NOTABLE ASTRONOMERS OF PAST AGES, VI-HUYGHENS

Abstract

The two hundredth anniversary of the death of Newton has resulted in a mass of recently published material regarding his life and work, so that any addition attempted in this series of articles would no doubt prove burdensome to the reader. Accordingly, we shall bring this series to a close with an account of the life and work of the greatest astronomer and physicist in the period immediately following Galileo a man whose talents were so many and so diversified that his astronomical work is but a portion of his scientific contributions. Christian Huyghens (6 . 1629) was a native of the Hague. At first he studied law with the idea of preparing himself in that field as a life work, but he later changed to a study of mathematics and of course this led to some study of physics and astronomy, so that he entirely abandoned his original plan and spent the remainder of his life at work in the latter fields. For a time he resided at Paris, having been invited there and being elected member of the Academy. He later returned to his native land and lived there for the rest of his life. In 1660 he visited England and was cordially received, being elected to the Royal Society. The particular which most stamps Huyghens as a really great scientist and as a very notable astronomer is his inventive genius and his subsequent scientific application of this same genius to the best advantage. Among the many and varied contributions which bear out this statement are the following : his application of the pendulum to the regulation of clocks (he presented his first pendulum clock to the States-general in 1657); his careful investigations of the acceleration of gravity and the use of the pendulum to obtain it quantitatively ; his discovery of the polarization of light; his mathematical investigations of the higher curves; his invention of a kind of micrometer for use in fine measures at the telescope.