Early
Years
Fearon
Fallows
The first astronomer sent out to South Africa was Fearon
Fallows.
He arrived at the Cape on 12 August 1821.
On 30 November 1821 the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset,
returned to the Cape to replace Acting Governor, Sir Rufane Donkin.
He was a very colourful character to say the least, as well as a vindictive
person. There was no love lost between Donkin and Somerset. Somerset
opposed Donkins actions and ostracised his friends, including Fallows.
Fallows committed "a sin not to be forgiven" when he was reported to
have paid his respects to Donkin as the latter embarked for England.
[Warner - Astronomers, p. 9.]
His first task was to select a suitable site for the observatory,
and there were three conditions to be met. [Laing, p. 9.]
1. It had to be within sight of Table Bay in order to pass on visual
time signals to ships anchored in the Bay.
2. It had to be sufficiently far to the East of Table Mountain so as
to have an unobstructed meridian.
3. It had to be on Government land.
"...various hazards to be borne in mind. The worst of them
was sand - sharp, cutting, siliceous sand, blown by the winds and whirlwinds
of the many storms, which affect the Cape. Therefore, Fallows had to
find a place which was as free as possible from the effects of abrasive
sand". [Copied from Moore, p. 44.]
On explaining that he wanted to establish the Observatory on a
hill, the Colonial Government, "considering that the proximity to stars
was sine qua non", offered him a site on Table Mountain so he could
be closer to the stars. (Table Mountain is for a great part of the year
either covered by cloud or plagued by strong winds.) After extensively
scouting around quite afar in all directions Fallows settled on a hill
known as Tygerberg, only to change his mind again. [Warner - Astronomers,
pp.10 - 11.]
The site Fallows chose is the site we know today as the headquarters
for the S.A.A.O.
"After much deliberation, he (Fallows) finally selected a site
on rising ground four miles east of Cape Town, on a low tract of land
which connects the mountainous peninsula on which Cape Town itself stands,
together with Table Mountain, to the main continent. The terrain was
known as Slangkop (Snake Hill) at the confluence between the
Black and Liesbeek rivers. The observatory was duly built, on a green
stone foundation with a firm upper soil of clay. It stood like an island
amid all the evils that Fallows had been at pains to avoid. The cloud
of red dust, seen daily as it rolled along the high road on its way
into Cape Town left the observatory untouched. The mighty clouds of
white sand, blasting their way across the plains of the flats and destroying
all the vegetation in their paths toward Table Bay, approached from
the other direction - and they too left the observatory and its grounds
unscathed. It was true that the land at the foot of the prominence was
marshy, lying as it did between two rivers. ... Some of the later astronomers
said hard things about Fallows, and one of them - his immediate successor
- nicknamed the site the "Dismal Swamp". And yet it was the
best that could be done, and the horizon was almost unobstructed, except
for part of the west. [Copied from Moore, pp.44 - 45]
Having settled on a site it only remained for the Colonial Government
to acquire the land for the Admiralty, and for the plans to of the building
to arrive, in order to start construction. However nothing happened
for nearly two years. One of the reasons for the delay was that the
plans were drawn up, and then "filed" and lost. [Warner - Astronomers,
p. 11.]
The building, based on a design by J. Rennie, was
completed in June 1827. The building style was neo-classical. [Laing,
p. 9] Note: There is a common misconception amongst Capetonians
that Thomas Telford, famous builder of the Menai Bridge, designed the
building. This erroneous information appears to have originated in "The
Guide to Cape Town" for 1890. [Warner - Astronomers, pp.5 - 6.]
The plans were drawn up, and then redrawn. Construction was contracted
out to local builders who proved to be "unsatisfactory" as well as thieves.
Finding suitable building material was a constant problem and hampered
by the Burmese Wars, as Burmese Teak was used in the construction. The
Admiralty's insistence on economising in 1827 also did not help. All
these factors and more led to endless delays. Unbeknown to Fallows the
Admiralty decided to appoint a Clerk-of-Works, a very capable person
by the name of John Skirrow. He arrived in Cape Town on 22 February
1825 and saved the day. He ended staying in Cape Town and supervised
the construction of a number of buildings, such as the original St.
