Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1913-05-15
FINDING A planet
The Discovery of Neptune and a
Curious Coincidence.
A PROBLEM TWO MEN SOLVED

Unaware Of Each Others Efforts, John
Couch Adams and lie Verrier Stimuli
t%aneously Attained the Same End-A
Wonderful Feat In Mathematics.
The discovery Of the planet Neptune
that mighty world swinging in the
great deeps Of space nearly 100000.
GOO miles away from our W earth
was the cause OF a singular c%ontrover.
sy between two great astronomers.
n English. the other French. This
controversy ragged for years In jour-
nails. papers, books and in learned so.
cieties. Here are the facts:
The distant planet Uranus had been
discovered by Sir John Herschel ON
March IS. 1871. 1t is 1871. $4,000
miles from the sun.
When a new planet or comet is dis
covered mathematicians Of the highest
rank at once compute its orbit or path
in space and publish its ephemeris.
giving its exact position for the future.
A number of astronomers made
ephemerides for Uranus; but. unlike
the other planets. it kept running off
the track" always out a little further
than computed. Again astronomers
soon made new and accurate as pos.
sible tables. yet Uranus would not
obey. Then they all knew that there
was a world far and away beyond that
by it's attraction made the disturbance.
None was free to begin the gigantic
work Of computing where it was. in
what direction. it's distance and it's
orbit.
John Couch Adams. a young mathe-
matician in Cambridge. England. at
tackled this problem. the greatest yet
undertaken by the human mind. Ad-
ans was aged twenty-four years when
he began the memorable research. This
was in 1843.
The labors of Hercules YER surpass-
ed by this intellectual giant, and in
September. 1916, he sent his results to
the Greenwich observatory. But they
We're not published to the world. In
October he called at the observatory
n left another paper giving full ele-
ments of the planet. And the astron-
omers Of England did not search for
the new world with their telescopes.
But meanwhile the great French as
tronomer. U. j. j. LIE Verrier. older by
severa years than Adams. began a So
luton Of the huge problem. He pub
lished his part one Of researches on
Nov. 10. 1916. and part two June I. 1916.
Adams and lie Verrier were not aware
of their mutual Iabors.
On Sept. LIE Verrier. in France. not
having Il telescope, wrote to DR.. Gale
in Berlin to look for the new planet.
This letter was received in Berlin on
Sept %, 1916. When night came on
DR.. Gale turned the telescope at the
designated point in space. and soon the
eye of man saw the hitherto unknown
world at the mighty distance of $780,.
$4,000 miles from the sun, making
n circuit in about 165 of our years.
The apparent angular diameter Of
the moon and III is very nearly half
of one degree. but Neptune was dis
covered within n degree OF the com.
puted position. or the average OF both
of these illustrious mathematician.
The solution of this capital problem
has ever been considered the highest
achievement of pure mathematical as
tronomy. At once controversy began
between France and England for hon.
ors 1t was finally settled that both
men were worthy OF equal praise and
exalted honorS so long as men shall in
habit the earth.
1t may he of interest to the reader
1t was to me to say that | heard the
venerable and aged Professor Adams
read a very abstrhSt mathematical pa.
per in Philadelphia in the year 1887
before Sertion a OF the American As.
ISOLATION 20, the Advancement of Sci
ence. Every astronomer in the room
gave close and respectful attention.
Edgar Lucten IIarkin in New York
American.