Hale, George Ellery 1868-1938
US astronomer

Born in Chicago, he studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and he established in 1891 the Kenwood Observatory in Chicago, a private institution which became well known through its work in solar spectroscopy. In that year, simultaneously with Henri Deslandres in France but independently of him, he invented the spectroheliograph. In 1892 he was appointed Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Chicago and in 1897 became the first director of the newly founded Yerkes Observatory near Chicago. When in 1905, following his initiative, the Carnegie Institution established the Mount Wilson Observatory in California, he was appointed its director and in 1906 he set up the first tower telescope for solar research there. Hale's scientific work at Mount Wilson included his discovery and measurement of magnetic fields in sunspots.

Bibliography: David Oakes Woodbury, The Glass Giant of Palomar (1970)