Bill H. Jenkins

College Wynd

 History of Astronomy, History of Physics  No Responses »
Jul 252016
 
Entrance to College Wynd

Entrance to College Wynd

College Wynd, Cowgate, Edinburgh EH1 1JH

It was close to here that James Gregory, the University of Edinburgh’s first professor of Mathematics, lived between his appointment in 1674 and his death in 1675. Gregory had invented the reflecting telescope in 1663. Although the design predates Newton’s reflecting telescope of 1668,  a successfully functioning version was not constructed until several years later. The largest working optical telescope in the UK, constructed in 1962 by the University of St Andrews, was named the James Gregory Telescope in his honour. It is still used by the University’s School of Physics and Astronomy.

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Portrait of James Gregory.

Portrait of James Gregory (1638–75)

Black and white illustrated map from 1647 showing College Wynd. A horizontal street at the top is the Cowgate. There are three vertical streets; the middle one is College Wynd.

College Wynd from a map of 1647 by James Gordon of Rothiemay. The horizontal street at the top is the Cowgate. The middle of the three vertical streets is College Wynd, the main approach from the town to the University.

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Arthur’s Seat

 History of Physics  No Responses »
Jul 252016
 

Arthur's Seat.Edinburgh EH8 8HG

It was on Arthur’s Seat, the great volcanic plug that overlooks Edinburgh, that George Sinclair (d.1696) tested and calibrated the mercury barometer he had developed for estimating the depths of mines. In his book on hydrostatics, published in 1672, he described his barometer as well as a diving bell he had invented. Sinclair was an important advocate of the use of theoretical knowledge for practical ends. Like his contemporary Robert Boyle, Sinclair was also a strong believers in ghosts and spirits, whose existence he saw as proof of the truth of religion.

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Charles Glover Barkla’s house

 History of Physics  No Responses »
Jul 252016
 

Charles Glover Barkla's house.Hermitage of Braid, 69 Braid Rd, Edinburgh EH10 6JF

Now the visitor centre for a nature reserve, this was once the home of Charles Glover Barkla, who became the University of Edinburgh’s eleventh professor of Natural Philosophy in 1913. Barkla won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1917 for his work on X-rays. He was the first to demonstrate that X-rays could be polarised, showing that they were transverse electromagnetic radiation. Unfortunately his reputation was later damaged by his claim to have identified so-called ‘J-radiation’, a form of short-wave radiation incompatible with the predictions of quantum theory, which turned out to be spurious.

Open to the public.

Portrait of Charles Glover Barkla, Nobel Foundation, 1917.

Portrait of Charles Glover Barkla, Nobel Foundation, 1917.

Interior of John Glover Barkla's house as it is now.

Interior of Charles Glover Barkla’s house as it is now.

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Max Born’s house

 History of Physics  No Responses »
Jul 252016
 

Max Born's House84 Grange Loan, Edinburgh EH9 2EP

Max Born, who became the second Tait Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in 1936, was one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Born in Germany into a distinguished academic family of Jewish descent, he was forced to leave his homeland when he was suspended without pay from his post at Göttingen University by the Nazis. After short spells in Oxford and Bangalore he came to Edinburgh. In 1954, the year in which he retired to his native Germany, he won the Nobel Prize for Physics.

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Portrait of Max Born, Nobel Foundation, 1954.

Portrait of Max Born, Nobel Foundation, 1954.

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Appleton Tower

 History of Physics  No Responses »
Jul 252016
 

Appleton Tower.Appleton Tower, 11 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9LE

Sir Edward Victor Appleton became Principal of the University of Edinburgh in 1949. He had previously received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1947 for his research on the ionosphere. The University’s Appleton Tower on George Square, completed in 1963, was named after him. This building was a central part of the development plan for the University championed by Appleton, which  would have seen swathes of the South Side of the city demolished to make way for modern buildings. Although plan was never completed, many beautiful Georgian Terraces were sacrificed to make way for the new development.

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Sir Edward Victor Appleton, 1947.

Sir Edward Victor Appleton, 1947.

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Charles Piazzi Smyth’s house

 History of Astronomy, History of Physics  No Responses »
Jul 252016
 
Photograph of 15 Royal Terrace where Charles Piazzi Smyth lived

Photograph of 15 Royal Terrace where Charles Piazzi Smyth lived

15 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh EH7 5AB

Charles Piazzi Smyth, Scotland’s second Astronomer Royal, was appointed Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh in 1846. Perhaps inspired by the poor observing conditions at the Edinburgh’s Royal Observatory, he proposed building an observatory on the peak of Mount Teide on Tenerife. However, the construction of an observatory on this mountain had to wait until 1964. While Piazzi Smith did important work on spectroscopy, he is perhaps better remembered for his eccentric theories regarding the pyramids, the dimensions of which he believed had a religious significance. Sadly, these speculations did much to tarnish his reputation.

