HALE, GEORGE ELLERY (1868-1938), American as tronomer, was born at Chicago (Ill.), on June 29, 1868. He graduated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 189o, and also carried on research work at the Harvard College ob servatory and the University of Berlin (winter, 94) . In 1888-91 he organized the Kenwood observatory in Chi cago, where he invented and developed the spectroheliograph, an instrument for photographing the sun in monochromatic light. (See SPECTROHELIOGRAPH.) In 1892, when he became associate professor of astrophysics (later professor) in the University of Chicago, he began the organization of the Yerkes observatory, of which he was director until 1904. In 1895 he established the Astrophysical Journal, an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics. In 19o4 he organized the Mt. Wilson observatory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and was its director until 1923, when he became honorary director. In 1916 he was chairman of the committee of the National Academy of Sciences that organized the National Research council. He was chairman of this council throughout the World War, becoming honorary chairman in 1918. As foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences for many years he took an active part in international affairs, especially in the organization and work of the International Union for Co-operation in Solar Research, the In ternational Astronomical Union, the International Research coun cil, and the International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation of the League of Nations. His researches in solar physics and stellar evolution, and his discoveries of solar vortices, the magnetic fields in sun-spots, and the general magnetic field of the sun, have been recognized by the award of many medals and prizes and hon orary degrees, and by his election as a foreign member of the Institute of France, the Royal Society of London, and most of the leading European academies of science.
He assisted in the organization of the California Institute of Technology and the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, of which he was a trustee, and in the improvement of the City of Pasadena as a member of the City Planning commission. He was engaged in 1927 at his solar laboratory in Pasadena in the development of the spectro-helioscope, a new instrument which renders possible the visual observation of the solar atmosphere.