FAMOUS BRITISH SCIENTIST

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24983, 18 September 1946, Page 7

FAMOUS BRITISH SCIENTIST

DEATH OF SIR JAMES JEANS

(Rec. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, Sept 17. One of the world’s most notable astronomers arid the author of popular books on astronomy and cosmogony, Sir James Jeans, has died in Britain. He celebrated his sixty-ninth birthday six days ago. Few men of science were honoured with as many medals and honorary degrees as Sir James Jeans, who began his career as a teacher of applied mathematics and became a major figure in astronomy. After preparatory years at the Merchant Taylors’ School, London, Sir James Jeans went to Trinity College, Cambridge, expecting to make a study of the classics nis life work, but before he emerged from the famous “capital of the scientific world” he had transferred his attention to mathematics and brilliantly distinguished himself. In 1900. he was Smith’s Prizeman, and in 1901 was made -a Fellow of Trinity College. Three years later he became university lecturer in mathe-

matics. and in 1905 went to America in response to an invitation from Princeton University to become professor of applied mathematics. He stayed there for five years, and during that time married Charlotte Tiffany Mitchell. Returning to England in 1910, he taught applied mathematics at Cambridge. By 1919 he had received the Medal of the Royal Society and become secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society, which awarded him its Gold Medal in 1922. He was knighted by the King in 1928. His popular books have sales unprecedented for scientific books. Seventeen thousand copies of “The Mysterious Universe” were sold the first week after its publication in England, and in 1934 it was announced that 300,000 copies of his last four books had been sold. Meanwhile, he had become familiar to radio audiences by a series of talks. The large popular following did not come between Sir James Jeans and the scientific world. In 1931 he was awarded the Medal of the Franklin Institute, and was honoured at a dinner given jointly by the New York Museum of Science and Industry, the American Institute, the American Museum of Natural History, the Amateur Astronomers’ Association, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the magazine “Scientific Monthly.” His highest honours came in 1939, when he was awarded the Order of Merit, which is limited to 24 persons. From 1923, Sir James Jeans was research associate of the Mount Wilson Observatory, where, during his visits to the United States, he was able to examine the sky through the world’s largest telescope. Lady Jeans died in 1934, and in the following year Sir James Jeans married Susi Hock, a talented young organist from Vienna. He had one daughter by his first marriage, and two sons and a daughter by his second.