Edmond Halley
Edmond Halley | |
---|---|
Born | 8 November [O.S. 29 October] 1656 Haggerston, Middlesex, England |
Died | 25 January 1742 [O.S. 14 January 1741] (aged 85) |
Resting place | St. Margaret's, Lee, South London |
Alma mater | The Queen's College, Oxford |
Spouse |
Mary Tooke (m. 1682) |
Children | 3[1] |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Astronomy, mathematics, physics, cartography |
Institutions | University of Oxford Royal Observatory, Greenwich |
Edmond[2] (or Edmund)[3] Halley FRS (/ˈhæli/;[4][5] 8 November [O.S. 29 October] 1656 – 25 January 1742 [O.S. 14 January 1741])[6][7] was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720.
From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Halley catalogued the southern celestial hemisphere and recorded a transit of Mercury across the Sun. He realised that a similar transit of Venus could be used to determine the distances between Earth, Venus, and the Sun. Upon his return to England, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society, and with the help of King Charles II, was granted a master's degree from Oxford.
Halley encouraged and helped fund the publication of Isaac Newton's influential Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). From observations Halley made in September 1682, he used Newton's law of universal gravitation to compute the periodicity of Halley's Comet in his 1705 Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets.[a] It was named after him upon its predicted return in 1758, which he did not live to see.
Beginning in 1698, Halley made sailing expeditions and made observations on the conditions of terrestrial magnetism. In 1718, he discovered the proper motion of the "fixed" stars.[8]
Early life
Halley was born in
Career
Publications and inventions
In 1676, Flamsteed helped Halley publish his first paper, titled "A Direct and Geometrical Method of Finding the Aphelia, Eccentricities, and Proportions of the Primary Planets, Without Supposing Equality in Angular Motion", about planetary
Halley returned to England in May 1678, and used his data to produce a map of the southern stars.[20] Oxford would not allow Halley to return because he had violated his residency requirements when he left for Saint Helena. He appealed to Charles II, who signed a letter requesting that Halley be unconditionally awarded his Master of Arts degree, which the college granted on 3 December 1678.[21] Just a few days before,[22] Halley had been elected as a fellow of the Royal Society, at the age of 22.[23] In 1679, he published Catalogus Stellarum Australium ('A catalogue of the stars of the South'), which includes his map and descriptions of 341 stars.[20][24][c] Robert Hooke presented the catalogue to the Royal Society.[26] In mid-1679, Halley went to Danzig (Gdańsk) on behalf of the Society to help resolve a dispute: because astronomer Johannes Hevelius' observing instruments were not equipped with telescopic sights, Flamsteed and Hooke had questioned the accuracy of his observations; Halley stayed with Hevelius and checked his observations, finding that they were quite precise.[25]
By 1681,
Halley spent most of his time on lunar observations, but was also interested in the problems of
In 1691, Halley built a diving bell, a device in which the atmosphere was replenished by way of weighted barrels of air sent down from the surface.[33] In a demonstration, Halley and five companions dived to 60 feet (18 m) in the River Thames, and remained there for over an hour and a half. Halley's bell was of little use for practical salvage work, as it was very heavy, but he made improvements to it over time, later extending his underwater exposure time to over 4 hours.[34] Halley suffered one of the earliest recorded cases of middle ear barotrauma.[33] That same year, at a meeting of the Royal Society, Halley introduced a rudimentary working model of a magnetic compass using a liquid-filled housing to damp the swing and wobble of the magnetised needle.[35]
In 1691, Halley sought the post of
In 1692, Halley put forth the idea of a
In 1693 Halley published an article on life annuities, which featured an analysis of age-at-death on the basis of the Breslau statistics Caspar Neumann had been able to provide. This article allowed the British government to sell life annuities at an appropriate price based on the age of the purchaser. Halley's work strongly influenced the development of actuarial science. The construction of the life-table for Breslau, which followed more primitive work by John Graunt, is now seen as a major event in the history of demography.
