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{{short description|Canadian-American polymath (1835–1909)}}
{{about||the Australian rower|Simon Newcomb (rower)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Simon Newcomb
| image             = Simon Newcomb 01.jpg
| caption           = Newcomb c. 1905
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1835|3|12}}
| birth_place       = [[Wallace, Nova Scotia]], Canada
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1909|7|11|1835|3|12}}
| death_place       = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
| residence         = 
| citizenship       = American
| nationality       = Canadian
| alma_mater        = [[Harvard University]] ([[Bachelor of Science|BS]], 1858)
| academic_advisors = [[Benjamin Peirce]]
| doctoral_students = [[Henry Ludwell Moore]]
| awards            = [[Copley Medal]] <small>(1890)</small><br>[[Bruce Medal]] <small>(1898)</small>
| signature         = Signature of Simon Newcomb.png
| spouse            = {{marriage|Mary Caroline Hassler|August 4, 1863|}}
| children          = 4, including [[Anita Newcomb McGee|Anita]] and [[Josepha Newcomb Whitney|Josepha]]
| ethnicity         = 
| field             = [[Astronomy]]<br />[[Mathematics]]
| work_institutions = 
}}

'''Simon Newcomb''' (March 12, 1835 – July 11, 1909) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]]–[[Americans|American]] [[astronomer]], [[applied mathematician]], and [[autodidactic]] [[polymath]]. He served as Professor of Mathematics in the [[United States Navy]] and at [[Johns Hopkins University]]. Born in [[Nova Scotia]], at the age of 19 Newcomb left an apprenticeship to join his father in Massachusetts, where the latter was teaching.

Though Newcomb had little conventional schooling, he completed a B.S. at Harvard in 1858. He later made important contributions to [[timekeeping]], as well as to other fields in [[applied mathematics]], such as [[economics]] and [[statistics]]. Fluent in several languages, he also wrote and published several popular science books and a [[science fiction]] [[novel]].

==Biography==
===Early life===
Simon Newcomb was born in the town of [[Wallace, Nova Scotia|Wallace]], [[Nova Scotia]]. His parents were John Burton Newcomb and his wife Emily Prince. His father was an itinerant school teacher, and frequently moved in order to teach in different parts of Canada, particularly in Nova Scotia and [[Prince Edward Island]]. Through his mother, Simon Newcomb was a distant cousin of [[William Henry Steeves]], a Canadian [[Fathers of Confederation|Father of Confederation]]. Their immigrant ancestor in that line was Heinrich Stief, who immigrated from Germany and settled in [[New Brunswick]] about 1760.<ref name="archives">{{cite web|url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/confederation/023001-4000.74-e.html|title=People: William Henry Steeves (May 20, 1814 - December 9, 1873)|publisher=Library and Archives Canada|date=2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204011009/https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/confederation/023001-4000.74-e.html|access-date=9 Feb 2021|archive-date=December 4, 2019}}</ref>

Newcomb seems to have had little conventional schooling and was taught by his father. He also had a short [[apprentice]]ship in 1851 to Dr. Foshay, a charlatan [[herbalist]] in New Brunswick. But his father gave him an excellent foundation for the youth's future studies. Newcomb was apprenticed to Dr. Foshay at the age of 16. Their agreement was that Newcomb would serve a five-year apprenticeship, during which time Foshay would train him in using herbs to treat illnesses. After two years Newcomb had become increasingly unhappy and disillusioned, as he realized that Foshay had an unscientific approach and was a charlatan. He left Foshay and broke their agreement. He walked the {{convert|120|mi}} to the port of [[Calais, Maine]]. There he met a ship's captain who agreed to take him to [[Salem, Massachusetts]], where his father had moved for a teaching job.<ref name="Marsden1981">Marsden (1981)</ref> In about 1854, Newcomb joined his father in Salem, and the two journeyed together to Maryland.

Newcomb taught for two years in Maryland, from 1854 to 1856; for the first year in a country school in Massey's Cross Roads, [[Kent County, Maryland|Kent County]], then for a year nearby in [[Sudlersville, Maryland|Sudlersville]] in [[Queen Anne's County, Maryland|Queen Anne's County]]. Both were located in the largely rural area of the [[Eastern Shore of Maryland|Eastern Shore]]. In his spare time Newcomb studied a variety of subjects, such as political economy and religion, but his deepest studies were made in mathematics and astronomy.

