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W.Struve- his life and scientific activity. |
Chapter I
Very little is known about the childhood and youth of the founder
of the Pulkovo Observatory.
Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve was born on April 15(4), 1793,
at Altona where his father Jakob Struve was a high-school principal.
The school was called the Christianeum. His ancestors had been
yeoman farmers but his gift for studies enabled him to become a
distinguished philologist and mathematician.
J. Struve paid great attention to education of his sons. His eldest
son Karl was very gifted and energetic, and success came easily to him
as he became a teacher of classics at the Dorpat gymnasium and then
the principal of the gymnasium at Konigsberg.
Wilhelm Struve got his secondary education at the Christianeum,
which he graduated from at the age of 15.
In 1808 he continued his education at Dorpat University, where he
studied philology. At that period W. Struve was described as a robust
and learned young man well prepared for life.
W. Struve supported himself by giving private tuition in the
household of the Livlandish Count de Berg. The Bergs were a very
nice and kind-hearted family, and greatly appreciated the teaching work
of the young scholar. Social intercourse with that family helped W.
Struve to acquire good manners and to become a man of the world,
which became very useful in his later life.
In 1810 W. Struve wrote «De studiis criticis et grammaticis opud
Alexandrinos». He was awarded the Gold Medal of Dorpat University
for that work. W. Struve graduated from the university and obtained a
degree in philology with the highest honours in 1811.
When at the University, W. Struve turned his attention to mathematical
sciences (for which he had a gift since childhood) and dedicated all his free
time to physics and astronomy. W. Struve's real vocation showed up very
early and Dorpat University played the main role in it.
As A. N. Sawitsch mentioned the Dorpat Observatory was then
furnished with far from the best instruments. Only a man of real talent
could find an urgent problem in science and solve it using very
moderate facilities available.
W. Struve was only 20 at that time and he brilliantly overcame all
the difficulties. He commenced his independent observations at the
Dorpat Observatory in January 1814. Chapter II Dorpat was a small town in the first quarter of XIX century and
the so-called Domberg situated now in the center was on the outskirts
of the town on those days. There was a beautiful garden called the
Domgarten on the Domberg and adjoining hills whose director for many
years was W. Struve. On the opposite hill connected with the Domberg
by a bridge where there had been the Bishop's castle a white-stone
observatory with a wooden tower was situated. At the foot of the
Domberg the building of a new university stood.
The Dorpat Observatory received by W. Struve in the shabby
condition became a first-class institution after 20 years of his activity.
It served as a model for the Pulkovo Observatory that was being
founded.
The Dorpat Observatory was equipped with two astronomical
instruments in 1814: a Dollond transit instrument and a Trotztop 5ft
achromatic tube.
W. Struve installed the instrument himself and started investigations
of brightest double stars. Using both instruments he discovered the
orbital motion of the two components of a few binaries and calculated
the periods of complete orbital turns for two of them. The results of
those investigations were reported in the «Annals» of the Dorpat
Observatory' that he began to publish in 1814.
At that time W. Struve was thinking on observations of stars close
to the Northern pole and devised sweeping plans for the future. In
1816 W. Struve was asked by the Livland Public Utility and Economic
Society to make a survey on which a new map of Livland could be
based. Although W. Struve had neither knowledgeable assistants nor
perfect instrumentation he succeeded in fulfilling that first geodetic
survey wonderfully well. That work evoked his interest in applied
astronomy and led him to an idea of measuring the arc 3.5° of the
meridian for solution of the problem of the figure and size of the
Earth. W. Struve presented a detailed plan for that scientific undertaking
to the Government and obtained financial support for its execution in
1819. In this connection he went abroad to acquire new instruments
and to get acquainted with new for him methods of observations in
the summer of 1820. During that voyage he visited all the best
observatories of his Motherland and met Bessel in Konigsberg. In
Konigsberg he also got to know the young astronomer Argelander who
became very well known later. Their friendship and collaboration
lasted nearly 50 years.
