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SIR JOSEPH NORMAN LOCKYER

SIR JOSEPH NORMAN LOCKYER. SIR JOSEPH NORMAN LOCKYER BORN 17 MAY 1836 – DIED 16 AUGUST 1920 KNOWN SIMPLY AS NORMAN LOCKYER , HE WAS AN ENGLISH SCIENTIST AND ASTRONOMER. ALONG WITH THE FRENCH SCIENTIST HE IS CREDITED WITH DISCOVERING THE GAS HELIUM. Introduction.

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SIR JOSEPH NORMAN LOCKYER

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  1. SIR JOSEPH NORMAN LOCKYER SIR JOSEPH NORMAN LOCKYER BORN 17 MAY 1836 – DIED 16 AUGUST 1920 KNOWN SIMPLY AS NORMAN LOCKYER, HE WAS AN ENGLISH SCIENTIST AND ASTRONOMER. ALONG WITH THE FRENCH SCIENTIST HE IS CREDITED WITH DISCOVERING THE GAS HELIUM.

  2. Introduction When I first started to think about this project I did not know who to study as there is so many famous historical people. I looked on the Internet using Google and saw lots of kings and queens. I asked my great aunt Diane if she knew anyone famous I could study…..then she told me about my great, great grandfather.

  3. Facts Lockyer was born in Rugby, Warwickshire. He travelled in Switzerland and France, he worked for some years as a civil servant in the British War office. He settled in Wimbledon, South London after marrying Winifred James. A keen amateur astronomer with a particular interest in the Sun, Lockyer eventually became Director of the Solar Physics Observatory in Kensington London. My grandfather was named Warwick Little.

  4. His Home One of the more esoteric aspects of Rugby’s heritage must surely be its blue plaques marking buildings of interest. The older ones in particular have generally been forced by circumstance to be placed well above the normal sight lines of passers by and at a height that renders their print difficult to read. One such plaque may be observed by the keen-sighted on the wall of number 25 Sheep Street, which currently houses the HFC Bank, adjacent to The Three Horse Shoes hotel: This plaque bears the legend: In Commemoration of SIR NORMAN LOCKYER KCB FRS The Astronomer Born in this houseMay 16th 1836Died August 20th 1920

  5. His Work His works mainly involved the Sun and it was in this study that he investigated sunspots and solar prominences discovering in 1868 with Pierre Janssen. It was in this investigation that he made his most important discovery. He was able to successfully identify the spectral line then to be an unknown element observed by Janssen in the year 1868 and proposed to name it helium, from the Greek word helios, meaning Sun.

  6. His Work • Helium (He) is the second most common element in the universe after Hydrogen. • The name helium came from the Greek word for the sun, helios. • Lockyer was later knighted for this discovery. • In 1897 Lockyer was given the order of `knight commander of the Bath' for his discovery of Helium in 1868, he became Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer KCB http://www.chemicool.com/elements/helium.html

  7. Writing & Expeditions Lockyer published his first classic of what’s been called the astro-archaeology, The Dawn of Astronomy and in 1906 he produced another work entitled Stonehenge and Other British Monuments Astronomically Considered. He aimed to establish the fact that many ancient monuments were astronomically aligned. He was passionate about his works, paying regular trips to Egypt, Greece, the Stranding Stones of Britain and led several solar eclipse expeditions, few of which includes the expedition to Sicily (year 1870) and India (years 1871 and 1898).

  8. The London Science Museum • Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of a new range of buildings in 1899. She also directed that in future the Museum should be renamed 'The Victoria and Albert Museum' and this title, somewhat confusingly to us now, also applied to the Science Collections. In 1909, when the new buildings were opened, the title was confined to the Art Collections. The Science and Engineering Collections were finally separated administratively and the name 'Science Museum', in informal use since 1885, was officially adopted. • It was on June 26th that year that the institutional reorganisation into two independent institutions was ratified and the title "Science Museum" was officially bestowed. This was largely down to the brilliance of Norman Lockyer, the founder-editor of the journal Nature and to senior civil servant Robert Morant. Lockyer's association with the collections since the 1876 Loan exhibition and persistent lobbying on the museum's behalf qualifies him to be described as the founder of the museum while Morant engineered the separation from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

  9. The London Science Museum • Throughout the late 1800s and first decade of the 1900s Lockyer argued for the importance of a museum distinctively dedicated to Science. As early as 1876 he had ploughed ahead with assembling thousands of scientific instruments, objects and articles in South Kensington and these were subsequently incorporated in The South Kensington Museum, which had originally been founded to promote industry but whose art collections were in their turn increasingly oriented towards art rather than industry.

  10. Fellowships

  11. Aerial Photographs over London http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057093/Google-Earth-view-London--circa-1909.html

  12. Norman Lockyer Observatory • After his retirement in 1911, 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.

  13. Websites http://www.search.windowsonwarwickshire.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=6964 http://www.abebooks.co.uk/Science-Controversy-Biography-Sir-Norman-Lockyer/3789492523/bd http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/about_the_museum/history.aspx?page=2 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n7224/full/456875a.html http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/nov03.shtml http://www.midweekherald.co.uk/east-devon-life/east-devon-holiday-guide/norman_lockyer_observatory_1_214448 http://www.chemicool.com/elements/helium.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057093/Google-Earth-view-London--circa-1909.html http://www.rugbytown.co.uk/p/Sir-Norman-Lockyer.html http://planetfacts.org/sir-joseph-norman-lockyer/ Yahoo/mail email to my great great uncle in Australia

  14. To be continued… • Family Tree • Family Photographs • emails

  15. SIR JOSEPH NORMAN LOCKYERMy Great Great GrandfatherBy Sophie

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