In particular he read [[Isaac Newton]]'s ''Principia'' (1687) at this time. In 1856 Newcomb took a position as a private tutor close to [[Washington, DC]]. He often traveled to the city to study mathematics in its libraries. He borrowed a copy of [[Nathaniel Bowditch]]'s translation of [[Pierre-Simon Laplace]]'s ''Traité de mécanique céleste'' from the library of the [[Smithsonian Institution]], but found the mathematics beyond him.<ref name="DSB">[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Newcomb.html Newcomb biography]. dcs.st-and.ac.uk</ref>

Newcomb independently studied mathematics and physics. For a time he supported himself by teaching before becoming a [[human computer]] (a functionary in charge of calculations) at the [[United States Naval Observatory|Nautical Almanac Office]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], in 1857. At around the same time, he enrolled at the [[Lawrence Scientific School]] of [[Harvard University]], graduating with a [[Bachelor of Science|BSc]] in 1858.<ref name="DSB"/>

===Peirce family===
Newcomb studied mathematics under [[Benjamin Peirce]], who also often invited Newcomb to his home.<ref>Brent (1993) p. 288</ref> Newcomb's biographer Brent said in his 1993 book that Newcomb developed a dislike of Peirce's son, [[Charles Sanders Peirce]] and was accused of the "successful destruction" of C. S. Peirce's career.<ref>Brent (1993) p. 128</ref> In particular, [[Daniel Coit Gilman]], president of [[Johns Hopkins University]], was said to have been on the point of awarding [[tenure]] to C. S. Peirce, before Newcomb intervened behind the scenes to dissuade him.<ref>Brent (1993) pp. 150–153</ref> Brent says that about 20 years later, Newcomb similarly influenced the [[Carnegie Institution]] [[Trustee]]s to deny a Carnegie grant to C. S. Peirce. This prevented Peirce from publishing his life's work. The grant was supported by [[Andrew Carnegie]], [[Theodore Roosevelt]], [[William James]], and others, who wrote to support it.<ref>Brent (1993) pp. 287–289</ref> Newcomb's motivation has been speculated to have been that, despite his being "no doubt quite bright", "like [[Antonio Salieri|Salieri]] in [[Peter Shaffer]]’s ''[[Amadeus (play)|Amadeus]]'' he also had just enough talent to recognize he was not a genius and just enough pettiness to resent someone who was". Additionally "an intensely devout and literal-minded Christian of rigid moral standards", he was appalled by what he considered Peirce's personal shortcomings, making intolerable to Newcomb the fact that he had been reliant on the patronage of the father of a man he considered contemptible.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.firstthings.com/article/1993/12/003-discovering-the-american-aristotle | title=Discovering the American Aristotle &#124; Edward T. Oakes | work=First Things | date=December 1993 }}</ref>

===Career in astronomy===
In the prelude to the [[American Civil War]], many [[US Navy]] staff with Southern backgrounds left the service. In 1861, Newcomb took advantage of a vacancy and was hired as professor of mathematics and [[astronomer]] at the [[United States Naval Observatory]], in [[Washington D.C.]] Newcomb set to work on the measurement of the position of the [[planet]]s as an aid to navigation, becoming increasingly interested in theories of [[planetary motion]].<ref name="DSB"/>

By the time Newcomb visited [[Paris]], France, in 1870, he was aware that the table of lunar positions calculated by [[Peter Andreas Hansen]] was in error. While in Paris, he realized that, in addition to the data from 1750 to 1838 that Hansen had used, there was earlier data documented as far back as 1672. But he had little time for analysis as he witnessed the defeat of French emperor [[Napoleon III]] in the [[Franco-Prussian War]] and the coup that ended the [[Second French Empire]]. Newcomb managed to escape from the city during the ensuing rioting; it led to the formation of the [[Paris Commune]] and engulfed even the [[Paris Observatory]]. Newcomb used the "new" data to revise Hansen's tables.<ref name="DSB"/>

