John Herschel
KH FRS | |
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Born | John Frederick William Herschel 7 March 1792[1] Slough, Buckinghamshire, England |
Died | 11 May 1871[1] Collingwood, near Hawkhurst, Kent, England | (aged 79)
Resting place | Westminster Abbey |
Education | Eton College |
Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge |
Known for | contributions to the invention of photography |
Spouse(s) | Margaret Herschel, née Brodie Stewart |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Astronomy, photography, chemistry, optics, botany, philosophy of science |
Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet
Herschel originated the use of the
Early life and work on astronomy
Herschel was born in
Some time about 1825, he came to England for two or three years, and made a fast and lifelong friendship with Herschel and with Babbage, who was then quite young.(.) My uncle returned from India. He never interfered with anyone's religious beliefs or customs. But no one under his influence could continue to believe in anything in the Bible being specially sacred, except the two elements which it has in common with other sacred books: the knowledge of our relation to others and of man's power to hold direct converse with the unseen truth.
He stated in his historical article Mathematics in Brewster's Cyclopedia:
The Brahma Sidd'hanta, the work of Brahmagupta, an Indian astronomer at the beginning of the seventh century, contains a general method for the resolution of indeterminate problems of the second degree; an investigation which actually baffled the skill of every modern analyst till the time of Lagrange's solution, not excepting the all inventive Euler himself.[10][11]
Herschel served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society three times: 1827–1829, 1839–1841 and 1847–1849.[12][13]
Herschel's A preliminary discourse on the study of natural philosophy, published early in 1831 as part of
He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1854.[17]
Herschel published a catalogue of his astronomical observations in 1864, as the
Herschel correctly considered astigmatism to be due to irregularity of the cornea and theorised that vision could be improved by the application of some animal jelly contained in a capsule of glass against the cornea. His views were published in an article entitled Light in 1828 and the Encyclopædia Metropolitana in 1845.[18]
Discoveries of Herschel include the galaxies NGC 7, NGC 10, NGC 25, and NGC 28.
Visit to South Africa
He declined an offer from the Duke of Sussex that they travel to South Africa on a Navy ship. [19] Herschel had his own inherited money and he paid £500 for passage on the S.S. Mountstuart Elphinstone. He, his wife, their three children and his 20 inch telescope departed from Portsmouth on 13 November 1833.[1]
The voyage to South Africa was made to catalogue the stars,
In addition to his astronomical work, however, this voyage to a far corner of the British empire also gave Herschel an escape from the pressures under which he found himself in London, where he was one of the most sought-after of all British men of science. While in southern Africa, he engaged in a broad variety of scientific pursuits free from a sense of strong obligations to a larger scientific community. It was, he later recalled, probably the happiest time in his life.[20] A village in the contemporary province of Eastern Cape is named after him.
Herschel combined his talents with those of his wife, Margaret, and between 1834 and 1838 they produced 131 botanical illustrations of fine quality, showing the Cape flora. Herschel used a camera lucida to obtain accurate outlines of the specimens and left the details to his wife. Even though their portfolio had been intended as a personal record, and despite the lack of floral dissections in the paintings, their accurate rendition makes them more valuable than many contemporary collections. Some 112 of the 132 known flower studies were collected and published as Flora Herscheliana in 1996. The book also included work by Charles Davidson Bell and Thomas Bowler.[21]
As their home during their stay in the Cape, the Herschels had selected 'Feldhausen' ("Field Houses"),[21] an old estate on the south-eastern side of Table Mountain. Here John set up his reflector to begin his survey of the southern skies.
Herschel, at the same time, read widely. Intrigued by the ideas of gradual formation of landscapes set out in
He that on such quest would go must know not fear or failing
To coward soul or faithless heart the search were unavailing.
