James Glaisher

For the mathematician, see James Whitbread Lee Glaisher.
James Glaisher

James Glaisher
Born 7 April 1809
Died 7 February 1903
Nationality English
Fields meteorology
20 Dartmouth Hill, London
Blue plaque, 20 Dartmouth Hill

James Glaisher FRS (7 April 1809 – 7 February 1903) was an English meteorologist and aeronaut.

Born in Rotherhithe, the son of a London watchmaker,[1] Glaisher was a Junior assistant at the Cambridge Observatory from 1833 to 1835[2] before moving to the Royal Greenwich Observatories, where he served as Superintendent of the Department of Meteorology and Magnetism at Greenwich for thirty-four years.

In 1845, Glaisher published his dew point tables, for the measurement of humidity. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1849.[3]

He was a founder member of the Meteorological Society (1850) and the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain (1866). He was president of the Royal Meteorological Society from 1867 to 1868. Glaisher was elected a member of The Photographic Society, later the Royal Photographic Society, in 1854 and served as the Society's President between 1869-1874 and 1975-1892.[4] He remained a member until his death.

He is most famous, however, as a pioneering balloonist. Between 1862 and 1866, usually with Henry Tracey Coxwell as his co-pilot, Glaisher made numerous ascents in order to measure the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere at its highest levels. His ascent on 5 September 1862 broke the world record for altitude, but he passed out around 8,800 metres before a reading could be taken. One of the pigeons making the trip with him died.[5] Estimates suggest that he rose to more than 9,500 metres and as much as 10,900 metres above sea-level.[6][7][8]

Glaisher lived at 22 Dartmouth Hill, Blackheath, London, where there is a blue plaque in his memory. He died in Croydon, Surrey in 1903.

He had married in 1843 Cecilia Louisa, a daughter of Henry Belville, Assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. James and Cecilia Glaisher had three children, including the mathematician James Whitbread Lee Glaisher (1848–1928).

A lunar crater is named after him.

Notes

  1. ↑ H. P. Hollis, ‘Glaisher, James (1809–1903)’, rev. J. Tucker, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2008, accessed 5 Jan 2009
  2. ↑ Stratton, F.J.M. "The History of the Cambridge Observatories", Annals of the Solar Physics Observatory, Cambridge Vol. I (1949)
  3. ↑ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  4. ↑ Presidents 1853-2013. www.rps.org and http://rpsmembers.dmu.ac.uk/rps_results.php?mid=130. Accessed 6 March 2015.
  5. ↑ Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1863. p. 186.
  6. ↑ Centennial of Flight
  7. ↑ 1902 Encyclopedia
  8. ↑ http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/articles/BalloonFlight/Flight.htm

Jennifer Tucker. "Voyages of Discovery on Oceans of Air: Scientific Observation and the Image of Science in an Age of "Balloonacy"" Osiris, 2nd series, Volume 11, "Science in the Field" (1996):144-176.

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