In 1875 he was offered the post of director of the [[Harvard College Observatory]] but he declined, having by now settled that his interests lay in mathematics rather than observation.<ref name="DSB"/>

===Director of the Nautical Almanac Office===
In 1877 he became director of the [[United States Naval Observatory|Nautical Almanac Office]] where, ably assisted by [[George William Hill]], he embarked on a program of recalculation of all the major astronomical constants. 
At this time he was elected to honorary membership of the [[Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society]], in 1887.<ref>Memoirs and proceedings of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society FOURTH SERIES  Eighth  VOLUME   1894</ref>

From 1884 he also fulfilled a demanding role as professor of [[mathematics]] and [[astronomy]] at [[Johns Hopkins University]] in [[Baltimore]], continuing, however, to reside at Washington.<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Newcomb, Simon |volume=19 |page=474}}</ref>

With [[A. M. W. Downing]], Newcomb conceived a plan to resolve much international confusion on the subject of astronomical constants. By the time he attended a standardization conference in [[Paris]], France, in May 1896, the international consensus was that all [[ephemerides]] should be based on Newcomb's calculations: [[Newcomb's Tables of the Sun|Newcomb's ''Tables of the Sun'']]. As late as 1950, another conference confirmed Newcomb's constants as the international standard.<ref name="DSB"/>

===Personal life===
[[File:Newcomb Simon.jpg|right|thumb|Grave of Simon Newcomb in Arlington National Cemetery]]
During the American Civil War, Newcomb married Mary Caroline Hassler on August 4, 1863. The couple had three daughters, and a son who died in infancy.<ref>Carter & Carter (2006) p. 191</ref> Mary Caroline Hassler's parents were US Navy Surgeon Dr. Charles Augustus Hassler and his wife. Her paternal grandfather was [[Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler|Ferdinand Hassler]], the first Superintendent of the [[Office of Coast Survey|Coast Survey]].<ref>Campbell, W. W. (1924). [https://archive.org/stream/memoirsofnationa17nati#page/14/mode/2up "Simon Newcomb"]. ''Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences,'' p. 18</ref>

Newcomb died in [[Washington, D.C.]], on July 11, 1909, of [[bladder cancer]]. He was buried with military honors in [[Arlington National Cemetery]] with President [[William Howard Taft]] in attendance.<ref name="DSB"/>

Newcomb's daughter [[Anita Newcomb McGee]] (1864–1940) became a medical doctor and founded the [[United States Army Nurse Corps|Army Nurse Corps]]. She received the [[Spanish War Service Medal]] for her services during the [[Spanish–American War]]. For her later work in Japan, she was awarded the Japanese Imperial [[Order of the Precious Crown]], the [[Japanese Red Cross]] decoration, and two [[Military Medal of Honor (Japan)|Russo-Japanese War medals]] from the Japanese government. She was buried next to her father with full military honors.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.medicalmuseum.mil/index.cfm?p=exhibits.past.mcgee.page_01|title=National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM): American Angels of Mercy: Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee's Pictorial Record of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904: Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee, 1864–1940|website=www.medicalmuseum.mil|access-date=September 30, 2016|archive-date=January 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123191953/http://www.medicalmuseum.mil/index.cfm?p=exhibits.past.mcgee.page_01|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Newcomb's daughter [[Josepha Newcomb Whitney|Anna Josepha]] studied at the [[Art Students League of New York|Art Students' League in New York]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://cornwallhistoricalsociety.org/exhibits/women/whitney.html|title=Josepha Newcomb Whitney|website=cornwallhistoricalsociety.org|access-date=September 30, 2016|archive-date=October 30, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030003921/http://cornwallhistoricalsociety.org/exhibits/women/whitney.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> She was active in the suffrage movement. In 1912, she organized the first Cornwall meeting in support of voting rights for women.<ref name=":0" />  Josepha Newcomb married [[Edward Baldwin Whitney]], who was the son of Professor [[William Dwight Whitney]] and his wife, and the grandson of US Senator and Connecticut Governor [[Roger Sherman Baldwin]]. He served as Assistant US Attorney General. Their grandson [[Hassler Whitney]] became a mathematician and professor.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Chern|first=Shiing-Shen|title=Hassler Whitney (23 March 1907–10 May 1989)|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|date=September 1994|volume=138|issue=3|pages=464–467|jstor=986754}}</ref>

