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Ernest Brown
Times obituary
LEADING AUTHORITY ON LUNAR THEORY
The death of Professor Ernest William Brown of Yale University, the leading authority on the branch of astronomy known as lunar theory, which calls for the highest skill in mathematics as applied to science, occurred at New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Professor Brown was an Englishman, born at Hull on November 29, 1866.
He was educated at a school in Totteridge, Herts, and at East Riding College, and was afterwards a scholar and later a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. He took his degree as sixth wrangler in the mathematical tripos of 1887 and, electing to pursue astronomy as a career, joined the Royal Astronomical Society in January 1889 and, in December 1891, contributed a paper giving his views on methods of treating lunar theory This theory, or investigation of formulae that will represent the motion of the moon and predict its position, has engaged the attention of famous mathematicians from the time of Newton down to the present day, and in voluminous memoirs of the R.A.S. published in 1897 and 1899 Professor Brown gives a "New Calculation of the Expressions for the Coordinates of the Moon in Terms of Time," in which he sets forth the nature of the problem and says that for the last six years he had been attempting to develop ideas contained in Hill's "Researches" by methods of his own. During this period he had been Professor of Applied Mathematics at Haverford College, Pennsylvania, a position he took up in 1891. In 1896 he published a textbook, or rather a treatise, on lunar theory, the general aim of which was to show the correspondence between the theories of Laplace, de Pontecoulant, Hansen, and Delaunay, and in which he endeavoured, with considerable success, to simplify the methods of those writers, especially Hansen.
Professor Brown received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for his research in lunar theory in February 1907, becoming the seventh astronomer to whom that award had been made for similar work. In the autumn of the same year, he left Haverford for Yale, where he took up the position of Professor of Mathematics; but the Yale authorities, recognizing the importance of his work, arranged special facilities for its continuance and generously undertook to provide funds for the preparation and publication of results. Brown's lunar tables were introduced into the British Nautical Almanac in 1923, replacing those of Hansen, with Newcomb's correction, as the fundamental data for calculating the position of the moon
But the problem is not yet solved. A few years ago, Professor Brown proposed an attack from the observational side and proposed utilising the observation of occultations of stars to a greater extent than hitherto to map the moon's path and improve the theory. The suggestion has been met by the N.A. authorities, who have enlarged that section of their publication, and today there are observers in many parts of the world making, through simple observations, a contribution to a by no means simple research.
Professor Brown retired from his post and became Emeritus Professor in 1934, but continued to live in America. He was unmarried. Of elegant presence and of unassuming friendly character, he was a welcome guest to British astronomers on his occasional visits to his native country. He was elected F.R.S. in 1897.
LEADING AUTHORITY ON LUNAR THEORY
The death of Professor Ernest William Brown of Yale University, the leading authority on the branch of astronomy known as lunar theory, which calls for the highest skill in mathematics as applied to science, occurred at New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Professor Brown was an Englishman, born at Hull on November 29, 1866.
He was educated at a school in Totteridge, Herts, and at East Riding College, and was afterwards a scholar and later a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. He took his degree as sixth wrangler in the mathematical tripos of 1887 and, electing to pursue astronomy as a career, joined the Royal Astronomical Society in January 1889 and, in December 1891, contributed a paper giving his views on methods of treating lunar theory This theory, or investigation of formulae that will represent the motion of the moon and predict its position, has engaged the attention of famous mathematicians from the time of Newton down to the present day, and in voluminous memoirs of the R.A.S. published in 1897 and 1899 Professor Brown gives a "New Calculation of the Expressions for the Coordinates of the Moon in Terms of Time," in which he sets forth the nature of the problem and says that for the last six years he had been attempting to develop ideas contained in Hill's "Researches" by methods of his own. During this period he had been Professor of Applied Mathematics at Haverford College, Pennsylvania, a position he took up in 1891. In 1896 he published a textbook, or rather a treatise, on lunar theory, the general aim of which was to show the correspondence between the theories of Laplace, de Pontecoulant, Hansen, and Delaunay, and in which he endeavoured, with considerable success, to simplify the methods of those writers, especially Hansen.
Professor Brown received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for his research in lunar theory in February 1907, becoming the seventh astronomer to whom that award had been made for similar work. In the autumn of the same year, he left Haverford for Yale, where he took up the position of Professor of Mathematics; but the Yale authorities, recognizing the importance of his work, arranged special facilities for its continuance and generously undertook to provide funds for the preparation and publication of results. Brown's lunar tables were introduced into the British Nautical Almanac in 1923, replacing those of Hansen, with Newcomb's correction, as the fundamental data for calculating the position of the moon
But the problem is not yet solved. A few years ago, Professor Brown proposed an attack from the observational side and proposed utilising the observation of occultations of stars to a greater extent than hitherto to map the moon's path and improve the theory. The suggestion has been met by the N.A. authorities, who have enlarged that section of their publication, and today there are observers in many parts of the world making, through simple observations, a contribution to a by no means simple research.
Professor Brown retired from his post and became Emeritus Professor in 1934, but continued to live in America. He was unmarried. Of elegant presence and of unassuming friendly character, he was a welcome guest to British astronomers on his occasional visits to his native country. He was elected F.R.S. in 1897.
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