***************************************************************************
* *
* ELEKTRONISCHE MITTEILUNGEN ZUR ASTRONOMIEGESCHICHTE *
* *
* Herausgegeben vom Arbeitskreis Astronomiegeschichte *
* in der Astronomischen Gesellschaft *
* *
* Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998 *
* *
* Redaktion: Dr. Wolfgang R. Dick *
* *
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Inhalt
------
1. James Caplan: Historical Conservation at the Marseille Observatory
2. Eric S. Hutton: Meteors and Meteorites: A Historic Archive of Articles,
Books and Catalogues on CD-ROM
3. Reinhard E. Schielicke: Modell von Keplers "Mysterium cosmographicum"
4. Michael Oates: Uranographia Britannica
5. Julio Gonzalez Cabillon: HISTORIA MATEMATICA - a new mailing list
6. Fifth International Conference on the History and Foundations of
General Relativity
Impressum
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Item 1 EMA Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998
...........................................................................
Historical Conservation at the Marseille Observatory
----------------------------------------------------
By James Caplan, Marseille
(Aus: Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte Nr. 12, Juni 1998, S. 1;
Electronic Newsletter for the History of Astronomy, No. 30, July 10, 1998,
Item 2)
A brief history
The Marseille Observatory was founded in 1702 by the Jesuits, in the
Sainte Croix convent near the Vieux Port, and was subsidized by the King
and the Royal Navy. The first director was Laval, followed by Pezenas
until 1763, when the Jesuits were expelled from France. During most of
the old observatory's subsequent history it was state-controlled, and
was at times called the Naval Observatory. The first non-Jesuit director
was Saint-Jacques de Silvabelle; he was followed by Thulis, Blanpain,
Gambart and Valz. Franz Xaver von Zach, a frequent visitor to Marseille,
played an indirect role in the observatory's history in the decades
around 1800. Jean-Louis Pons, the observatory concierge who became a
noted comet hunter, was a protege of Zach.
In the 1860s, Le Verrier, then director of the Paris Observatory, wished
to build an observing station in the south of France. Upon Valz's
retirement, he took over control of the Marseille Observatory, giving
the building to the City of Marseille in exchange for the present
observatory site on the Plateau Longchamp (at that time at the edge of
the built-up area). During ten years the Marseille Observatory was
directed by Le Verrier as an annex to the Paris Observatory. The old
observatory's instruments were transferred to the new site, although few
of them were used since new equipment was furnished (including an 80-cm
Foucault telescope). The Marseille Observatory again became independent
of the Paris Observatory in 1873. Today it is associated with the
Universite de Provence and with the CNRS.
The 'Groupe Patrimoine'
The Marseille Observatory's 'Groupe Patrimoine' works towards the
protection, inventory and (in some cases) reversible restoration of the
observatory's historical heritage, and makes it available for display
and consultation. This material includes instruments, books and the
observatory's archives. They would like to make the
astronomical/historical community aware of this collection.
As often happens, the historical material has suffered in the past from
negligence and inadequate protection. But since 1990 most of the old
instruments (including telescopes, repeating circles, etc., mostly from
the old observatory) have been gathered together in a small 'museum'.
(As part of a separate operation, the Foucault Telescope is on display
in a space principally dedicated to public outreach programmes.) The
collection of a few hundred old books from the observatory library is
kept in the museum. The archives are at present at the Archives
departementales in Marseille where they were recently inventoried, and
where a large part is now being microfilmed; but in a few months they
will be returned to the observatory and stored adjacent to the museum.
The book catalogue in a preliminary form is available on their Web site;
the inventory of the archives should be posted soon.
The Web site can be consulted at
http://www-obs.cnrs-mrs.fr/patrimoine/patrimoine.html
where one can also find information about the history of the observatory
in the form of old texts that are not otherwise easily accessible. Soon
there will be information about the instrument collection. The Groupe
Patrimoine regret that there is not yet much historical information
posted, but within the limited time they have been able to devote to
this effort, they have judged urgent to give priority to the
*protection* of the material and have therefore rather neglected the
historical research which of course is the ultimate goal.
