Jean-Charles Houzeau de Lehaie was a Belgianastronomer and journalist. He moved to New Orleans after getting in trouble for his politics in Belgium. In the U.S. he continued his journalistic, astronomical, and political pursuits. He was an abolitionist and joined with unionists before the war in Texas. He worked with Louis Charles Roudanez at a newspaper in New Orleans, before living in Jamaicafor a while, receiving reinstatement from an observatory in Brussels and returning to Europe. He came back to Texas for an astronomical event. He published stirring accounts of his adventures and contacts during his travels as well as several works on astronomical subjects.
Life
Houzeau was born in Havré, then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, later in Belgium. From 1842, he worked as a voluntary assistant at the Brussels Observatory and began writing papers. He eventually became the observatory's director. He travelled a lot during his career, to Paris, the United Kingdom, United States, Mexico and Jamaica. The scientist moved to New Orleans after being removed from the Belgian Royal Observatory for "outspoken political views". In Texas by 1858, he first worked as a surveyor, then moved to Uvalde and organized early scientific expeditions. He believed in the abolition of slavery and so aided the escape of some notable unionists from San Antonio. He soon had to flee, disguised as a Mexican laborer, into Mexico. Later in New Orleans, when the city had been taken by Federal forces, he ran a Union newspaper, the bilingual New Orleans Tribune - La Tribunede la Nouvelle-Orléans, then for eight years lived in Jamaica. Finally, having kept his European contacts, he was reinstated as director of the Royal Observatory in Brussels. In December 1882, however, Houzeau made a return trip to Texas. He led a scientific expedition, accompanied by Albert Benoît Lancaster and Charles Emile Stuyvaert, to San Antonio to observe a locally visible transit of Venus across the face of the sun—in those days a method of measuring time and gravity.
Works
His published works include:
Des turbines, de leur construction, du calcul de leur puissance et de leur application à l'industrie his first published work, issued when he was 19 years old;
Atlas de toutes les étoiles visibles à l'oeil nu, formé d'après l'observation directe, dans les deux hémisphères