==Work==
===Speed of light===
In 1878, Newcomb had started planning for a new and precise measurement of the [[speed of light]]. He believed it was needed to account for the exact values of many astronomical constants. He had already started developing a refinement of the method of [[Léon Foucault]] when he received a letter from [[Albert Abraham Michelson]], a young naval officer and [[physicist]] who was also planning such a measurement. Thus began a long collaboration and friendship. In 1880, Michelson assisted at Newcomb's initial measurement with instruments located at [[Fort Myer]] and the [[United States Naval Observatory]], then situated near the [[Potomac River]]. Michelson had left to start his own project by the time Newcomb arranged a second set of measurements between the observatory and the [[Washington Monument]]. Though Michelson published his first measurement in 1880, Newcomb's measurement was substantially different. In 1883, Michelson revised his measurement to a value closer to Newcomb's.<ref name="DSB"/>{{Failed verification|date=May 2021}}

===Benford's law===
In 1881, Newcomb discovered the statistical principle now known as [[Benford's law]]. He observed that the earlier pages of [[logarithm]] books, used at that time to carry out logarithmic calculations, were far more worn than the later pages. This led him to formulate the principle that, in any list of numbers taken from an arbitrary set of data, more numbers will tend to begin with "1" than with any other digit.<ref>Newcomb (1881)</ref>

===Chandler wobble===
In 1891, within months of [[Seth Carlo Chandler]]'s discovery of the 14-month variation of [[latitude]], now referred to as the [[Chandler wobble]], Newcomb explained the apparent conflict between the observed motion and predicted period of the wobble. The theory was based on a perfectly rigid body, but Earth is slightly elastic. Newcomb used the variation of latitude observations to estimate the elasticity of Earth, finding it to be slightly more rigid than steel.<ref>Newcomb (1902) p. 116</ref>

===Other work===
Newcomb was an [[autodidact]] and [[polymath]]. He wrote on [[economics]] and his ''Principles of Political Economy'' (1885) was described by [[John Maynard Keynes]] as "one of those original works which a fresh scientific mind, not perverted by having read too much of the orthodox stuff, is able to produce from time to time in a half-formed subject like economics." Newcomb was credited by [[Irving Fisher]] with the first-known enunciation of the [[equation of exchange]] between money and goods used in the [[quantity theory of money]].<ref>Fisher (1909).</ref> He spoke French, German, Italian and [[Swedish language|Swedish]]; was an active [[mountaineering|mountaineer]]; and read widely. He also wrote a number of popular science books and a [[science fiction]] [[novel]], ''His Wisdom the Defender'' (1900).<ref name="DSB"/> Newcomb was the first person to observe the geophysical phenomenon [[Airglow]], in 1901.<ref>M. G. J. Minnaert: ''De natuurkunde van 't vrije veld'', Deel 2: ''Geluid, warmte, elektriciteit''. § 248: ''Het ionosfeerlicht''</ref>

===On the state of astronomy===
In 1888 Simon Newcomb wrote: "We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy."
In 1900, his ''Elements of Astronomy'' was published by the American Book Company.

By 1903, however, his view had changed. In an article in ''Science,'' he wrote: 
<blockquote>"What lies before us is an illimitable field, the existence of which was scarcely suspected ten years ago, the exploration of which may well absorb the activities of our physical laboratories, and of the great mass of our astronomical observers and investigators for as many generations as were required to bring electrical science to its present state."<ref>{{citation|title=The Universe as an Organism|first=S.|last=Newcomb|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|series=(N.S.)|volume=17|issue=421|date=January 23, 1903|pages=121–129|jstor=1631452|doi=10.1126/science.17.421.121|pmid=17778998|bibcode = 1903Sci....17..121N |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1447868}}. The quote is in the final paragraph, on [https://books.google.com/books?id=nlg9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA129 p.&nbsp;129].</ref></blockquote>