Much remains to be done. For example, now that the basic structure of
the archives has been defined by professional archivists, they plan to
do a computer-searchable extension containing much more information
about individual items. Also they hope to digitize the microfilms for
computer consultation, thus by-passing classical microfilm readers.
Contacts, visits and moral support are welcome! Contact the Groupe
Patrimoine (James Caplan, Gerard Lemaitre and Marie-Louise Prevot) at
Observatoire de Marseille, 2 place Le Verrier, 13248 Marseille Cedex 4,
France, e-mail: patrimoine@observatoire.cnrs-mrs.fr, telephone
+33-4-9504-4189.
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Item 2 EMA Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998
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Meteors and Meteorites: A Historic Archive of Articles, Books
-------------------------------------------------------------
and Catalogues on CD-ROM
------------------------
By Eric S. Hutton, Hitchin, England
(Aus: Electronic Newsletter for the History of Astronomy, No. 32,
October 13, 1998, Item 1)
This privately funded project collected together old articles, books and
catalogues under the subject of Meteors and Meteorites. Over 2500 pages
have been scanned in, and are viewable on a CD-ROM as 'photocopies' of the
original pages. The CD-ROM contains many influential and historically
important publications about meteorites and meteors. Highlights include
the following four books:
* A Chapter in the History of Meteorites (1887) by W. Flight
* The Meteoritic Hypothesis (1890) by Norman Lockyer
* Die Meteoriten in Sammlungen und ihre Literatur (1897) by E. A. Wufling
* The Ward-Coonley collection of Meteorites (1904 edition) by H. A. Ward.
The CD is viewable on any computer using Netscape or Internet Explorer Web
browser. The cost is US$ 20, or GBP 12, plus shipping/handling charge.
Distribution:
U.S, Canada, South America: by Martin Horejsi, Meteorite Books,
email: martinh@isu.edu
UK, Europe, Australisia: from Eric Hutton, email: bookman@rmplc.co.uk
Martin Horejsi has also set up a web page giving more details plus
sample pages and contents. See http://www.isu.edu/~martinh
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Item 3 EMA Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998
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Modell von Keplers "Mysterium cosmographicum"
---------------------------------------------
Von Reinhard E. Schielicke, Jena
Seit mehreren Jahren waren Frau Dr. I. Stein, Direktorin des
Heinrich-Schuetz-Hauses Bad Koestritz, und der Autor bemueht, ein Modell
des Keplerschen "Mysterium cosmographicum" bauen zu lassen (siehe auch EMA
Nr. 12, 25. Oktober 1995, Item 6). Inzwischen hat sich ein Jenaer
Modellbauer dieser Aufgabe (zu einem sehr moderaten Preis) unterzogen.
Die Saturn-Halbschale ist aus Pappmache gefertigt und hat einen
Durchmesser von 1 m. Alle anderen Planeten-Halbsphaeren sind aus
Plexiglas. Waehrend die fuenf platonischen Koerper aus Messingprofilen
bestehen, sind die Planetenringe und der Fuss aus Holz gebaut. Das Modell
ist nach Keplers Angaben farblich gestaltet.
In der Bad Koestritzer Heinrich-Schuetz-Gedenkstaette versinnbildlicht das
Modell nach den Vorstellungen des jugendlichen Kepler die beide
Zeitgenossen verbindende Suche nach Harmonien und Sphaerenklaengen in der
Natur an der Schwelle des 17. Jahrhunderts.
Anschrift: Forschungs-und Gedenkstaette im Geburtshaus des Komponisten
Heinrich-Schuetz-Haus, Heinrich-Schuetz-Str. 1, D-07586 Bad Koestritz,
Tel.: 036605-2405, Fax: 36199
Oeffnungszeiten: Di - Fr 10-17 Uhr, Sa/So 13-17 Uhr
Anschrift des Autors:
Dr. Reinhard E. Schielicke
Universitaets-Sternwarte Jena
Schillergaesschen 2
D-07745 Jena
E-mail: schie@astro.uni-jena.de
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Item 4 EMA Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998
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Uranographia Britannica
-----------------------
By Michael Oates, Manchester
The Manchester Astronomical Society are proud to announce that a CD-ROM
version of an extremely rare Star Atlas compiled by John Bevis, in the
eighteenth century, can now be ordered online from
http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/cd-rom.htm
Or you can visit the Bevis Uranographia Britannica home page at
http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/
An article on the Discovery of the Atlas appeared in Astronomy Now, June
98 edition. Plus a 4 page article on the November 98 issue of Sky &
Telescope. The CD-ROM was also featured in the September 98 issue of Sky &
Telescope.
