Kenneth Edgeworth

Kenneth Essex Edgeworth, DSO, MC (26 February 1880, Streete – 10 October 1972, Dublin) was an Irish engineer, theoretical astronomer and economist. He is best known for proposing the existence of a disc of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune from the 1930s: observations later confirmed the existence of the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt in 1992.

Early life

He was born on 26th February 1880 at Daramona House, Streete, Co. Westmeath, Ireland to Elisabeth Dupré Wilson and Thomas Edgeworth. His father's family was from Kilshruley [also Kilshrewley], Co. Longford. near Edgeworthstown, whose estates were the seats of his father's ancestors; William Wilson, his uncle on his mother's side and the owner of Daramona, built an observatory there and with George Minchin and George Fitzgerald made various types of observations, including pioneering photometric measurements of starlight.[1][2] Edgeworth's family moved to the estate at Kilshrewly four years after his birth. He remained a regular visitor to the observatory, meeting Wilson's scientific friends, and he later dedicated his autobiography to him. When aged 14, he went to Marlborough College on a scholarship.[3][4][5][6][7]

Military career

When aged 17, he attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, London, where he won the Pollock Medal (for the best cadet) in 1898. He also attended the Royal School of Military Engineering at Chatham and served a commission in the Corps of Royal Engineers in Egypt, South Africa, Somaliland, Chatham and Dublin. In the First World War he served in Royal Corps of Signals to maintain communications in France, was mentioned in dispatches three times and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and retired in 1926. Sometime during his military years, he became a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. He was chief engineer in the posts and telegraphs department for five years in Sudan; he also wrote a paper on thermionic generators around this time.[8] In 1931, he returned to his parents' home Cherbury, in Booterstown.[3]

Economic and astronomical career

In 1902, Wilson had proposed his nephew for election to the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS); Edgeworth was duly elected in April 1903 and a paper of his was read at the meeting.[8] He studied international economics during the Great depression and wrote five books about it during the 1930s and 1940s. He also wrote about the usage of turf as a fuel. Influenced by his uncle's former astronomical endeavours, he published scientific papers (at least from 1939) on the Solar system, star formation, red dwarf stars and astronomical redshifts. He said in 1938 that Pluto (discovered eight years earlier by Clyde Tombaugh) was too small to be a planet but was likely a large example of the original material of the Solar system. In the Journal of the British Astronomical Association (BAA), he published The Evolution of Our Planetary System in 1943 (the same year that he was elected to the BAA), with a key reference to a mass of comets existing past Neptune. He was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 1948. In 1949 he followed his 1943 paper with The Origin and Evolution of the Solar System. He suggested there was a huge number of small bodies at a great distance, with infrequent clustering limiting their size, but with the occasional inward cometary visitor. In 1950, Jan Oort published his paper in which the Oort cloud was put forward. A year after that, Gerard Kuiper presented his paper at the 50th anniversary symposium of Yerkes Observatory and it is not known why he did not refer to Edgeworth's papers.[9][10] [11][12] The Edgeworth-Kuiper belt has been most frequently referred to as the Kuiper belt and this has caused a dispute:

From Steven J. Dick, in Discovery and Classification in Astronomy: Controversy and Consensus:
"...others also envisioned trans-Neptunian objects beyond Pluto. As with most Americans, in this book we use the term "Kuiper Belt," demonstrating that if classes and classification systems are socially constructed... nomenclature is even more so."[13]
From Dr. Alan Stern, principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto, reported in the Irish Times:
"Kenneth Edgeworth probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves. In 1943 and 1949 he had papers that were brilliant. He nailed it."[10]

Edgeworth published his autobiography, aged 85, in 1965. He died in Dublin in 1972.

Publications

Edgeworth published on topics of engineering, economics and astronomy. His known books and papers include the following[14][15]:

  • Frequency variations in thermionic generators. (London, IEE, 1926)
  • The industrial crisis, its causes and its lessons. (London, G. Allen & Unwin Ltd.,1933)
  • The trade balance; a problem in national planning. (London, G. Allen & Unwin Ltd.,1934)
  • The price level; a further problem in national planning. (London, G. Allen & Unwin Ltd.,1935)
  • A plan for the distressed areas. (location/publisher unidentified, 1936)
  • The Fission of Rotating Bodies. (London, Monthly Noices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol.99, 1939)
  • The manufacture of peat fuel. (Paper read at the Royal Dublin Society, 26th November, 1940)(Dublin, Royal Dublin Society, 1940)
  • Unemployment can be cured. (Dublin, Eason, 1941; London, distributed by Simpkin & Marshall, 1944)
  • Turf. (Dublin, Sign of the Three Candles, 1944)
  • Some Aspects of Stellar Evolution [papers I - III] (London, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 106, 1946)
  • Some Aspects of Stellar Evolution [paper IV] (London, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 108, 1948)
  • The Origin and Evolution of the Solar System (London, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vols. 109, 1949)
  • The Earth, the Planets, and the Stars: Their Birth and Evolution. (London, Chapman & Hall/New York, Macmillan,1961)
  • Jack of All Trades – The Story of My Life. (Dublin, Alan Figgis, 1965)

Legacy

The asteroid 3487 Edgeworth (1978 UF), a main-belt asteroid discovered on October 28, 1978 by H. L. Giclas at Flagstaff, is named in his honour.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Butler, C.J, Elliot, I., eds. (1993). Stellar Photometry: Current Techniques and Future Developments: IAU Colloquium 136. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 3.
  2. ↑ Butler, C. J. "Early Photelectric Photometry in Dublin and Daramona". Irish Astronomical Journal. 17(3): 373.
  3. 1 2 Hollis, Andrew. "Kenneth Essex Edgeworth – A biographical note". www.britastro.org. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  4. ↑ McFarland, John (1996). "Kenneth Essex Edgeworth – Victorian Polymath and Founder of the Kuiper Belt?". Vistas in Astronomy. 40: 343–354.
  5. ↑ Brück, M. T. (1996). "News & comments: The Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt?". Irish Astronomical Journal. Dubln. 23: 3–6.
  6. ↑ Hughes, Stefan (2012). Catchers of the Light: The Forgotten Lives of the Men and Women Who First Photographed the Heavens. Cyprus: ArtDeCiel Publishing. p. 608.
  7. ↑ "History: Information about our town and its rich history". www.edgeworthstown.net. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  8. 1 2 3 "An Aldershot connection with astronomer K. E. Edgeworth". www.farnham-as.co.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  9. ↑ Elkins-Tanton, Linda T. (2006). Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and the Outer Solar System. New York: Chelsea House.
  10. 1 2 Enright, Leo (17 July 2015). "Pluto images boost legacy of a dogged Irish astronomer". The Irish Times. Dublin.
  11. ↑ "Comet". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  12. ↑ "Kuiper belt". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  13. ↑ Dick, Steven J. (2013). Discovery and Classification in Astronomy: Controversy and Consensus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 373.
  14. ↑ "Edgeworth, Kenneth Essex 1880-1972". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  15. ↑ "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society". academic.oup.com. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
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