Abstract
Arago spent his last years in declining health. He suffered from diabetes, an incurable illness at the time, which led to progressive blindness and wasting physical weakness (Fig. 4.1). Luckily, his intellectual faculties remained unimpaired, and he dictated to his assistants his celebrated Astronomie populaire as well as a number of important scientific monographs and biographical notices.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
This text and the report of the Commission, as well as all legislative texts cited in this chapter can be found in Beauchamp, A. de (1880–1889) Recueil des lois et règlement sur l’Enseignement supérieur, Paris, Université de Paris, 4 tomes: t. 1: 1789–1847; t. 2: 1847–1874; t. 3: 1875–1883 and annexes; t. 4: 1884–1889 and tables. Most of them can be consulted in the BOP, in particular in Documents divers sur l’Observatoire de Paris, 1854–1872, cote 3567.
- 2.
Published in le Moniteur universel du 3 février 1854.
- 3.
BOP, Ms 1047, D2.
- 4.
This is quite true: the instruments were only stored in the observatory, and were taken out when observations were to be made. Several of them were fixed on pedestals in auxiliary observation rooms or in two small domes on the upper terrace of the building, constructed of course long after the completion of Claude Perrault’s building. Le Verrier’s successor, the rear-admiral Mouchez, was very severe in his criticisms. He wrote in 1878 (Paris Observatory, MS 1059–2): “As a consequence of its very defective construction for an observatory, which did not permit the installation of any instruments nor the lodging of any astronomer, and as a result also of its situation in the midst of a crowded quarter, which has now become industrialized, the old monument of Perrault is and always has been in the most atrocious conditions for astronomical observation: and in fact, since its foundation down to Le Verrier’s directorship in this middle of the last century, it has contributed very little to astronomical progress. During the entire eighteenth century one cannot cite a single discovery, or any work of importance. The only two discoveries which have been made there date from the end of the seventeenth century, namely, the satellites of Saturn by Cassini and the speed of light by Roemer, based on his observations of eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites, but during the entire eighteenth century the majority of observations made in Paris were from individual houses or private observatories. It was from the École militaire that Lalande observed most of the 48,000 stars in his Histoire céleste. During the eighteenth century the Cassinis, who had for the most part presided over the Observatory, were chiefly occupied with the map of France.” The discoveries of Arago were made with portable instruments.
- 5.
Before the creation of the post of director of observations in 1834, everyone did as he wished: one minister declared that establishment he did not intend to set up a master or supervisor over the scientists who were attached to the establishment; and that he thought that the administrator ought to change hands each year, something which was not however implemented (Débarbat 2005).
- 6.
Some people who had less ties with Arago would remain at the Observatory: Antoine-Joseph-François Yvon Villarceau, a specialist of instrumentation, who entered the Observatory in 1846 and became full astronomer in 1854, and Hervé Faye, student-astronomer from 1836 then astronomer in 1843, the year when he discovered the periodic comet which bears his name.
- 7.
BOP, MS 1060-1-A.
- 8.
See this letter in Bigourdan, Annu. BdL for 1932, pp. A89–A90.
- 9.
BOP, Documents divers sur l’Observatoire de Paris, 1854–1872, cote 3567(3), folder AP.
- 10.
Bigourdan, Annu. BdL pour 1932, pp. A90–92.
- 11.
This explains why Neptune had been investigated not at Greenwich but at Cambridge, which had instruments other than those destined for astrometry, namely, one of the largest refractors of the world at the time.
- 12.
°Le Verrier: (1855) Rapport sur l’Observatoire impérial de Paris et projet d’organisation. Ann. OP, Mémoires 1, 1–68, Mallet-Bachelier, Paris.
- 13.
*Biot J.-B.: (1847) Review of the book “Description de l’observatoire astronomique central de Poulkova, by F.G.W. Struve …” Journal des savants, septembre 1847, pp. 513–533.
- 14.
These were the topics explored by William Herschel, whose influence on all nineteenth century astronomy was incalculable.
- 15.
Le Verrier writes pp. 23–24 of his report: “The amphitheater is and will remain purposeless. The Observatory should not compete with the organizations of public instruction located in the very center of Paris, which suffice for their task. An institution which is requested to work at the progress of science, and which has to be organized in all its parts in support of the work of its scientists, must look for the most absolute tranquility, and the first condition is that no movement exists aside those necessary for its scientific activity extraneous activities shall be allowed that will distract from its purpose.” … Something, as we shall see, which did not prevent Le Verrier from organizing gathering of his own societies in the Observatory.
- 16.