Brief Description of the Atlas
This is an extremely rare atlas, and little known. The Manchester
Astronomical Society discovered, nearly one year ago, that it was in
possession of a very good copy, one of only 16 known to exist!
It comprises of 51 Star charts covering the whole sky, a Cover page,
Frontispiece and Index page.
John Bevis, an eighteenth century physician - turned astronomer, whose
other claim to fame is as the discoverer of the Crab Nebula compiled this
atlas during the years 1745 - 1750. But the atlas was never published as
the publisher was declared bankrupt in 1750.
The quality of the engravings far surpass any other star atlas of the day,
including those from Bayer, and Flamsteed.
See http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/press.htm for a Press release.
Brief Description of the CD-ROM
The whole atlas has been reproduced and put on to CD-ROM. Not only are all
the charts and plates on the CD-ROM, but there is also a wealth of
information about the atlas, John Bevis, how it was produced and why it
was never published. The CD-ROM also includes an article about a
pre-discovery observation of Uranus. A separate image directory has all
the plates in .bmp format, and a selection of very high resolution images
in .jpg format.
The CD-ROM works with all versions of Windows from 3.1 upwards including
Windows95/98 Windows NT3.5x - NT4 and the Macintosh.
See http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/cd-rom.htm for more information and
online ordering by RegNet, or pay by cheque. Prices from GBP 12 plus
postage.
Author's address:
Michael Oates, F.R.A.S.
Manchester Astronomical Society
http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/
Email: mike@ph.u-net.com
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Item 5 EMA Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998
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HISTORIA MATEMATICA - a new mailing list
----------------------------------------
By Julio Gonzalez Cabillon, Montevideo, Uruguay
HISTORIA MATEMATICA [HM] is a new discussion list on the history of
mathematics.
1. Description of HM
1.1 Purpose and standards
The purpose of this list is to provide a virtual forum for scholarly
discussion of the history of mathematics (in a broad sense), amongst
professionals and non-professionals with an earnest interest in the field.
Postings are to be highly relevant to the purpose of this list. All
traditional and scholarly aspects of the history of mathematics are
expected to be heavily discussed here.
Additionally,
- History of _history of mathematics_
- Current trends in the history of mathematics
- History of _mathematics outside Europe_
- Ethnomathematics
- Pedagogical issues
- Origin of mathematical terms/symbols
- Biographies and obituaries
- Bibliographical references (databases)
- Announcements and reviews of new books, articles,
preprints, websites, ...
- Advertisements of conferences, meetings, jobs, ...
Contributors should strive to submit posts containing interesting,
worthwhile or new information about substantive topics on the history of
mathematics in a conscious effort to keep the signal-to-noise ratio as high
as possible.
Pertinent comments, queries, replies ... should be written with the same
standards of thoughtfulness and care that apply to other scholarly
activities; not necessarily at the level of writing a book or an article
for a journal, but at least at the level of the informal printed material
(e.g. photocopies) used at courses.
1.2 Languages
ENGLISH, Portuguese and Spanish are the official languages of the list.
Postings in other languages (e.g. French, German, Italian, ...) are also
welcome. But, in this case, whenever a long posting is sent out, an
abstract in English (say) would be highly appreciated.
Although I do not think one should encourage too many languages on the
forum (since many listmembers might just be monoglots), the list is to be
*open* to those contributors who wish to communicate in their mother
tongue, and do not feel confident enough in other languages.
If you are *not* familiar with the language of a post, but you suspect that
the topic discussed is, for instance, relevant to your own field of study
(some key-words in the email may suggest that), a solution somehow will be
found - at least, I hope so.
If you are not sufficiently interested in that thread, you may simply hit
the 'delete' key. This list is intended to provide a vehicle of
communication for people of different nationalities, and it is unreasonable
- in my opinion - to ask *everyone* to write in a specific language in
order to communicate.
