Edward Crossley (1841 [1] – 21 January 1905) was an English businessman, Liberal Party politician and astronomer.
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Edward Crossley was the eldest son of Joseph Crossley J.P., of Broomfield, Halifax, Yorkshire, of the Crossley carpets dynasty. He inherited his family's carpet manufacturing business (John Crossley & Sons) from his father when he was 27. He married Jane Eleanor Baines, third daughter of the Leeds newspaper proprietor and MP Sir Edward Baines.
He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sowerby from 1885 to 1892. He was also mayor of Halifax from 1874–1876 and 1884–1885.
He became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1867. He built an astronomical observatory and purchased a 36-inch (910 mm) telescope from Andrew Ainslie Common in 1885, and employed Joseph Gledhill as an observer. With Gledhill and James Maurice Wilson (later Canon of Worcester), he wrote Handbook of Double Stars in 1879, which became a standard reference work.
The rainy English weather and the industrial air pollution at his observatory site were rather unsuitable for astronomy, so in 1895 he donated his 36-inch (910 mm) telescope to Lick Observatory in California. Though extensively modified, it is still in use and is known as the Crossley reflector. This telescope was used by Charles Dillon Perrine to discover two moons of Jupiter.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| New constituency | Member of Parliament for Sowerby 1885–1892 |
Succeeded by John William Mellor |