Interview of Gaillot by Bigourdan in 1888, BOP, Documents divers sur l’Observatoire de Paris, 1854–1872, cote 3567(3), folder AP.
- 17.
BOP, Ms 1036.
- 18.
Some of these letters and answers are the BOP, Ms 1047 D,6 and D,7.
- 19.
Interesting details on Gambey’s method to build this circle can be found in *CRAS 68 (1869), pp. 207–220.
- 20.
*CRAS 68 (1869), pp. 157–161
- 21.
For a detailed description see °Ann. OP, Observations 19 (1865), pp. 43–63
- 22.
Many pictures of astronomical instruments from the origin to 1900, with very interesting information on their builders and on their use, can be found in Repsold (1908, 1914).
- 23.
From Arago (*Œuvres Completes t. 12, p. 32) “the parallactique or parallatique machine of the modern observers is called as such because its purpose is to follow the celestial objects along their diurnal parallels.” The term “parallactique” is an unjustified cognate of the word “parallaxe,” and in fact is unrelated.
- 24.
For histories of this instrument, see Lequeux (2008) Chap. 7, and Véron (2003).
- 25.
Cited by Véron (2003).
- 26.
This defect of the crown glass would be corrected by Georges Bontemps at the Choisy-le-Roi workshop by modifying the chemical composition of the glass.
- 27.
Le Verrier and YvonVillarceau, *CRAS 39 (1854), pp. 949–961.
- 28.
However, Le Verrier had foreseen the sum of 10,000 francs for the objective of this equatorial. Was this for repairs or improvements? The sum was insufficient for a new lens.
- 29.
Jean also realized in the 1860s the paneling and book shelves of the great gallery at the same level as the garden, another object for law suits.
- 30.
BOP, Ms 1060-1, file travaux.
- 31.
Rapport présenté à la commission d’inspection par le directeur de l’Observatoire [Delaunay] le 31 mai 1872, BOP, Ms 1060-1. A smaller dome called “coupole Chacornac” existed in 1856, as Le Verrier asks 4,000 francs for repairing it.
- 32.
BOP, Documents divers sur l’Observatoire de Paris, 1854–1872, cote 3567(4), folder B. This comet finder is described by YvonVillarceau in °Ann. OP, Mémoires, 9 (1868), pp. A.131–A.135; according to him, it was invented independently by Brunner and by himself.
- 33.
Actually, on the insistence of the Chance brothers, the Minister paid them an extra 12,500 francs in spite of opposition of Le Verrier. Because the flint glass had some defect and that they did not intend to replace it, they had to be content with 37,500 francs in total.
- 34.
In the meantime, the Italian instrument builder Ignazio Porro, who lived in Paris, had proposed in 1858 to Le Verrier to buy for the enormous amount of 160,000 francs a refractor with a 52-cm diameter objective, which was installed in his premices on a rudimentary mounting. This proposal was not accepted: see Fuentès P. (1997) L’affaire Porro, L’Astronomie 111, pp. 270–272, and Tobin (2003), p. 221. Porro had previously problems with Le Verrier who refused to pay entirely another refractor in 1853. He went bankrupt in 1861 and returned to Italy.
- 35.
See Tobin (2003) where many details on the work of Foucault at the Observatory will be found; Le Verrier, *CRAS 66 (1868), pp. 380–389, describes in a very incomplete manner the contributions of Foucault to the Paris Observatory.
- 36.
A paper by Anna Stoyko in L’Astronomie 92 (1978), pp. 94–99 alludes to this instrument in relation to an order from the Observatory to the clock-maker Winnerl relative to the distribution of time in Paris, but not to the siderostat itself. The exchanges between Wolf and Le Verrier reproduced in fac-simile in this paper are amusing.
- 37.
See for this instrument Launay: J.Hist. Astron. 38, 459–475 (2007).
- 38.
For more details on the matters treated in this section, see Tobin (2003), Chap. 12, and Aillaud et al. (2000).
- 39.
See Tobin, W., Holberg, J.B.: °J. Astron. Hist. Herit. 11, 107–115 (2008).
- 40.
See °Bulletin astronomique (1884) 1, pp. 286–290.
- 41.
Because French astronomers were not very interested in this kind of astrophysical observations, the work of Fabry and Buisson and of their collaborator Henry Bourget was published in the American Astrophysical Journal, and in a French journal devoted not to astronomy but to physics, the Journal de Physique.
- 42.
See Tobin (2003), pp. 263–266.
- 43.
BOP, Ms 1037. In fact, it was not possible at this time to cast successfully a disk with a diameter larger than 1.20 m.
- 44.
