James Glaisher

James Glaisher ( born April 7, 1809 in London, † February 7, 1903 in Croydon, near London ) was an English meteorologist and aeronaut.

Life and work

After James Glaisher had worked for several years in Ireland in land surveying projects, he got the post of assistant at the observatories at Cambridge and Greenwich. After the founding of the Department of Meteorology and magnetism in Greenwich he took over its management in 1838, he practiced until his employment to retirement is 34 years.

In 1845 he published his dew-point tables for measurement of humidity. He was a founding member of the Meteorological Society ( 1850 ) and the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain (1866 ). He also was a member of the Royal Commission for the heating and ventilation of dwellings (1875 ) and from 1880 he held the post of Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund for 12 years.

Most famously, he was in his time, however, as a pioneer of Aerology. Together with the balloonist Henry Coxwell he undertook 1862-1866 a total of 28 scientific ballooning. On their seventh aviation on September 5, 1862, they rose in open basket height of approximately 8,800 meters. This was a hitherto still unmatched by any human height. Glaisher lost because of the thin air awareness, and Coxwell could open with his teeth, the control valve to bring the balloon to drop only by summoning his last strength. Glaishers performance was only 32 years later surpassed when Arthur Berson in 1894 reached under carriage of supplemental oxygen has a height of 9,155 meters above sea level.

1874 joined Glaisher back from his post at the observatory, and devoted himself entirely to Johann Karl Burckhardt in 1814 begun, continued by Johann Martin Dase Factor Tables, which appeared in three volumes 1878-83 and the prime factorization of natural numbers 3000001-6000. 000 included.

James Glaisher married 1843, the 15 -year-old Cecilia Louisa Belville ( 1828-1892 ), who would later make a name for himself as a photographer. At that time, the legal age for marriage was at the age of twelve. From the union produced three children - Cecilia Appelina (1845-1932), astronomer and mathematician James Whitbread Lee Glaisher (1848-1928) and Ernest Henry ( 1858-1885 ).

The lunar crater Glaisher was named after him.

Publications

  • On factor tables. With an account of the mode of formation of the factor table for the fourth million ( 1878)
  • Travels in the air. (1880 )
  • Hygrometrical Tables. (1885, 8th edition 1895)
  • A memoir on the radiation of heat from various substances.
  • Report on the meteorology of London in relation of the Choleraepidemic of 1853-54.
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