W. Struve returned to Dorpat in the winter of 1820 and started
his preparations for measuring the arc of the meridian and continued
his observations at the Observatory. The observatory received a new
Reichenbach meridian circle and W. Struve commenced his observations
with the aim of determining star positions in the sky (declination
determination) and investigated the instrument in every detail. W. Struve
called himself Bessel's pupil and was very. creative in developing his
teacher's methods of observation and investigation.
Simultaneously he measured arcs of the meridian, finished the work
in 1827 and published the results in 1831.
In 1822 W. Struve was elected Corresponding Member of the St.
Petersburg Academy of Sciences and in 1826 he became its honorary
Academician. By that time the Dorpat Observatory had been equipped
with the Fraunhofer 9-inch refractor, known as «the Great Refractor*.
This instrument made possible W. Struve's greatest work — systematic
discovery and observation of visual double stars. Simultaneously he
delivered lectures at the university and taught astronomy to naval
officers and staff officers.
In 1827 the Russian Academy of Sciences was engaged in devising
plans for building a new astronomical observatory in Russia. W. Struve
was sent abroad in 1830 to get acquainted with the best observatories
of that time. He reported on the results of his voyage and gave
remarks concerning the St. Petersburg Observatory during his audience
with Tsar Nicholas I. The Tsar was favourably impressed. The 37
year old energetic astronomer urged the Emperor that a new
observatory should be built. A commission was appointed (Schubert,
Parrot, Struve and Fuss: under Admiral Greig in charge of devising a
statute of the future observatory.
W. Struve took part in the work of the commission and in some
other work but still continued his investigations at the Dorpat
University. He carried on with his observations of double stars, planets
and their satellites and comets with the Fraunhofer refractor. For 12
years of observations W. Struve investigated relative positions of more
than 2710 double stars. He otten went abroad and to St. Petersburg.
In 1832 W. Struve was elected Member of the St. Petersburg
Academy of Sciences.
W. Struve considered Dorpat as his home town where he lived and
worked for 31 years. Thanks to his fruitful activities a new era in the
field of observational astronomy was introduced in Russia, and the
Dorpat Observatory became model for the Pulkovo Observatory. Chapter III Following W. Struve's energetic and fruitful research activities one
can have an impression that he was a dedicated scientist without any
private life. But it wasn't so.
W. Struve got married to Emilia Wall at the age of 22 in 1815.
She came from a respectable family of merchants in Altona. He led a
very quiet family life and although he then had more things to care
for it didn't influence noticeably his research work activities. The family
lived in Dorpat in a small one-story cottage on the observatory grounds.
They had 8 their own children and 4 nephews. After his first wife's
death in 1834 W. Struve married again one year later. He was greatly
concerned about the fate and education of his children. His second wife
was Joanna Bartels, the daughter of a well-known Professor of
Mathematics who had been the teacher of Gauss in his young years.
Joanna eagerly lent her helping hand to W. Struve and shared all his
earthly troubles. He had 4 children by her.
W. Struve's scientific interests influenced the life and fate of his
children. His eldest son Otto soon became his active assistant and his
worthy successor later. As Sawitsch remarked about W. Struve's family
life, it did as much credit to his kind heart as his scientific discoveries
to his high intellect. Chapter IV W. Struve presented in detail his general views on the history and
importance of an astronomical observatory and on practical astronomy
and geodesy in Russia beginning with Peter I in his work «Description
de 1'observatoire de Pulkovo*. Nothing a tremendous success in
astronomical observations at the Greenwich Observatory in XVIII
century W. Struve considered reasons for that in his work. He closely
studied the history of that institution and found out it peculiarities. The
fact was that from the very beginning all the astronomers of that
observatory worked according to one plan and had the same goals. On
the King's order the astronomers were to correct tables of the motions
of celestial bodies and of positions of fixed stars on the basis of their
observations in order to be able to determine the longitude at sea
which is so necessary for navigation.
The Greenwich Observatory served for W. Struve as a model in
many respects when he was organizing the Dorpat and Pulkovo
Observatories.