The Royal Society censured Halley for suggesting in 1694 that the story of
In 1696, Newton was appointed as
In 1698, the Czar of Russia (later known as Peter the Great) was on a visit to England, and hoped Newton would be available to entertain him. Newton sent Halley in his place. He and the Czar bonded over science and brandy. According to one disputed account, when both of them were drunk one night, Halley jovially pushed the Czar around Deptford in a wheelbarrow.[46]
Exploration years
In 1698, at the behest of King
The preface to Awnsham and John Churchill's collection of voyages and travels (1704), supposedly written by John Locke or by Halley, valourised expeditions such as these as part of a grand expansion of European knowledge of the world:
What was cosmography before these discoveries, but an imperfect fragment of a science, scarce deserving so good a name? When all the known world was only Europe, a small part of Africk, and the lesser portion of Asia; so that of this terraqueous globe not one sixth part had ever been seen or heard of. Nay so great was the ignorance of man in this particular, that learned persons made a doubt of its being round; others no less knowing imagin'd all they were not acquainted with, desart and uninhabitable. But now geography and hydrography have receiv'd some perfection by the pains of so many mariners and travelers, who to evince the rotundity of the earth and water, have sail’d and travell'd round it, as has been here made appear; to show there is no part uninhabitable, unless the frozen polar regions, have visited all other countries, tho never so remote, which they have found well peopl'd, and most of them rich and delightful…. Astronomy has receiv'd the addition of many constellations never seen before. Natural and moral history is embelish'd with the most beneficial increase of so many thousands of plants it had never before receiv'd, so many drugs and spices, such variety of beasts, birds and fishes, such rarities in minerals, mountains and waters, such unaccountable diversity of climates and men, and in them of complexions, tempers, habits, manners, politicks, and religions…. To conclude, the empire of Europe is now extended to the utmost bounds of the earth, where several of its nations have conquests and colonies. These and many more are the advantages drawn from the labours of those, who expose themselves to the dangers of the vast ocean, and of unknown nations; which those who sit still at home abundantly reap in every kind: and the relation of one traveler is an incentive to stir up another to imitate him, whilst the rest of mankind, in their accounts without stirring a foot, compass the earth and seas, visit all countries, and converse with all nations.[52]
Life as an academic
In November 1703, Halley was appointed Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford, his theological enemies, John Tillotson and Bishop Stillingfleet having died. In 1705, applying historical astronomy methods, he published the paper Astronomiae cometicae synopsis (A Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets); in this, he stated his belief that the comet sightings of 1456, 1531, 1607, and 1682 were of the same comet, and that it would return in 1758.[53][a] Halley did not live to witness the comet's return, but when it did, the comet became generally known as Halley's Comet.
By 1706 Halley had learned Arabic and completed the translation started by Edward Bernard[55] of Books V–VII of Apollonius's Conics from copies found at Leiden and the Bodleian Library at Oxford. He also completed a new translation of the first four books from the original Greek that had been started by the late David Gregory. He published these along with his own reconstruction of Book VIII[56] in the first complete Latin edition in 1710. The same year, he received an honorary degree of doctor of laws from Oxford.[9]
In 1716, Halley suggested a high-precision measurement of the distance between the Earth and the Sun by timing the transit of Venus. In doing so, he was following the method described by James Gregory in Optica Promota (in which the design of the Gregorian telescope is also described). It is reasonable to assume Halley possessed and had read this book given that the Gregorian design was the principal telescope design used in astronomy in Halley's day.[57] It is not to Halley's credit that he failed to acknowledge Gregory's priority in this matter. In 1717–18 he discovered the proper motion of the "fixed" stars (publishing this in 1718)[58] by comparing his astrometric measurements with those given in Ptolemy's Almagest. Arcturus and Sirius were two noted to have moved significantly, the latter having progressed 30 arc minutes (about the diameter of the moon) southwards in 1800 years.[59]
In 1720, together with his friend the antiquarian William Stukeley, Halley participated in the first attempt to scientifically date Stonehenge. Assuming that the monument had been laid out using a magnetic compass, Stukeley and Halley attempted to calculate the perceived deviation introducing corrections from existing magnetic records, and suggested three dates (460 BC, AD 220 and AD 920), the earliest being the one accepted. These dates were wrong by thousands of years, but the idea that scientific methods could be used to date ancient monuments was revolutionary in its day.[60]
Halley succeeded John Flamsteed in 1720 as Astronomer Royal, a position Halley held until his death in 1742 at the age of 85.
