George van den Bergh (25 April 1890 in Oss – 3 October 1966 in

Oegstgeest Oegstgeest () is a town and municipality in the province of South Holland in the western Netherlands. Its population was in . Etymology The portion ''geest'' in the name refers to the Geest, geest lands, which were excavated in the seventeent ...

) was a Dutch law professor and amateur astronomer. Van den Bergh was the son of Samuel van den Bergh, one of the founders of

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

. His brother Sidney James and his nephew Maarten would follow his father in business life, while George pursued an academic career. He was a lawyer in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, 1915–1936. From 1925–33 he was a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

of the Netherlands. He was author of ''Aarde en wereld in ruimte en tijd: Een uiteenzetting voor iedereen'' (1935) which was translated into English in 1937 as ''The Universe in Space and Time'' (U.K. edition) and ''Astronomy for the Millions'' (U.S. edition). Etty Hillesum (''An Interrupted Life'') mentions that he was arrested and detained by the Nazis in 1941. He survived the war. During the 1950s he studied the longer

eclipse cycle Eclipses may occur repeatedly, separated by certain intervals of time: these intervals are called eclipse cycles. The series of eclipses separated by a repeat of one of these intervals is called an eclipse series. Eclipse conditions Eclipses ...

s, allowing him to predict solar and

lunar eclipse A lunar eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, ...

s over a long time interval. This was published in 1951 as ''Regelmaat en wisseling bij zonsverduisteringen, met een aanhangsel over maansverduisteringen'' and translated into English in 1955 as ''Periodicity and Variation of Solar (and Lunar) Eclipses''. In 1958 he developed a compressed form of typesetting called Hoofdletters, published as '' Hoofdletters, Tweeling- en Meerlingdruk''. The crater Van den Bergh on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

was named after him.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergh, George van den 1890 births 1966 deaths 20th-century Dutch astronomers 20th-century Dutch lawyers Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Municipal councillors of Amsterdam Social Democratic Workers' Party (Netherlands) politicians People from Oss