The Vernal Equinox issue of E-Cass featured an article by R. Brooks and C. Klatt on the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Dominion Observatory (D.O.). It contains some startling statements and downright errors. The article credits Otto Klotz instead of W.F. King (or jointly with King) with conceiving the notion of a national observatory which became the Dominion Observatory.
A thoroughly-researched history of the D.O. by John Hodgson [1] leaves no doubt that, officially, it was King and Clifford Sifton, Minister of the Interior, whose initiative persuaded the federal government to build an astronomical observatory in the national capital. It would conduct astronomical research in addition to basic time-keeping and the determination of longitude. We can credit Klotz with persuading Sifton to shift the site away from Parliament Hill (King's choice), to the Central Experimental Farm (Sifton's choice).
Hodgson explores the often fractious relationship between King and Klotz in some detail. He makes clear that they depended strongly on each other in the opening stages of promoting the observatory but fell out quickly over the central issues of of programs, content, and staff. Klotz opposed the purchase of the 15" equatorial telescope and the inclusion of astrophysical programs. He resented the appointment of J.S. Plaskett to the staff of the new observatory. King is credited with ordering the solar coelostat that was used by an expedition sent to Labrador to observe the total solar eclipse of 1905 August 30. Its scientific leader was J.S. Plaskett. It is unlikely that Klotz played any role in initiating solar research in Ottawa.
Another startling claim by Brooks and Klatt is that: "Under Plaskettıs leadership - much to Frederick Kingıs chagrin - and with a large, well equipped instrument and a growing staff, Victoria became a leading centre for astrophysical studies". Had he so expressed himself, King must have possessed extraordinary powers of clairvoyance - or the ability to communicate from beyond the grave. He died in 1916, while Plaskett was still in Ottawa packing instruments to ship to the still unfinished observatory in Victoria. Plaskett's laudatory tone for his old chief in King's obituary [2] further renders the alleged expression of envy highly suspect.
The decommissioning of the meridian transit at D.O. preceded the transfer in 1970 of the astronomy programs to NRC by almost a decade. The mirror transit was intended to be its replacement and to increase accuracy in measuring stellar positions by eliminating instrumental flexure and by modernizing angular readouts. It was completely unrelated to solar studies. The telescope at the Ottawa River Solar Observatory was a folded refractor, not a reflector.
The conclusion that superior time-keeping by the atomic clock project at NRC drove the merger of astronomy programs at the D.O. (as well as D.A.O.) and NRC is a simplistic interpretation of a complex situation. Collapse of support for the Queen Elizabeth II Telescope Project on Mt. Kobau, B.C., would have played a greater role in accelerating a merger that had been talked about for almost a decade.
V. Gaizauskas (victor.gaizauskas@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca)
[1] J. H. Hodgson, "The Heavens above and the Earth Beneath: A History of the Dominion Observatories, Vol. 1", Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 1945, 1989.
[2] J.S. Plaskett, "W.F. King", J.R.A.S.C., 10, 267, 1916.