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Astronomia versus AstrofisicaLewis PyensonCultural imperialism and exact sciences (1985) 1 |
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Astronomia versus AstrofisicaLewis PyensonCultural imperialism and exact sciences (1985) 1 |
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The La Plata observatory came into existence in 1882 with the the founding of the city. For the 1882 transit of the planet Venus it ordered a 20-cm-aperture telescope and chronometer from Paris. To install this and other equipment the government called a French naval officer, E. Perrin. He was replaced in 1883 by a colleague, Lieutenant Francisco Beuf. The new astronomer had served in Maximilian's Mexican adventure, and before being called to direct the Argentine naval school and hydrographic office, he had supervised the observatory at Toulon in France. With the intention of constructing a map of the province, in 1884 Beuf travelled to Europe to buy two zenith telescopes, three chronometers, and three chronographs. Two years later he received permission to order an 80-cm equatorially-mounted reflector, along with a 15-cm photographic refractor and a solar telescope. Then came an order for a 43-cm refractor and domes to cap the observatory roofs. With this hardware Beuf hoped that astronomy would flourish. When he died in 1899, he had not yet taken any observations, in part because funding for astronomy ceased during the financial panic of the middle 1890s. Beuf's principal achievement lay in supporting establishment in 1894 of a single time standard for all Argentina.156
Beuf's temporary successor, the engineer and assistant observer Virgilio Raffinetti, proved no more adept than his predecessor had been at interesting the government to honor its commitment to astronomy. Raffinetti was forced to disperse his magnetic instruments to other departments of the federal government. After the university was nationalized in 1904 it began to receive slow transfusions of money and personnel. Francesco Porro di Somenzi, professor of astronomy at the University of Genoa, arrived in 1906 to direct operations and to serve as the dean of the faculty of mathematical, physical, and astronomical sciences. Porro obtained 113,698 pesos (227,400 M) to transform the observatory into a center of instruction and research. He purchased new equipment from Germany and brought from Italy an instrument maker, Domingo [Domenico] Collo, to become chief mechanic.2 Money is sometimes [<186-187>] not sufficient to guarantee the advancement of science. Astronomy under Porro succeeded no better than had physics under Porro's contemporary Teobaldo Ricaldoni. In 1910, the Italian astronomer officially retired without having made much scientific progress. His only accomplishment had been to send several observers to a temporary station at Oncativo, there to take part in a latitude survey conceived by the International Geodesical Association. Lasting only a few months, Porro's successor was replaced by the dean of the faculty, Nicolas Besio Moreno, who isolated the observatory as a separate department. Besio circulated a call for a permanent, expert director.
Gonzalez, it is clear, wanted a North American for the post. By the first decade of the twentieth century, the United States had risen to become the world's leader in observational astronomy.157 Observers from the United States had for a generation intervened in South America, seeking to catalogue the southern skies. They staffed major observatories at Córdoba and at Arequipa near the Peruvian coast, as well as at a number of temporary stations, but they had not yet been given teaching responsibilities. Gonzalez wanted to draw on the strongest foreign specialists. To this end, around the middle of 1909 he approached Leo S. Rowe, a professor at the Wharton School of Commerce of the University of Pennsylvania who had spent some time in Argentina, asking Rowe to find him a candidate. After consulting with astronomer cronies, Rowe proposed William Joseph Hussey, director of the University of Michigan observatory.158
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156 Fortunato J. Devoto, "Notica descriptiva," in Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Matemáticas y Astronómicas (La Plata, 1910), pp. 65-74; William Joseph Hussey, "A General Account of the Observatory," in Observatorio Astronómico de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Publicaciones, I (1914), 1-64; Enrique Chaudet, op. cit. (note 36), pp. 18-19. Simón Gershánik provides the odd bit of new information in his contribution to the Festschrift, El Observatorio Astronómico de la Plata en el octogésimo aniversario de su fondación (La Plata, 1966) [Observatorio Astronómico de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Serie especial no. 23], pp. 11-16.
157 [...] .
158 [...] .
Hussey attended to a number of unusual administrative chores. His observatory had cesspools under the building in place of sewers, These were not maintained with any regularity, having been cleaned only in 1910 after two observers contracted typhoid fever.203 Proper plumbing came at great cost and effort in 1912. Hussey wasted a month unravelling the book of the Oncativo station, for he had suspected incompetence and malfeasance on the part of Aguilar's successor there.204 He devoted time to calculating risings and settings of the sun and moon for a worthless astronomical catalogue published jointly with Chile.205 Decisions had to be made about renovating the hardware that was lying around the observatory in various states of disarray and decay. To assit him in these tasks Hussey had, by 1913, twenty-five employees connected in some capacity with the observatory.206
Lacking commitment to advance the discipline of astronomy in Argentina, Hussey threw together existing equipment in an effort to speed his own, narrowly focused interests. he set Aguilar and Delavan to work on the Repsold meridian circle, determining the positions of about 15,000 southern stars situated in a ten-degree-wide zone. It was a simple extension of the cataloguing undertaken at Córdoba. Hussey had a new micrometer [...] Delavan was able to watch a second comet over a period of two years, longer than any had previously been observed.207 Hussey made no attempt to renovate the mirror of Beuf's 80-cm reflecting telescope, the large Gautier meridian circle, or the 34-cm photographic refractor.208
In addition to considerable headaches associated with resuming astronomical research after the disastrous stewardship of Porro di Somenzi, Hussey inherited an anomalous situation in the person of Jakob Laub.
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203 Ibid. Hussey Family papers, Box 6. W. J. Hussey to E. F. Hussey, 23 Oct 1911.
204 Ibid. Box 1. W. J. Hussey to Arthur Hussey, 3 Apr 1913.
205 Ibid. Box 6. W. J. Hussey to E. F. Hussey, 23 Aug 1913.
206 Ibid. Box 1. W. J. Hussey to parents, 14 Sep 1913.
207 Ibid. Box 3. W. J. Hussey, "The Observatory of La Plata," manuscript dated 15 Nov 1915. P. T. Delavan and B. H. Dawson, "Elements and Ephemeris of Comet f1913," Astronomical J., 28 (1914), 151-152; B. H. Dawson, "Observations of Comet 1913 f," ibid., 202; W. J. Hussey, "Observations of Comet 1913 d," ibid., 72; P. T. Delavan, "Observations of Comet 1913 f (Delavan)," ibid., 29 (1915), 63-64.
208 Curtiss, op. cit. (note 159).3
He [Johannes Franz Hartmann (1865-1936)] wanted to record systematic seismograms. He did not have time to set up a complete seismological service, although he had delegated supervision of the seismographs to Galdino Negri – an observer at La Plata since the directorship of Porro di Somenzi.4 Like Laub before him, Hartmann needed expert guidance in this area.5
1 L. Pyenson, Cultural imperialism and exact sciences. German expansion overseas 1900-1930 (New York-Berne-Frankfurt am Main, P. Lang, 1985), pp. 186-187 
OPAC SBN. [Trascrizione da completare].
2 Domenico Collo ha fatto parte dell'Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino, dato che è citato tra coloro che hanno compiuto osservazioni da Palazzo Madama: Archivio storico, Unità Archivistica 40.01 OPAC INAF.
3 Pyenson (1985), p. 199.
4 Un necrologio del fisico Negri (1866-1929) è in: Bollettino della Società Sismologica Italiana, 35 (1937), pp. 169-170. Alcune notizie su di lui in: M. Pacini, Euroamericani, vol. 2, La popolazione di origine italiana in Argentina (Torino, Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, 1987), p. 169.
5 Pyenson (1985), p. 223.
