The San Francisco call., 1897-05-22
TROUBLE ON MT HAMILTON.

Professo or Holden and HIS snbordinate
Disagree as to Methods.
SAN JOSE, CAL, May 21.-Burnham,
Barnard and now Hussey.
Some day it will be a tradition that Ed
ward S. Holden, the terrible man on the
mount, has caused nearly as many stars
to fall from tine intellectual zenith OF the
Lick Observatory as could be caught in
their downward flight by the great tele-
scope.
Barnard and Burnham, whose names
were an ornament to the educational
roster of California, have long since given
up the fight against the methods of Pro-
fessor Holden, and now il is mainly to in
vestigate the misunderstanding between
Holden and Profes sor E. w. Hussey that
the astronomical committee of the Board
OF Regents of the University OF California
is determined to visit Mount Hamilton to-
morrow.
1t is at least peculiar coincidence that
the complaints of all the eminent scien-
lists who have been stationed upon the
mountain have been alike IN tenor. 1t
was the plant of Barnard and it was
the complaint of Burnham that in those
lines of work in which they were ac-
knowledged to be peculiarly efficient they
were hampered and retarded.
Th ose instruments with which they
were ami lar were seldom or never at
their disposal, while the instruments to
which they were comparative strangers,
acc ording to the director. were the ones of
which Professor Holden felt an impera-
tive need.
The visit of the astronomical com mittee
promises TO be rather doubtful success
in point of numbers. According to Judge
Charles F. Slack. who is on the scene
| ready to take an early stage
for Mount Hamilton in the morn
ing, the visit is not the
result of an unpieasantness among the
professors, although he admits that it will
| receive some attention from them. He
says that before this trouble had arisen
| the committee had decided to make an
| official visit TO the observatory.
| Judge Slack has been informed that
Governor Budd, on account of s pressure
of business, will not arrive; Charles f.
| Crocker is in the East and Timothy Guy
Phelps could not be found tonight.
Judge Slack is rather inclined to take a
deprecating view of the difficulties.
THE tronble seems to be-, he said,
that Professor Hussey understood that
he was to take up the work carried on by
Professor Barnard.
'The latter left the observatory onJanu
ary /, 1896, and Profe. sor Hussey, then of
Stanford, was elected to succeed him.
Professor Hussey expected to be allowed
to work with :he large telescope and with
the 12-inch instrument along the lines
Professor Barnard had pursued.
"Instead, he says, he was placed at work
with reflector, in the handling OF which
he lacked experience. He submitted to
Professor Holden's instructions, but he
did so under protest.
Director Holden's story. as understand
it. is that nothing had been done with the
Cross!ev reflector in the way of photograph
ing, and he thought it was time it was
tested. He accordingly asked Hussey to
take hold OF it and see what he could do."
Judge Slack says as far as he knows,
there has been no social friction upon the
mountain, ard there has been no formal
complaint lodged with the Board OF Re-
gents concerning the matter.