Matjaz Vidmar

Bruntsfield Hospital

History of Edinburgh Hospitals No Responses »

Aug 102020

92 Whitehouse Loan, EH9 1BD

This is the site of the Bruntsfield Hospital. Dr Sophia Jex-Blake, one of the first women to be enrolled at a British university and the founder of the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women, lived and practised here in Bruntsfield Lodge with her partner Dr Margaret Todd. When Jex-Blake retired in 1899, the Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children established Bruntsfield Hospital on the site. The hospital was closely linked to Elsie Inglis’ hospital “The Hospice” and, when the two merged in 1910, The Hospice was dedicated to obstetric and infant care and Bruntsfield hospital was responsible for all medical, surgical, and gynaecological work. The hospital closed 90 years after its initial move to Bruntsfield Lodge in 1989 and has since been converted into residential units.

Royal Edinburgh Hospital & Craighouse

History of Edinburgh Hospitals 1 Response »

Aug 102020

Royal Edinburgh Hospital: Tipperlinn Road, EH10 5HF

The redeveloped entrance to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

The Royal Edinburgh Hospital is a psychiatric hospital. The hospital was founded by Dr Andrew Duncan, who was moved by the death of a patient, 24-year-old poet Robert Fergusson, to open a hospital that cared for the mentally ill with greater dignity. Originally called the Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum, the hospital opened its doors in 1813. The first superintendent of the hospital was Dr William Mackinnon. He encouraged patients to use their trades and skills, such as animal care, carpentry, and tailoring. The hospital’s patients even started producing a magazine called The Morningside Mirror. In 1889, New Craig House was built by the designs of Dr Thomas Coulston. He believed that for successful treatment it was important that patients’ surroundings be bright and pleasant. The new building was meant to replicate the feeling of staying in a luxury country house, rather than an institution. The facility was built to accommodate the hospital’s wealthiest patients, the layout of New Craig House, therefore, includes quarters for personal staff. Craighouse quickly became the largest mental health facility in Scotland and remains unrivalled in Scottish hospital architecture to this day. In 1972, Old Craig House was renamed the Thomas Coulston clinic. The Royal Edinburgh Hospital is being redeveloped from

Photo showing the back of Craig House from the grounds.

Memorial to notable figures in the development of mental health care in the grounds of the Edinburgh Royal Hospital. The bust is of the French doctor, Philippe Pinel (1745-1826), whose humane approach to patient care was a major influence on the Hospital’s founders. The medallion at the top right portrays Dr Andrew Duncan who was the driving force behind its creation following the disgust he felt at the death of his patient, the poet Robert Fergusson, in the horrible conditions of the old Edinburgh bedlam. Although Duncan’s original building from 1807 no longer exists, the hospital contains an Andrew Duncan Clinic named in his honour.
(2010, CC-SA by Kim Traynor)

Royal Victoria Dispensary

History of Edinburgh Hospitals No Responses »

Aug 102020

13 Bank Street, EH1 2LN

On this location, in 1887, Sir Robert William Philip opened The Royal Victoria Dispensary for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest. This was the first dispensary in the world which specialised in tuberculosis (TB). Sir Robert Philip qualified as a doctor in 1882, the same year that Robert Koch discovered the tuberculosis virus. He dedicated his practice to researching treatment options for TB. In 1891 the dispensary moved to 26 Lauriston Place, and eventually to Spittal Street in 1912, where it remained until its closure. The Royal Victoria Hospital for Consumption opened in 1894 in Craigleith House and acted as a sanitorium where patients with early symptoms could rest and get fresh air. These locations, together with the City Fever Hospital, established what would come to be known as the “Edinburgh Scheme for Tuberculosis.” The scheme consisted of patients visiting the dispensary for diagnosis and assessment. If TB was established the patient’s home and relatives would be visited and assessed. Parts of the ‘Edinburgh Scheme’ are still used in the assessment of TB patients today.

Patient in bed at home under the care of Dispensary nurse, c.1908-1914.

