Further Antedating of "Black Hole"

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:40 AM -0400 4/17/08, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>Yes, this possibility is why I said my discovery casts serious doubt
>on Wheeler's coinage rather than being a slam-dunk disproof.  It is
>worth noting that Wheeler is not mentioned as being one of the
>speakers at the 1964 conference, although he certainly could have
>been in attendance.  But then why the specific stories about his
>picking up the term in 1967 from someone in the audience?
>
>Fred

Sheer speculation of course, but could it be that someone at the 1964
conference heard the term and either was in attendance to volunteer
"black hole" in 1967 when Wheeler was casting about for the mot
juste?  If not the same person, there could have been a causal chain
leading from one to the other within those three years, back in the
dark ages when WOTYs passed by word of mouth and were not posted on
the internet.

LH

>
>
>
>________________________________________
>From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Joel S. Berson [Berson at ATT.NET]
>Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 10:43 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: Further Antedating of "Black Hole"
>
>Is it not possible that the 1964 _Science News Letter_ article uses
>the term "black hole" as coined by Wheeler then, and the 1967 and
>1968 quotations are later uses?
>
>Joel
>
>At 4/16/2008 02:00 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>>Here's a more notable antedating, since it casts into serious
>>question whether Wheeler really was the coiner:
>>
>>1964 _Science News Letter_ 18 Jan. 39 (JSTOR)  Because a degenerate
>>star is so dense, its gravitational field is very strong.  According
>>to Einstein's general theory of relativity, as mass is added to a
>>degenerate star a sudden collapse will take place and the intense
>>gravitational field of the star will close in on itself.  Such a
>>star then forms a "black hole" in the universe.
>>
>>Fred Shapiro
>>Editor
>>Yale Book of Quotations
>>
>>
>>
>>________________________________________
>>From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>>Mullins, Bill AMRDEC [Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL]
>>Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 3:08 PM
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject: black hole antedating (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>
>>Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
>>Caveats: NONE
>>
>>Physicist John Wheeler, age 96, just died.  His NYT obit (among others)
>>credits him with coining the term "black hole".
>>
>>OED has 1968.
>>
>>"'Black Holes' May Be Key to Universe" (Associated Press) _The Hartford
>>Courant_; Dec 30, 1967; pg. 13A col 1
>>"The universe, said Dr. John A. Wheeler, may be dotted with "black
>>holes," the remnants of stars that have collapsed upon themselves,
>>matter so tightly packed that it no longer can be seen, small pockets of
>>something that look like nothing."
>>Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
>>Caveats: NONE
>>
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