THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



AUGUST, 1912 



NOTES ON GAUSS AND HIS AMERICAN DESCENDANTS 



By Professor FLORIAN CAJORI 



COLORADO COLLEGE 



~1 TPON the Hohehagen, the highest mountain summit in the vicinity 

 v-J of Gottingen, there was dedicated on the twenty-ninth of July, 

 1911, an observation tower which commands an imposing and pictur- 

 esque view of the university town of Gottingen, as well as of the ruins 

 of proud medieval castles upon the mountain ridges beyond. This 

 observation tower on the Hohehagen, now becoming a favorite objective 

 point for excursionists, bears the name of a great scientist who made 

 Gottingen famous. It is called the " Gaussturm " or " Gauss tower." 

 Rising to a height of 120 feet, it overlooks all surrounding trees and 

 objects. Within this tower is a room, called the " Gausszimmer," the 

 chief ornament of which is a large marble bust of the great scientist, 

 designed by the sculptor Eberlein. Another interesting exhibit is a 

 reproduction of the Gauss-Weber electro-magnetic telegraph. It is 

 well known that Gauss and Weber in 1833 had a crude telegraphic line 

 between the observatory and the physical laboratory in Gottingen, a 

 distance of 9,000 feet. This was eleven years before Morse sent his 

 message from Washington to Baltimore, "What hath God wrought." 

 Gauss and Weber employed, in signaling, the deflection of a galvanom- 

 eter needle moving to the right or left. Henry and Morse in this 

 country produced signals by an electro-magnet attracting an armature. 

 While the Morse instrument is widely used in land telegraphy, the galva- 

 nometer needle found early application in ocean telegraphy. Germany 

 has always prided itself on the Gaussian telegraph. On the Potsdamer 

 bridge in Berlin there is a statue representing Gauss in a sitting posi- 

 tion, watching with keen interest the deflection of the needle of a tele- 

 graphic instrument before him. By his side there is a youthful alle- 

 gorical figure stretching a telegraphic wire around the globe. 



VOL. L.XXXI. — 8. 



