A Brill Calendar: July 28

Few observers of the growth of astronomical knowledge during the 20th century fail to notice the surfeit of Dutch contributors.

The study of the universe in the Low Countries began early, with the invention of a revolutionary instrument, the telescope.

In its turn, the invention of the telescope created an unexplored craft: grinding lenses; also for microscopes. Producing these commodities didn’t require great capital investment, but subtle craftsmanship, patience and experimental dexterity; a fashionable and lucrative pursuit for inquisitive natures, with the intimacy of a work-bench for a habitat. The world’s first academic astronomical observatory was built by Professor Jacob van Gool on a Leyden roof-top in 1633.

The French Revolution and its Napoleonic aftermath caused an eclipse in the study of physical science at Leyden. It took an outsider to academic routine to bring it back into the light again: Frederik Kaiser (Amsterdam, June 10 1808 – Leyden, July 28 1872).

When he was 18, an uncle procured an assistant’s post for him at the old astronomical ‘Sterrewacht’; in a worn-out building with ramshackle apparatus. It took Kaiser 19 years to complete a practitioner’s march through the ranks: alumnus 1831, lecturer 1837, ‘extra-ordinarius’ 1840, full Professor 1845. His track-record doesn’t mention a Doctoral Thesis. Kaiser’s finest hour came in 1860. It is seldom that gifts & grants solicited from private citizens enabled the fulfilment of any astronomer’s dream: a brand-new state-of-the-art observatory.

Whether they are called De Sitter, Kapteyn or Oort: the miracle of modern Dutch astronomy and design of new experiments, methods and technologies is steeped in the tradition of practicability and research without bias or bigotry: Dutch Design.