Georges Church. For much more information on the construction process
read Warner's book Astronomers at the Royal Observatory Cape of Good
Hope, pp. 11 - 25.
Fallows set up his portable instruments on the site where the
observatory was to be build and "Afterwards on several successive
nights, by observations on high and low Greenwich stars, I obtained
my meridian line very exactly. This being done, the lines of the building
as marked in the Plan was easily set off to the utmost accuracy." The
portable instruments were a transit
instrument,
circle
and a clock.
[Warner - Astronomers, pp.5 - 6, p.8.]
On 1 January 1828 the building was completed sufficiently for
the Fallows to take up occupation"- seven years after Fallows and his
bride had arrived. The couple took up residence in that part of the
building which is now called Fallows House, and its large drawing-room
was used as the first Anglican chapel in South Africa." [Copied from
Moore, p. 45]
"The instruments were installed by the end of 1828. They
were the Dollond
transit instrument
and a Jones
mural circle.
The Jones mural circle was constructed with an error, and dropped during
transit. Since nobody knew of the construction error it was assumed
to have been damaged in transit. That there was a problem was only discovered
after installation. The Observatory also received a new Harrison
clock.
[Laing, p. 9.] (Harrison was the person who solved the longitude problem
for navigators: Read Longitude by Dava Sobel) Fallows also brought a
14 ft. telescope with him that was purchased from the Herschel family.
However Fallows never assembled the Herschel
14 ft.
telescope.
In the early years the terrain was fairly wild:
-"... more-over there were hippopotami in the rivers, and the original
name of the hill, Slangkop or Snake Hill, indicated another form of
life which could well be encountered. Leopards were also in evidence"
[Copied from Moore, p. 44.]
-The story is told that one night the observer could not get the roof
shutters over the transit circle open. On going up the tower and stepping
out on to the roof he came face-to-face with a leopard. It is not known
who departed the quickest. [Smits]
Initially the observatory had a few assistants during
Fallows directorship. His initial assistant who accompanied him to the
Cape, James Fayrer, married the maid Sarah Bootle, both
who turned out to be lazy and drunkards. He fired Fayrer and employed
Reverend Patrick Scully in November 1822. Scully was the colony's
first Catholic Chaplain, a well-educated man who was better suited than
Fayrer for the job. In 1824 Fallows however caught Scully in bed with
a 17-year-old girl. He dismissed Scully. The British Admiralty appointed
the next assistant, Captain William Ronald, who arrived at the
Cape only on 19 November 1826. Ronald became ill, left for sick leave
on 18 October 1830 and never returned. Now Fallows made use of his wife
Mary to assist him. On 1 December 1830 Fallows hired a youth, James
Robertson who assisted him until the Admiralty appointed a new assistant
[Warner - Astronomers, pp.13 - 14, p.20, p.25, p.27.]
By 1828 when the instruments were finally installed Fallows and
the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, were not on speaking terms anymore.
Then the new Governor arrived, Sir Lowry Cole. Fallows decided to use
this opportunity to officially open the Observatory by inviting Cole
to attend the laying of the final stone for the Mural Circle pier. The
following document was found in the pier:
Present at the laying of this Stone
October 29th 1828
Mrs Fallows
Manuel John Johnson
Mrs Ronald
John Skirrow
Reverend Fearon Fallows
Sir Lowry Cole (lately arrived
Governor)
Captain Ronald
John Bell, Colonial Secretary
(Fallows inserted this document in the pier of the Mural Circle in 1828.
When the Circle was removed and alterations were made to the room in
1854 the document was discovered and reinstated [Warner - Astronomers,
p.23, p.66.])
As soon as the permanent instruments were installed, even before
the building was completed, Fallows started with serious observing.
