A SHORT HISTORY OF A REMARKABLE MAN
Dr. GOETHE LINK
The Observatory He Built and His Association with the Indiana Astronomical Society (IAS)
Dr. Goethe Link was born to William H. and Phebe (Stone) Link in Warrick Co., Indiana
on May 20th, 1879. His unusual first name was given to him by his father who was reading
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s book titled Faust at the time of his birth.
Goethe is pronounced “Ger-ta”, but his given name was sometimes “Hoosierized” as “Gay-tee”.
He began his college career at Wabash College, but during his sophomore year, over two-thirds
of the student body and faculty left because of the over-bearing control of the college’s
president; hence he and several of his classmates transferred to Indiana University in
Bloomington for the fall term. During his college days in the mid-1890’s, Goethe competed
for five years in professional bicycle races. The first place finisher of these races was
paid with $35.00 worth of diamonds, and he collected his fair share as he won quite a few
races throughout the Midwest. Even the Rambler Bicycle Company of Chicago sought his
endorsement for one of their newer models. Although not a racing bicycle, a 1916 Schwinn
touring model with wooden wheel rims hangs above the door to the auditorium in Link
Observatory as a tribute to Dr. Link’s racing skills. This bicycle was found in the
greenhouse on the Links’ property.
After graduating from I.U. in 1898, Dr. Link continued onto the Central Medical College
in Indianapolis from where he graduated in 1902. He then interned at City Hospital
(now Wishard) the next year. Then at the age of 24, Dr. Link established a medical
practice with his father on Virginia Avenue in the Fountain Square area in Indianapolis.
His first thyroidectomy occurred in 1911 which was also the year he married his first wife,
Clara, who was a graduate nurse at the time. A pioneer in the field of thyroid surgery,
he performed over 22,000 such surgeries during his career.
His last surgery before he fully retired was performed at the age of 88 years!
Dr. Link was also one of the 16 physicians who helped establish the I.U. School of
Medicine and organized the I.U. Medical Society. Although he is most well known for
his pioneering activities in medicine, Dr. Link had many passions including amateur astronomy.
Besides bicycle racing, Dr. Link also raced gas-filled balloons as an aeronaut.
He credited his bicycle training for helping him through the hypoxia (lack of oxygen)
felt at high altitudes. Goethe and his partner won the 1909 National Balloon Race that
Carl Fisher used to promote the 1st running of the Indianapolis 500. Dr. Link reported
that they were shot at several times as they flew over Kentucky before finally landing
in Tennessee. That 1st place trophy from this race currently resides at the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington, D.C. This trophy perhaps symbolizes the hard work, dedication,
and enthusiasm that were to be prevalent throughout all of Dr. Link’s remarkable life.
Interestingly enough, this was the last balloon race in which Dr. Link competed.
Aeronauts were considered daredevils at that time and Dr. Link did not want the balloon
racing to affect his reputation as a surgeon.
In the mid 1930’s, Dr. Link purchased about 50+ acres in northern Morgan County
in Indiana that was part of the Amick Apple Orchard, and he built a country home.
At that time, this land was not in a residential area, but rather was located within a
large logging region. He named this property Tanager Hill after the scarlet and summer
tanager birds found in the area. As a widower at the age of 58 in 1937, he married his
second wife, Helen, who was 25 years of age, and who had been his suture nurse at
St. Vincent’s Hospital.
Dr. Link’s interest in astronomy also began at this time when he attended a series of
lectures on astronomy given by I.U. at the Indianapolis Extension Center.
On his honeymoon, he and Helen traveled out west to visit several of the western observatories.
During this trip, they met with Russell Porter who had designed the Mount Palomar
Observatory in California. Mr. Porter provided him with a drawing modeled after
the Mt. Palomar Observatory so that he could build his own observatory when he
returned to Indiana.
Dr. Link began construction on the observatory in 1937 with the assistance of the
Indiana Astronomical Society (IAS) which was formed as an organization only
four years earlier by Samuel Waters. Dr. Link acquired a 36-inch (0.91-meter)
diameter Pyrex disk for the telescope’s primary mirror from the Corning Glass Works.