Despite the persistent misconception that Halley received a
Personal life
Halley married Mary Tooke in 1682 and settled in Islington. The couple had three children.[1]
Named after Edmond Halley
- Halley's Comet (orbital period (approximately) 75 years)
- Halley (lunar crater)
- Halley (Martian crater)
- Halley Research Station, Antarctica
- Halley's method, for the numerical solution of equations
- Halley Street, in Blackburn, Victoria, Australia
- Edmund Halley Road, Oxford Science Park, Oxford, OX4 4DQ UK
- Edmund Halley Drive, Reston, Virginia, United States
- Edmund Halley Way, Greenwich Peninsula, London
- Halley's Mount, Saint Helena (680m high)
- Halley Drive, Hackensack, New Jersey, intersects with Comet Way on the campus of Hackensack High School, home of the Comets
- Rue Edmund Halley, Avignon, France
- The Halley Academy, a school in London, England
- Halley House School, Hackney London (2015)
- Halley Gardens, Blackheath, London.
Pronunciation and spelling
There are three pronunciations of the surname Halley. These are /ˈhæli/, /ˈheɪli/, and /ˈhɔːli/. As a personal surname, the most common pronunciation in the 21st century, both in Great Britain[4] and in the United States,[5] is /ˈhæli/ (rhymes with "valley"). This is the personal pronunciation used by most Halleys living in London today.[66] This is useful guidance but does not, of course, tell us how the name should be pronounced in the context of the astronomer or the comet. The alternative /ˈheɪli/ is much more common in the latter context than it is when used as a modern surname. Colin Ronan, one of Halley's biographers, preferred /ˈhɔːli/. Contemporary accounts spell his name Hailey, Hayley, Haley, Haly, Halley, Hawley and Hawly, and presumably pronunciations varied similarly.[67]
As for his given name, although the spelling "Edmund" is quite common, "Edmond" is what Halley himself used, according to a 1902 article,[2] though a 2007 International Comet Quarterly article disputes this, commenting that in his published works, he used "Edmund" 22 times and "Edmond" only 3 times,[68] with several other variations used as well, such as the Latinised "Edmundus". Much of the debate stems from the fact that, in Halley's own time, English spelling conventions were not yet standardised, and so he himself used multiple spellings.[3]
In popular media
- Halley is voiced by Cary Elwes in the 2014 documentary series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.
- A fictional version of Halley appears in The Magnus Archives, a horror podcast.
- Fritz Weaver portrayed a fictional version of Halley in Comet Watch, a second-season episode of the anthology series Tales from the Darkside.
- Actor John Wood was cast as Edmond Halley in the TV series, Longitude in 2000.[69]
- Halley is a major figure in David Williamson's play Nearer the Gods, about Sir Isaac Newton
- The pronunciation backing band his "Comets" after the common pronunciation of Halley's Comet in the United States at the time.[70]
- Halley is one of the side characters in novels Taivaanpallo (The Celestial Sphere, Otava 2018) and Merenpeitto (The Art of Living under Water, Otava 2019) by the Finnish writer Olli Jalonen.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b This was perhaps the first astronomical mystery solved using Newton's laws by a scientist other than Newton.[54]
- ^ He wrote as late as 1716 in hopes of a future expedition to make these observations.[19]
- ^ This contribution caused Flamsteed to nickname Halley "the southern Tycho".[24] Tycho had catalogued the stars observed by Johannes Hevelius.[25]
- The History of Fish, which it had depleted its funds on.[29]
- ^ Halley asked Newton to obtain Flamsteed's observations for him, as his own relationship with the older astronomer had deteriorated.[32]
- ^ "To what extent Halley's failure was due the animosity of John Flamsteed or to his stout defence [sic] of his religious belief that not every iota of scripture was necessarily divinely inspired is still a matter of some argument. All Oxford appointees had to assent to the Articles of Religion and be approved by the Church of England. Halley's religious views could not have been too outlandish because the University was happy to grant him another chair 12 years later. ... Halley held liberal religious views and was very outspoken. He believed in having a reverent but questioning attitude towards the eternal problems and had little sympathy for those who unquestioningly accepted dogma. He was certainly not an atheist." Hughes 1985, pp. 198, 201.