The damaged Jones
mural circle
required a few extra steps to get accurate results, which slowed down
the observation process. Still Fallows managed to do very important
observations, for which he never received due credit because it was
not published during his lifetime. Just as he managed to get the observatory
operational and did his important observations, Fallows contracted scarlet
fever and died on 25 July 1831. His wife Mary send all his observations
to Greenwich and the Astronomer Royal, Sir George Airy, published the
observations twenty years after Fallows death, in 1851, in the Memoirs
of the Royal Astronomical Society. [Warner - Astronomers, pp.29 - 30.]
The first Assistant Director was William Meadows. Meadows was
appointed by the admiralty as Assistant Director, and left England after
Fallows died. In England they received word that Fallows was very sick,
and only when Meadows arrived in Cape Town did he learn of Fallows death.
On paper Meadows was assistant to Fallows, Henderson and Maclear, but
in reality he was assistant only to Henderson and Maclear.
Thomas Henderson
Upon receiving the news of the death of Fallows the Admiralty
started looking around for suitable candidates for the post of Director.
One candidate was George Biddell Airy (mentioned above), who became
Senior Wrangler at Cambridge University in 1823. Airy declined the appointment
to become the new Director of the Cape Observatory, and later years
went on to become the Astronomer Royal at Greenwich Observatory. Another
candidate was Thomas Maclear, who was passed over this time but who
was to become a director at the Cape at a later stage. Continuing their
search the Admiralty considered two persons to be the most eligible:
William Richardson and Thomas
Henderson.
Henderson was chosen to be the new Director and Meadows
was already at the Cape as his Assistant Director. [Warner - Astronomers,
p.31.] Henderson was appointed on 15 October 1831.
Henderson reluctantly came to the Cape, hated it and stayed only
a year. Yet it is a mark of his exceptional qualities that during his
brief tenure of office he made five or six thousand observations of
the places of southern stars, observed Encke's and Biela's Comets and
the transit of Mercury of 5 May 1812; he studied stellar occultation's
and the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, as well as making special
parallax' observations of Mars and the Moon. [Koorts - British, p.36]
Note: According to Warner- Astronomers, p.32 Henderson measured
nearly ten thousand positions of stars (not six thousand as Koorts states).
These constituted the first large body of accurate fundamental positions
in the Southern Hemisphere.
Early in 1833 Henderson started a new time service. With
a brass barrel percussion pistol and a pocket chronometer he climbed
each night onto the roof of the Observatory and fired a charge of black
powder at an advertised time. The flash was bright enough for any sailor
to see (if his telescope was correctly aimed). The brass pistol, and
its powder flask, is now in the South African Museum.
"During these early times and for many years afterwards
the Admiralty provided no funds for the layout or maintenance of the
grounds. As a result, it was a very barren site. A poem by the wife
of Lieut. William Meadows, who was appointed Assistant at the Royal
Observatory and, who, with his wife arrived there in 1831, tells the
story well. It was found in 1989 preserved among the private papers
of the late Sir Thomas Maclear.
Lines in the Handwriting of a Lady, found on a Table in the Cape Observatory,
Cape of Good Hope (1832)
Description of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope:
Should I call on my pen to describe in detail?
The aspect around us, its effort would fail
Since the task is so hard a just picture to make
When a negative scene for our subject we take-
We mix not in the stir of a city or town
For us their allurements and cares are unknown,
Nor live we where nature exhibits her store
But to wed us to rural attractions the more
Nor move we on ocean with proud sail unfurled,
To gain knowledge or wealth from the Old or New World.
No, it is not like land and it is not like sea
But lest it be asked where this strange home can be?
'Tis well to confess that it stands on a plain
Over which the eye wanders for beauty in vain
No tree lends its foliage, - no warbler is heard
For green are the haunts of the sweet singing bird;
The owl screams at night round the pond'rous Pile
And the terrified frogs cease their croakings the while
Dread serpents dispute our just claims to a place
Which ages ago was assigned to their race.
And they lurk in our pathway, our chambers molest
No pleasant associates; it must be confest.
