Holmes

Holmes, John Haynes, 1879-1964, American clergyman, b. Philadelphia, grad. Harvard, 1902, and Harvard Divinity School, 1904. For 42 years (1907-49) he was minister of the Community Church, New York City; in 1949 he became pastor emeritus. The church belonged to the Unitarian denomination until 1919, when it became nondenominational. The causes supported by Holmes's effective public addresses included the abolition of intolerance and of war. A founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and of the American Civil Liberties Union, he was long actively associated with both organizations. Among his many books are A Sensible Man's View of Religion (1932) and The Affirmation of Immortality (1947).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-94, American author and physician, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1829; M.D., 1836); father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He began his medical career as a general practitioner but shifted into the academic field, becoming professor of anatomy and physiology at Dartmouth (1838-40), dean of the Harvard medical school (1847-53), and Parkman professor of anatomy and physiology at Harvard (1847-82). A stimulating and popular speaker, he published two important medical lectures, one in opposition to the practice of homeopathy and the other on the nature of fevers. His first important poem, "Old Ironsides" (1830), was a protest against the scrapping of the fighting ship Constitution. A collection of his witty occasional poems was published in 1836. In 1857 he began to contribute to the Atlantic Monthly (which he named) the famous series of "Breakfast-table" sketches, which were collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858) and several subsequent volumes. These urbane pieces present imaginary conversations at a Boston boardinghouse, reflecting Holmes's opinions, charm, and wit. The first volume includes several poems, of which the most famous are the ironic "Deacon's Masterpiece" and "The Chambered Nautilus." Among his other notable works are three novels presenting a scientific approach to psychological traits, most notably Elsie Venner (1861); and biographies of his friends John Lothrop Motley (1879) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1855).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1841-1935, American jurist, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1902-32), b. Boston; son of the writer Oliver Wendell Holmes. He served (1861-64) with distinction in the Civil War, took a law degree at Harvard (1866), and began practice in Boston in 1867. Holmes taught (1870-73) constitutional law and jurisprudence at Harvard while editing the American Law Review and the 12th edition (1873) of Kent's Commentaries. In 1880, Holmes delivered a series of lectures on common law at the Lowell Institute. In them he attacked prevailing views of jurisprudence and proposed new conceptions of the origin and nature of law. He maintained that the law could be understood only as a response to the needs of the society it regulated, and that it was useless to consider it merely a body of rules developed logically by legal theorists. With the publication of the Lowell lectures in 1881, Holmes achieved international recognition. He became (1882) professor of law at Harvard and several months later was appointed to the Massachusetts supreme judicial court. There he served for 20 years, becoming chief justice in 1899. He was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902. The canons of Holmes's judicial faith were strict and demanding. He preached "judicial restraint" and firmly believed that popular majorities through their elected representatives should not have their will thwarted capriciously; when his colleagues on the court nullified social legislation—e.g., minimum wage and hour laws—as unconstitutional, Holmes vigorously objected. From his eloquent opinions in these cases he came to be regarded as the Great Dissenter. In cases dealing with free speech, however, Holmes felt it necessary for the judge to loose the bonds of restraint and prevent legislatures from assuming censorious powers. In defense of the First Amendment, he developed the "clear and present danger" rule, which allows for restrictions only when the public interest is faced with immediate threat. Set forth in the Abrams and Gitlow cases in dissenting opinions, the rule was generally accepted by the Supreme Court. Holmes's published works include The Common Law (1881), Speeches (1891, 1913), and Collected Legal Papers (1920).

Holmes, Sherlock: see Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan.

