John Herschel, Father's Witness

2012/09/01 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia
• Biografiak
• Historia

"Many times I would like to see what you are doing so that you can warn (if necessary) that you do not do too much work, as your dear father did," wrote Caroline Herschel, John's niece. I know a person feels unhappy and sick after two nights awake, and I fear you're not so anxious in your six meters [telescope]... I would feel a great discontent, if not enough to see you well married... if you have the opportunity to find a good, pretty and smart young girl, based on wolves, consider them and don't expect to be old and evil."

John Herschel was born in 1792 in the Observatory House of the largest telescope in the world, built by his father. Music, science and religion dominated the house and her aunt Caroline was one of the main educators and teachers. He studied mathematics at the University and reached an agreement with his colleagues Dean Peacock and Charles Babbage: “to do all they could in life to leave the world wiser than they themselves.”

--> Brothers Herschel, from music to stars

--> William J. Fingerprints of Herschel

Herschel graduated in 1813 and already did such good trigonometry and algebra work that he was appointed a member of the Royal Society. However, he suddenly decided to start studying law. Without obeying his father, who wanted to enter the church, he went to London to practice lawyers. But a few months later he realized that he had greater mathematical and scientific capacities and returned to Cambridge to practice as a university professor.

Then, after spending the summer of 1816 with his father, he decided to follow in his footsteps. William Herschel was 78 years old and was a health skate. His son felt that the work undertaken by him should continue someone. He wrote to his friend Babbage: "I'm going to Cambridge on Monday paying bills, picking up my books and saying goodbye to college for a long time, perhaps forever. I will follow my father's path, taking his observations at the place he left and exploring the skies with powerful telescopes."

Thus, John returned to his home and began to collaborate with his father. His father, in demonstrating it, makes his own telescope with which he will perform his observations. It was soon reputed among British astronomers. And in 1820 he was one of the founders of the Astronomical Society.

One of his first works was the review of his father's double stars, whose catalogue he published in 1824, two years after his father's death. He received several honors and awards for this work. He also continued to work in mathematics and chemistry. And in 1830 he published a book of great success: To all people interested in participating in the San Sebastian Film Festival He spoke of methods of scientific research. And he said that nature is governed by laws difficult to explain mathematically, and that the greatest goal of natural philosophy is to understand those laws.

Faraday wrote to him: "When his work on natural philosophy came out, I read it, like many others, with much pleasure. (...) I feel that he has made me a better thinker and a better experimenter, and that all this has increased my personality and that, if he allows me to say it, he has made me a better philosopher". Darwin also read it and would recognize it in his autobiography, read in his student age that book and Personal Narrative of Humboldt was the work that most affected him.

Herschel decided to end the catalogue of heaven begun by his father. To do this, as his father studied the northern hemisphere, he would study the southern hemisphere. In 1833, he took his telescope and went to the end of Good Hope, in South Africa, with his wife and children.

There he spent four years, as he would later confess, probably the happiest of his life. Free from the pressure of being the most continuous scientist of the time, he was at ease and had time to work a lot. In addition to astronomical observations, he studied his vegetation. Between his wife and both made high-quality botanical illustrations. And he reflected on the origin of the species, the disappearance of some and the genesis of others: He describes this process as a "mystery of the mysteries."

With these thoughts on the head, he received the visit of young Darwin. In 1836 the ship Beagle docked in Cape Town and Darwin wanted to visit the great master. "Sir J was a happy event. Meeting with Herschel. We dined at his home and stayed a couple of times with him," Darwin would write. "He never spoke much, but it was worth listening to every word he uttered."

Darwin would make it clear that he took Herschel into account in the first lines of The Origin of Species: "...the origin of the species, that mystery of the mysteries, as one of our great philosophers called it".

Herschel returned to England in 1838. And it took nine more years to publish in South Africa all the observations made with his telescope. In fact, I would explain that "all the observations, later calculations and studies, as well as all the preparations for publishing I have done them". It catalogued almost 70,000 stars, made important observations on several nebulae and galaxies, and gave name to the 7 known moons of Saturn (even four of Uranus years later).

And in those years he also carried out experiments and discoveries that were fundamental for the development of photography. He managed to make sustainable photos using sodium thiosulfate as a fixative. For the first time he used the words "positive" and "negative" and also proposed the term "photography", not knowing that Hercules Florence did the same five years earlier.

In fact, Herschel knew that photography would be a very important tool for astronomy. Until then the description of any celestial object was in words or drawings, and thanks to photography it was going to change. Picture of the sky trapped in a photograph, which any astronomer could see even hours or years later.