The National Importance of Scientific and Industrial Research

Born in Chicago and educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, George Hale founded three great observatories and, in doing so, laid the cornerstones for American astronomical research in most of the twentieth century. The first of Hale's three great observatories is the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, named for Charles T. Yerkes, the developer of Chicago's streetcar system. Mt. Wilson Observatory in California was developed under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the Palomar Observatory (also in California) was developed in cooperation with Mt. Wilson and with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation. Each of these observatories was the greatest of its time when first constructed.

As a scientist, Hale worked mostly on the sun and gained fame from research on sunspots. He not only proposed a connection between sunspots and magnetic fields but also accumulated the evidence that persuaded the scientific community that the connection was really there. Hale is also noted as the inventor of the spectroheliograph.

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