Elizabeth Langdon Williams (February 8, 1879 in
Putnam, Connecticut
Putnam is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 9,224 at the 2020 census.
History
Putnam, originally known as Aspinock, then part of Killingly, is a New England mill town incorporated in 1855. Created from se ...
– 1981 in
Enfield, New Hampshire
Enfield is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,465 at the 2020 census. The town includes the villages of Enfield, Enfield Center, Upper Shaker Village, Lower Shaker Village, Lockehaven, and Montcalm.
Enf ...
) was an American
human computer
The term "computer", in use from the early 17th century (the first known written reference dates from 1613), meant "one who computes": a person performing mathematical calculations, before electronic computers became commercially available. Ala ...
and
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
whose work helped lead to the discovery of Pluto, or Planet X.
Personal life and education
Elizabeth Langdon Williams was born to Elizabeth Brigham and Louis M. Williams on February 8, 1879 in Putnam, Connecticut. She was the twin of Robert Longfellow Williams, and the older sister of Henry Trumbell Williams and Ursula Louise Williams.
She graduated from
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
with a degree in physics in 1903 as one of their earliest female graduates, and was the first woman to play an honor part during graduation. She read part of her thesis, "An analytical study of the Fresnel wave-surface" at the ceremony, and was said to have widely impressed all in attendance. She was at the top of her class and said to be ambidextrous, writing cursive with her right hand and print with her left hand.
In 1922, Williams married George Hall Hamilton, another astronomer who was born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
on June 30, 1884 and educated at Cambridge. He worked at the
Lowell Observatory in
Flagstaff, Arizona, where he met Williams, from 1917 to 1922.
Professional Work
Williams was hired by
Percival Lowell
Percival Lowell (; March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, and furthered theories of a ninth planet within the Solar System. ...
in 1905 to work from his State Street office in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
.
She initially edited publications for Lowell
until she was asked to be a human computer for his Planet X research that began in 1910.
Planet X
Lowell hypothesized that a proposed Planet X
Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit. The search began in the mid-19th century and continued at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell's ...
affected the orbits of the known planets Neptune and Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus ( Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of ...
. Williams' role in the Planet X project was that of head human computer, performing mathematical calculations on where Lowell should search for an unknown object and its size based on the differences in the orbits of Neptune and Uranus. Her calculations led to predictions for the location of the unknown planet, but Lowell died in 1916 and the project was discontinued. In the late 1920s, however, the project was resumed and Clyde Tombaugh
Clyde William Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 January 17, 1997) was an American astronomer. He discovered Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper belt. At the time of discovery, Pluto was cons ...
was hired to lead it. Tombaugh used Lowell's predictions (built on Williams' calculations) to locate an image in a region of the sky photographed in 1915 that he identified as a new planet named Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...
in 1930.
Williams continued to work on calculations and handled correspondence at Lowell Observatory after Lowell's death, moving from Boston to the observatory itself at Flagstaff in 1919. She and Hamilton were then dismissed from their positions at the observatory by Percival Lowell's widow, Constance, because it was considered inappropriate to employ a married woman.
Williams and her husband were subsequently employed at an observatory in
Mandeville, Jamaica
Mandeville is the capital and largest town in the parish of Manchester in the county of Middlesex, Jamaica. In 2005, the town had an estimated population of 50,000, and including the immediate suburbs within a radius of the total population w ...
run by
Harvard College Obervatory where they worked together.
Final Years
In 1935, George Hall Hamilton died. Widowed, Williams retired from the observatory in Mandeville and moved to
Lebanon, New Hampshire
Lebanon is a city in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 14,282 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 13,151 at the 2010 census. Lebanon is in western New Hampshire, south of Hanover, New Hampshire, H ...
with her younger sister, Louise Ring, where they ran "Peaceful Acres," a summer retreat home. She died in 1981 in Enfield, New Hampshire at the age of 101.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Elizabeth Langdon
1879 births
1981 deaths
American women astronomers
Human computers
American centenarians
Women centenarians