Taking a gradualist view of development and referring to evolutionary descent from a proto-language, Herschel commented:
Words are to the Anthropologist what rolled pebbles are to the Geologist – battered relics of past ages often containing within them indelible records capable of intelligent interpretation – and when we see what amount of change 2000 years has been able to produce in the languages of Greece & Italy or 1000 in those of Germany France & Spain we naturally begin to ask how long a period must have lapsed since the Chinese, the Hebrew, the Delaware & the Malesass [Malagasy] had a point in common with the German & Italian & each other – Time! Time! Time! – we must not impugn the Scripture Chronology, but we must interpret it in accordance with whatever shall appear on fair enquiry to be the truth for there cannot be two truths. And really there is scope enough: for the lives of the Patriarchs may as reasonably be extended to 5000 or 50000 years apiece as the days of Creation to as many thousand millions of years.[24][25]
The document was circulated, and
Herschel returned to England in 1838, was created a
Photography
Herschel made numerous important contributions to photography. He made improvements in
Herschel coined the term photography in 1839.[33][34] Herschel was also the first to apply the terms negative and positive to photography.[6]
Herschel discovered sodium thiosulfate to be a solvent of silver halides in 1819,[35] and informed Talbot and Daguerre of his discovery that this "hyposulphite of soda" ("hypo") could be used as a photographic fixer, to "fix" pictures and make them permanent, after experimentally applying it thus in early 1839.
Herschel's ground-breaking research on the subject was read at the Royal Society in London in March 1839 and January 1840.
Other aspects of Herschel's career
Herschel wrote many papers and articles, including entries on meteorology, physical geography and the telescope for the eighth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.[6] He also translated the Iliad of Homer.
In 1823, Herschel published his findings on the optical spectra of metal salts.[36]
Herschel invented the actinometer in 1825 to measure the direct heating power of the Sun's rays,[37] and his work with the instrument is of great importance in the early history of photochemistry.
Herschel proposed a correction to the Gregorian calendar, making years that are multiples of 4000
Herschel was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1832,[40] and in 1836, a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
In 1835, the
Several locations are named for him: the village of
While it is commonly accepted that Herschel Island, in the Arctic Ocean, part of the
Family
Herschel married his cousin Margaret Brodie Stewart (1810–1884) on 3 March 1829[1] in Edinburgh, and was father of the following children:[42]
- Caroline Emilia Mary Herschel (31 March 1830 – 29 January 1909), who married the soldier and politician Alexander Hamilton-Gordon
- Isabella Herschel (5 June 1831 – 1893)
- Sir William James Herschel, 2nd Bt. (9 January 1833 – 1917),
- Margaret Louisa Herschel (1834–1861), an accomplished artist
- Alexander Stewart Herschel (1836–1907), FRS, FRAS
- Col. John Herschel FRS, FRAS, (1837–1921) surveyor
- Maria Sophia Herschel (1839–1929)
- Amelia Herschel (1841–1926) married Sir Thomas Francis Wade, diplomat and sinologist
- Julia Herschel (1842–1933) married on 4 June 1878 to Captain (later Admiral) John Fiot Lee Pearse Maclear
- Matilda Rose Herschel (1844–1914), a gifted artist, married William Waterfield (Indian Civil Service)
- Francisca Herschel (1846–1932)
- Constance Anne Herschel (1855–20 June 1939), mathematician and scientist who became lecturer in natural sciences at Girton College, Cambridge
Death
Herschel died on 11 May 1871 at age 79 at Collingwood, his home near Hawkhurst in Kent. On his death, he was given a national funeral and buried in Westminster Abbey.[43]
His obituary by Henry W Field of London was read to the American Philosophical Society on 1 December 1871.[44]
Arms
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Bibliography
In chronological order
- "On the Hyposulphurous Acid and its Compounds". The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. 1: 19. 1819. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- On the Aberration of Compound Lenses and Object-Glasses. London: W. Bulmer and W. Nicol. 1821., "Abstract". The Royal Society. 1831. JSTOR 109979.
- Treatises on Physical Astronomy, Light and Sound, Contributed to the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. London: Richard Griffin. (The Encyclopædia Metropolitana was published in 30 vols. from 1817–1845)
- "On the Absorption of Light by Coloured Media, and on the Colours of the Prismatic Spectrum Exhibited by Certain Flames; with an Account of a Ready Mode of Determining the Absolute Dispersive Power of Any Medium, by Direct Experiment". Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 9 (2): 445–460. 1823. S2CID 101517638.
