 8, 1878; Mary Lea Shane Archives of the Lick Observatory.
E. S. Holden, “Reports on the Total Solar Eclipses, July 29, 1878 and January 11, 1880,” Astronomical and Meteorological Observations Made During the Year 1876 at the United States Naval Observatory, pt. II, Appendix III (Washington, D.C., 1880), 145.
William Harkness, ibid., 30.
J. A. Eddy, “Thomas A Edison and Infra-red Astronomy,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 3, 165–187 (1972).
Freeman, “Prof. Jas. C. Watson.”
D. P. Todd, “Preliminary Account of a Speculative and Practical Search for a Trans-Neptunian Planet,” American Journal of Science 20, 225–234 (1880).
J. Norman Lockyer, “The Eclipse,” Nature 18, 461 (August 29, 1878).
James C. Watson, report in Washington Observations, 1876, Appendix III, 117.
W. T. Sampson, ibid., 109.
Crofutt’s New Overland Tourist and Pacific Coast Guide, (Omaha, Neb. and Denver, Col.: Overland Publishing Co., 1882), 68.
Eddy, “Great Eclipse,” 344.
J. A. Eddy uncovered the brick piers during his excavations in 1968 and 1973.
Eddy, “Great Eclipse,” 341.
E. L. Trouvelot, Washington Observations, 1876, Appendix III, 75.
S. Newcomb, ibid., 102.
Watson, ibid., 118.
Lockyer, “The Eclipse,” Nature 18, 457–462:462 (August 29, 1878).
Watson, Washington Observations, 1876, Apendix III, 117.
Donald E. Osterbrock, “Lick Observatory Solar Eclipse Expeditions,” The Astronomy Quarterly 3, 70 (1980).
Newcomb, Washington Observations, 1876, Apendix III, 104.
Ibid., 105.
Watson, ibid., 119.
Ibid., 120.
Newcomb, ibid., 105.
G. W. Hill, “Biographical Memoir of Asaph Hall,” Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences 6, 240–275:264 (1908).
Nature 18, 426 (August 15, 1878). Todd appreciated the value of rapid communication and subsequently wrote two papers on the subject “On the Use of the Electric Telegraph During Total Solar Eclipses” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 16, 359–363 (1881), and “On Observations of the Eclipse of 1887, Aug. 18 in Connection with the Electric Telegraph,” American Journal of Science 33, II series 226–228 (1887).
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© 1997 Richard Baum and William Sheehan
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Baum, R., Sheehan, W. (1997). The Planet Hunters Come to Indian Country. In: In Search of Planet Vulcan. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6100-6_15
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