Thomas Jefferson Jackson See
T. J. J. See | |
---|---|
Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, Oakland, California | |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | University of Missouri |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Astronomy and Mathematics |
Institutions | Instructor, Department of Astronomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill., Astronomer, Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Ariz., Astronomer to Naval Observatory, Mare Island, Calif. |
Thomas Jefferson Jackson (T. J. J.) See (February 19, 1866 – July 4, 1962) was an American astronomer whose promulgated theories in astronomy and physics were eventually disproven. His educational and professional career were dogged by plagiarism and conflict, including his attacks on relativity. He was fired from his position at two observatories, eventually serving out his professional years at a naval shipyard in California.
Early life
See was born near Montgomery City, Missouri. He attended the University of Missouri, graduating in 1889 with an undergraduate career that was outwardly stellar. See achieved honors distinction in nearly every subject, became his class valedictorian and was the recipient of the Laws Astronomical Medal for an original thesis on an astronomical subject. However, his speech "The Spirit of the Age" was a plagiarized version of an earlier speech given by another student, and his "original thesis" for the Laws Astronomical Medal was claimed to be original work but was just from prior work by Sir George Darwin. See was also a critical player in the academic insurgency aimed at ousting university president Samuel Laws (in favor of See's mentor William Benjamin Smith). This plagiarism and bitter in-fighting "set the scene for a career perhaps unrivalled as an example of wasted talent".[2] Nevertheless, with the outwardly strong credentials, See went to the University of Berlin where he received a PhD in mathematics in 1892. With a European doctorate, See returned to America with enviable credentials and a career of great promise.
Scientific work
See specialized in the study of
It was at the Naval Observatory that some of See's previous work, and his arrogance, led to his downfall. Several years earlier, in 1895,
In 1910 he published a 700+ page work entitled Researches on the Evolution of the Stellar Systems, Vol. II, The Capture Theory of Cosmical Evolution. In this work he describes his task to "brush aside the erroneous doctrines heretofore current, as one would the accumulated dust and cobwebs of ages".
In 1913 William Larkin Webb published a Brief Biography and Popular Account of the Unparalleled Discoveries of T. J. J. See. Webb was a newspaper publisher and amateur astronomer, and a long-time admirer of See, a fellow Missourian. The book, which many regarded to have been written by See himself, essentially destroyed any remaining credibility he had in the astronomical community. The Nation published a review of the book poking fun at its extraordinary hyperbole, which included such material as: "The infant See, we are told, first saw the light on the 393rd anniversary of Copernicus's birth, ...[and] showed himself 'every inch a natural philosopher' by speculating on the origins of the sun, moon and stars at the age of two, never so much as dreaming that he should grow into a little boy with 'methodical methods', and one day become 'the greatest astronomer in the world'."
See is notorious as the primary modern proponent of the idea that various ancient observers report the color of the bright star Sirius to be red as a result of stellar evolution. The Red-Sirius controversy arises because modern observations show that Sirius is white in color, and the very strong realization from modern astronomers that a reddish color for Sirius in antiquity is essentially impossible by any mechanism of astrophysics. See published six papers from 1892 to 1926 on the topic, making shrill attacks on critics, and ignoring the substantial numbers of texts from antiquity that described Sirius as blue or white in color. See's obsession with what is now considered as a fringe area (whose solution involves only cultural allusions) only served to further distance the maverick from mainstream astronomy.[8]
See spent the years at Mare Island pursuing fame as a discoverer of the laws of nature, issuing a series of publications on the origin of the solar system, the size of the
He also engaged in vitriolic attacks against Einstein and his theory of relativity, which Einstein essentially ignored. The scientific community also ignored See's criticisms of relativity.
See's numerous papers are in the collection of the Library of Congress.
Selected writings
- See, T. J. J. (1896). "Researches on the orbit of 70 Ophiuchi, and on a periodic perturbation in the motion of the system arising from the action of an unseen body". The Astronomical Journal. 16: 17–23. doi:10.1086/102368.
- See, T. J. J. (1899). "Remarks on Mr. Moulton's paper in A.J. 461". The Astronomical Journal. 20: 56. doi:10.1086/103115.
- See, T. J. J. 1896, "Researches on the evolution of the stellar systems: v. 1. On the universality of the law of gravitation and on the orbits and general characteristics of binary stars." T.P. Nichols (Lynn, Mass.)
- See, T. J. J. 1910, "Researches on the evolution of the stellar systems: v. 2. The capture theory of cosmical evolution, founded on dynamical principles and illustrated by phenomena observed in the spiral nebulae, the planetary system, the double and multiple stars and clusters and the star-clouds of the Milky Way." T.P. Nichols (Lynn, Mass.)
- See, T. J. J. 1920, Astronomische Nachrichten, 211, 49: "New Theory of the Aether"
- See, T. J. J. 1917, Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of Physical Forces, vol. I
- See, T. J. J. 1922, Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of Physical Forces, vol. II
- See, T. J. J. 1925, Naval Observatory, Researches in Non-Euclidian Geometry and the Theory of Relativity: A Systematic Study of Twenty Fallacies in the Geometry of Riemann, Including the So-called Curvature of Space and Radius of World Curvature, and of Eighty Errors in the Physical Theories of Einstein and Eddington, Showing the Complete Collapse of the Theory of Relativity
References
- ^ S2CID 117727302.
- S2CID 117282553.
- ^ doi:10.1086/102247.
- doi:10.1086/102318.
- doi:10.1086/102329.
- doi:10.1086/102368.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
- ISBN 978-0-387-48941-4.
Further reading
- Jacob, W. S. (1855). "On Certain Anomalies presented by the Binary Star 70 Ophiuchi". .
- Doolittle, E. (1897). "The orbit of 70 Ophiuchi". The Astronomical Journal. 17: 121. doi:10.1086/102680.
- Moulton, F. R. (1899). "The limits of temporary stability of satellite motion, with an application to the question of the existence of an unseen body in the binary system 70 Ophiuchi". The Astronomical Journal. 20: 33. doi:10.1086/103096.
- Webb, William Larkin, 1913 "Brief Biography and Popular Account of the Unparalleled Discoveries of T. J. J. See" T.P. Nichols & Son (Lynn, Mass.)
- "Professor See", review of Brief Biography and Popular Account of the Unparalleled Discoveries of T.J.J. See, The Nation, xcviii, 1914, pp 307–308
- "Capt. T. J. J. See, Astronomer, 96: Co-Founder of Observatory Dies – Disputed Einstein" The New York Times, July 5, 1962, p 22
- Obituary, Physics Today, volume 15(8), (August 1962) page 80
- "The Sage of Mare Island" from The Astronomical Scrapbook, Joseph Ashbrook, 1984, Cambridge University Press, pp. 111–115. (See also Sky & Telescope, October 1962, page 193)
- Sherrill, T. J. (1999). "A Career of Controversy: The Anomaly of T. J. J. See". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 30: 25–50. S2CID 117727302.
- Dick, Steven. Sky and Ocean Joined: the US Naval Observatory 1830–2000.