Holmes, William Henry, 1846-1933, American geologist, anthropologist, and museum director, b. Harrison co., Ohio. He was internationally recognized for his work in museum science. In 1872 he became an artist with the F. V. Hayden survey, and after it was absorbed (1879) into the U.S. Geological Survey, he was appointed geologist. He contributed pioneer reports on the phenomena of Yellowstone Park, the classic illustrative material in the famous Grand Canyon atlas, and reports of much geological reconnaissance work in Colorado. Holmes was a noted mountain climber, and peaks in Yellowstone Park and the Henry Mts. of Utah were later named in his honor. While directing the reconnaissance survey of the San Juan River district of SE Utah in 1875, he was fascinated by the cliff-dwelling remains in the region and increasingly turned to that field, becoming one of the great pioneers of Southwestern archaeology. His Art in Shell of the American Indians (1883), Pottery of the Ancient Pueblos (1886), and many essays on Native American textiles, were among the first serious contributions to the study of Native American art. His work in ceramics was especially important in the study of ethnographical relationships. Holmes left the Geological Survey in 1889 to become archaeologist of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and from 1902 to 1909 he served as its chief. From 1910 to 1920 he was chief curator of anthropology at the U.S. National Museum. In 1910 he also became curator of the National Gallery of Art and from 1920 served as its director. His later books included the important Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities (1919).

(born Sept. 23, 1800, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died May 4, 1873, Charlottesville, Va.) U.S. educator remembered chiefly for his series of elementary readers. McGuffey taught in the Ohio frontier schools and then at Miami University (1826–36). His elementary school series, starting with The Eclectic First Reader, was published between 1836 and 1857. Collections of didactic tales, aphorisms, and excerpts from great books, the readers reflect McGuffey's view that the proper education of young people required their introduction to a wide variety of topics and practical matters. They became standard texts in nearly all states for the next 50 years and sold more than 125 million copies. In these years McGuffey also served as president of Cincinnati College (1836–39) and of Ohio University, Athens (1839–43). He was a founder of the common school system of Ohio. In 1845 he was elected to the chair of mental and moral philosophy at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, a position he held until his death.

Learn more about McGuffey, William Holmes with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 29, 1809, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.—died Oct. 7, 1894, Cambridge) U.S. physician, poet, and humourist. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1847 and later became dean of its medical school. He won national acclaim with his poem “Old Ironsides” (1830). From 1857 he published his “Breakfast-Table” essays in The Atlantic Monthly, later republished in such collections as The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858) and The Professor of the Breakfast-Table (1860). Other works include the poem “The Chambered Nautilus” and the novel Elsie Venner (1861). Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., is his son.

Learn more about Holmes, Oliver Wendell with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Sept. 23, 1800, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died May 4, 1873, Charlottesville, Va.) U.S. educator remembered chiefly for his series of elementary readers. McGuffey taught in the Ohio frontier schools and then at Miami University (1826–36). His elementary school series, starting with The Eclectic First Reader, was published between 1836 and 1857. Collections of didactic tales, aphorisms, and excerpts from great books, the readers reflect McGuffey's view that the proper education of young people required their introduction to a wide variety of topics and practical matters. They became standard texts in nearly all states for the next 50 years and sold more than 125 million copies. In these years McGuffey also served as president of Cincinnati College (1836–39) and of Ohio University, Athens (1839–43). He was a founder of the common school system of Ohio. In 1845 he was elected to the chair of mental and moral philosophy at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, a position he held until his death.

Learn more about McGuffey, William Holmes with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 29, 1809, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.—died Oct. 7, 1894, Cambridge) U.S. physician, poet, and humourist. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1847 and later became dean of its medical school. He won national acclaim with his poem “Old Ironsides” (1830). From 1857 he published his “Breakfast-Table” essays in The Atlantic Monthly, later republished in such collections as The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858) and The Professor of the Breakfast-Table (1860). Other works include the poem “The Chambered Nautilus” and the novel Elsie Venner (1861). Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., is his son.

Learn more about Holmes, Oliver Wendell with a free trial on Britannica.com.

17P/Holmes is a periodic comet in our solar system, discovered by the British amateur astronomer Edwin Holmes on November 6, 1892. In only 42 hours in October 2007, the comet brightened from a magnitude of about 17 to about 2.8. This represents a change of brightness by a factor of about half a million and is the largest known outburst by a comet.