(Old Eolus) Father Boreas for pastime delights to whirl round
The vanes of ten mills we see from "Snake Mound".
The "Slough of Despond" intercepts our main road,
And near "Dismal Swamp" stands our tasteless abode."
[Copied from Warner-Astronomers, pp.34-35; MNASSA Vol. 48. (There are
some minor differences between the two sources.)]
The Admiralty were loath to spend money on the Observatory. Henderson
asked to have so improvements done, and the Admiralty refused his request.
In a fit of rage Henderson resigned his post in May 1833 without troubling
to make more than a flimsy excuse, and lost no time in returning to
his native Scotland.
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Development
of the Cape Observatory
Thomas
Maclear
Thomas
Maclear
arrived at the Cape on 7 January 1834 as the next Director of the Observatory.
The era of Maclear is marked by additions made to improve the comforts
and general functionality of the Observatory. Maclear was helped by
the fact that his whole attitude was different to Henderson and he build
up a better working relationship with the Admiralty. He also had the
help of a very influential friend, John Herschel. Great was the improvement
when water closets were installed. A boundary fence brought greater
control and kept cattle from messing the terrain and cause damage to
the buildings. (Cattle came into the shade of the building and pocked
their horns through the windows and damaged the shutters. Before the
fence went up Maclear had at least sixty cattle impounded.) Various
pumps were installed and the barren terrain was soon transformed with
vegetation, especially due to the initiatives taken by his new assistant,
Charles
Piazzi Smyth.
(Assistant Director Lieutenant
Meadows
resigned after a dispute with Maclear and was replaced in 1835 by the
very capable Smyth) Hedges of trees were planted to break the wind speed.
Stables, workshops and living quarters were added. In 1842 a wooden
bridge was build across the Liesbeeck River, vastly improving access
to the observatory. [Warner - Astronomers, pp. 46 - 49, p.59, pp. 60
- 61.]
Maclear expanded the time service. Henderson pistol was improved
upon by firing cannon from Signal Hill at 9 p.m. (21h00). In 1836 a
time ball was erected at the observatory. This came about due to the
new Admiral posted to the Cape, Patrick Campbell. His flag Captain (and
brother-in-law) was Robert Wauchope, the inventor of the time ball,
a device that when dropped at an advertised time the ships in the harbour
and public at large can set their chronometers (watches) to the correct
time. The first time ball was set up at the Royal Greenwich Observatory
in 1833. Campbell and Wauchope convinced Maclear that the time ball
method was superior to the flash of cannon. [Warner - Astronomers, p.47.]
In 1751-3 Abbe De
La Caille
was send by the Paris Academie of Science to Cape Town in order
to measure the curvature of the Earth. Something went wrong and the
measurement showed the Earth to be pear shaped, not round like an orange.
This put the scientific community in a conundrum and now, 80 years later,
the Admiralty wanted a conclusive answer and the mystery solved. Maclear
was tasked to re-measured La Caille's Arc of the Meridian. It
was probably the most important project Maclear ever did.
This was the start of Land Surveying in South Africa as Maclear set
the standard length measure. With a bit of poetic licence it can be
said he proved that the earth is round. For the complete story, click
here.
One of the instruments that Fallows brought with him was a Herschel
14-ft. It was however never assembled and now Maclear took it out of
its packing case for the first time. This instrument was periodically
used between 1835 and 1850's. There was a problem with the site where
the telescope was housed. The telescope was dismantled and forgotten
about. In 1987 the mirror was rediscovered. [Smits; Warner-Herschel
Telescope; Warner-Astronomers. p.53, p.58.]
A great and influential friend of Maclear was John
Herschel.
He came to Cape Town between 1834 and 38 and set up a private observatory
called Feldhausen.
Herschel used his "considerable" influence to help Maclear and further
the cause of the Cape Observatory. Upon Herschel's return to England
he applied on behalf of the observatory for additional telescopes and
another assistant. These were granted.
The Second Assistant was William
Mann.
