Henry Park Hollis

“ His address was an eloquent statement of recent progress in astronomy, chiefly of the discoveries which had been made since 1860, owing to the introduction into the observatory of the spectroscope and the dry plate, and he spoke of the quite recent application of photography to star-charting. In 1897, at the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria, Huggins was created a K.C.B., and in 1902 he was one of the original members of the Order of Merit. In 1900 he was chosen president of the Royal Society, and held the office till 1906. ”

“ After education at the local grammar school he was trained for the medical profession; but attracted by the goldfields of Australia he left England for Melbourne in 1851. He had already interested himself in astronomy and meteorology, and a suggestion made, apparently by Ellery, in the colonial press as to the growing need of an authoritative means of testing ships' chronometers and adjusting nautical instruments for purposes of navigation in Australian waters led the colonial government of Victoria to establish an observatory at Williamstown, four miles from Melbourne, in 1853. ”

“ At the meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society of January 1886, Roberts, who was at the time the president of the local Astronomical Society at Liverpool, reported taking during the past year 200 photographs of stars which might be measured for position, as will as long exposure photographs of the Orion nebula, the Andromeda nebula, and the Pleiades. ”

“ The father, a classical scholar and graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, was manager until 1861 of a bank at Skibbereen, owned land in the district, and practised astronomy as a recreation. Interested as a child by her father in astronomy, Agnes Clerke was highly educated at home. In 1861 she and her family moved to Dublin, and in 1863 to Queenstown. The years 1867-77 were spent in Italy, chiefly in Florence, where Agnes studied in the libraries and wrote an article, 'Copernicus in Italy,' which was published in the 'Edinburgh Review' in April 1877. ”

“ In 1869 the telegraph and postal departments of South Australia had been amalgamated, and Todd became postmaster-general next year. The colony bore the whole charge of constructing the internal telegraph line, which was nearly two thousand miles long, mostly across unknown country. Todd supervised the difficult work, and in August 1872, being at Mount Stuart, in the centre of the Australian continent, he had the satisfaction of telegraphing by means of a portable instrument in both directions to Port Darwin and to Adelaide. ”

“ There, with his principal instrument, an equatorially mounted telescope of 6.4 inches, he observed, in days preceding the transit, double stars and star-clusters, paying special attention to the nebula round η Argus, one of the wonders of the Southern sky, which he described in a memoir. Observations of the transit were prevented by cloud. Peek made extensive travels in Australia and New Zealand, bringing back with him many curious objects to add to his father's collection at Rousdon near Lyme Regis. ”

“ This instrument, called the Victoria telescope, is housed at McClean's expense in an excellent dome with a rising floor. A still more munificent gift was the foundation, at a cost of 12,500l., of the Isaac Newton studentships in the university of Cambridge for the encouragement of study and research in astronomy and physical optics. This foundation has proved eminently successful. In 1911 five important government positions in astronomy were filled by former Isaac Newton students.
McClean joined the Royal Astronomical Society in 1877, and served on the council from 1891 until his death. ”

“ In February 1847 he communicated to the Royal Society his first important research — the result of three years' experiments — on 'The amount of the radiation of heat at night from the earth and from various bodies placed on or near the surface of the earth.' In 1847 he published his useful 'Hygrometrical Tables adapted to the Use of the Dry and Wet Bulb Thermometer,' which passed through very many editions. ”

“ Early next year he became assistant astronomer at the Cambridge University observatory, where, being in charge of the large telescope, the Northumberland equatorial, he was one of the earliest observers of the planet Neptune (discovered in 1846) , and with the same instrument took a daguerreotype picture of the moon, this being one of the first attempts in astronomical photography. ”

“ From 1866 to 1871 Herschel was lecturer on natural philosophy, and professor of mechanical and experimental physics in the University of Glasgow. From 1871 to 1886 he was the first professor of physics and experimental philosophy in the University of Durham College of Science, Newcastle-on-Tyne. At the Durham College Herschel provided, chiefly by his personal exertions, apparatus for the newly installed laboratory, some being made by his own hands. When the college migrated as Armstrong College to new buildings, the new Herschel Physical Laboratory was named after him. ”

“ Between 1882 and 1889 he made an elaborate series of experiments on the movement of underground water as affected by barometric and lunar changes. A paper on a different subject, 'the determination of the vertical and lateral pressures of granular substances,' which appeared in the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' for 31 Jan. 1884, embodied the results of elaborate experiments made for the purpose of furnishing data to engineers and builders of storehouses. ”

“ In 1889 Lord Crawford presented the instrumental equipment of his observatory at Dun Echt, together with his astronomical library, to the Edinburgh observatory, on condition that it should be maintained as a Royal Observatory. On the acceptance of the offer by the nation Copeland was made Astronomer Royal for Scotland, on 29 Jan. ”

“ Each annual volume of the 'Observatory Magazine ' from 1886 until her death contained reviews by her of books or descriptions of new advances in astronomy. She contributed many astronomical articles, including 'Laplace,' to the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' (9th edit.) . In this Dictionary she wrote almost all the lives of astronomers from the first volume to the supplementary volumes in 1901. ”

