[Ads-l] Antedating of "Redshift"

[Shapiro, Fred]

It certainly seems like Wikipedia is mistaken.

Fred Shapiro

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of John Doe <aidanfoutsisjohndoe at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Monday, June 24, 2024 2:24 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Redshift"

I checked the original source of the article, the 22nd volume of the
*Astrophysical
Journal*, and according to the Internet Archive's OCR, the term "nebular"
or "red-shift" do not appear anywhere within the text, or even anywhere in
the volume!

Source used:
https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fsim_astrophysical-journal_1908-03_27_2%2Fmode%2F2up%3Fq%3D%2522nebular%2522&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C93bf901cdb4f4e11c57908dc94166772%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638548071729805751%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=IiUsyQDARP2AOIv6kc2Z813D2a2DI42u7LvRswIEKS8%3D&reserved=0<https://archive.org/details/sim_astrophysical-journal_1908-03_27_2/mode/2up?q=%22nebular%22>

On Sun, Jun 23, 2024 at 7:32 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Interesting topic, Fred. Thanks for posting an intriguing lead for
> "redshift".
> The situation is confusing. The current Wikipedia article on
> "redshift" does not seem to have any mention of the 1908 Walter S.
> Adams article.
>
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRedshift&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C93bf901cdb4f4e11c57908dc94166772%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638548071729816218%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=tMH4n8tAFH%2BLxIXtksyfZZlJq82EmaJ%2BuB1B2crxWDA%3D&reserved=0<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshift>
>
> The Wikipedia revision history does mention the article.
> A snapshot of the Wikipedia article with timestamp "15:00, 16 March
> 2023" shows that the 1908 Walter S. Adams citation was labeled
> "[dubious – discuss]".
>
> A snapshot with timestamp "21:51, 17 March 2023‎" shows that the
> Walter S. Adams citation was removed. The person who removed it said
> "‎History: might as well just say what the OED says here".
>
> Below is the passage that was removed:
>
> [Begin excerpt Wikipedia Redshift article on March 16 2023]
> The earliest occurrence of the term red-shift in print (in this
> hyphenated form) appears to be by American astronomer Walter S. Adams
> in 1908, in which he mentions "Two methods of investigating that
> nature of the nebular red-shift".[8][dubious – discuss]
> [End excerpt Wikipedia Redshift article on March 16 2023]
>
> I followed the old Wikipedia link to the 1908 Walter S. Adams article
> and downloaded the PDF.
>
> https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1908CMWCI..22....1A/abstract
> https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1908CMWCI..22....1A
>
> The PDF was not searchable, so I ran it through an OCR program. I
> could not find "redshift" of "red shift". Also, I could not find
> "nebular". The article does contain phrases such as: "Strengthened to
> red" and "Widened to red".
>
> OCR can be faulty. Maybe someone else can find "redshift" of "red
> shift" in the article.
>
> It is possible that the 1908 citation in Wikipedia was an error.
> Alternatively, there is another 1908 article by Walter S. Adams with a
> similar title.
>
> Garson
>
> On Sun, Jun 23, 2024 at 6:05 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > redshift (OED 1923)
> >
> > Wikipedia cites the following source for the term "redshift":
> >
> > Adams, Walter S., "No. 22. Preliminary catalogue of lines affected in
> sun-spots<
> http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1908CMWCI..22....1A>"<http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1908CMWCI..22....1A%3E%22>
> (1908) Contributions from the Mount Wilson Observatory / Carnegie
> Institution of Washington, vol. 22, pp.1–21
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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