He arrived at the Cape on 22 October 1839 bringing with him much-needed
new instruments. Other instruments that arrived separately over
time were the Greenwich
Mural Circle
(July 1839) to replace the problematic Jones
Mural Circle,
the Bradley
Zenith Sector
(9 December 1837) as well as very accurate Theodolites in order to complete
the Arc of the Meridian project. [Warner-Astronomers. pp.53 - 56.]
In 1840 the Observatory obtained a small piece of land
extending the south- eastern corner of the property. In 1841 a new addition
was made to the Cape Observatory, a Magnetic and Meteorological
Observatory that was housed on the new piece of land. It was run and
administered by the Royal Artillery, quite separately to the Astronomical
Observatory, which was administered by the Admiralty. Their commanding
officer was Lieutenant Frederick Eardley-Wilmot. Maclear was deeply
dissatisfied with this intrusion to his kingdom but there was nothing
he could do about it.
In 1846 the Observatories were transferred to the Admiralty and
Maclear had to continue their work. As part of the transfer Maclear
gained a third assistant. The post was initially filled by George
Robert Smalley, who resigned in October 1851 to become Professor
of Mathematics at the South African College (S.A. College later became
the University of Cape Town.) The replacement was Pierce Morton,
a Cambridge mathematician and one-time student of Airy. The third assistants
were thus men of quality. Maclear nevertheless bemoaned the time the
new responsibilities took away from his other duties. [Warner - Astronomers,
pp.59 - 60.]
For the new observatories buildings were added on the new piece
of land. They build cottages for accommodation, huts to house the instruments,
and a "Wind Tower" for the Meteorological section. The Wind Tower, a
copy of the Tower of Winds in Athens, was considered very picturesque
and appropriate to the Grecian style of the main building.
Less attention was paid to the magnetic work after 1857 as Maclear
steered the resources more in the direction of Astronomical work. After
Maclear's retirement in 1869 no further magnetic work was carried out,
but meteorological observations continued. [Warner - Astronomers, p.60.]
During the time of Maclear as Director the Observatory was tasked with
routine astronomical and land surveys, meteorological, tidal and magnetic
observations. [Laing, p. 11.]
The previous director to Maclear, Thomas
Henderson,
now Astronomer Royal for Scotland, died on 23 November 1844.
Charles
Piazzi Smyth,
assistant director to Maclear was offered, and accepted, the post as
Astronomer Royal for Scotland. Piazzi Smyth however stayed on for another
year at the Cape to help Maclear finish the surveying work for the Arc
of the Meridian.
William
Mann
was promoted to assistant director and George Childe now filled his
post, second assistant. Childe held the post from 1845 to 1852 when
he accepted the post of Professor of Mathematics at the South African
College. (Later renamed the University of Cape Town.) [Warner – Astronomers,
pp. 60 - 62.]
A note on life at the Cape Observatory: Piazzi Smyth stated that
serious work in the main building was continually interrupted since
families with children lived on the grounds. "The consequence is, that
while there may be a family of no more than ordinarily rackety children,
transit observations are continually interfered with for 12 hours of
the 24, a noise of passage as if made in the room; they find their way
in & play with the mercury (in the artificial horizon troughs),
& at hide & seek behind the instruments, & up and down the
steps." [Warner - Astronomers, p.60.]
At the Cape Observatory the main building were designed
with a Transit Room and a Circle Room. The instruments were installed
and worked well. Two domes were also mounted on the roof of the building,
and the rooms under the domes were located on the second floor, had
wooden floors and no supporting pillars. Maclear
installed the Herschel
14 ft telescope
under one of the domes but observation was impossible due to the vibrating
floors (Already mentioned). In order to be able to use other instruments
Maclear embarked on a program to build new domes separate from the main
building. He got out his auxiliary telescopes. For the Dollond
3-inch
telescope a temporary dome was erected in 1844 and in 1847 a permanent
dome was constructed 52 yards (47.5 meters) north of the East Wing of
the main building. For the Jones
3 ½ -inch
telescope a site was planned but never built, and the instrument was
eventually used as a collimator for the Airy Transit Circle. In approximately
1849 a Mertz
7-inch
telescope arrived at the Cape, due to the influence of Herschel. A new
dome was built, 14 ft (4.2 meters) in diameter, in an almost symmetrical
setting, 53 yards (48.5 meters) to the north of the East Wing. The framework
for the dome was sent out from England, and overlooked when the vessel
docked at the Cape. It was found and retrieved from Madras in India
seven months later. The dome rotated on three cannon balls. [Warner
- Astronomers, p.63.]