- A Treatise on Astronomy (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: Carey, Leah and Blanchard. 1835.
- "On the Chemical Action of the Rays of the Solar Spectrum on Preparations of Silver and Other Substances, Both Metallic and Non-Metallic, and on Some Photographic Processes", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 130: 1–59, 20 February 1840, S2CID 98119765.
- "On the Action of the Rays of the Solar Spectrum on Vegetable Colours, and on Some New Photographic Processes", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 132: 182–214, 1842,
- Results of Astronomical Observations Made During the Years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8, at the Cape of Good Hope: Being the Completion of a Telescopic Survey of the Whole Surface of the Visible Heavens, Commenced in 1825, London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1847
- John Herschel, ed. (1849). Manual of Scientific Inquiry, Prepared for the Use of Officers in Her Majesty's Navy, and Travellers in General. LCCN 05022489.
- "Meteorology". Encyclopædia britannica. 1861.
- A General Catalogue of Nebulæ and Clusters of Stars. 1864.
- Familiar Lectures on Scientific Subjects. George Routledge & Sons. 1869. Bibcode:1869flss.book.....H.
- R. Main; C. Pritchard, eds. (1874). A Catalogue of 10,300 Multiple and Double Stars, Arranged in the Order of Right Ascension.
- Outlines of Astronomy. D. Appleton and Company. 1876a.
- Popular Lectures on Scientific Subjects. London: Dalby, Isbister & Co. 1876b.
- A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green. 1880.
References
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13101. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ "Herschel". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. Archived from the original on 30 May 2016.
- ^ a b Go, F. E. (1970). "Blueprint". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (Expo'70 ed.). Chicago: William Benton. p. 816.
- ^ a b Bridgwater, William; Sherwood, Elizabeth J., eds. (1950). "blueprint". The Columbia Encyclopedia in One Volume (2nd ed.). New York City: Columbia University Press. p. 214.
- ^ a b Rosenthal, Richard T. (2000). "The Cyanotype". Vernacular Photography. Archived from the original on 30 March 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
- ^ NAHSTE project. University of Edinburgh. Archived from the originalon 10 May 2007.
- ^ Cobb 2012, pp. 409–439.
- ^ "Herschel, John Frederick William (HRSL808JF)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Clerke, Agnes Mary; Pritchard, Charles (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). pp. 393–395.
- ^ a b Boole 1901.
- ^ "De Morgan's Preface to Ramchundra's book". Maths History. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
- ^ Elliott, David. "Past RAS Presidents". Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
- ^ Dreyer & Turner 2014, p. 250.
- ^ Darwin 1958, pp. 67–68.
- ^ Browne 1995, pp. 128, 133.
- ^ Darwin 1985a, Letter No. 94.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
- ^ Berkowitz, Lee. "Contact Lens Timeline". antiquespectacles.com. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ "John Frederick William Herschel (1792–1871)". Hahnemann House. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
- ^ "John Herschel in South Africa". Maths History. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
- ^ a b "Flora Herscheliana: Sir John and Lady Herschel at the Cape: 1834 – 1838". www.nhbs.com. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
- ^ a b van Wyhe 2007, p. 197.
- ^ Babbage 1838, pp. 225–227.
- ^ Desmond & Moore 1991, pp. 214–215.
- ^ Darwin 1985b, Letter No. 346.
- ^ John Herschel, Physical Geography (1861), p. 12.
- ^ Lassell 1848.
- Bibcode:2020Obs...140..262R.
- ^ Evans 1970, p. 84.
- ^ Herschel, John (1901). "General View of Niagara Falls from Bridge". World Digital Library. Detroit Publishing Company. Retrieved 20 November 2017 – via Library of Congress.
- ^ Herschel 1842, pp. 182–214.
- ^ "William Willis". Royal Dutch Academy of Science (Knaw.nl). Archived from the original on 25 December 2004.
- ^ Schaaf 1979, pp. 47–60.
