Curious Edinburgh - Curious Edinburgh

Outlook tower (Camera Obscura)

History of Astronomy, History of Physics Comments Off

Jul 252016

The Camera Obscura at the top of the Royal Mile

549 Castlehill, Edinburgh EH1 2ND

Edinburgh is home to the oldest camera obscura in Britain, which first opened in 1853. The original proprietor of this popular tourist attraction was Maria Theresa Short, who came from a family of Edinburgh scientific instrument makers and had previously run a Popular Observatory on Calton Hill, before this was closed by the City Council in 1851. The camera obscura allows visitors to view scenes of the surrounding streets, projected onto a large table in the viewing room. Nowadays the other rooms in the tower are given over to a variety of exhibitions on optics.

The Camera Obscura and World of Illusions is open to the public on purchase of a ticket. See link below for times and prices.

Detail of the Camero Obscura tower.

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Site of John James Waterston’s house

History of Physics Comments Off

Jul 252016

Former Waterson's sealing wax factory. 46 Pleasance, Edinburgh EH8 9TJ

John James Waterston (1811-83) lived in a house on St John’s Hill, next to the sealing wax factory owned by his family. The house is long since gone, but the factory building still stands. Waterson, a surveyor by profession, wrote a paper on the kinetic theory of gases, which he submitted to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1845. It was rejected by the referee, Sir John William Lubbock, as ‘nothing but nonsense’. Only after Waterston’s death was it realised that the paper had prefigured the later theory of Rudolf Clausius and James Clerk Maxwell.

John James Waterston (1811–83).

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University of St Andrews: John James Waterston

Birthplace of James David Forbes

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Jul 252016

86 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 3BU

James David Forbes, who was born at this address, pipped his mentor David Brewster to the post of Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in 1833, much to the disgust of the latter. As Brewster was aware, Forbes’ appointment owed more to political connections rather than to his scientific reputation. Nonetheless, he went on to do important research on the polarisation and refraction of radiant heat. This work revealed the similarity of heat to visible light, promoting the idea of a continuous spectrum of radiation. He also taught Edinburgh’s most famous physicist, James Clerk Maxwell.

The ground floor of the house is now a shop.

James David Forbes (1809–68).

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Encyclopaedia Britannica: James David Forbes

Site of the Luckenbooths

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Jul 252016

Royal Mile, Edinburgh EH1 1SG

In the centre of the High Street close to this spot in the 17th century stood the so-called ‘luckenbooths’. In one of these was the family home of John Keill. Keill deserves the blame for inspiring the acrimonious priority dispute between Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz over the invention of the calculus. In 1701 he accused Leibniz of taken Newton’s unpublished work on ‘fluxions’ and publishing it as his own, calling them ‘differentials’. Newton was convinced by Keill of Leibniz’s plagiarism and so began a long and bitter dispute between them and their followers.

1647 map of Edinburgh by James Gordon of Rothiemay showing luckenbooths behind St Giles Cathedral.

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University of St Andrews : John Keill

College Wynd

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Jul 252016

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.

No public access.

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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University of St Andrews: James Gregory

Arthur’s Seat

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Jul 252016

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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The University of Glasgow Story: George Sinclair

Charles Glover Barkla’s house

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Jul 252016

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.

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

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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.

No public access.

Portrait of Max Born, Nobel Foundation, 1954.

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Appleton Tower

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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.

No public access.

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

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New Curious Edinburgh USA tours

See our new Edinburgh & USA tour and the celebratory USA 250 tour showcasing the relationships between Edinburgh and the United States. The USA 250 tour has been developed with the US consulate in Edinburgh to celecrate the Semiquincentennial and the other toue is developed by Graeme Cruickshank who has been leading tours through Edinburgh for many years.

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.