Norman Lockyer

Joseph Norman Lockyer

Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer.
Born (1836-05-17)17 May 1836
Rugby, Warwickshire, England
Died 16 August 1920(1920-08-16) (aged 84)
Salcombe Regis, Devon, England
Nationality British
Fields Astronomy
Institutions Imperial College London
Known for Discovery of helium Founder of Journal, Nature
Notable awards Rumford Medal (1874)
Janssen Medal (1889)

Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer, FRS (17 May 1836 – 16 August 1920), known simply as Norman Lockyer, was an English scientist and astronomer. Along with the French scientist Pierre Janssen he is credited with discovering the gas helium. Lockyer also is remembered for being the founder and first editor of the influential journal Nature.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

Biography

Lockyer was born in Rugby, Warwickshire. After a conventional schooling supplemented by travel in Switzerland and France, he worked for some years as a civil servant in the British War office.[11] He settled in Wimbledon, South London after marrying Winifred James.[12] He was a keen amateur astronomer with a particular interest in the Sun. In 1885 he became the world's first professor of astronomical physics at the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, now part of Imperial College. At the college, the Solar Physics Observatory was built for him and here he directed research until 1913.

In the 1860s Lockyer became fascinated by electromagnetic spectroscopy as an analytical tool for determining the composition of heavenly bodies. He conducted his research from his new home in West Hampstead, with a 6¼ inch telescope which he had already used in Wimbledon.[1]

In 1868 a prominent yellow line was observed in a spectrum taken near the edge of the Sun. With a wavelength of about 588 nm, slightly less than the so-called "D" lines of sodium. the line could not be explained as due to any material known at the time, and so it was suggested by Lockyer, after he had observed it from London, that the yellow line was caused by an unknown solar element. He named this element helium after the Greek word 'Helios' meaning 'sun'. An observation of the new yellow line had been made earlier by Janssen at the 18 August 1868 solar eclipse, and because their papers reached the French academy on the same day, he and Lockyer usually are awarded joint credit for helium's discovery. Terrestrial helium was found about 27 years later by the Scottish chemist William Ramsay. In his work on the identification of helium, Lockyer collaborated with the noted chemist Edward Frankland.[13]

To facilitate the transmission of ideas between scientific disciplines, Lockyer established the general science journal Nature in 1869.[14] He remained its editor until shortly before his death.

Lockyer led eight expeditions to observe solar eclipses for example in 1870 to Sicily, 1871 to India and 1898 to India.[1]

After his retirement in 1913, Lockyer established an observatory near his home in Salcombe Regis near Sidmouth, Devon. Originally known as the Hill Observatory, the site was renamed the Norman Lockyer Observatory after his death. For a time the observatory was a part of the University of Exeter, but is now owned by the East Devon District Council, and run by the Norman Lockyer Observatory Society. The Norman Lockyer Chair in Astrophysics at the University of Exeter is currently held by Professor Tim Naylor, who is the member of the Astrophysics group there which studies star formation and extrasolar planets.

English Heritage plaque in Penywern Road, Earls Court, London.
1873 illustration of Lockyer.

Lockyer died at his home in Salcombe Regis in 1920, and was buried there in the churchyard of St Peter and St Mary.[15][16]

Publications

Honours and awards

References

  1. 1 2 3 Cortie, A. L. (1921). "Sir Norman Lockyer, 1836–1920". Astrophysical Journal. 53 (4): 233–248. Bibcode:1921ApJ....53..233C. doi:10.1086/142602.
  2. ↑ Eddington, A. S. (1921). "Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Royal Astronomical Society. 81 (4): 261–266. Bibcode:1921MNRAS..81R.261.. doi:10.1093/mnras/81.4.261a. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  3. ↑ Rolston, W. E. (1920). "Sir Norman Lockyer (1836–1920)". The Observatory. 43: 358–362. Bibcode:1920Obs....43..358R. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  4. ↑ Campbell, W. W. (1920). "Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer–(1836-1920)". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 3: 265–268. Bibcode:1920PASP...32..265C. doi:10.1086/122984. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  5. ↑ Satterly, John (1921). "Sir J. Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S.". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 15 (2): 45–56. Bibcode:1921JRASC..15...45S. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  6. ↑ Fowler, Alfred (1923). "Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., 1836–1920". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A. 104 (728): i–xiv. Bibcode:1923RSPSA.104D...1.. doi:10.1098/rspa.1923.0126. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  7. 1 2 Meadows, Arthur Jack (1972). Science and Controversy: a Biography of Sir Norman Lockyer. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. p. 237. Bibcode:1972scbs.book.....M. ISBN 0-230-22020-7.
  8. ↑ Wilkins, George A. (1994). "Sir Norman Lockyer's Contributions to Science". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Royal Astronomical Society. 35 (1): 51–57. Bibcode:1994QJRAS..35...51W. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  9. ↑ Frost, Michael (2007). "Lockyer, Joseph Norman". In Hockey, Thomas; Trimble, Virginia; Williams, Thomas R. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  10. ↑ Meadows, Arthur Jack (2004). "Lockyer, Sir Joseph Norman". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34581. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  11. ↑ Frost, Michael A. (2005). "J. Norman Lockyer: The Early Years". The Antiquarian Astronomer. Society for the History of Astronomy. 2: 21–26. Bibcode:2005AntAs...2...21F. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  12. ↑ Wilkins, George A. (2006). "The Lockyer Ladies". The Antiquarian Astronomer. Society for the History of Astronomy. 3: 101–106. Bibcode:2006AntAs...3..101W. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  13. ↑ Hearnshaw, J. B. (1986). The Analysis of Starlight. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 84–85. Bibcode:1986asoh.book.....H. ISBN 0-521-25548-1.
  14. ↑ Sir Norman Lockyer, ed. (1880). Nature, Volume 21. Macmillan Journals Limited. p. 99. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
  15. ↑ Jacobson, Walter. "Around the Churches of East Devon". Retrieved 2008-01-30.
  16. ↑ Edwards, D. L. (1937). "Report of the Proceedings of the Sidmouth, Norman Lockyer Observatory". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 97: 309–310. Bibcode:1937MNRAS..97..309.. doi:10.1093/mnras/97.4.291. Retrieved 2008-01-30.

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