===On the impossibility of a flying machine===
Newcomb is famously quoted as having [[Epistemic possibility|believed it impossible]] to build a "flying machine." He begins an article titled "Is the Airship Possible?" with the remark, "That depends, first of all, on whether we are to make the requisite scientific discoveries." He ends with the remark "the construction of an aerial vehicle&nbsp;... which could carry even a single man from place-to-place at pleasure requires the discovery of some new metal or some new force."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Newcomb|first=Simon|title=Is the Airship Coming?|journal=McClure's Magazine|date=September 1901|volume=17|issue=5|pages=432–435|publisher=S. S. McClure, Limited|url=http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/library/Magazines/Airship_Coming.html}}</ref>

In the October 22, 1903, issue of ''The Independent'', Newcomb made the well-known remark that "May not our mechanicians&nbsp;... be ultimately forced to admit that aerial flight is one of the great class of problems with which man can never cope, and give up all attempts to grapple with it?",<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PPPQzhTA9RsC&pg=PA74|title=When Hull Freezes Over: Historic Winter Tales from the Massachusetts Shore|first=John|last=Galluzzo|date=July 19, 2018|publisher=History Press|access-date=July 19, 2018|via=Google Books|isbn=978-1-59629-099-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=The Outlook for the Flying Machine|journal=The Independent|date=October 22, 1903|volume=55|issue=2864|page=2509|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gJvVH4AjAyIC&pg=PA2509|access-date=April 26, 2015}}</ref> He suggested that even if a man flew, he could not stop. "Once he slackens his speed, down he begins to fall. Once he stops, he falls as a dead mass." Newcomb had no concept of an [[airfoil]]. His "aeroplane" was an inclined "thin flat board". He therefore concluded that it could never carry the weight of a man.

Newcomb was particularly critical of the work of [[Samuel Pierpont Langley]], who claimed that he could build a flying machine powered by a steam engine, but whose initial efforts at flight were public failures.<ref>{{cite book|title=A scientist's voice in American culture: Simon Newcomb and the rhetoric of scientific method|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_0520076893_0|url-access=registration|date=1992 |publisher=University of California Press|author=Albert E. Moyer|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_0520076893_0/page/187 187]|isbn=978-0-520-07689-1}}</ref> In 1903, however, Newcomb was also saying, 
<blockquote>"Quite likely the 20th century is destined to see the natural forces which will enable us to fly from continent to continent with a speed far exceeding that of a bird. But when we inquire whether aerial flight is possible in the present state of our knowledge; whether, with such materials as we possess, a combination of steel, cloth and wire can be made which, moved by the power of electricity or steam, shall form a successful flying machine, the outlook may be altogether different."<ref name="Indep103-374">{{cite journal|title=What Did Newcomb Say?|journal=The Independent|date=September 25, 1920|volume=103|issue=3738|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TvXlAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA374|page=374|publisher=Independent Corporation|location=New York}}</ref></blockquote>

Newcomb was not aware of the [[Wright Brothers]]' efforts, whose work was done in relative obscurity ([[Santos-Dumont]] flew his [[14-bis]] in Paris only in 1906) and apparently unaware of the internal combustion engine's better [[power-to-weight ratio]]. When Newcomb heard about the Wrights' flight in 1908, he was quick to accept it.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50A11F8395C1B728DDDA90A94DC405B898DF1D3| title=Simon Newcomb on Flying. He did not take the gasoline engine into account in his writings|author=Anita Newcomb McGee|date=April 20, 1919|work=New York Times|access-date=January 25, 2011}}</ref>

Newcomb favored the development of rotating wing ([[helicopter]]s) and airships that would float in the air (blimps). Within a few decades, zeppelins regularly transported passengers between Europe and the United States, and the [[LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin|Graf Zeppelin]] circumnavigated the Earth.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,737828,00.html |title=Los Angeles to Lakehurst
|url-access=subscription | date=September 9, 1929}}</ref>

===Psychical research===
Newcomb was the first president of the [[American Society for Psychical Research]].<ref>Campbell, W. W. (1924). [https://archive.org/stream/memoirsofnationa17nati#page/14/mode/2up "Simon Newcomb"]. ''Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences''. p. 14</ref> Although skeptical of [[extrasensory perception]] and alleged paranormal phenomena, he believed the subject was worthy of investigation. By 1889 his investigations were negative and his skepticism increased. Biographer Albert E. Moyer has noted that Newcomb "convinced and hoped to convince others that, on methodological grounds, psychical research was a scientific dead end."<ref>Moyer, Albert E. (1998). "Simon Newcomb: Astronomer with an Attitude". ''[[Scientific American]]'' 279 (4): 88–93.</ref>

