Editing Charles Lane Poor

{{Short description|American astronomer}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Charles Lane Poor
| image             = CharlesLanePoor.png
| image_size        = 
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| caption           = 
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1866|01|18}}
| birth_place       = [[Hackensack, New Jersey]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1951|09|27|1866|01|18}}
| death_place       = 
| residence         = 
| citizenship       = American
| nationality       = 
| fields            = Astronomy
| workplaces        = [[Columbia University]]
| alma_mater        =[[City College of New York]]<br/ > [[Johns Hopkins University]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Simon Newcomb]]
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'''Charles Lane Poor''' (January 18, 1866 – September 27, 1951) was an American astronomy professor, noted for his opposition to [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]]'s [[theory of relativity]].

==Biography==
He was born on January 18, 1866, in [[Hackensack, New Jersey]], to [[Edward Erie Poor]].

He graduated from the [[City College of New York]] and received a [[PhD]] in 1892 from [[Johns Hopkins University]]. Poor became an [[astronomer]] and professor of [[celestial mechanics]] at [[Columbia University]] from 1903 to 1944, when he was named Professor Emeritus. He published several works disputing the evidence for [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]]'s [[theory of relativity]] during the 1920s,<ref>Charles Lane Poor, ''Gravitation Versus Relativity'', G.P. Putnam, New York (1922).</ref><ref>Charles Lane Poor, ''[http://josaa.osa.org Journal of the Optical Society of America]'', V20, p. 173 (1930).</ref> and reflecting objections to the theory.<ref name=Tobey>{{cite book|last=Tobey|first=Ronald C.|title=The American Ideology of National Science, 1919-1930|year=1971|publisher=[[University of Pittsburgh Press]]|isbn=978-0822932277|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanideology0000tobe/page/107 107]–108|url=https://archive.org/details/americanideology0000tobe|url-access=registration}}</ref>

For 25 years, Poor was chairman of the admissions committee of the [[New York Yacht Club]]. In addition, he was a fellow of the [[Royal Astronomical Society]] and an associate fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].  He served several terms as mayor of [[Dering Harbor, New York|Dering Harbor]] on [[Long Island]], [[New York (state)|New York]]. Poor also invented a circular slide rule used with a sextant for yachting navigation.  At [[Columbia University]], Poor was a teacher of the astronomer [[Samuel Alfred Mitchell|Samuel A. Mitchell]], who went on to become director of the [[Leander McCormick Observatory]] at the [[University of Virginia]].<ref>[http://www.astro.virginia.edu/research/observatories/26inch/history/mitchell.html Leander McCormick Observatory].</ref>

He died on September 27, 1951.<ref>Obituary, ''[http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0112//0000279.000.html Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]'', V112, p. 279 (1952).</ref><ref>Obituary, ''[http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/PASP./0064//0000048.000.html Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific]'', V64, p. 48 (1952).</ref>

==Legacy==
One of Poor's sons, [[Edmund Ward Poor]], was one of ten co-founders of [[Grumman Aircraft]] on [[Long Island]]. Another son was [[Alfred Easton Poor]], an architect.

==Selected publications==
{{wikisource author}}

*[https://archive.org/details/solarsystemstudy00poor ''The Solar System: A Study of Recent Observations''] (1908)
*[https://archive.org/details/nauticalsciencei00poorrich ''Nautical Science''] (1910)
*[https://archive.org/details/gravitationversu00pooruoft ''Gravitation versus Relativity''] (with a preliminary essay by [[Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin]], 1922)
*''Is Einstein Wrong? A Debate'' (Jun. 1924)
*''Rebuttal to Prof. Henderson's Article'' (Aug. 1924)
*''The Relativity Deflection of Light'' (Jul. 1927)
*''Relativity and the Law of Gravitation'' (Jan. 1930)
*''The Deflection of Light as Observed at Total Solar Eclipses'' (Apr. 1930)
*''What Einstein Really Did'' (Nov. 1930)

==See also==
*[[Criticism of relativity theory]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poor, Charles Lane}}
[[Category:American astronomers]]
[[Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni]]
[[Category:City College of New York alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia University faculty]]
[[Category:People from Hackensack, New Jersey]]
[[Category:1866 births]]
[[Category:1951 deaths]]
[[Category:Members of the New York Yacht Club]]
[[Category:Relativity critics]]