See for a detailed description + La Nature 4eannée, 1ertrimestre (1876), pp. 39–43.
- 45.
Rapport annuel sur l’état de l’Observatoire de Paris pour 1878, janvier 1879, p. 10.
- 46.
Cited by King (1979), p. 246.
- 47.
BOP, Documents divers sur l’Observatoire de Paris, 1854–1872, cote 3567 (4), file AE.
- 48.
Foucault L. (1878) Recueil des travaux scientifiques, Paris, Gauthier-Villars, reprinting (2001) Paris, Albert Blanchard, p. 275.
- 49.
See Aillaud et al. (2000), t. 1, pp. 181–237 and 295–317; also Caplan and Prévôt (2002).
- 50.
Lamy (2007).
- 51.
Lequeux (2008), Chap. 7.
- 52.
Messager du Midi (Montpellier), Saturday 21 June 1862.
- 53.
This contradicts Le Verrier’s insistence on building the 75 cm refractor; but perhaps this was a slip of the tongue, or the journalist failed to understand.
- 54.
Stephan E. (1914) L’Observatoire de Marseille, Encyclopédie départementale des Bouches du Rhône, Marseille, t. 6; reproduced in Caplan and Prévôt (2002).
- 55.
Stéphan, E.: L’Observatoire de Marseille, °Bull. Astronomique. 1, 122–132 (1885).
- 56.
For an history of this observatory and of other provincial ones, see Le Guet Tully et al. (2008), and Trépied, C. (1884) °Bulletin Astronomique, Serie I, vol. 1, pp. 214–216.
- 57.
For an history of the Toulouse observatory, see http://www.imcce.fr/fr/grandpublic/systeme/promenade/pages5/549.html.
- 58.
For the equipment of these observatories, see the preceding reference and Grillot (1986).
- 59.
For an history see http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observatoire_astronomique_de_Strasbourg#Histoire.
References
Aillaud, G., Georgelin, Y. Tachoire, H., dir.: Marseille, 2 600 ans de découvertes scientifiques, vol. 3. Publications de l’Université de Provence, Marseille (2000); see in particular Georgelin Y., Marseille, champion des découvertes de comètes et de petites planètes, t. 1, pp. 295–317; Georgelin Y., Marseille et le premier télescope à miroir en verre argenté, t. 3, pp. 27–46; Georgelin Y.,Vers l’astrophysique, Édouard Stephan, une éclipse de soleil au Siam et un quintet de galaxies, t. 3, pp. 47–92
Caplan, J., Prévôt, M.-L.: Histoire de l’Observatoire de Marseille (2002). Available on http://www.oamp.fr/patrimoine/histoire-f.html
Débarbat, S.: Le Bureau des longitudes et les observatoires de province. In: Observatoires et patrimoine astronomique français, textes réunis par Guy Boistel. ENS éditions, Paris, pp. 65–87 (2005)
Grillot, S.: Les instruments des observatoires français au 19e siècle. L’Astronomie. pp. 275–289 (juin 1986)
King, H.C.: The History of the Telescope. Dover, New York (1979)
Lamy, J.: Le Bureau des longitudes. La gestion des instruments et les régimes de savoir au XIXe siècle, Revue d’anthropologie des connaissances 2, 167–188, (2007). Available on http://www.cairn.info/revue-anthropologie-des-connaissances-2007-2.htm
Le Guet Tully F., de la Noë J., Sadsaoud H. (2008) L’opération de la Carte du ciel dans les contextes institutionnel et technique de l’astronomie française à la fin du 19e siècle, in Lamy J. (2008) pp. 69–107.
Lequeux, J.: François Arago, un savant généreux; physique et astronomie au XIXe siècle. Les Ulis et Paris, EDP Sciences et Observatoire de Paris (2008)
Repsold, J.A.: (1908, 1914) Zur Geschichte der astronomischen Messverkzeuge; vol. 1: von Purbach bis Reichenbach, 1450 bis 1830; vol. 2: von 1830 bis um 1900, Leipzig, Reinicke, rééd. Gerhard Sauer, Köln (2004). Contains many images of refractors and reflectors
Tobin, W.: Léon Foucault, the Man who proved the Earth rotates. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2003)
Véron, P.: L’équatorial de la tour de l’est de l’Observatoire de Paris. Revue d’histoire des sciences, 56, No. 1 (2003). Accessible par http://www.obs-hp.fr/www/preprints/pp158/pp158.pdf
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lequeux, J. (2013). The Observatory: At Last!. In: Le Verrier—Magnificent and Detestable Astronomer. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 397. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5565-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5565-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5564-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5565-3
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)