Curious Edinburgh - Curious Edinburgh

Max Born’s house

History of Physics Comments Off

Jul 252016

84 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.

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Appleton Tower

History of Physics Comments Off

Jul 252016

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.

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Charles Piazzi Smyth’s house

History of Astronomy, History of Physics Comments Off

Jul 252016

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 (1819–1900).

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 Comments Off

Jul 252016

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 Comments Off

Jul 252016

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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The Edinburgh Geological Society

Robert Jameson’s house

History of Geology Comments Off

Jul 252016

21 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).

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University of Edinburgh, Natural History Collections: The Royal Museum of the University

Site of the Edinburgh Theatre Royal

History of Geology Comments Off

Jul 252016

2 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.

Map of Edinburgh from 1807 showing the Theatre Royal.

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.

Sir James Hall’s house

History of Geology Comments Off

Jul 252016

128 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4JZ

Sir James Hall was a important champion of the theories of James Hutton. He was with Hutton when he discovered his famous unconformity at Siccar Point in the Scottish Borders. Hall played a major role in the debate between the disciples of Hutton (Plutonists) and those of the German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner (Neptunians). Starting in 1798, he conducted a series of experiments to prove the Huttonian principle that the earth’s internal heat played an vital role in rock formation. These involved making artificial marble by subjecting powdered chalk to intense heat and pressure.

The ground floor Sir James Hall’s house is now a Wetherspoon pub.

Hutton’s famous unconformity, Jedburgh. Two layers of rocks can be seen lying at different angles one on top of the other.

Archibald Geikie’s house

History of Geology Comments Off

Jul 252016

Ramsay Gardens, Castle Hill, Edinburgh EH1 2NA

Collaborating with Roderick Murchison, Archibald Geikie produced the first geological map of Scotland in 1862 while working for the Geological Survey of Great Britain. He went on to become the first professor of geology and mineralogy at the University of Edinburgh from 1871 to 1881 and then head of the Geological Survey in 1881. He published widely on subjects as diverse as glacial drift (1863), the scenery of Scotland (1865) and the extinct volcanoes of Britain (1897). In 1976 he had a ridge on the Moon, Dorsa Geikie, named after him.

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Portrait of Sir Archibald Geikie (1835-1924), 1913.

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John Playfair memorial

History of Astronomy, History of Geology, Scottish Enlightenment Comments Off

Jul 252016

Memorial to John Playfair on Calton Hill

38 Calton Hill, Edinburgh, EH7 5AA

Mathematician, physicist and geologist, John Playfair is perhaps best known as James Hutton’s most influential disciple. His Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802) probably did more to popularise his theory than Hutton’s own notoriously impenetrable writings. In his career he was consecutively professor of mathematics and professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. As first president of Edinburgh Astronomical Institution he enthusiastically supported the construction of Edinburgh’s observatory on Calton Hill, which his monument stands beside, but sadly died before its completion.

Portrait of John Playfair by Henry Raeburn.

Portrait of John Playfair (1748-1819) by Henry Raeburn.

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University of Edinburgh, Our History: John Playfair (1748–1819)

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New Curious Edinburgh tours

See our new Edinburgh & America tour showcasing relationships with the United States, developed by Graeme Cruickshank.

We are also working on the development of coastal trails, in collaboration with Traveltech for Scotland and the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy Scotland’s Coastal Knowledge map. Check out our birding trail or go swimming with our tidal pool tour.

We recently launched the following tours:

History of Witchcraft in Edinburgh during an event at the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

a new tour featuring locations in Edinburgh connected to important women scientists working in a wide range of STEM fields on International Women’s Day.

the Second World War tour developed by academics from the schools of Social and Political Science and History, Classics and Archeology.