  Carl Lampland was the first to observe a comet in the infrared, a feat little
known today because he failed to formally publish his data. I have retrieved
the radiometry of this comet, C/1927 X1 (Skjellerup-Maristany), taken in broad
daylight, from Lampland's logbook in the Lowell Observatory archives, and
present a preliminary reduction of it here. There are similarities between
Lampland's pioneering achievement and V. M. Slipher's discovery of the
redshifts of the spiral nebulae (and thus, arguably, the expansion of the
Universe). Each astronomer used state-of-the-art instrumentation, received rave
reviews at American Astronomical Society meetings where their novel data were
presented, and suffered under-recognition in ensuing decades. A common thread
in these poor outcomes was their lackadaisical approach to formal publication -
in Slipher's case, publishing in internal or secondary outlets, and in
Lampland's case, not publishing at all.