By 1853 Cape Town has expanded so much that the ships in the
harbour could not see the time ball on the Observatory grounds anymore.
Two new time balls were added to the time service, one at Signal Hill
and the other at Simon's Town. By 1861 telegraph lines were installed
in the Cape Colony and the drop of the balls were now done electrically
from the Observatory. Batteries had to be installed and were housed
next to the Mertz building. In 1865 another time ball was added to the
system, in Port Elizabeth, 500 miles (+/- 750 km) distant, in "a feat
without parallel in the electric work." [Warner - Astronomers, pp.63
- 65.]
In 1860 he was knighted. Maclear published the results of his
re-measurement of the Arc of the Meridian in 1866, for which he received
the French Lalande Medal and the Royal Society Gold Medal. Maclear retired
in 1870 at the age of 76.
Maclear had been a very popular person at the Cape. He received
great accolades from the public and the local Government at the time
of his death. [Warner - Astronomers, pp.71 - 72.]
All the abovementioned accolades aside, Maclear was send to the Cape
for a specific purpose. It was required of him to prepare a catalogue
of Southern Hemisphere Stars. He was a prolific observer and made
an incredible amount of observations, but with all his other activities
he never got around to reducing the data. Nearly four decades after
Maclear was send to the Cape to fulfil this specific instruction he
still could not show results. [Warner - Astronomers, p.73.]
It is known that during Maclear's time the observatory were opened
to the public on visitor's nights. However, during the last few years
of Maclear's directorship he gave less attention to the upkeep of the
Observatory and at the time of his retirement the grounds started to
look un-kept. [Warner - Astronomers, pp.74 - 75.]
Edward Stone
Maclear was tasked with preparing a catalogue of
Southern Hemisphere Stars. He made an incredible amount of observations
but not the reductions. When Maclear retired nearly four decades after
the request, the catalogue was not even close to completion. The first
priority for the British Admiralty was to find a person who could complete
the star catalogue. To Airy the logical choice was Stone.
Stone was appointed as director of the Cape Observatory June
1870; they arrived at Cape Town on 13 October 1870 and took up residence
at the Observatory on 22 October. [Warner - Astronomers, pp.73 - 74.]
The appointment of Stone was not a very popular
one amongst Capetonians for Maclear wanted William
Mann
(his son in law) to be his successor. As Maclear was very popular and
an influential person who retired in Cape Town, the public was more
willing to accept Maclear's viewpoint than that of Stone, an outsider
nobody ever heard off. Stone was withdrawn by nature, and came to the
Cape Observatory to do a job. He discontinued the popular public viewing
evenings at the Observatory. Stone's leadership style was to commanded,
rather than earned respect. This made him unpopular with the staff.
Stone suffered from ill health. Observation in the cool of the
night did not agree with his constitution. As a brilliant mathematician
his talents lay more in the theoretical aspects of astronomy and he
specialized in distance calculations (Astronomical Unit). In
short, Stone did not like to observe as the chill evening air did not
agree with him. Focussing his energy by staying indoors and doing the
reductions of observations made by Maclear suited him well.
For the task the Admiralty prioritised, the Catalogue, Stone
was the best choice. He got all the staff to work nearly exclusively
on the task and the in 1875 Stone went on a short visit to organise
the publication of the catalogue and other research. In May 1879 the
task was completed. The catalogue of Southern Hemisphere Stars contained
12 441 stars and it was published in 1880. Thus the catalogue the Admiralty
requested from Maclear in 1834 took nearly half a century to complete.
