Winslow Upton

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Winslow Upton
Portrait of Winslow Upton
BornOctober 12, 1853 (1853-10-12)
Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedJanuary 8, 1914 (1914-01-09) (aged 60)
Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Alma materBrown University, University of Cincinnati
SpouseCornelia Augusta Babcock
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy, Meteorology
InstitutionsLadd Observatory
Doctoral studentsFrederick Slocum

Winslow Upton (October 12, 1853 – January 8, 1914) was an American astronomer.[1] He published extensively on the subject of meteorology.[2]

Biography[edit]

He received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and was valedictorian when he graduated in 1875.[1] Upton then worked as an assistant at Mitchel Observatory of the University of Cincinnati where he received his master's degree in 1877.[1] He later received an honorary doctorate from Brown in 1906.[3]

He became an assistant astronomer at the Harvard Observatory in 1877. During this time he wrote a parody of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore titled Observatory Pinafore.[4] Then he became an assistant engineer for the U. S. Lake Survey from 1879. In 1880 he was a computer at the U.S. Naval Observatory. He was a computer and assistant professor at the U.S. Signal Service in 1881.[5][6] He was appointed professor and head of the department of astronomy at Brown in 1884.[3] He then became director of Ladd Observatory when it opened in 1891.[7] During his tenure Upton also served as secretary of the faculty and dean at Brown.[2]

He was a member of the U. S. government eclipse expeditions of 1878 and 1883, also of two private expeditions sent out in 1887 and 1889, and in 1896-97 was attached to the southern station of Harvard University at Arequipa, Peru.[8] His systematic research studying meteorology during solar eclipses has been described as "pioneering."[9]

He married Cornelia Augusta Babcock in 1882 and they had two children. Eleanor Stuart Upton was a librarian at the John Carter Brown Library and Yale University Library. Margaret Frances Upton taught bacteriology. She was also a lab technician and research assistant at hospitals.[10]

Published works[edit]

Upton wrote a monthly astronomy column for the Providence Journal for twenty years.[3]

  • Upton, Winslow (1881). Information Relative to the Construction and Maintenance of Time Balls. Professional Papers of the Signal Service. Vol. 5. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  • Upton, Winslow (1883). "Lectures on Practical Astronomy". In Hazen, W. B. (ed.). Annual Report of the Chief Signal Officer, United States Army, to the Secretary of War. Vol. 1. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. pp. 102–120. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  • Upton, Winslow (1885). "The Use of the Spectroscope in Meteorological Observations". Memorie della Societa Degli Spettroscopisti Italiani. 13: 113. Bibcode:1885MmSSI..13..113U.
  • Upton, Winslow (1887). An Investigation of Cyclonic Phenomena in New England. Ann Arbor, MI: Register Publishing House. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  • Upton, Winslow; Rotch, Abbott Lawrence; Pickering, Edward Charles (1893). "Meteorological and other observations made at Willows, California, in connection with the total solar eclipse of January 1, 1889". Annals of Harvard College Observatory. 29 (1): 1. Bibcode:1893AnHar..29....1U.
  • Upton, Winslow (1896). Star atlas, containing stars visible to the naked eye. Boston: Ginn & Co. LCCN 05008125. Retrieved 14 January 2020.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Slocum, Frederick (1914). "Winslow Upton". Popular Astronomy. 22: 208–211. Bibcode:1914PA.....22..208S.
  2. ^ a b Archibald, R. C. (1914). "Winslow Upton". Science. 39 (997): 202–204. Bibcode:1914Sci....39..202A. doi:10.1126/science.39.997.202. PMID 17747743.
  3. ^ a b c "Professor Upton, Astronomer, Dead". Providence Daily Journal. January 9, 1914.
  4. ^ Grier, David Alan (2013). "A Carpet for the Computing Room". When Computers Were Human. Princeton University Press. pp. 84–87. ISBN 9781400849369.
  5. ^ Upton, William Henry (1893). "American Uptons". Upton Family Records: Being Genealogical Collections for an Upton Family History. London: Mitchell and Hughs. pp. 315–316. LCCN 09015478.
  6. ^ Mitchell, Martha (1993). "Upton, Winslow". Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Providence, RI: Brown University Library. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  7. ^ Mitchell, Martha (1993). "Ladd Observatory". Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Providence, RI: Brown University Library. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  8. ^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Upton, Winslow" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
  9. ^ Aplin, K. L.; Scott, C. J.; Gray, S. L. (2016). "Atmospheric changes from solar eclipses". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 374 (2077): 20150217. arXiv:1603.02987. Bibcode:2016RSPTA.37450217A. doi:10.1098/rsta.2015.0217. PMID 27550760. S2CID 43141269.
  10. ^ Upton family papers. Northampton, MA: Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History, Smith College Libraries.

Further reading[edit]

  • Upton, Eleanor S.; Upton, Margaret F. (1971). An Earth-Bound Astronomer: Winslow Upton. Northhamton, MA: Metcalf Printing. ASIN B00070N68Q.
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