==Awards and honours==
*Member, and holder of several offices, of the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] (1869);
*[[Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]] (1874);
*Elected a member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]] (1875);
*Fellow of the [[Royal Society]] (1877);
*[[Huygens Medal]] of the [[Haarlem Academy of Sciences]] (1878);
*Elected a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] (1878);<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1878&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-05-12|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
*President of the [[Philosophical Society of Washington]] (1878–1880)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Past Presidents |url=https://pswscience.org/about-psw/past-presidents/ |access-date=2022-06-20 |website=PSW Science |language=en}}</ref>
*Editor of the [[American Journal of Mathematics]] (1885–1900);
*[[Copley Medal]] of the [[Royal Society]] (1890);
*Chevalier of the [[Légion d'Honneur]] (1893);
*President of the [[American Mathematical Society]] (1897–1898);
*[[Bruce Medal]] of the [[Astronomical Society of the Pacific]] (1898);
*Founding member and first president of the [[American Astronomical Society]] (1899–1905).
*Foreign member of the [[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]] (1898);<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00002058 |title=Simon Newcomb (1835–1909) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=July 26, 2015}}</ref>
*Inductee of the [[Hall of Fame for Great Americans]].
*Made a rear-admiral by Act of Congress in 1906.<ref name=EB1911/>

==Legacy==
*Asteroid [[855 Newcombia]] is named after him.
*The crater [[Newcomb (lunar crater)|Newcomb]] on the [[Moon]] is named after him, as is [[Newcomb (Martian crater)|Newcomb]] crater on Mars.<ref>{{citation | first1=Joe S. | last1=Tenn | date=November 11, 2015 | title=Simon Newcomb | work=The Bruce Medalists | url=http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/brucemedalists/newcomb/ | access-date=November 18, 2017 | postscript=. | archive-date=February 10, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210223417/http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/BruceMedalists/Newcomb/ | url-status=dead }}</ref>
*The [[Royal Astronomical Society of Canada]] has a [https://web.archive.org/web/20111129061909/http://www.rasc.ca/awards/newcomb writing award] named after him.
*The Time Service Building at the US Naval Observatory is named The Simon Newcomb Laboratory.
*The U.S. Navy minesweeper ''Simon Newcomb'' (YMS 263) was launched in 1942, served in the Pacific Theater during World War II, and was decommissioned in 1949.
*[[Mount Newcomb|Mt. Newcomb]] ({{convert|13,418|ft|m|abbr=on|disp=semicolon}}) appears on USGS topographic maps at coordinates 36.5399° N, 118.2934° W in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

==Bibliography==
[[File:Newcomb, Simon – Popular astronomy, 1887 – BEIC 680950.jpg|thumb|''Popular astronomy'', 1887]]
*Newcomb, S (1878) ''[https://archive.org/details/cihm_19050 Research on the Motion of the Moon, Part I]''
*Newcomb, S (1878) ''[https://archive.org/details/popularastronomy031620mbp Popular Astronomy]''
*Newcomb, S (1879) ''[https://archive.org/details/astronomyforscho00newcrich Astronomy for schools and colleges]''
*{{cite journal | doi=10.2307/2369148 | author=Newcomb, S | date=1881 | title=Note on the frequency of use of the different digits in natural numbers | jstor=2369148 | journal=American Journal of Mathematics | volume=4 | pages=39–40 | issue=1| bibcode=1881AmJM....4...39N }}
*Newcomb, S (1885) [https://archive.org/details/principlesofpoli00newcuoft ''Principles of Political Economy''] (Internet Archive)
*Newcomb, S (1887) ''The ABC Of Finance''
*Newcomb, S (1890) ''[https://archive.org/details/elementsofastron00newcrich Elements of Astronomy]''
*Newcomb, S (1900) ''[https://archive.org/details/hiswisdomdefende00newcrich His Wisdom the Defender]''—Science Fiction novel.
*Newcomb, S (1901) ''[https://archive.org/details/starsstudyofuniv00newciala The Stars]''
*Newcomb, S (1902) [[File:Wikisource-logo.svg|12px|class=noviewer|alt=Wikisource]] ''[[s:Astronomy for Everybody|Astronomy for Everybody]]''
*Newcomb, S (1903) ''[https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesofa00newc The Reminiscences of an Astronomer]''—His autobiography. (Reissued by [[Cambridge University Press]], 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-108-01391-8}})
*Newcomb, S (1903) [http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/essays/v3p167y1977-78.pdf ''The Outlook for the Flying Machine''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150824064152/http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/essays/v3p167y1977-78.pdf |date=August 24, 2015 }}, The Independent, October 22, 1903, pp 2508–12
*Newcomb, S (1906) ''[https://archive.org/details/cu31924004071688 Compendium of Spherical Astronomy]''
*Newcomb, S (1907) ''[https://archive.org/details/investigationofi00newcuoft Investigation of Inequalities in the Motion of the Moon Produced by the Action of the Planets]''
*Newcomb, S (1912) ''[https://archive.org/details/cihm_19051 Research on the Motion of the Moon, Part II]''