W. Struve noted in the above mentioned work that his predecessors
astronomers Grishov, Rumovsky, Schubert who had been in charge of
the St. Petersburg Observatory had developed an idea of founding a
central observatory meeting all requirements of modern science. But
only W, Struve succeeded in realizing that idea because he could attract
the attention of Emperor Nicholas I thanks to his successful scientific
activity.
Chapter V W. Struve played the main part in founding the Pulkovo
Observatory although officially he was only considered one of the
members of the commission charged with this task.
The Emperor himself participated in the foundation of the
Observatory. Nicholas I who knew very well the environs of St.
Petersburg chose a site for the observatory. It was the Pulkovo hill 8
verstas (8.5 km) from Tsarskoye Selo and 19 verstas (20.3 km) from
the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. A plot of land (20 desiatin
0.22 km ) was presented by the Emperor to the Academy of Sciences.
The main building of the Pulkovo Observatory was built to the
design of architect A. Briullov, who fully realized all the ideas of W.
Struve.
The ceremony of the foundation of the observatory took place on
June 21, 1835. Meanwhile the first instruments of the observatory were
being manufactured to orders and with participation of W. Struve at
Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, London and St. Petersburg. W. Struve's ideas
and proposals were introduced into the designs of the instruments. One
of his pupils, Pohrt from Dorpat, was his assistant, who was in charge
of the delivery of the instruments to Pulkovo.
Foundation of the Pulkovo Observatory was an important event in
the academic world and aroused universal interest.
As the instruments were delivered they were assembled and installed
in their final positions. The following scientists assisted W. Struve as
far as astronomy was concerned: Fuss, Otto Struve and Sabler. W.
Struve gave a loving and detailed description of the history of the
foundation of the Pulkovo Observatory in «Description de 1'observatoire
central de Pulkovo*.
The inauguration of the Pulkovo Observatory took place on August
7, 1839. Representatives from Moscow and other cities and towns of
Russia, all the members of the Academy, officials, foreign ambassadors
and distinguished scholars were present at the ceremony. After Divine
Office was celebrated and inaugurating speech of the Director of the
Observatory W. Struve was delivered the participants were given medals,
struck for the occasion and the guests then dispersed through the
various rooms of the observatory. The Emperor visited the observatory
on September 26 and attended W. Struve's 2-hour long report on the
organization of the observatory, design and quality of the instruments
and on the scientific significance of the institution. W. Strove was
decorated with St. Stanislaw's Order of the third degree and monetary
bonuses for his labours and service. From the very beginning W. Struve chose the astronomical field
that corresponded best of all to the climate of Pulkovo, its geographical
position and instrumentation available. That was stellar astronomy.
Pulkovo astronomers were culturally German and belonged to the
German school in astronomy, whose founders had been Herschel,
Gauss and Bessel. Hansen advised the Pulkovo Observatory in
theoretical astronomy and Argelander in practical astronomy.
The Director of the Greenwich Observatory Sir George Airy was
of very high opinion of the Pulkovo Observatory, as well as the
American astronomer Newcomb who had visited Pulkovo. Chapter VI On June 19, 1838 the Statute of the observatory was adopted. It
stated the goals of the Observatory as follows:
In this connection the astronomers of the observatory were engaged
in pure scientific studies and in geographical — geodetical surveys that
were so urgently needed by Russia. W. Struve went to the Tambov
Gubern'a (Region) for the observation of the total solar eclipse in 1842
and simultaneously he determined the geographical position of a few
most important sites. The longitude of Pulkovo was also determined
relative to Greenwich. The officers of the topographical corps took part
in the work. Determinations of geographical positions made with the
Pulkovo methods became a good basis for precise cartography in
Russia.
The Pulkovo Observatory had also close contacts with the
hydrographic department, the General Staff headquarters and the
Geographical Society of Russia when organizing expeditions to the
Urals, East Siberia and Chinese border. Thus for the first 20 years of
its existence the Pulkovo Observatory was the center of all
astronomical-geodetical surveys done in Russia.