Stone was awarded the Lalande Medal of the Paris Academy of Sciences
for producing the Catalogue. [Warner - Astronomers, pp.77 - 79.]
To great credit for Stone he also accomplished quite a bit besides
the Catalogue. Spectroscopy was a relative new science at the time and
Stone decided to try his hand at it. He brought with him a personal
instrument from England, a Browning
spectroscope.
With this spectroscope Stone went to Namaqualand to observe the total
solar eclipse of 16 April 1874. He made the first ever scientific
spectroscopic observations in Southern Africa, and confirmed Young's
spectroscopic observation of "reversing layer" above the sun's
bright surface. Stone also involved the amateur astronomer fraternity
and motivated them to make drawings of the corona. The results were
published in the Memoirs of the Royal Society. [Warner - Astronomers,
p.76.]
New Magnetic equipment was send to the Cape Observatory to enhance
the Magnetic Observatory at the Cape. During the eclipse expedition
mentioned above Stone took the Magnetic equipment along and produced
the first set of magnetic observations of Namaqualand. [Warner
- Astronomers, p.76.]
H.M.S. Challenger was on the first major oceanographic expedition
around the world and the second in command of the vessel was Jack
Maclear, son of Thomas
Maclear.
In 1874 the vessel arrived at the Cape and Jack was granted permission
to use the magnetic observatory to make measurements. [Warner - Astronomers,
pp.76 - 77.]
Stone also made great contributions to Transit of Venus observations.
After the disappointing results from the 1874 transit he reviewed the
British report and noted serious discrepancies. By reworking the data
he estimated a more accurate value for the Sun-Earth distance. [Koorts
- British, pp. 36 - 37]
As a result of Stone's visit in 1875 to England to organise the
publication of the Catalogue he brought back with him a De La Rue
type photoheliograph made by Dallmeyer.
With this instrument he intended to take two photographs of the Sun
everyday. It was installed in a wooden hut with an attached darkroom,
the only building that was erected during Stone's tenure as director.
After an enthusiastic start of Observations on 12 February 1876 interest
slowly waned and only a very few photographs were actually taken. [Warner
– Astronomers, p.77.] This is a significant credit to Stone as his
successor, David
Gill,
is seen as one of the fathers of Astrophotography. Still to be discussed
later, Gill took a photo of a comet in 1882 and this started him, and
the Astronomical World on taking photos of the night sky.
During Stone's tenure as director the Observatory was not a happy
place to work at. The work to reduce Maclear's data was not very exiting.
Added to this situation was remuneration. "The salaries of the observatory
staff have been fixed much below the Colonial Standard [since it was
paid by the Admiralty] and young men of ability can get appointments
under the Colonial Government at higher salaries for less work and less
drain upon the brain". Thus there was a high turnover of personnel.
Stone appealed to no avail to the Admiralty to improve the salaries.
[Warner - Astronomers, p.77.]
In 1878 the Radcliffe Observer at Oxford, Robert Main,
died and Stone was one of five applicants for the post. In December
1878 Stone was appointed Radcliffe Observer in Oxford, England with
the provision that he stays on at the Cape and finish the catalogue.
The catalogue was finished in early May 1879 and he sailed for England
on 27 May1879.
In his last years as director Maclear did not pay much attention
to the upkeep of the Observatory grounds and it fell into slight disrepair.
When Stone took over he was totally focused on producing the catalogue
and little else. As Professor Warner so apply states: "Although Stone
gathered no moss, the Observatory certainly did". Thus at the end of
his tenure the grounds were in a state of total disrepair, and as Stone
himself wrote: "My successor will find things in a great mess. I have
devoted my last month to a general cleaning up which is much required,
and to putting away all the books of the observations and the books
of the reduction accumulated here during my term of office in the Record
Room". His successor, David Gill, indeed had a momentous task ahead
of him. [Warner - Astronomers, p.78.]
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