- ^ Peres 2008.
- ^ Herschel 1819.
- ^ Herschel 1823.
- ^ Anon 1884, p. 527.
- ^ Herschel 1876a, p. 712.
- ^ Steel 2000, p. 185.
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter H" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 June 2006. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- ^ Burn 2009, pp. 317–323.
- ^ Burke, Sir Bernard; Burke, Ashworth P. (1914). "Herschel: Sir William James Herschel, 2nd Bart.". A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage and Companionage (76th ed.). London: Harrison and Sons. pp. 1004–1005. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- ^ 'The Abbey Scientists' Hall, A.R. p. 56: London; Roger & Robert Nicholson; 1966
- ^ Field 1871, pp. 217–223.
- ^ Burke's Peerage. 1949.
Works cited
- Anon (1884). "Notes and News". Science. ns-3 (64): 524–528. ISSN 0036-8075.
- Babbage, Charles (1838), The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise (2nd ed.), London: John Murray, retrieved 2 February 2009
- Boole, Mary Everest (1901). Indian Thought and Western Science in the Nineteenth Century. The Ceylon National Review – via Library Genesis.
- ISBN 1-84413-314-1
- Burn, C. R. (September 2009). "After Whom Is Herschel Island Named?". Arctic. 62 (3). Arctic Institute of North America: 317–323. JSTOR 40513310.
- Cobb, Aaron D. (2012). "Is John F. W. Herschel an Inductivist about Hypothetical Inquiry?". Perspectives on Science. 20 (4): 409–439. S2CID 57566504.
- Darwin, Charles (1958). Barlow, Nora (ed.). The Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809–1882. With the original omissions restored. Edited and with appendix and notes by his granddaughter Nora Barlow. London: Collins. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
- ISBN 0-521-25587-2.
- ISBN 0-521-25588-0.
- ISBN 978-0-7181-3430-3.
- Dreyer, John Louis Emil; Turner, H. H. (2014). History of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1820–1920. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-06860-4.
- Evans, David Stanley (1970). The Shadow of the Telescope: A Biography of John Herschel. Scribner.
- Field, Henry W. (1871). "Obituary Notice of Sir John Frederick William Herschel, Bart". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 12 (86): 217–223. JSTOR 981703.
- Kossoy, Boris (2004). Hercule Florence : el descubrimiento de la fotografía en Brasil. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e História. OCLC 59139803.
- Lassell, W. (1848). "Satellites of Saturn". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 8 (3): 42–43. ISSN 0035-8711.
- Peres, Michael R. (2008). The Concise Focal Encyclopedia of Photography: From the First Photo on Paper to the Digital Revolution. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-240-80998-4.
- Schaaf, Larry (1979). "Sir John Herschel's 1839 Royal Society Paper on Photography". History of Photography. 3 (1): 47–60. ISSN 0308-7298.
- Steel, Duncan (2000), Marking time: the epic quest to invent the perfect calendar, John Wiley and Sons, p. 185, ISBN 978-0-471-29827-4
- Timbs, John (1846). The Year-book of Facts in Science and Art. London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.
- van Wyhe, John (27 March 2007). "Mind the gap: Did Darwin avoid publishing his theory for many years?". Notes and Records of the Royal Society. 61 (2): 177–205. S2CID 202574857.
Further reading
- On Herschel's relationship with ISBN 978-0-7679-3049-9
External links
- Portraits of John Herschel at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- "SIR JOHN HERSCHEL (Obituary Notice, Saturday, May 13, 1871)". Eminent Persons: Biographies Reprinted from The Times. Vol. I (1870–1875). London: Macmillan & Co. 1892. pp. 33–36. . Retrieved 28 February 2019 – via HathiTrust.
- Biographical information Archived 17 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- R. Derek Wood (2008), 'Fourteenth March 1839, Herschel's Key to Photography'
- Herschel Museum of Astronomy
- Science in the Making Herschel's papers in the Royal Society's archives
- Wikisource copy of a notice from 1823 concerning the star catalogue, published in Astronomische Nachrichten