This 400-lb honeycomb disk was a surplus test blank made for the historic Hale
Observatory 200-inch mirror project located on Mt. Palomar. Ironically, Dr. Link finished building his
observatory and telescope nine years before the telescope at the Hale Observatory
saw first light. The mirror was ground using a custom made mirror-grinding machine
that was designed and constructed with the assistance of IAS members.
This grinding machine still resides in the storage shed on the observatory property.
The telescope was made and assembled entirely in Indianapolis including having the
massive mountings crafted by local machine shops. The telescope tube was constructed
of a new aluminum alloy called Lynite, and it contained over 500 individual pieces
that were drawn together by tension struts. In all, the telescope and its mounting
weigh 5,000 lbs.
To support the telescope, a 200 ton concrete pier was required and the concrete
for the above ground portion was poured in one shovel full at a time.
The pier rests on bedrock 26 feet below ground level and extends 30 feet into the air.
Instruments mounted on the pier showed that it dried to within 1 mm of its intended
position. The all-wood building that surrounds, but does not touch the telescope and its
pier, is made of massive oak posts and beams that were cut in the forest just a few miles away.
The interior of the building is finished with hardwood floors, knotty-pine paneling,
and beamed paneled ceilings. Rooms in the lower portion of the building include an
auditorium, library, photographic darkroom, bunk room, basement, and kitchen.
When the telescope saw its first light in 1939, only eight observatories in the
United States possessed telescopes of equal or larger size. This is an impressive
accomplishment for an amateur astronomer using only private funds.
The original plans for the building called for an all-metal dome, but the design
was modified and only wood was used, but the dome’s exterior surface is sheathed
in thin zinc panels. The 34-ft diameter dome weighs nearly 34-tons including the
two shutters that weigh one-ton each. The shutters can be opened from side-to-side
to provide a sky-viewing slit eight feet wide, and the dome can be rotated to various
viewing positions using only a one-half horsepower motor. The flat roof over the
auditorium originally supported a second, smaller dome that housed Dr. Link’s personal
telescope - a 5-inch Zeiss refractor. The dome was removed in 1948 and can still be
seen on the grounds across the parking lot from the main building. This telescope was
used for several years, but was later moved to Bloomington campus, although its exact
whereabouts remain a mystery. Currently, the smaller dome is not being used.
Dr. Link founded the observatory to advance astronomy in Indiana and specifically
to benefit IAS members. He also offered use of the observatory to all the surrounding
colleges and universities. DePauw, Butler and Indiana accepted his generous offer,
but only Indiana was the only institution that had an astronomy department.
I.U. took full advantage of this offer by creating the position of Research Fellow
and hiring an astronomer, Dr. James Cuffey, to work full-time at the observatory.
Soon after the observatory construction was completed, The Goethe & Helen Link
Foundation for Scientific Research provided an endowment to maintain the observatory
so that it could be used free of charge.
Although interest shifted away from the observatory during WWII, it again became
the prime center for astronomy in Indiana after the war ended. There was strong
interest in finding asteroids whose orbits had been lost because of the interruption
of observations caused by the war, but the 36-inch telescope at Link Observatory was not
suited for this task. An agreement was made between the University of Cincinnati,
Indiana University, and Dr. Link to build a 10-inch astrographic telescope on the Link
Observatory grounds to look for these asteroids. The University of Cincinnati agreed
to “permanently” loan I.U. a 10-inch Cooke lens, I.U. offered to provide the funds to
build the mounting, and Dr. Link agreed to pay for the building.
Soon after this agreement was made, Dr. Link decided that it was becoming too much
to maintain the observatory, so he offered to donate the observatory to any university
in Indiana. I.U. was the only university in a position to take Dr. Link up on his
offer, so the observatory along with 12-acres was donated to I.U. in 1948.
The other portion of the property that included the Link’s country home was retained
for the use of Dr. Link and his wife while they were still alive.
The donation of the observatory enabled I.U. to significantly improve their astronomy
department, and they immediately instituted a Ph.D. program in astronomy.
The 10-inch photographic (astrographic) telescope was completed in 1948 and
is housed behind the main observatory building in a roll-off roof shelter that
also contains a photographic dark room. The building plans and the Fecker telescope
mounting for the 10-inch telescope were based on similar designs at the Leander
McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia. The 10-inch telescope was used
from 1948 to 1967 to photograph the sky in search of asteroids, and ranked 2nd in the
world in finding them. 6,267 glass photographic plates measuring 8 x 10 inches were
exposed, and over 100 new asteroids (also called minor planets) were discovered.
