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Biographical Memoirs V.73
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firming these clues would define Abbot's mission. To confirm Clayton's findings Abbot had to account for local variations due to seasonal weather conditions, and so he set about searching for widely spaced observing sites where air transparency was constant. High mountains in desert regions spread over the accessible parts of the Earth became his target, and again, following a well-worn Smithsonian tradition, Abbot built these stations in the manner of field expeditions. His first major permanent station was at George Ellery Hale's Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, which Abbot started visiting as it was being built in 1903 and 1904. Hale tried once to hire Abbot away from Langley, but soon accepted the Smithsonian man as an ally in Washington, where his own patron the Carnegie Institution of Washington was based. By 1915 Abbot had built a permanent field station on the south side of a spur of the mountain that emulated Hale's own tower telescopes. Abbot visited the station often and built a large solar cooker which his wife Lillian used to bake and roast to feed the local staff. The Smithsonian was a welcome neighbor on that mile-high mountain top.
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1998
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