A number of astronomical, physical, and mathematical papers written between 1882 and 1912 are mentioned in {{cite web |url=http://ad.usno.navy.mil/pub/pub_astpapers.html |title=Astronomical Papers Prepared For The Use Of The American Ephemeris And Nautical Almanac |access-date=February 24, 2009 |work=U.S. Naval Observatory |publisher=The Nautical Almanac Office |date=August 12, 2008 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303171913/http://ad.usno.navy.mil/pub/pub_astpapers.html |url-status=dead }}

==See also==
* [[William Newcomb]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book | author=Brent, J. | title=Charles Sanders Peirce: A Life | publisher=Indiana University Press | location=Bloomington | isbn=0-253-31267-1 | date=1993}}
* {{cite book | author=Carter, W.| author2=Carter M. S.|author2-link=Merri Sue Carter| name-list-style=amp | date=2006 | title=Simon Newcomb, America's Unofficial Astronomer Royal | publisher=Mantanzas Publishing | location=St. Augustine | isbn=1-59113-803-5}}
* [[Gerald Maurice Clemence|Clemence, G. M.]] (2001) "Newcomb, Simon", ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', Deluxe CDROM edition
* Fisher, Irving (1909). "Obituary. Simon Newcomb" ''Economic Journal'', 19, pp.&nbsp;641–44.
* [[Milton Friedman|Friedman, Milton]] (1987) "Newcomb, Simon," ''[[The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics]]'', v. 3, 651–52.
* Marsden, B. (1981) "Newcomb, Simon" in {{cite book | editor=Gillespie, C.C. | date=1981 | location=New York | title=Dictionary of Scientific Biography | publisher=Charles Screibner's Sons | isbn=0-684-16970-3 | volume=10 | pages=33–36}}
*  MacTutor [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Newcomb.html Simon Newcomb Biography]
* Ebeling, Richard M., [https://www.aier.org/article/simon-newcomb-and-the-let-alone-principle/ "Simon Newcomb and the Let-Alone Principle,"] American Institute for Economic Research, July 18, 2019

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=6961 Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'']
* [http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/astro/newcomb/Newcomb.Times.Obit.gif Obituary from ''The Times'']
* {{MacTutor Biography|id=Newcomb}}
* [http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/BruceMedalists/Newcomb/index.html 1898 Bruce Medalist]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=1378| name=Simon Newcomb}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Simon Newcomb}}
* {{Librivox author |id=16786}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041126025315/http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/newcomb/index.htm Simon Newcomb], links to Newcomb's economic writings at ''Archive for the History of Economic Thought''
* [http://www.ns1763.ca/cumberco/newcombplq.html Historic Site & Memorial at Wallace Bridge, Nova Scotia (1935)]
* {{Biographical Memoirs|newcomb-simon}}

{{Copley Medallists 1851-1900}}
{{Hall of Fame for Great Americans}}
{{AMS Presidents|state=collapsed}}
{{Presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science}}
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