[Ads-l] Antedating of "Redshift"

Mon Jun 24 16:06:24 UTC 2024

Here is a citation for the noun "red shift" in 1922. (First OED
citation is 1923.) The domain is the analysis of spectra, but the
application area, apparently, is not astronomy. The context is
technical, and I am unable to decipher it. So this instance of "red
shift" may not have the proper sense.

The OED definition for "red shift" says "Chiefly Astronomy". But the
definition is general. It includes "any displacement of spectral lines
towards longer wavelengths in a spectroscopic context."

Year: 1922
Book Title: A Treatise on the Analysis of Spectra: Based on an Essay
to which the Adams Prize was Awarded in 1921
Author: W. M. Hicks (William Mitchinson Hicks)
Publisher: Cambridge at the University Press
Chapter 5: Effects of Physical Conditions
Quote Page 95

https://books.google.com/books?id=ohxOAAAAMAAJ&q=%22red+shift%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
The pattern is an unsymmetrical triplet in which the red shift (i.e.
on the P3 side) is 2a, or the common external shift for all the
original P1, P2, P3, whilst on the violet side it is considerably
less, xa, with x diminishing as the field increases.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 8:46 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> 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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