Elsie Inglis Memorial Hospital

History of Edinburgh Hospitals No Responses »

Aug 102020

100 Spring Gardens, EH8 8EY

This hospital memorialises Dr Elsie Inglis. Inglis moved to Edinburgh aged 14 and obtained her medical degrees in Scotland, later founding the Medical College for Women and teaching gynaecology there. During WWI, Dr. Inglis started the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service (SWH), independent hospital units staffed by women in France and Siberia, and went to Siberia as the Chief Medical Officer. She was captured and interned there in 1916 and died the day after she returned home to the UK in November 1917. Funds from the SWH were used to build this Memorial Hospital, which operated from 1925 to 1988. The gates of this hospital were built in honour of Alexandra Chalmers Watson. Chalmers Watson, the chief controller of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) during WWI, worked with Inglis and was involved in founding this hospital.

The Else Inglis Memorial Hospital with nurses and patients in early 20th century.

The Else Inglis Memorial Hospital is now a residential building (2012, CC-SA by Kim Traynor)

Astronomical Instruments at National Museum of Scotland

History of Astronomy No Responses »

Jun 222019

Chambers St, Edinburgh, EH1 1JF

The large black and yellow Schmidt camerascope on display at the National Museum of Scotland

Royal Observatory Edinburgh’s 16/24-inch (0.4/0.6 m) Schmidt camerascope on display at National Museum of Scotland (© National Museum of Scotland)

The Astronomy Technology collections of the National Museum of Scotland contain a variety of artefacts, from orreys (mechanical solar system simulators) to a refracting imaging telescope. One of the larger artefacts on display is the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, or SCUBA, an instrument to take images of radio-frequency light emitted from dust in nearby galaxies. This red cylindrical device was installed at the James Clark Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii between 1997-2005 and produced some of the most impactful astronomy results at the time, surpassed only by the Hubble Space Telescope. This including significantly imporving the understanding of how galaxies are evolving and how new starts are being formed. One of the key partners in the consortium developing SCUBA, and its successor SCUBA-2, was the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, which is based at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh on Blackford Hill.

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Image of SCUBA mounted at JCMT at Mauna Kea

SCUBA mounted at JCMT at Mauna Kea (© Royal Observatory Edinburgh)

One O’Clock Gun

History of Astronomy No Responses »

Jun 222019

Castlehill, Edinburgh, EH1 2NG

The One O'Clock Gun positioned in the Half Moon Battery within the walls of Edinburgh Castle

One O’Clock Gun (© Roger Cornfoot via Wikimedia Commons)

Because of the poor Scottish weather, the notorious haar (sea fog), and smog, the time ball at the top of Nelson Monument on Calton Hill was rarely visible to the ship navigators in the ports along Leith and Newhaven who needed to accurately adjust their clocks. As such, in 1861, an 18-pound muzzle-loading cannon from the Half Moon Battery at Edinburgh Castle was commissioned into “Time Gun” service. Its present-day successor is still fired every day at precisely 1 o’clock, except for Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day. However, as the speed of sound is 343 metres per second (770 mph) and docks were about 2 miles (3km) away, the navigators had to account for about 10.5s delay when they set their clocks. This can be seen on the “Edinburgh Time Map” prepared by the 1 o’clock gun’s proposer, Charles Piazzi Smyth. Interestingly, the gun has also seen an instance of military action, as it was fired on 2 April 1916 at a German Zeppelin conducting an air raid during WWI.

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One O’Clock Gun – Edinburgh Castle
One O’Clock Gun AssociationSmoke from One O’Clock Gun (© Kim Traynor via Wikimedia Commons)

Black and white illustration of the Half Moon Battery within Edinburgh Castle

Half Moon Battery and firing mechanism in 1861 (Wikimedia Commons)

The time signal delay map designed by Piazzi Smyth

Time signal delay map designed by Piazzi Smyth (© Alastair Bruce)

Photograph of Edinburgh Castle showing the smoke after the One O'Clock Gun was fired

Smoke from the One O’Clock Gun (© Kim Traynor via Wikimedia Commons)

Time Ball on Nelson Monument

History of Astronomy No Responses »

Jun 222019

32 Calton Hill, Edinburgh, EH7 5AA

The Time Ball at the top of the Nelson Monument

Time Ball on Nelson Monument (© Kim Traynor via Wikimedia Commons)