At the same time W. Struve and his scholars continued their meas¬
urement of the arc of the meridian, extending their activity to the
Danube river in the south and Sweden in the North. This over 40-year
long work is known as Russo-Scandinavian measurements of the arc.
In this connection W. Struve carried out also an extensive comparative
investigation on different measurement units used in geodesy in various
countries.
The Pulkovo, Observatory was engaged in training young scholars
and geodesists from Russia and abroad. The officers of the
geodetic department of the Imperial Navy Academy .and of the
General Staff finished their education with a two-year practical
course at Pulkovo. In this work W. Struve was assisted by Dollen and
Sawitsch.
Being aware of the importance of a library for the Pulkovo
Observatory W. Struve paid much attention to its assembling. The
Pulkovo Observatory library soon ranked among the best European
libraries. The library possessed 9200 volumes and 9600 dissertation
theses in 1865. It was the director's pride and it included rare
manuscripts, Kepler's manuscripts, fox example. The entire activity of the
Pulkovo Observatory then was rendered in special reports and
communications published in the publications of the St. Petersburg
Academy.
Chapter VII
As the years passed W. Struve was paying less attention to administration and concentrated on his own scientific research studies. At that time his son Otto Struve was the Second Astronomer of the Observatory and showed such a gift for administration that the Director allowed him to bear a large measure of responsibility for the Observatory. In 1857 W. Struve's health got worse and the relative urged him to take a vacation and go abroad. However, W. Struve used that last trip of his for negotiations with foreign scientists on the measurement of the Astrachan — Atlantic Ocean longitude through Europe. He evoked much interest to that issue in England and Continent. The solution of that problem would enable a determination of the Earth's figure and size by geodetic methods. In the beginning of 1858 W. Struve's health failed. He could not do his research on the large-scale. He moved to St. Petersburg in 1859 and only spent summer months at Pulkovo. In 1861 he resigned and his eledest son Otto became Director. In spite of his ill health and poor memory W. Struve continued to work and to prepare his new investigation on double stars for publication, but that work was never to be finished by him. In 1863 W. Struve celebrated the 50th anniversary of his doctorate and he lived to be present at the 25-year jubilee of the Pulkovo. Observatory that was widely celebrated by the Russian astronomers.
He died peacefully on November 11, 1864 at 4 o'clock in the morning.
Chapter VIII
W. Herschel, the founder of stellar astronomy as an exact science once wrote that his final target had always been knowledge of the structure of the sky. His words could also be referred to W. Struve who was Herschel's successor. W. Struve's investigations were revelant to those of Herschel and were mainly concerned with the Milky Way, double stars, solar motion and other issues of stellar astronomy. In «Etudes d'Astronomie Stellaire» W. Struve analysed the results of long term investigations of these problems. Determination of the atmospheric refraction of the Earth, derivation ot precise positions of bright stars in the sky and numerous observations of planets, their satellites and comets, were the most interesting and important achievements of W. Struve. He determined Jupiter's ellipticity, the size of Saturn and its rings and calculated their positions with respect to the ecliptic using the great refractor. Observations of comets, made by W. Struve were very accurate, which was noted by many researchers. He also carried out fundamental studies on determination of annual parallaxes of stars. W. Struve discovered undoubtful rotation for 58 pairs of double stars while studying motions and magnitude of physical double systems. He published a catalog containing 3112 double stars of the Northern sky. His merit is great in the field of geodesy. The Russo — Scandinavian arc of over 25° (2645 verstas) was measured extending along the Dorpat meridian. As contemporaries noted that great undertaking was fulfilled thanks to W. Struve's energy, knowledge and extraodinary talent. That work enabled an accurate determination of the figure of the Earth. W. Struve's heritage is great. It includes discoveries, observations and methods of observations and investigations. His activity is enetered for ever in the annals of the universal history.
E.F. Litvinova
Translated from the Russian by Irena N. Voronina
