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OLBERS, HEINRICH WILHELM MATTHIAS (17...

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 63 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OLBERS, HEINRICH WILHELM See also:MATTHIAS (1758-1840) , See also:German astronomer, was See also:born on the xxth of See also:October 1758 at Arbergen, a See also:village near See also:Bremen, where his See also:father was See also:minister. He studied See also:medicine at See also:Gottingen, 1777-1780, attending at the same See also:time Kaestner's mathematical course; and in x779, while watching by the sick-See also:bed of a See also:fellow-student, he devised a method of calculating cometary orbits which made an See also:epoch in the treatment of the subject, and is still extensively used. The See also:treatise containing this important invention was made public by See also:Baron von See also:Zach under the See also:title Ueber See also:die leichteste and bequemste Methode die Bahn eines See also:Camden zu berechnen (See also:Weimar, 1797). A table of eighty-seven calculated orbits was appended, enlarged by See also:Encke in the second edition (1847) to 178, and by See also:Galle in the third (1864) to 242. Olbers settled as a physician in Bremen towards the end of 1781, and practised actively for above See also:forty years, finally retiring on the 1st of See also:January 1823. The greater See also:part of each See also:night (he never slept more than four See also:hours) was meantime devoted to See also:astronomy, the upper portion of his See also:house being fitted up as an See also:observatory. He paid See also:special See also:attention to comets, and that of 1815 (See also:period seventy-four years) bears his name in See also:commemoration of its detection by him. He also took a leading part in the See also:discovery of the See also:minor See also:planets, re-identified See also:Ceres on the 1st of January 1802, and detected See also:Pallas on the 28th of See also:March following. His bold See also:hypothesis of their origin by the disruption of a See also:primitive large See also:planet (Monatliche Correspondenz, vi. 88), although now discarded, received countenance from the finding of See also:Juno by See also:Harding, and of See also:Vesta by himself, in the precise regions of See also:Cetus and See also:Virgo where the nodes of such supposed planetary fragments should be situated. Olbers was deputed by his fellow-citizens to assist at the See also:baptism of the See also:king of See also:Rome on the 9th of See also:June 1811, and he was a member of the See also:corps legislatif in See also:Paris 1812-1813. He died on the and of March 184o, at the See also:age of eighty-one.

He was twice married, and one son survived him. See Biographische Skizzen verstorbener Bremischer Aerzte, by Dr G. Barkhausen (Bremen, 1844) ; Allgemeine geographische Ephemeriden, iv. 283 (1799) ; Abstracts Phil. Trans. iv. 268 (1843) Astronomische Nachrichten, xxii. 265 (See also:

Bessel), also appended to A. See also:Erman's Briefwechsel zwischen Olbers and Bessel (2 vols., See also:Leipzig, 1852) ; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (S. See also:Gunther) ; R. See also:Grant, Hist. of Phys. See also:Asir. p. 239; R.

See also:

Wolf, Geschichte der Astronomie, p. 517. The first two volumes of Dr C. Schilling's exhaustive See also:work, Wilhelm Olbers, sein Leben and See also:seine Werke, appeared at See also:Berlin in 1894 and 1900, a third and later See also:volume including his See also:personal See also:correspondence and See also:biography. A See also:list of Olbers's contributions to scientific See also:periodicals is given at p. See also:xxxv of the 3rd ed. of his Leichteste Methode, and his unique collection of See also:works See also:relating to comets now forms part of the Pulkowa library.

End of Article: OLBERS, HEINRICH WILHELM MATTHIAS (1758-1840)

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