In 1853, the second Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Charles Piazzi Smyth, secured the installation of a time ball at the top of Nelson Monument. This tower, which looks like an “upturned telescope” and is clearly visible from most of Edinburgh, was designed by the architect Robert Burn and erected in 1815. While an interesting curiosity these days, the time ball used to be vitally important to ships in the port of Leith in adjusting their clocks for navigation, as it was raised and dropped exactly at 1 o’clock each day, a tradition that continues. The ball, constructed of wood, covered in zinc, and weighing 90 kilograms, as well as the operating mechanism were made by Maudslay, Sons and Field of Lambeth, who also made the time ball mechanism for the Greenwich Observatory. It was installed by James Ritchie and Son (Clockmakers) Ltd, who still maintain it to this day on behalf of Edinburgh’s City Council. (There is an untrue myth that the original ball was much heavier, at 762 kilograms, in part perpetuated by Smyth himself!)

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Nelson Monument – Museums and Galleries Edinburgh

Photograph of the National Monument, Nelson Monument, and City Observatory on Calton Hill in the background

National Monument, Nelson Monument (tall tower) and City Observatory from the North (Wikimedia Commons)

Thomas Henderson’s House

History of Astronomy No Responses »

Jun 222019

1 Hillside Crescent, Edinburgh, EH7 5DY; marked with a blue plaque

Photograph of 1 Hillside Crescent with the blue plaque commemorating Thomas Henderson above the door to the right

1 Hillside Crescent (with a blue plaque)

Thomas Henderson (1798-1844) became the first Astronomer Royal for Scotland in 1834. He was also appointed Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh and worked at the nearby Calton Hill Observatory until his death. His scientific achievements include the calculation of the parallax of a fixed star (the angle describing the difference in the position of a star on the night sky as measured six months apart), leading him to be the first person to measure the distance to Alpha Centauri, one of a group of nearest stars to the Sun. Unfortunately, delaying the publication of his results led to German astronomer Friedrich Bessel and Russian astronomer Friedrich Struve receiving credit for first measuring stellar parallaxes. Throughout his time in Edinburgh, he lived at 1 Hillside Crescent and is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard (very near the memorial in stop number 13 on this tour).

Thomas Henderson

Thomas Henderson’s memorial/graveside at Greyfriars Kirkyard

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Mary Brück Building

History of Astronomy No Responses »

Jun 222019

Colin MacLaurin Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3DW

Mary Brück

This building at the University of Edinburgh Kings Buildings science campus honours the astronomer and historian of science Mary Brück (1925-2008), who graduated with a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1950. She returned in 1962 with the appointment of her husband, Hermann Brück, to the post of the Astronomer Royal for Scotland at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. She carried out research into stars, the gas and dust between stars and the Magellanic Clouds, while also doing historical research on women in astronomy and the history of astronomy in Scotland and her native Ireland. She published articles in several different journals and collaborated with her husband on a biography of the 19th-century Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Charles Piazzi Smyth. In 2018, the Mary Brück building was opened on Colin MacLaurin Road, itself dedicated to an 18^th century champion of Astronomy in Edinburgh (whose memorial is visited as stop number 13 of this tour).

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Dr Mary Brück (1925-2008)

Mary Brück Building and Brucks’ Cafe

Images credit: The University of Edinburgh / Royal Observatory Edinburgh

Mary Sommerville’s House

History of Astronomy No Responses »

Jun 212019

53 Northumberland Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6JQ; marked with a blue plaque

Mary Sommerville (1780-1872) is often described as the “queen of science in the 19^th Century.” A writer and polymath, she wrote the ground-breaking interdisciplinary book On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1834), combining the latest scientific advances in astronomy, physics, chemistry, botany, and geology. Though she wrote extensively on a variety of subjects and was the first person referenced as a “scientist” (in a review of her work in 1834), it is her contribution to Astronomy that is particularly notable: Mary Sommerville was one of the first people to propose the existence of planet Neptune. She was also one of the first two women to be elected members of the Royal Astronomical Society (1835) and co-signatory of John Stuart Mill’s 1866 petition to Parliament to give women the right to vote. Born in Jedburgh in the Borders and growing up in Burntisland, Fife, Mary Somerville lived at 53 Northumberland Street between 1813-16.

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Mary Sommerville in Encyclopædia Britannica

Portrait of Mary Sommerville by Thomas Philips (Wikimedia Commons)

Cover page of The Connexion of the Physical Sciences

Cover page of The Connexion (1834)

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