1.3 Configuration
This is a CLOSED forum; that is to say, subscriptions MUST be approved by
the list owner. Those who subscribe to HM are encouraged to identify
themselves by name, profession, institutional affiliation, and research
interest.
'Ego trips' will mean trips outside the list.
Whereas freedom of speech is wonderful, and the discussion of controversial
matters on the history of mathematics is to be expected (and welcome!),
personal invective cannot take place on this forum.
It must be said very emphatically: abuse or misuse of the list in one way
or another will cause instant cancellation of the subscription by the list
owner.
2. How to sign on
You can join the HISTORIA MATEMATICA mailing list sending your subscription
(which has to be APPROVED) to
with the following command in the body of your message:
subscribe historia-matematica
[Please mind that there is no 'h' in 'matematica']
You can also request your subscription (for APPROVAL) to HM sending mail to
with the following command in the body of your message:
subscribe
Author's address:
Professor Julio Gonzalez Cabillon
Emilio Frugoni 860 / apto 002
11200 Montevideo
Uruguay
Phones: +598 2 409 1977, +598 2 401 2951
Emails: owner-historia-matematica@chasque.apc.org, jgc@chasque.apc.org
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Item 6 EMA Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998
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Fifth International Conference on the History and Foundations of
----------------------------------------------------------------
General Relativity
------------------
July 8-11, 1999
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
Announcement and Call for Papers
The organizers invite proposals for papers in all areas of the history and
foundations of general relativity. Suitable topics include but are not
limited to:
* historical analysis of the origins of general relativity up to 1915, its
precursors, competitors, and related developments in physics and
mathematics;
* historical analysis of the later development of the theory, including:
relativistic astrophysics and cosmology, unified field theories, empirical
tests, the equations of motion, energy conservation, gravitational
collapse, gravitational waves, black holes, and singularity theorems,
relativistic continuum mechanics, quantization of general relativity,
alternative theories of gravitation;
* critical analysis of foundational problems in general relativity,
including: relationalism versus substantivalism, singularities, energy
conservation, black hole information loss, quantum field theory in curved
spacetime, quantum gravity, reduction of Newtonian gravitational theory and
special relativity to general relativity, axiomatizations of general
relativity, cosmology;
* general relativity in context, including the scientific, institutional,
philosophical, cultural and popular reception of the theory in diverse
communities and countries, anti-relativity movements.
Organizing Committee:
Jean Eisenstaedt, CNRS Paris
Hubert Goenner, Physics, University of Goettingen
Don Howard, Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
Michel Janssen, Philosophy, Boston University
A.J. Kox, Physics, University of Amsterdam
John Norton, History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh
Juergen Renn, Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin
Sahotra Sarkar, Philosophy, University of Texas=96Austin
Tilman Sauer, History of Science, University of G=F6ttingen
John Stachel, Physics, Boston University
C.V. Vishveshwara, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore
Sponsoring organizations:
Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values, and the Graduate
Program in History and Philosophy of Science, University of Notre Dame
Center for Einstein Studies, Boston University
If your center would like to cosponsor this or future meetings, write for
further information.
If you are interested in attending, please return the form below for
further mailings.
If you would like to propose a paper, please return the form below with a
title and abstract of the proposed paper as soon as possible, at the latest
by January 30, 1999. Decisions of the organizing committee will be
announced no later than March 15, 1999.
You can mail the form to:
Don Howard
Program in History and Philosophy of Science
346 O'Shaughnessy
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
Or email the form to:
Don.A.Howard.43@nd.edu
For further information, write to either of the above addresses; you may
also telephone at 219-631-7547 or fax at 219-631-3985.
------------------------------------------------------
Please send me further mailings on the Fifth International Conference on
the History and Foundations of General Relativity.
Title:
Name:
Institution:
Address:
Telephone:
Fax:
E-Mail:
I do / do not wish to offer a paper.
(If yes, please enclose title and abstract.)
...........................................................................
Impressum
---------
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Anschriften des Arbeitskreises Astronomiegeschichte:
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Vorsitzender: Prof. Dr. Peter Brosche, Observatorium Hoher List der
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Sekretaer: Dr. Wolfgang R. Dick, Bundesamt fuer Kartographie und
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