( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Studies Of The Nebulae: Made At The Lick Observatory, University Of California, At Mount Hamilton, California, And Santiago, Chile; Volume 13 Of Publications; Lick Observatory; Volume 13 Of Publications Of The Lick Observatory Of The University Of California; Semicentennial Publications Of The University Of California, 1868-1918; Studies Of The Nebulae: Made At The Lick Observatory, University Of California, At Mount Hamilton, California, And Santiago, Chile; Lick Observatory Lick Observatory, Heber Doust Curtis, William Wallace Campbell, Joseph Haines Moore, Ralph Elmer Wilson, William Hammond Wright University of California Press, 1918 Science; Astronomy; Nebulae; Science / Astronomy
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( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ The Scale Of The Universe, Issue 11; Bulletin Of The National Research Council; The Scale Of The Universe; Heber Doust Curtis Harlow Shapley, Heber Doust Curtis Published by the National research council of the National academy of sciences, 1921 Science; Astronomy; Cosmology; Milky Way; Milky way; Science / Astronomy; Science / Cosmology
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He was born on June 27, 1872 in Muskegon, the elder of two children, both of them sons, of Orson Blair Curtis and Sarah Eliza (Doust) Curtis.
His father, who traced his ancestry to a Connecticut settler of 1638, served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Heber Curtis's mother, born in England but reared in the United States, also taught school briefly.
Heber graduated from the University of Michigan.
He attended the Detroit public schools and the University of Michigan, where he concentrated on the study of classical languages; he showed some mathematical ability but no interest in the natural sciences despite the outstanding position of astronomy at the university. There he received the A. B. degree in 1892 and the A. M. in 1893.
After the war he graduated from the University of Michigan and was successively a teacher, editor, and deputy collector of customs in Detroit. Heber Curtis's mother, born in England but reared in the United States, also taught school briefly. The Curtises moved to Detroit when Heber was about seven, and the two boys were reared in a comfortable but strict Methodist household that forbade such amusements as dancing, cards, and the theater, but encouraged the reading of good books.
After receiving the A. B. degree in 1892 and the A. M. in 1893, he taught Latin at the Detroit high school for six months and in 1894 accepted a position as teacher of classical languages at Napa College, a small Methodist institution not far from San Francisco.
The move to Napa College was a turning point in Curtis's career, for a small telescope at the college excited his interest, and he began on his own to study astronomy. Two years later, when Napa College merged with the University of the Pacific (then located in San Jose), he found an even better telescope, a 6-inch Clark refractor. He pursued his studies so successfully that at the end of a year he had completed the shift away from the classics and was appointed professor of mathematics and astronomy. In 1898 he supplemented his individual study with summer work at the Lick Observatory near San Jose. Curtis spent the years 1900-02 on a Vanderbilt Fellowship in Astronomy at the University of Virginia. He joined the Lick Observatory expedition to Thomaston, Ga. , to observe the solar eclipse in 1900, and his ingenuity and competence so impressed William Wallace Campbell, the director, that he offered Curtis an assistantship at the observatory as soon as he received the Ph. D. at Virginia. This he did in 1902; he remained on the Lick staff until 1920. During the years 1906-1910 he was in charge of the Lick Observatory station in Santiago, Chile, which had been established to determine the radial velocities of stars in southern latitudes. Upon his return he was placed in charge of the 36-inch Crossley reflector.
The next ten years were a period of remarkable scientific productivity for Curtis. From his youth he had been fascinated by machine tools and their use, and he now turned his mechanical ability to improving the Crossley so that it became one of the most efficient telescopes of its time. With this instrument he undertook an extensive program of photographing the nebulae, including those spiral objects whose nature was still in dispute. Curtis maintained that they were separate galactic systems beyond our own, reasoning that our own galaxy had a similar spiral structure. The starless regions of the Milky Way he interpreted as light-absorbing clouds of gas and dust rather than "holes" in space, and he suggested that the dark bands shown by some of the spiral nebulae indicated the presence of similar areas of obscuration. His discovery, with George W. Ritchey, of novae in the spirals further convinced Curtis of their extragalactic nature. He estimated our galaxy to be about 30, 000 light years in diameter and considered the spiral nebulae to be comparable objects. The leading protagonist of the opposing view, the astronomer Harlow Shapley (then at Mount Wilson Observatory), derived a probable diameter of 300, 000 light years for our galaxy. He believed the spiral nebulae were much smaller objects associated with our system of stars. The two men presented their views, by invitation, before the National Academy of Sciences in Washington in a famous debate in 1920, but the questions at issue could only be settled by further observations. Edwin P. Hubble's discovery in 1925 of Cepheid variable stars in the spiral nebulae definitely established their nature as separate galaxies. As of 1971, the prevailing estimate of our galaxy's diameter falls about midway between those of Curtis and Shapley.
In 1920 the observational phase of Curtis's nebular program terminated when he became director of the Allegheny Observatory of the University of Pittsburgh, succeeding Frank Schlesinger. Curtis, with his mechanical ingenuity, improved the observatory's equipment and taught in the university. In 1930 he moved to the University of Michigan as the director of its observatory, expecting that funds for a large reflecting telescope would become available through the generosity of the banker Thomas W. Lamont. The disc of 97 1/2 inches aperture was successfully cast, but the economic depression prevented Lamont from financing the remainder of the project. Despite his disappointment and the lack of modern instrumentation, Curtis energetically developed the work of the Michigan observatory. He entered into a close cooperation with Robert R. McMath, industrial engineer and astronomer, who in 1931 was co-donor of the McMath-Hulbert Observatory to the university. Curtis's honors included election to the National Academy of Sciences (1919), to the American Philosophical Society (1920), and to the vicepresidency (for Section D, Astronomy) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1924).
He never abandoned his earlier interest in languages. During his years in Chile he had learned Spanish; and on his journey to Sumatra in 1926, one of his eleven eclipse expeditions, he learned to speak Malay.
He died of a coronary thrombosis at his home in Ann Arbor at the age of sixty-nine.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)
( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)
Though he remained a Methodist, he was never a strict sectarian; he was interested in philosophy and in the relations between science and religion.
His broad interests and gift for graceful expression made him an able public lecturer. He was a good companion, known for his spontaneous acts of thoughtfulness.
He was married on July 12, 1895, to Mary Deborah Rapier of Ann Arbor, Mich. ; their four children were Margaret Evelyn, Rowen Doust, Alan Blair, and Baldwin Rapier.
