Nature (journal)/Volume 110/Number 2766/Prof. C. Michie Smith

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Prof. C. Michie Smith.

Charles Michie Smith, who died on September 27, was born on July 13, 1854, at Keig, Aberdeen. He studied at Aberdeen and Edinburgh, graduating as B.Sc. in 1876. He was appointed professor of physics at the Christian College, Madras, in the same year, and in 1891 became Government Astronomer at Madras. In 1899 he brought out the New Madras General Catalogue of 5303 stars: the low latitude of Madras gives its star catalogues special importance, since they serve to link the northern and southern catalogues.

Michie Smith observed the annular eclipse of 1894, and the total one of 1898 at Sahdol, obtaining some beautiful large-scale coronal photographs. He also observed the Leonid meteors in 1899, including 37 of the first magnitude (Mon. Not. R.A.S., vol. 60), and published an extensive record of meteors seen at Madras from 1861 to 1890. He also observed the Zodiacal light, and wrote the article on this subject in the "Encyclopædia Britannica" (9th edit.).

Regular meteorological observations were made at Madras, and in 1893, Michie Smith published those of the years 1856 to 1861. He also contributed papers to the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the eruption of Bandaisan, the determination of surface-tension . by measurement of ripples, and on atmospheric electricity and the absorption spectra of vegetable colouring matters. It was under his initiative that the mountain observatory at Kodaikanal was inaugurated in 1899, which has played such an important part in the extension of our knowledge of solar physics. He presided over the two observatories from 1899 till his retirement in 1911, when he was succeeded by Mr. Evershed.