Glass transparencies of one of the asteroid photographs as well as photographs
taken with the main 36-inch telescope are displayed in the auditorium as well as
the pier room.
The original 36-inch telescope was a Newtonian design and required the observer
to look through an eyepiece near the top of the telescope. Using rails attached
to the dome, a six-person platform could be raised to reach the top of the telescope
for viewing. The platform design was based on the same principle as one used at
Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona. Public nights at Link Observatory
were started in 1946 at Dr. Link’s request, and the observatory was opened up four
Saturday nights in the fall and spring. On these nights, over 100 people would crowd
into the auditorium for a presentation while an additional 100 people waited in line
to be raised up on the platform to look through the telescope.
In 1966, the telescope was replaced with an updated design in order to carry heavier
astronomical equipment such as photometry and spectrographic instruments.
An investigation was made to see if a hole could be drilled through the center of
the original mirror to make the telescope a true cassegrain design.
It was feared, however, that drilling a hole would damage the mirror, so alternate
plans were implemented and a bent-cassegrain design was used. Photoelectric photometry
work required that the electronics be kept very cold for the best performance.
A mechanical grinder can still be seen in the dome that was used to grind up dry ice
for this purpose.
The last major update to the facility occurred in 1978 when a control room was built
to better protect the equipment and the observer from the elements.
Use of the telescopes by students and professional astronomers continued through
the 1980’s when the light pollution from Indianapolis and nearby communities eventually
made the sky at Link too bright for professional observing. Today, I.U. astronomers
conduct their research with robotic telescopes closer to campus and at mountaintop
observatories in Arizona, where more than 80 percent of the nights are clear.
Besides his interest in astronomy, Dr. Link also became an accomplished ornithologist
and herpetologist. As an ornithologist, he developed a multi-station humming bird
feeder that required over 60 pounds of sugar in solution during the summer feedings.
His interest in herpetology started when he was looking to protect his youngest son,
Goethe Jr., from the poisonous copperhead snakes that were known to inhabit the area
around Tanager Hill. Although his research into how to eradicate copperhead snakes
did not find any easy solutions, he did end up becoming one of the foremost experts
on this type of poisonous snake.
Dr. Link passed away in 1981 at the age of 101 years. Some of his medical instruments
can be seen in a display case in the observatory auditorium. His wife Helen continued
to reside in their country home on Tanager Hill located near the observatory until
she passed away in 2002 at the age of 90. She developed her interest in daffodils
after Dr. Link gave her a bushel basket full of bulbs as a gift. Eventually, Mrs. Link
became president of the International Daffodil Association, and her duties took her all
over the world. At one time she had over 1100 different varieties of daffodils in
flower beds spread over four acres, and her gardens are usually opened to visitors
in the spring when they are in full bloom.
I.U. continues to own and maintain the Goethe Link Observatory. The Indiana Astronomical
Society (IAS) currently uses the facility for the benefit of its members and the public.
From May through October, the IAS has its General Meetings on the 2nd Saturday of
those months. General meetings begin at 7:00 pm and usually include a guest speaker, and
are held whether the sky is cloudy or clear. Observing sessions, held throughout
the year, are convened on the Saturday closest to the new moon, but are held only
held if the skies are clear. Visitors are welcome to any meeting, but it is
recommended that they check the IAS website at www.iasindy.org to verify any
change of plans. One can also call the observatory at 317-831-0668 to see that it is open.
By Daniel W. O’Brien - May 2001
References:
Borlik, T. J. -- Talk Given during Daffodil Tours at Goethe Link Observatory, 15 April, 2001.
Edmondson, F.K. -- Sky and Telescope Magazine, December, 1948.
Honeycutt, R. Kent -- Sky and Telescope Magazine, December, 1978.
Maier, V. E. -- Popular Astronomy Magazine, May, 1940.
May, J.P. -- Presentation at General Meeting of IAS at Goethe Link Observatory, 12 May, 2001.
The Journal of the Indiana State Medical Association, July 1970
©2005 Indiana Astronomical Society