Portrait of Charles Piazzi Smyth

Portrait of Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819–1900).

Piazzi Smyth's pyramid-shaped tombstone in the Sharow Churchyard, Yorkshire.

Piazzi Smyth’s pyramid-shaped tombstone in the Sharow Churchyard, Yorkshire.

Title page of "Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramids" by Piazzi Smyth

Title page of “Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramids” (1874) by Piazzi Smyth.

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Edinburgh Museums and Galleries: Space and Time, Charles Piazzi Smyth

Mr Wood’s Fossils

 History of Astronomy, History of Geology  No Responses »
Jul 252016
 
Storefront of Mr. Wood's Fossils

Storefront of Mr. Wood’s Fossils

5 Cowgatehead, Edinburgh EH1 1JY

This shop was established in 1987 by the professional fossil hunter Stanley Wood, who, although he never held an academic post, made some important palaeontological discoveries. Perhaps his most significant finds were a series of fossil tetrapods, the ancestors of all terrestrial vertebrates including humans, in East Kirkton Quarry in West Lothian. These helped to fill Romer’s Gap, a mysterious era from around 360 to 345 million years ago in the Lower Carboniferous period from which tetrapod fossils had previously been thought absent. In addition to fossils, Mr Wood’s also stocks meteorites, rocks fallen to the Earth from Outer Space, of which mineral composition and structure are of significant interest to astronomers studying the formation of our solar system and its planets and asteroids.

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Site of Robertson’s Tavern, Milne’s Close

 History of Geology  No Responses »
Jul 252016
 

Robertson's Tavern.Robertson’s Tavern, Milne ‘s Close, 232 Cannongate EH8 8DQ

Alexander Rose was a wood and ivory turner and keen amateur geologist. He went on to become a dealer in minerals and lectured at Queen’s College, Edinburgh, in geology and mineralogy. On 4 December 1834 eleven of his students met in Robertson’s Tavern to found the Geological Society of Edinburgh. Subsequent meeting were held at the house of Rose, who became its second president later that year. He was to hold the post until 1846. At their first meeting they argued that Arthur’s Seat was  of volcanic origin. The Society is still active today.

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Robert Jameson’s house

 History of Geology  No Responses »
Jul 252016
 

Robert Jameson's house21 Royal Circus, Edinburgh EH3 6TL

Robert Jameson was Edinburgh’s professor of natural history from 1804 to 1854. He was, like his predecessor John Walker, a mineralogist by training, having studied with the great German mineralogist Abraham Gottlob Werner in Freiberg. On his return to Edinburgh he became the most important champion of Werner’s neptunist theories in Britain. It was also through his edition of Georges Cuvier’s Theory of the Earth that the English-speaking world first became aware of the great French geologist’s catastrophist theories. Some scholars believe that he was also an early convert to the evolutionary interpretation of the history of life.

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Portrait of Robert Jameson (1774–1854).

Portrait of Robert Jameson (1774–1854).

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Site of the Edinburgh Theatre Royal

 History of Geology  No Responses »
Jul 252016
 

Site of the Theatre Royal2 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh EH1 3EG

The site of the old Edinburgh Theatre Royal was in the other side of North Bridge from where the Balmoral Hotel now stands. The aptly named Shakespeare Square, where it was located, was redeveloped in the late 19th century. In 1812, this theatre was the scene of an unusual incident in the history of geology. Sir George Mackenzie, an enthusiastic supporter of James Hutton’s geological theories, had been inspired by a  trip to Iceland to write a play entitled Helga or the Rival Minstrels, inspired by an Icelandic saga. On the opening night, the theatre was packed by followers of the rival Wernerian school of geology, who caused such a rumpus that the play closed after its first night.

 

The Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, before 1830.

The Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, before 1830.

 

Map of Edinburgh from 1807 showing the Theatre Royal.

Map of Edinburgh from 1807 showing the Theatre Royal.

 

Portrait of Sir George Mackenzie (1780-1848) by Henry Raeburn

Portrait of Sir George Mackenzie (1780-1848) by Henry Raeburn.

 

A geyser in Iceland, by J. Clark, 1811. After a sketch made by Sir George Mackenzie on his trip to Iceland.

A geyser in Iceland, by J. Clark, 1811. After a sketch made by Sir George Mackenzie on his trip to Iceland.

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