- ^ Halley had noticed that observable geological processes take much longer than implied by the Genesis flood narrative. In attempt to explain the biblical account, Halley had theorized that the gravity of a passing comet could have suddenly raised the oceans in a certain area.[37] Following his failure to obtain the professorship, he investigated ocean salinity as an indicator of the Earth's age, since salt is carried to the ocean by rivers. He estimated the Earth to be over 100 million years old.[38]
References
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12011. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b The Times (London) Notes and Queries No. 254, 8 November 1902 p.36
- ^ Bibcode:2007ICQ....29....7H., and that this particular astronomer seemed to prefer the 'u' over the 'o' in his published works.
Might we suggest... simply recogniz[ing] both forms, noting that—in the days when Halley lived—there was no rigid 'correct' spelling
- ^ ISBN 0-460-03029-9.
- ^ ISBN 0-87779-047-7.
- ^ The source of the dates of birth and death is a biography of Edmond Halley written shortly after his death: Biographia Britannica, vol. 4, 1757, pp. 2494–2520. On his tombstone at Lee near Greenwich his year of birth and his year of death were inscribed as follows: Natus est A.C. MDCLVI. Mortuus est A.C. MDCCXLI. Before 1752 the Julian calendar was used in England. Also, the year began on 25 March.
- ^ "Halley, Edmond". astro.uni-bonn.de.
- ^ Gribbin & Gribbin (2017), p. 267.
- ^ a b c d Clerke, Agnes Mary (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 856.
- ^ a b Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 40.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, pp. 40–41.
- ^ ISBN 0198500319.
- ^ a b Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 41.
- ^ a b BBC. "Edmond Halley (1656–1742)". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 42.
- ISBN 978-3-0348-8099-2.
- ^ Ridpath, Ian. "Edmond Halley's southern star catalogue". Star Tales. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 60.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4614-0917-5.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 45.
- ^ O'Connor, J. J.; Robertson, E. F. (January 2000). "Edmond Halley - Biography". Maths History. Archived from the original on 10 August 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
- ^ Sharp, Tim (11 December 2018). "Edmond Halley: An Extraordinary Scientist and the Second Astronomer Royal". Space.com. Archived from the original on 14 February 2014. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
- ^ a b Hughes 1985, p. 202.
- ^ S2CID 202574705.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 44.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 48.
- ISBN 0-7137-1447-6.
- ^ a b Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 56.
- ^ Peter Ackroyd. Newton. Great Britain: Chatto and Windus, 2006.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 64.
- ^ a b Edmonds, Carl; Lowry, C; Pennefather, John. "History of Diving". South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal. 5 (2). Archived from the original on 14 October 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "History: Edmond Halley". London Diving Chamber. Retrieved 6 December 2006.
- ISBN 978-1-4020-3992-8, p. 67
- ^ a b Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 62.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 59.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 63.
- ISBN 0-7102-0279-2, pg 250
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 16 (179–191): 470–478.
- Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 23 July 2006.
- ^ "10 Illuminating Facts about the Northern Lights". Oceanwide Expeditions. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
- ^ V. Clube and B. Napier, The Cosmic Serpent London: Faber and Faber, 1982.
- ^ Deutsch, A., C. Koeberl, J.D. Blum, B.M. French, B.P. Glass, R. Grieve, P. Horn, E.K. Jessberger, G. Kurat, W.U. Reimold, J. Smit, D. Stöffler, and S.R. Taylor, 1994, The impact-flood connection: Does it exist? Terra Nova. v. 6, pp. 644–650.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 67.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, pp. 67–68.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 68.
- ISBN 0-904180-02-6.
- S2CID 122788971.
- ISSN 0008-7041.
- ^ a b Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 70.
- ^ Halley or Locke,'A Collection of Voyages and Travels, some now first printed from manuscript', Preface, p.lxxiii
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, pp. 66–67.
- ^ Sagan & Druyan 1997, p. 66.