On November 9, 2007 the coma, the thin dissipating dust ball around the comet, was found to be the largest object in the solar system, with a diameter greater than that of the Sun. (Though by Solar System standards, the mass of the comet is minuscule.)

The comet remained visible in February 2008 though it had become a challenging target at about magnitude +5 in the constellation Perseus. It had expanded to greater than 2 degrees of arc as seen from the Earth, and thus had very little surface brightness.

Discovery

Comet 17P/Holmes was discovered by Edwin Holmes on November 6, 1892 while he was conducting regular observations of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). Its discovery in 1892 was made because of and during magnitude changes similar to the 2007 outburst. 17P/Holmes brightened to an approximate magnitude of 4 or 5 before fading from visibility over a period of several weeks.

The comet's discovery was confirmed by Edward Walter Maunder (Royal Observatory, Greenwich, England), William Henry Maw (England), and Kidd (Bramley, England) and independent discoveries were made by Thomas David Anderson (Edinburgh, Scotland) on November 8 and by Mike Brown , (Wilkes) , (USA) and by John Ewen Davidson (Mackay, Queensland, Australia) on November 9.

The first calculations of the elliptical orbits of 17P/Holmes were done independently by Heinrich Kreutz and George Mary Searle. Additional orbits eventually established the perihelion date as June 13 and the orbital period as 6.9 years. These calculations proved that the comet was not a return of 3D/Biela.

The 1899 and 1906 appearances were observed, but the comet was lost after 1906 until recovered on July 16, 1964 by Elizabeth Roemer (US Naval Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA). Aided by the computer predictions of Brian G. Marsden, the comet has been observed on every subsequent return.

2007 outburst

Between October 23–24, 2007, Comet Holmes grew much brighter, going from about magnitude 17 to about magnitude 2.8 in just 42 hours. The first person reportedly to notice a change was J. A. Henríquez Santana on Tenerife in the Canary Islands; minutes later, Ramón Naves in Barcelona noticed the comet at magnitude 7.3. It became easily visible to the naked eye as a bright yellow "star" in Perseus, and by October 25 17P/Holmes appeared as the third brightest "star" in that constellation.

While large telescopes showed fine-scale cometary details, naked-eye observations gave a view similar to that of a star until October 26. After that date, 17P/Holmes began to appear more comet-like to naked-eye observers. During the comet's outburst, its orbit took it to near opposition with respect to Earth, and since comet tails point away from the Sun, Earth observers were looking nearly straight down along the tail of 17/P Holmes, making the comet appear as a bright sphere.

Based on orbital computations and luminosity before the 2007 outburst, the comet's nucleus was estimated at 3.4 km. In late October 2007 the coma's diameter increased from 3.3 arcminutes to over 13 arcminutes, about half the diameter that the Moon subtends in the sky. At a distance of around 2 AU, this means that the true diameter of the coma swelled to over 1 million km, or about 70% of the diameter of the Sun. By comparison, the Moon is 380,000 km from Earth. Therefore, during the 2007 outburst of Comet Holmes the coma was a sphere wider than the diameter of the Moon's orbit around Earth. On 2007 November 9, the coma had dispersed to an area larger than the sun, briefly giving it the largest extended atmosphere in the solar system.

The cause of the outburst is not definitely known. The huge cloud of gas and dust may have resulted from a collision with a meteoroid, or, more probably, from a build-up of gas inside the comet's nucleus which eventually broke through the surface.

Notes

External links

• 17P at Kazuo Kinoshita's Comets
• Quick Facts About Comet Holmes
• 17P at Seiichi Yoshida's Comet Catalog
• Simple Instructions on How to Find Comet Holmes Instructions for the Amateur based around Toronto or New York.
• Obscure Comet Brightens Suddenly
• Evolution of Comet 17P/Holmes
• Enigmatic Comet Holmes by Jeff Bryant, The Wolfram Demonstrations Project.