PBS and Ex-Planet Pluto

Early this morning, in the week hours of darkness, I was unable to sleep and decided watching a show on PBS might have some sleep-inducing ability. Well, as it turned out, I found myself fascinated by the show... It was a discussion centered on the ex-planet Pluto and why it should (or shouldn't) be considered a planet. I found that discussion to be hair-splitting and nearly fell asleep - but then they got into how Pluto was discovered and why it was considered a planet in the first place...

Around the year 1900, American astronomer Percival Lowell, among others, made calculations of where a ninth planet (Planet X) might be.

The search for this planet was inspired by the fact that the discovery of the eighth planet, Neptune, did not completely account for the irregularities in the orbit of the seventh planet, Uranus and in fact, observations of Neptune itself showed it did not orbit as expected.

Between 1905 and his death in 1916, Lowell and his colleagues made telescopic sweeps of the area where the "undiscovered" planet was thought to be, but they were unable to find it.

Over a decade later, Lowell’s successors at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, installed a new telescope and appointed young astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh to continue the search.

Tombaugh painstakingly photographed the sky and compared pictures taken several days apart, looking for moving objects. On February 18, 1930, he found something that had moved against the background stars, compared with the plates he had taken on January 21, 23, and 29. The announcement of the discovery of "Planet X" was made on March 13, 1930.


Since the ninth planet moves farthest from the light of the sun and farther into the darkness of the space between the stars, it was named Pluto (whose name happens to begin with the initials of Percival Lowell), after the Roman god of the underworld, lord of the dead, and giver of wealth.

The naming of Pluto is a story by itself. A few months after its discovery, the planet was officially named Pluto which was originally suggested by Venetia Burney, an 11-year-old schoolgirl in Oxford, England.

But... Pluto wasn't not a well-received name because....

"Pluto Water" was a very successful trademark for a strongly laxative natural water product which was very popular in the United States. The water's high native content of mineral salts generally made it effective within one hour of ingestion, a fact the company played up in their promotional literature.


Pluto Water was bottled in French Lick, Indiana. It was advertised "America's Laxative" with the slogan "When Nature Won't, PLUTO Will". The bottle and many advertisements featured an image of the devil.


The location of the spring was originally known as the French Lick Springs Hotel, a grand resort that catered to those who came to partake of the advertised healing properties of the town's sulfur springs. The first hotel was opened in 1845 by William A. Bowles and was an immediate success. The original hotel burned in 1897, but the resort was rebuilt on an even grander scale by new owner Thomas Taggart, mayor of Indianapolis and chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Taggart convinced the Monon Railroad to build a spur directly to the hotel grounds with daily passenger service to Chicago. The rich and famous were guests during the heyday of the resort, including Franklin D. Roosevelt (who announced his candidacy for president at the 1931 National Governors' Conference there), Ronald Reagan and numerous others.

The spring water known as Pluto Water was bottled at a plant across the street from the hotel for use on the property and for commercial distribution.

I finally fell asleep thinking about French Lick, and a couple people I knew that lived there. John Jopete Anderson and Larry Bird.

I suppose both John and Larry were always "regular" and somehow, I think ol' Jopete would have loved to have a bottle of Pluto Water hanging around - if only to look at the label from time to time.