VOICE ONE:
I’m Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program Peoplein America. Today, we tell about Percival Lowell whose work led tothe discovery of the planet Pluto. His efforts and imaginationhelped change the history of astronomy in America.
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VOICE ONE:
Percival Lowell came from a New England family with a longhistory in America. The Lowell family first came to the colony ofMassachussetts in Sixteen-Thirty-Nine. One of Percival Lowell’sancestors, John Cabot Lowell, manufactured cloth. He became animportant American industrialist in the late Eighteenth and earlyNineteenth Centuries.
Percival’s father, AugustusLowell, worked in the family cloth business. He settled his familyin Boston, Massachusetts. Percival was born there inEighteen-Fifty-Five. He had a younger brother, Abbott Lawrence and ayounger sister, Amy.
VOICE TWO:
Percival Lowell attended American and European private schools asa young man. He studied mathematics at Harvard University. After hefinished his studies at Harvard in Eighteen-Seventy-Six, he traveledin Europe and the Middle East for a year. Then he worked as afinancial officer in the cloth business of his grandfather. Afterseveral years, Percival realized he was not happy as a businessman.So he decided to travel to Japan to study its culture and language.While there, he was asked to go with a special trade group fromKorea to establish trade relations with the United States.
In Eighteen-Eighty-Three, Mister Lowell traveled to Korea as adiplomat. He reported on a clash there between Korean and Japanesetroops. Mister Lowell remained in East Asia for ten years. Hereturned home when each of his six books about East Asian subjectswas published.
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VOICE ONE:
Percival Lowell also had an intense interest in astronomy andmathematics. In Eighteen-Ninety-Three he left Tokyo for the lasttime and returned to the United States. He decided to spend moretime observing the planet Mars. He had studied observations by thefamous Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. He found notes thatdescribed markings on Mars that Mister Schiaparelli called “canali”(can-AL-ee). Mister Lowell came to believe that intelligent lifecreated the markings on Mars.
In Eighteen-Ninety Four, he built an observatory near Flagstaff,Arizona. He had the world-famous telescope-maker Alvan Clark andSons make a telescope for his observatory. He began a program ofobserving not only Mars, but also Venus and Mercury.
VOICE TWO:
Mister Lowell published his first book about Mars inEighteen-Ninety-Five. In it, he developed a theory that intelligentlife had created waterways all over the surface of Mars. His theorywas that Martians were trying to bring water to the warm areas nearthe equator of the planet.
Mister Lowell’s theories were based on what were seriousscientific studies of that time. Yet his theories about life on Marsmay have had more lasting influence on many writers of imaginarystories. Three years after Mister Lowell’s book was published, H-GWells published his famous book “War of the Worlds.” Mister Wells’story told of a Martian invasion of Earth. The Martians that heimagined lived on a dry and wasted planet. This is very similar toMister Lowell’s description of Mars.
Mister Lowell’s theories about Mars also influenced Edgar RiceBurroughs. Mister Burroughs is best known for stories about”Tarzan.” He also wrote a series of books about an American whotraveled to Mars and fell in love with a beautiful princess. Thepopular series began in Nineteen Twelve with “The Princess of Mars.”
VOICE ONE:
Mister Lowell’s book, “Mars and Its Canals,” was published inNineteen-Oh-Six. In that book, he expanded his theory about Martianlife. He said he could see changes in the seasons on the surface ofMars. He said the darkening of the Martian surface during some timesof the year was caused by the growth of plants. His theory ofMartian life became so complex that he made maps of cities andwaterways on the planet.
Percival Lowell did not know that his eyes played a part in themarkings he saw on Mars. Experts explain that the movement of air inthe atmosphere and natural qualities of the human eye caused him tosee markings that were not there.
VOICE TWO:
Percival Lowell also studied the effect of gravity on the planetNeptune. Small changes in the movement of Neptune led severalastronomers to believe that an undiscovered planet was affectingNeptune’s orbit. Mister Lowell called it Planet X.
Mister Lowell himself searched for Planet X for two yearsstarting in Nineteen-Oh-Five. He made the search by comparing twopictures of the same part of the sky. The photographs would be takenseveral weeks apart. The astronomer would then check bothphotographs. An object in the solar system could be identified if itappeared to move from its place in the earlier photograph.
However, the first search failed. In fact, he failed to recognizePlanet X in a few photographs. He searched again for it severalyears later. Percival Lowell did not have the chance to discoverPlanet X. He died suddenly in November, Nineteen-Sixteen.
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VOICE ONE:
The search for Planet X did not restart at Lowell Observatory foryears. Then in Nineteen-Twenty-Five, Guy Lowell a relative ofPercival, gained control of the observatory. He decided to seriouslysearch for Planet X. He wanted to continue the work Percival hadstarted.
In the following years, Percival’s brother, Abbott Lawrence,provided money to build a special photographic telescope. The newtelescope was completed in early Nineteen-Twenty-Nine.
That year, an observatory official, V-M Slipher, offered a youngman a job working with the new telescope. The young man’s name wasClyde Tombaugh (TOM-baw).
VOICE TWO
Mister Tombaugh got a job a Lowell Observatory after he sentdrawings of his observations of Jupiter and Mars. He quickly learnedhow best to use the new photographic telescope at the observatory.He carefully planned his research to make the most of his time. OnFebruary Eighteenth, Nineteen-Thirty, he discovered an unusualobject after less than one year of searching. The object movedslowly in the sky like a distant planet. Percival Lowell’s Planet Xhad been found!
On March thirteenth, Clyde Tombaugh and V-M Slipher announced thediscovery of a new planet. The date was the seventy-fifthanniversary of Mister Lowell’s birth.
Mister Tombaugh continued to record the motion of the new planetfor thirteen years. He found more than seven-hundred small bodiesthat orbit the sun, called asteroids. He also discovered a number ofstar systems called galaxies.
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VOICE ONE:
During his life, Percival Lowell did not enjoy the success hehoped to find in astronomy. He died long before the search forPlanet X resulted in the discovery of Pluto. And his theories aboutwaterways and complex life on Mars have been disproved. InNineteen-Sixty-Five, NASA’s Mariner Four spacecraft showed that nowaterways existed on Mars.
Yet, the institution Mister Lowellestablished in Flagstaff, Arizona, has made many discoveries inaddition to that of Pluto. Evidence that the universe is expandingwas first discovered at Lowell Observatory by V-M Slipher. Also, therings around the planet Uranus were discovered there.
Lowell Observatory now has four telescopes and is continuing toexpand. It supports programs that bring astronomy to the public.
Astronomers at Lowell and many other observatories continue tosearch for life beyond our planet. Their efforts continue PercivalLowell’s tradition of scientific investigation.
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VOICE TWO:
This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter. It wasproduced by Caty Weaver. I’m Bob Doughty.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for anotherPEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.