Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
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Source: January 1986 Volume 24 Number 1, Pages 35–37

Alden W. Quimby, Amateur Astronomer

Elizabeth Rumrill

Page 35

Much has been written about the life and work of the Rev, Alden W, Quimby, the Pastor of the Berwyn Methodist Church for twenty-six years, author of the historical novel "Valley Forge", and beloved by everyone. But it was as an amateur astronomer that our family knew him the best. In the back of a small volume, typed and bound by my father, .Harry B. Rumrill, entitled "Astronomical Contributions to the Public Ledger, Philadelphia, by the Rev. Alden Walker Quimby", there appears

ALDEN W. QUIMBY AS I KNEW HIM IN LATER
LIFE - AN APPRECIATION
by H. B. Rumrill

It was during the later years of his pastorate of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Berwyn, Pennsylvania, when I became acquainted with Dr. Quimby, our friendship resting on mutual regard for scientific pursuits, especially that of Astronomy. He was attracted to Astronomy early in life and was particularly drawn to the study of the Sun, although his grasp of the whole subject was broad and liberal, with a strong leaning to orthodoxy - somewhat skeptical of the opinions of those who entertained too much certainty of such things as the habitability of the other planets of our system, and disliking the astronomical exaggeration that finds ready credulity among newspaper readers whose imaginations outrun the limitations of true scientific speculation. His catholicity of mind, on the other hand, enabled him to take in the beauties of the sky in all their varied aspects, as well as to cultivate the pure science of the stars.

Page 36

Along with high appreciation of modern astronomical progress he was to a certain extent a follower in the footsteps of the older astronomers, among them such able observers as Dick, Dawes, and Watt, and learned how to use his optical equipment to the best advantage, being fertile in those expedients which are the joy of the amateur not possessed of the finely finished instruments of the observatory. An original member of the American Astronomical Society, he might well be called the modern Schwabe, after the discoverer of Sun spot periodicity, for between July 1, 1889 and December 31, 1921 he made nearly eleven thousand observations of the Sun's surface, which were published semi-annually in the Astronomical Journal - a record probably unsurpassed.

On one occasion he made a solar camera of materials that might excite the laughter of the professional astronomer, viz. a cigar box fitted up in less than a couple of hours to take an ordinary plate holder - the shutter being actuated by means of a rubber band (instead of a spring) by simply cutting it with a pair of scissors! At another time he used for an eyepiece cap the aluminum top of a bottle in which he punched a hole and adjusted a dark glass for observation of the Sun, The writer couldn't stand this, however, and took the contrivance into his own improvised shop, replacing the dark screen in a cap that fitted exactly over the eyepiece. His ability to handle lenses and to adapt "home-made" apparatus to the purpose in hand showed the innate genius of the real lover of Astronomy,

Dr. Quimby possessed the rare gift of interesting others in the science to which he had devoted so many years of his life. His scholarly lectures and writings were ingratiating, yet he never indulged in the sort of astrpnomical yarns that rely for effect upon pandering to the desire for grotesque illustrations and sensational methods of reaching the understanding of those unfamiliar with the great truths of the science. He had the unusual faculty of holding the attention of his audiences without resorting to unprofessional manners of presentation, because his own knowledge of the subject was profound. It is a mystery to the writer how he found time to take care of the duties which pressed upon him, for ministerial work was given priority, and it would be difficult in a brief article to do justice to the noble way in which he served the Master, No one appealed in vain to his sympathies. And none so humble as to feel constrained when his presence was needed in sickness and sorrow and death. Frequently he and the undertaker were the only ones present at burial. * * *

One of the clergymen who spoke at his funeral said, very truly, that while he trod the path of duty as became a servant of Christ, his thoughts were with the stars, "the forget-me-nots of heaven", and often his eyes also, knowing little regard for time when he could assist others, nightfall often finding him far from home.

Page 37

One afternoon in winter, just before the dusk turned to darkness, he and the writer were walking along the old Lancaster Road - now called by its still older name of Conestoga Road (a one-time Indian trail) - in north Berwyn, when his quick eye sighted a meteor of wonderful colors, green predominating, that suddenly flashed out low in the southeastern sky. He once spoke of how his friend Professor Charles A. Young, of Princeton University, had "turned him loose" in the observatory for an afternoon with the nine-inch equatorial telescope, and of how he had on that occasion visualized the marvellous "rice grain" structure of the Sun's photosphere, described in the former's well known work on solar phenomena.

Dr. Quimby's telescope was a 4-1/2-inch "refractor" mounted on a plain equatorial stand without clock or circles, supported on a tripod, and which also lacked the modern eye-end mechanism, but efficient in his accomplished hands with its simple adjustments. The object glass was of excellent definition and the collimation, or lights-centering, was quite perfect. The telescope had been dismounted from its stand for several years, as he had no observatory other than that of the open air, and it was used latterly on a window mounting of substantial construction, on which it could be placed or removed in a moment. Every available window in the parsonage had served as an "observatory". Whenever unable to make his daily observation of the Sun through the 4-1/2-inch instrument, Dr. Quimby made use of a small hand telescope, of about two inches aperture, for, like Schwabe, the nature student of Dessau, he seldom missed at least one daily observation of the Sun when weather permitted, averaging about 335 days annually, according to the record maintained during nearly thirty-three years, or about three cycles of spots. It is almost certain that when no nbservation was recorded the Sun was not visible from Berwyn. It was his hope that these observations would assist in determining the secondary law or laws of periodicity, and they have been continued by the writer for systematic reduction and discussion.

Dr. Quimby approached death with characteristic humility and trust in the divine providence, and it would be entirely fitting to say, as does the epitaph to the memory of Brashear, at the base of the great telescope in Allegheny Observatory, Pittsburgh, that he "loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night".