Profiles in Pipes –– Edwin Hubble
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Enthusiast
Edwin Hubble (November 20, 1889 –– September 28, 1953) was one of the most important and groundbreaking astronomers of the 20th century. His contributions to science expanded our understanding of the universe, and the most famous telescope in the solar system now bears his name. Of course, he did most of his best work with a pipe in his mouth.
Hubble was born in Marshfield, Missouri––the third of eight children. He was an intelligent and athletic adolescent with a particular penchant for basketball (as an adult he stood 6’3”). He won a scholarship to the University of Chicago and studied under renowned physicist Robert Millikan, who would go on to win a Nobel Prize in 1923. Hubble then earned a Rhodes Scholarship and studied at the University of Oxford in England for three years. It was there that Hubble developed an affinity for pipes and pipe smoking. He was even known to perform tricks with his pipes and was rarely seen without one while working.
After earning a degree at Oxford––during which time he studied law––he returned to the United States and the scientific field. He moved west to California to work at the Mount Wilson Observatory, where he had access to the Hooker telescope, which was the most powerful in the world at the time.
Following service in the First World War, Hubble made one of the most important discoveries of his life in the early 1920s. At the time, the scientific community was split regarding the question of whether astral bodies existed beyond the Milky Way galaxy. However, Hubble managed to isolate several stars in the Andromeda Nebula (as it was known then) and definitively prove that they existed well outside of the bounds of the Milky Way. This effectively settled the debate: there were other galaxies outside of the Milky Way, and Hubble provided leading evidence to support it.
He didn’t stop there, though. Hubble kept observing these faraway stars and began to note that their distances from Earth increased continuously. This, combined with the theory of relativity put forth by Albert Einstein, led to the current scientific consensus that the universe is expanding at all times and in all directions.
Hubble was said to own over a half dozen Dunhill pipes––mostly straight stemmed with plain briar bowls. One observer noted that he smoked a special blend carried by the London Pipe Shop in Los Angeles.
Though he died in 1953, later astronomers named the Hubble Telescope after him. The Hubble Telescope has contributed to our knowledge of black holes, gamma rays, protoplanetary disks, distant moons in the solar system, and much more.
Comments
If turned face down, and with a little imagination, it can resemble a HUGE chamber with a small shank. You would simply have to add your own stem...
😏
Or..a teeny tiny bowl with a huge reverse calabash chamber/shank🙂