Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bigelow, Frank Hagar

BIGELOW, Frank Hagar, scientist, b. in Concord, Mass., 28 Aug., 1851. He was educated in the Boston Latin school of Harvard and at the Episcopal theological school in Cambridge, Mass., and has entered orders. For some years he was assistant astronomer in the Argentine national observatory in Cordoba, and afterward professor of mathematics in Racine college, Wisconsin, assistant in the National almanac office in Washington, and in 1891 he became professor of meteorology in the U. S. weather bureau in Washington, which post he now (1899) holds. He is also an assistant rector of St. John's church in that city. His name is especially associated with an instrument for the photographic record of the transit of stars and with some novel studies by which the solar corona, the aurora, and terrestrial magnetism are shown to be associated. The theory has met with a favorable reception in scientific circles. He has published many articles on these subjects and a monograph on the “Solar Corona,” published by the Smithsonian institution (1889).