- ^ M.B. Hall, 'Arabick Learning in the Correspondence of the Royal Society, 1660–1677', The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in 17th-Century England, p.154
- ^ Michael N. Fried, 'Edmond Halley's Reconstruction of the Lost Book of Apollonius's Conics: Translation and Commentary', Spring 2011
- ISBN 0309095948. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
- Bibcode:1942ASPL....4..103A. Retrieved 27 June 2021 – via Harvard.edu.
- ISBN 978-0-387-48941-4.
- ISBN 978-0-500-05155-9
- ^ "Location of Edmond Halley's tomb". shadyoldlady.com. The Shady Old Lady's guide to London. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
- Greenwich Observatory.
- ^ "Photograph of Edmond Halley's Tombstone". flamsteed.org. Flamsteed Society. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
- ^ Redfern, Dave (Summer 2004). Doing the Halley Walk (Issue 14 ed.). London: Horizons. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
- Bibcode:2010JRASC.104...28R. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
- ^ Ian Ridpath. "Saying Hallo to Halley". Retrieved 8 November 2011.
- ^ "Science: Q&A". The New York Times. 14 May 1985. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
- Bibcode:2007ICQ....29....7H.
- ^ "Longitude © (1999)". Retrieved 22 June 2021.
- ^ "Guide Profile: Bill Haley". Oldies.about.com. Archived from the original on 21 January 2012. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
Sources
- OCLC 966239842.
- Bibcode:1985JBAA...95..193H.
- ISBN 978-0-3078-0105-0.
Further reading
- Armitage, Angus (1966). Edmond Halley. London: Nelson.
- Coley, Noel (1986). "Halley and Post-Restoration Science". History Today. 36 (September): 10–16.
- Cook, Alan H. (1998). Edmond Halley: Charting the Heavens and the Seas. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Bibcode:1998ehch.book.....C.
- Darrigol, Olivier (2012). A History of Optics from Greek Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century. Oxford University. p. 76. ISBN 9780191627453. Halley is noted as the first to publish the algebraic version of the thin lens equation.
- Ronan, Colin A. (1969). Edmond Halley, Genius in Eclipse. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company.
- Seyour, Ian (1996). "Edmond Halley – explorer". History Today. 46 (June): 39–44. Archived from the original on 12 February 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
- Sarah Irving (2008). "Natural science and the origins of the British empire (London,1704), 92–93". A Collection of Voyages and Travels. 3 (June): 92–93.
External links
- Edmond Halley Biography (SEDS)
- Edmond Halley's 1716 paper describing how transits could be used to measure the Sun's distance, translated from Latin.
- A Halley Odyssey
- The National Portrait Gallery (London) has several portraits of Halley: Search the collection Archived 19 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- Halley, Edmond, An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind (1693)
- Halley, Edmond, Some Considerations about the Cause of the Universal Deluge (1694)
- A synopsis of the astronomy of comets By Edmund Halley, Savilian Professor of Geometry, at Oxford; And Fellow of the Royal Society. Translated from the Original, printed at Oxford. Oxford: John Senex. 1705 – via Internet Archive.
- Halley, Edmund, A Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets (1715) annexed on pages 881 to 905 of volume 2 of The Elements of Astronomy by David Gregory
- Material on Halley's life table for Breslau on the Life & Work of Statisticians site: Halley, Edmond
- Halley, Edmund, Considerations on the Changes of the Latitudes of Some of the Principal Fixed Stars (1718) – Reprinted in R. G. Aitken, Edmund Halley and Stellar Proper Motions (1942)
- O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Edmond Halley", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
- Online catalogue of Halley's working papers (part of the Royal Greenwich Observatory Archives held at Cambridge University Library)
- Halley, Edmond (1724) "Some considerations about the cause of the universal deluge, laid before the Royal Society, on the 12th of December 1694" Archived 15 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine and "Some farther thoughts upon the same subject, delivered on the 19th of the same month" Archived 15 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine Philosophical Transactions, Giving Some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours of the Ingenious, in Many Considerable Parts of the World. Vol. 33 p. 118–125. – digital facsimile from Linda Hall Library
- Works by Edmond Halley at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)