(Jewish Daily Bulletin)
A gift of $500,000 from Max Adler, former vicepresident of Sears Roebuck and Co. and brother-in-law of Julius Rosenwald, for the construction of a planetarium on the lake front island east of the Field Museum was made known by President Edward J. Kelly of the South Park Board of Chicago.
The apparatus and instruments of the planetarium, which were perfected by Carl Zeiss of Jena, Germany, and which were first established in Munich two years ago, will be installed in a domed building.
The order for the manufacture of the instruments has already been given to Zeiss and delivery has been promised for the fall of 1929. Excavations for the building are scheduled to start this fall when the design is selected and completion is expected by the time of delivery of the apparatus. Rising upon an elevation at the north end of the island, the first of five which are projected as the center of activities for the 1933 World’s Fair, the planetarium, according to preliminary plans, will be 200 feet wide 70 feet high, and capped with a dome of 100 feet in diameter.
“In giving the planetarium to Chicago,” Mr. Adler said, “I have a three fold conception: scientific, popular, and philosophical. One is to furhter the progress of science. The second is to enable the people to observe the action of the heavenly bodies as heretofore only astronomers have been able to do. The third is to emphasize that all mankind, rich and poor, powerful and weak, as well as all nations, here and abroad, constitute part of one universe, and that under the great celestial firmament there is no division or c’eavage but rather interdependence and unity.”
Mr. Adler will spend the summer in Europe inspecting similar plans.
The planetarium, according to its description by the inventor, is a device designed to give a view of an imitation of the Heavens showing more than 4,500 planets, planetoids, and stars in orbital motion.” It shows the position of the planet on any day or minute as the old Egyptians saw them 4,000 years ago, or as posterity may see them 14,000 years in the future. It is capable of showing the workings of the Heavens for a day, a minute, a year, or a cycle of years.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
