The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-09-04
SEPT. 4, 1893
Science
sBY DAVID DIETE

THE name of Dr.. Edwin 3. Frost
Il will live forever in the annals
of astronomy. But the details of his
career should be known also to
America at large. For it is a heroic
tale full of inspiration, particularly
for all those who labor under handi-
caps.
For DR.. Frost. who recently re-
tired as director of the famous
YerkeS observatory. carried on the
last ten years OF his work despite
the handicap Of blindness.
Dr. Frost has been succeeded by
DR.. Otto Strive. great- grandson of
the famous Friedrich George Will
helm Strive, a member of the fourth
generation Of astronomers in his
family and the fifth ,member Of it
to become the director of an OBJ
servatory
Blindness set in upolh DR.. Frost
gradually, his sight beginning to
fail about 1920 He hssd then Just
completed fifteen-yessr study of
the stars in the constellation of
Orion, measuring heir vehocities and
classifying them as to color, size,
temperature and so on.
Whether the strain of those If
teen years of work contributed to
his blindness or not is something the
medical profession was unable to
determine. Perhaps he would have
become blind no matter what his
work had been.
I SAW DR.. Frost a number of times
l. at scientific meetings after his
sight began to fade. No one, Of
course, can say what struggle must
have gone on in DR.. Frosts mind
But it was apparent to all who
met him that he had won the
struggle. He was in good spirits.
taking an active part in scientific
discussions and conversations.
After his sight was completely
gone, he continued as director of
Yerkes' observatory. He could no
longer carry on observations him
self, but he could aid others with
the advice and counsel of his many
years of work.
A few years ago I heard him give
lecture. 1t was illustrated with
stereopticon slides, some of which he
had made before his blindness and
some of which had been made after
his blindness.
AT first it seemed almost uncanny
to hear this blind man describing
and explaining to an audience pic
lures which he himself had never
seen.
But though he had never seen
these pictures with practical eyes, he
had seen them through the eyes of
his colleagues and through the eyes
Of his mind.
1T reminded one Of that great pio-
Il neer, Calico. That great genius
went blind in his old ago. But he
kept on working. He could not see,
but he still could think.
And after he was blind, Calico
formulated his laws of motion, the
laws upon which Newton later built
his great treatise on gravitation,
Principal"
never heard DR.. Frost allude to
his blindness. Perhaps his attitude
was. something like that of Calico,
who wrote to friend:
Alas, your dear friend and SER
want is totally blind. Henceforth
this haven, this universe, which by
wonderful observations had en-
larged hundred and a thousand
times beyond the conception of for
mer ages, is shrunk for me into the
narrow space which myself fill in
it. So it pleases God; it shall,
therefore please me also"
DR.. Frost also enlarged the uni
verse by his observations. He first
came into prominence at the be-
ginning of the twentieth century.
At that time, astronomers we're
just beginning to learn the posi-
bilities of the spectroscope. a COM
bination of prisms which analyzes
the light of star by dividing it
into a spectrum or rainbow