Clyde Tombaugh 7

Who was the first person you shared your discovery with?

Clyde Tombaugh: I told the assistant director [Dr. Lampland] across the hall from me. This machine makes a clicking noise that could be heard in that part of the building. His office was across the hall and he understood the blinking business, too. He'd been involved in some of the earlier searches. He said, "I heard the clicking suddenly stop and a long silence," and he surmised I had run into something. I was checking out the third plate, and here this poor man was sitting at his desk in terrible suspense, waiting to be invited in for a look. I didn't know about that until he told me later. I showed him the plates, the dates and all and that everything seemed to be consistent with putting the object beyond the orbit of Neptune, and then I went down and told the director. He came up and looked and saw. The Lowell Observatory was changed from that day on. Dr. Slipher was the Director. He had gone through the platal field and missed Pluto, one year earlier, missed it on the plates. He wanted to be the one to find Pluto and he failed. I suppose he probably felt a little chagrined, but he knew that I had something because the aspects were very convincing. Then, they got in touch with the observatory trustee, Lowell's nephew who was living in Massachusetts, and told him about it. It was kept secret for a few weeks so we could follow up and we could learn more about it so we published right about when it came out because we knew that when it was announced, there'd be an avalanche, and there was, exceeded what we expected.