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ROEMER, OLE (Latinized OLAUS) (1644—1...

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 452 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROEMER, OLE (Latinized OLAUS) (1644—1710) , Danish astronomer, was See also:born at Aarhuus in See also:Jutland on the 25th of See also:September 1644. He became in 1662 the See also:pupil and See also:amanuensis of See also:Erasmus See also:Bartholinus at See also:Copenhagen, and assisted J. See also:Picard in 1671 to determine the See also:geographical position of Tycho See also:Brahe's See also:observatory (Uraniborg on the See also:island of Hveen). In 1672 he accompanied Picard to See also:Paris, where he remained nine years, occupied. with observations at the new royal observatory and See also:hydraulic See also:works at See also:Versailles and Marly. On the 22nd of See also:November 1675 he read a See also:paper before the See also:Academy on the successive See also:propagation of See also:light as revealed by a certain inequality in the See also:motion of the first of See also:Jupiter's satellites. A scientific See also:mission to See also:England in 1679 made him acquainted with See also:Newton, See also:Halley and See also:Flamsteed. In 1681, on the See also:summons of See also:Christian V., See also:king of See also:Denmark, he returned to Copenhagen as royal mathematician and See also:professor of See also:astronomy in the university ; and from 1688 he discharged, besides, many important administrative functions, including those of See also:mayor (1705), See also:chief of See also:police and privy councillor. He died at Copenhagen on the 23rd of September 1710, Roemer will always be remembered as the discoverer of the finite velocity of light. He showed besides wonderful ingenuity in the improvement of astronomical apparatus. The first transit See also:instrument worthy the name was in 1690 erected in his See also:house. In the same See also:year he set up in the university observatory an instrument with See also:altitude and See also:azimuth circles (for observing equal altitudes on both sides of the See also:meridian) and an See also:equatorial See also:telescope. In 1704 he built, at his own cost, the so-called " Tusculan " . observatory at Vridlosemagle, a few See also:miles See also:west of Copenhagen, and equipped it with a meridian circle (the transit instrument and See also:vertical circle combined) and a transit moving in the See also:prime vertical.

Roemer thus effectively realized nearly all our See also:

modern See also:instruments of precision, and accumulated with them a large See also:mass of observations, all of which unfortunately perished in the See also:great conflagration of the 21st of See also:October 1728, except the three nights' See also:work discussed by J. G. See also:Galle (O. Roemeri triduum observationum astronomicarum a. 1706 institutarum, See also:Berlin, 1845)• See E. Philipsen, Nordisk Universitets Tidskrift, v. r r (186o) ; P. Horrebow, Basis Astronomiae (Copenhagen, 1735) ; J. B. See also:Delambre, Hist. de l'astr. modern, ii. 632; J. F. See also:Montucla, Hist. See also:des mathematiques, ii.

487, 579; R. See also:

Grant, Hist. of Phys. Astronomy, p. 461; R. See also:Wolf, Gesch. der Astronomie, pp. 452, 489, 576; J. F. Weidler, Historia Astronomiae, p. 538; W. Doberck, Nature, xvii. 105 ; C. See also:Huygens, tEuvres completes, t. viii. pp.

30–58; L. Ambronn, Handbuch der astr. Instrumentenkunde, ii. 552, 966;T. J. J. See, Pop. Astronomy, No. 105, May 1903.

End of Article: ROEMER, OLE (Latinized OLAUS) (1644—1710)

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