The daily Alaskan., 1913-05-06
FINDING 4 PLANET
The Discovery of Neptune and a
 Curious Coincidence.
A PROBLEM TWO MEN SOLVED

Unaware of Each othoJs EHorto, John
 Couch Adam5 and Lo Vorrior simul-
 tanoouaIy Attained tho samo End-A
 Wonderful Foat l1 mathomatiou
 The discovery Of tle planet Neptune -that mighty world swinging ln tho great dceps of space nearly 100000. 900 miles away from our own earth was tbc cause Of a singular coutrOyer sy between two great astronomers, one English che other French This controversy ragged for years in jour. nolg papers books and in learned so' reucs. Here are the facts:
 Tho distant planet Uranus bad been discovered by Sir John Her5cheI on March I3. l7sl It Is L7si0sO.ooO miles from the sun,
 When a new planet or comet Is dis' covered mathcmauci8ns of Che highest rauk at once compute It8 orbit or path In space and publish lts ephemerls, giving lts exact position for the future.
 A number Of astronomers mnde eDhomcrldes for Uranus; but, unlike thc other planets. It kept running or thc track" always out a ittle further than computed. Again astronomers soon made new and accurate as pos sIbIe tables yet Uranus would not obey Then they aII knew that there was a world for and away beyond that by its attraction made the disturbance. None was free to begin the gigandc work or computing where lt was, in what direction. its distance and its orbit
 John Couch Adams a young mathe maucIan lD Cambridge England, ot tackled thls problem. the greatest yet undertaken by Che human mind Ad. ams wns aged tweUty.tour years when be began thc memorable research This was ln I2i3
 The labors Of Hercules were surp0ss ed by thIs intellectual giant and iD September 1915. he sent bis results to the Greenwich observatory. But they were not published Co Che world In October he called at the observatory and left another paper giving tull elo mcnts of Che pl0net And the astron. omers of England did not search for the new world with their telescopes
 But meanwhile the great French as rouomor U. J. J. Le vcrrIcr. older by several years than Adams, began a SO utIon of thc huge problem He pub lIshcd bis part one or researches on Nov 70. lSi5. and pHrt two June |, lsl6 Adams and Le VeITIcr were not aware of thclr mutual I0bors
 On Sept | Le verrIer, 10 France, not having a telescope, wrote to Dr GaIIe lu Berlin Co look for the new planet Tbls letter w0s received ln Berlin on Sept 23. Is4B When night came on Dr. Gale turned the telescope 0t the designated polutu space, and soon Che eye of man saw the hitherto unknown world at the mighty distance or 2.7S0, S3IOUO miles from the sun. making one circuit l0 about lG5 Of our years.
 Tue apparent angular diameter of the moon and sun ls very nearly half or one degree. but Neptune was dls covered within one degree or the com. pulcd position. or che average of both 0f these lUusfrI0us mathomulcians
 The solution Of this capital problem hus ever been considered Che highest achievement Of pure mathematical as ronomy Ai once controversy began between France and England for hon. ors It was finally settled that both men were worthy Of equal praise and exalted hOuurs so long us men shall in. habit tbe eurth
 It may be of Interest to the reader lt was to mp-to sag that ] heard the venerable and aEcd Professor Adams read a very abstruse mathematical pa. per 10 Philadelphia In ;he year 1887 before Section A Of the American As. soclad0n For thc Advancement Of SCl ence. Every astronomer in the room gave close aud respectful attention Edgar Luclcn Larkln lu New York American.
 A Town That Dates From tho Flood.