“ The journey was made on the yacht Venus, and during a call at the uninhabited island of Trinidad in the South Atlantic Copeland was fortunate enough to discover a great tree fern (Cyaihea Copelandi) , groves of which are found only in the loftiest and nearly inaccessible parts of the island. The observation of the transit was only partially successful, but Copeland was thenceforth associated with Lord Lindsay (now the earl of Crawford and Balcarres) , and left Dunsink in 1876 to take charge of his observatory at Dun Echt, Aberdeen, in succession to (Sir) David Gill. ”

“ A large balloon was constructed for the purpose by Henry Coxwell [q. v. Suppl. I] , and in it he and Glaisher made with necessary instruments eight ascents in 1862. In four of these ascents from the Crystal Palace, and in one from Mill Hill, Hendon, Glaisher accompanied Coxwell as an ordinary passenger on ascents for public exhibition. The greatest height attained on these occasions was between six and seven thousand feet. Three ascents from Wolverhampton were arranged solely in the interest of the British Association's committee, and immense altitudes were scaled. ”

“ His scientific interest at first inclined to electrical work, but he soon turned to astronomy, and in 1875 he completed an observatory at his country house at Ferncliffe, near Tunbridge Wells, where he devoted himself to astronomical spectroscopy. ”

“ In 1884 he established, on his father's estate at Rousdon, a meteorological station of the second order, and in the same year he set up there an astronomical observatory to contain the 6.4 inch Merz telescope and a transit instrument with other accessories. ”

“ The successful performance of the 18-inch and the 3-foot silver-on-glass mirror induced Common to attempt the construction of a larger telescope of the same kind. With characteristic confidence he made his first essay in mirror-grinding with a disc of 5 feet diameter, which was begun in the workshop adjoining his house at Baling in 1886, and after five years of hard work and anxious experiment, a successful 5-foot equatorial reflecting telescope was completed (see memoir presented to Royal Astron. Soc. 11 Dec. 1891) . ”

“ After being educated privately he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he obtained his engineering diploma with high distinction in 1865. Three years later, passing second in the open competition, he joined the Indian government works department and worked as assistant engineer on the construction of the Sirhind canal in the Punjab. There he began his observation of the stars, which had for first result the publication in 1877 of a small book entitled 'Southern Objects for Small Telescopes.' Gore retired from the Indian service in 1879 with a pension. ”

“ These were published in a paper read before the Royal Society in December of that year (Phil. Trans. 1864, cliv. 139) . Earlier in 1863 Miller and Huggins had presented to the Royal Society the results of their first investigations with their star spectroscope in a paper on the 'Lines of the Spectra of some of the Fixed Stars' (Proc. Roy. Soc. 1863, xii. 444) ; this was followed by a more complete paper on the ' Spectra of some of the Fixed Stars' (Phil Trans. 1864, cliv. 413-35) . The conclusion was that 'in plan of structure the stars, or at least the brightest of them, resemble the sun. ”

“ But his chief energies were absorbed as soon as he reached Australia in 1855 with designs for a great telegraphic system on the Australian continent. Private enterprise had made a first effort in telegraphy in South Australia with a short line from the city of Adelaide to the port. But immediately on his arrival Todd set up a government line over the same route, which was opened on 21 Feb. ”

“ After retiring from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, in 1874, Glaisher continued to supply his quarterly report to the registrar-general until the last year of his life. He took great interest in the Palestine Exploration Fund, being chairman of the executive committee from 1880 ”

“ Owing to his father's premature death, Andrew was mainly self-taught. In early manhood he joined his uncle in the firm of Matthew Hall & Co., sanitary engineers, Wigmore Street, London, and was long prominent in the management of the business. ”

“ He was reporter to the committee of the British Association on the 'observations of luminous meteors,' and from 1862 to 1881 drew up annually complete reports of the large meteors observed, and of the progress of meteoric science. ”

“ At the same time Gore wrote much on astronomy for general reading. In some of his popular books he discussed with much judgment the theories of structure of the universe. 'Planetary and Stellar Studies' appeared in 1888 ”

“ In 1874 he was entrusted with an exploring expedition to northern Australia, but bad weather cut the scheme short. He was absent in England on a year's leave in 1875. He was created C.M.G. in 1889. After his resignation of his office of government astronomer in 1895, he joined the board of visitors, and lived in his house in the observatory domain until his death there on 14 Jan. ”

“ By the beginning of May in the next year a base 709 metres long was measured close to the ship, the Germania, and later the geodetic operations were continued to latitude 75° 11-5' N. The results were published in 'Die Zweite Deutsche Nordpolarfahrt' (vol. ii. Leipzig, 1872) . ”

“ Proc. 1897, lxi. 433) . The discovery of radium by Professor and Madame Curie in 1903 again led to laboratory experiments by Huggins with the spectroscope (Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1903, lxxii. 196 ; 1903, lxxii. 409 ; 1905, lxxvii. 130) .
Through life Huggins occasionally pursued scientific inquiries outside the range of astronomy. In a paper on 'Prismatic Examination of Microscopic Objects' he described the application for the first time of the spectroscope to the microscope (Quarterly Journal Microsc. Soc. 1865) . ”