Abstract
THE Danish astronomer Prof. Hans Carl Frederick Christian Schjellerup died at the Copenhagen Observatory on November 13 after a prolonged illness. He was born on February 8, 1827, at Odense, where his father was a jeweller, and was apprenticed to a watchmaker, but by private study he succeeded in supplementing the education he had received in his native town, so well that he was able to pass the entrance examination at the Polytechnic School of Copenhagen in 1848. Here he distinguished himself by his mathematical ability, and was able to finish his studies in the course of two years, when he passed the final examination in applied mathematics and mechanics. In 1851 he was appointed observer in the old Observatory at Copenhagen, which had been built at the time of Longomontanus, on the top of a high tower, and was therefore, after the lapse of two centuries, greatly behind the times, both as to locality and instruments. A few years afterwards he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the Naval Academy, and Instructor in Geometrical Drawing at the Polytechnic School. These appointments he retained till the time of his death, as well as his position at the Observatory, and though he was in 1875, after the death of Prof. D'Arrest, strongly urged by the Minister of Public Instruction to allow himself to be appointed Professor of Astronomy, he preferred remaining as he was, partly owing to the pecuniary loss the change would have entailed, partly because his scientific activity was untrammelled by routine duties, and left him leisure to pursue his studies in whatever direction he chose.
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DREYER, J. H. C. F. C. Schjellerup . Nature 37, 154–155 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/037154a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/037154a0