MARCUSE, ADOLF:

German astronomer; born Nov. 17, 1860, in Magdeburg; educated at the universities of Strasburg and Berlin (Ph.D. 1884). Before his graduation he took part, as assistant, in the German expedition (1882) to South Carolina to observe the transit of Venus. In 1885 he studied at the Russian observatory at Pulkova, near St. Petersburg; in 1886 he went to Santiago, Chile, as astronomer-in-chief to the national observatory, remaining there for two years; while in South America he visited the Argentine Republic, Brazil, and Peru. On his return to Germany he received an appointment at the royal observatory in Berlin, where in behalf of the Centralbureau der International Erdmessung he was engaged, until 1891, in making continuous observations of the periodical changes of latitude. In April, 1891, he was commissioned by the same society to conduct the astronomical-geodetic expedition to the Hawaiian Islands; as a result of his observations the investigation of the changes of geographical latitude was considerably advanced.

After his return from the South Sea Islands and from a journey to Samoa, Australia, and Ceylon, he constructed a large photographic zenith-telescope in Berlin for the purpose of improving the photographic method of determining the altitude of the pole, and of rendering it available for scientific purposes. His lectures at the Royal University of Berlin are chiefly on the determination of geographical and nautical locations by means of astronomy, with practical demonstrations at the observatory. He improved also the photographic method of determining locality by constructing a photographic instrument for purposes of travel. Since 1903 he has been one of the editors of the "Geographisches Jahrbuch" (Gotha).

Marcuse is a member of the international astronomical and of the geographical societies of Berlin, of the Free Photographic Association, and of the German society for the study of aerial navigation. Of his writings the following may be mentioned: "Die Physische Beschaffenheit der Cometen" (Berlin, 1884); "Beobachtungsergebnisse der Königlichen Sternwarte" (part 4, ib. 1888); "Die Hawaiischen Inseln" (ib. 1894); "Die Atmosphärische Luft" (ib. 1896); "Die Photographische Bestimmungsweise der Polhöhe" (ib. 1897); "Die Fehler der Sinneswahrnehmungen bei Präcisionsmessungen" (ib. 1897); "Beiträge zur Nautischen Astronomie" (ib. 1899); "Anwendung Photographischer Methoden zur Geographischen Ortsbestimmung" (ib. 1899); "Die Neuere Entwickelung der Geographischen Ortsbestimmung" (ib. 1901); "Physik der Erde" (ib. 1902); "Bearbeitung der Berliner Polhöhen 1889-1890 im Auftrage des Centralvereins der Internationalen Erdmessung" (ib. 1902); "Handbuch der Geographischen Ortsbestimmung" (Brunswick, 1904).

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