Centenary of Flammarion
1942; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 149; Issue: 3773 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1038/149217a0
ISSN1476-4687
AutoresHarry N. Holmes, William J. Evans,
ResumoCAMILLE FLAMMARION, the French astronomer whose books found readers in all parts of the globe, was born on February 25, 1842, at the small town of Montigny-le-Roi, in Haute-Marne. The son of a shopkeeper, he was educated at a church school and then began work in an engraver's office. His merits being brought to the notice of Leverrier, at the age of sixteen he was given a place in the Paris Observatory, where he stayed four years. At the age of twenty he published his first book, “The Plurality of Inhabited Worlds”, the forerunner of his “The Marvels of the Heavens”, “Popular Astronomy”,“The Planet Mars”, “Astronomy for Amateurs” and many others. His “ Popular Astronomy ” when first published in French in 1879 was awarded the Montyon Prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences and was selected for use in the French public libraries. Through an admirer of his writings, Flammarion, in 1883, came into possession of a small chateau and park at Juvisy-sur-Orge and he built an observatory there. The previous year he had founded the review, UAstronomie, and nve years after that, in 1887, he started the Societe Astronomique de France. His death took place at Juvisy, June 4, 1925, when he had reached the age of eighty-four.
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