%0 Journal Article
%T Revealing observatory networks through object stories: Object itineraries
%A Ileana Chinnici
%A Louise E Devoy
%A Fernando B Figueiredo
%D 2023
%V 
%N Autumn 2023
%K astronomical expeditions
%K astronomy
%K chronometer
%K human computers
%K meteorological and magnetic observatory
%K object biography
%K object itineraries
%K object stories
%K observational data
%K observatory furniture
%K observatory sites
%K Palermo Astronomical Observatory
%K Royal Observatory Greenwich
%K seismograph
%K Seismology
%K timekeeping
%K University of Coimbra
%X In this paper, each contribution uses an object biography – or object itinerary – methodology, tracking their chosen objects from conception and purchase, across time and space, to today. The function of each object could change significantly over time, and these stories serve to remind us of the range of projects and activities that observatories might support or host, including overseas astronomical expeditions, a local time service, mathematical calculations, measurement of photographic plates, magnetic, meteorological and seismological observation, the hosting and dining of visitors, and the display and promotion of the observatory’s status. In each case, the object’s movements and location within particular spaces point the reader to consider a wide range of people, whether located within the observatory, beyond its walls, or within international scientific networks. The objects considered here are a London-made marine chronometer purchased by the Palermo Observatory, which was not used for navigation but was nevertheless well travelled; a large wooden table placed in the Octagon Room of the Royal Observatory Greenwich; and a British seismograph set up in at the Meteorological and Magnetic Observatory of the University of Coimbra. These itineraries also show how the value attached to objects changes over time: they shift from functional tools to obsolescence, then regain significance as their histories have been recovered and re-examined. This paper forms part of the collection ‘Revealing observatory networks through object stories’ where object stories are presented in three themed papers (with further papers being ‘Instrumental networks’ and ‘Observatory audiences’). The genesis of the collection is described in the ‘Introduction’.
%Z Airy to Cacciatore: Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London S. E., 7 April 1870 (INAF-Palermo Astronomical Observatory, Historical Archive, folder 85.3 [hereafter INAF-PAO])
%Z A few biographical details of Swann Whiffin can be found at: https://bigharryunknown.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/swann-whiffin-b-5-july-1822/ (accessed 13 February 2023). The address given in one of his letters (footnote 3, below) is 41 Barnsbury Road, Islington: this could be the address of his house or that of his shop, or both.
%Z Whiffin to Cacciatore, 26 May 1870, (INAF-PAO). It is interesting to note that a sort of ‘form’ – presumably to be filled with the clock’s data – with instructions, written in another hand, has been kept with this letter.
%Z ‘Ho già scritto al Cap. Robinson dello Schooner “Emily” in Messina di consegnare il cronometro all’Amm.o dei Vapori Florio di quella città; e ciò conformemente al desiderio dalla S[ignoria] V[ostra] espressa …’: W. Ingham Whitaker to G. Cacciatore, Palermo, 21 June 1870 (original text in Italian) (INAF-PAO).
%Z ‘Ci pregiamo annunciarle essere arrivato il Cronometro dalla S. V. ordinato a mezzo del Sig. Guglielmo Ingham Whitaker e la interessiamo a mandar persona a curarne il ritiro … Il costo del Cronometro è come la S. V. ne sarà stata informata in £ 40 che al cambio di 26 rinverrebbe in Lire Italiane 1,040 che potrà pagare a noi unitamente a centesimi 85 di nostre spesarelle.’: [J.] Ingham Whitaker to P Tacchini, [Palermo], 12 July 1870 (original text in Italian) (INAF-PAO).
%Z Translated from the Italian: ‘il cronometro Whiffin…fu in seguito riconosciuto disadatto, poiché faceva delle variazioni e dei salti molto irregolari allorchè veniva trasportato da un luogo all’altro, forse a causa di qualche guasto in esso avvenuto durante il viaggio.’
%Z The results were later also published in Pogson, 1884, pp 55–65 (Whiffin 342 is mentioned on p 56).
%Z Translated from the Italian: ‘Un eccellente cronometro da marina a mezzi secondi, fatto da Whiffin, N. 342, è regolato sul tempo medio e utilizzato per il segnale del mezzodì’
%Z Royal Museums Greenwich, Collections Online record.
%Z I would like to gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Adam Bowett and Terry Sear of the Furniture History Society for their insightful advice.
%Z ‘Mr. Tenton called to see about furniture’, ‘Astronomer Royal's journal, 1836 – 1847’, entry for 7 January 1836, RGO 6/24, f.1v, Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO) Archives, Cambridge University Library.
%Z Transcriptions of the notes, orders and letters exchanged between George Airy and various tradesmen can be found in the RGO Archives (volumes RGO 6/715-758). They are available in digital format for research purposes from Daniel Belteki: (daniel.belteki@gmail.com).
%Z ‘Papers on moveable property, 1873–1875’, RGO 6/63 f.7r
%Z See above, note 4, RGO 6/63 f.61r
%Z See above, note 4, RGO 6/63 f.63r
%Z ‘Catalogues of moveable property, 1875 – 1905’, ref. RGO 7/67 (pages not foliated).
%Z ‘Inventory of instruments, 1895–1902’, RGO 39/12, ‘Octagon Room’, page spread 1
%Z ‘Moveable property 1831–1849’, RGO 6/54 f.31r
%Z https://ras.ac.uk/about-the-ras/198/238-the-charter-of-the-royal-astronomical-society (accessed 27 January 2023)
%Z Airy’s management of the Observatory’s staff and assistants has been studied extensively: Schaffer, S, 1988, ‘Astronomers Mark Time: Discipline and the Personal Equation’, Science in Context, 2/1, pp 115–145, DOI 10.1017/S026988970000051X; Smith, R, 1991, ‘A national observatory transformed: Greenwich in the nineteenth century’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 22/11 pp 5–20, DOI 10.1177/002182869102200104; Chapman, A, 2012, ‘Airy’s Greenwich Staff’, Antiquarian Astronomer, 6, pp 4–18; Johnston, S, 2021, ‘Managing the observatory: Discipline, order and disorder at Greenwich, 1835–1933’, The British Journal for the History of Science, 54/2, pp 155–175. DOI 10.1017/S0007087421000030; Belteki, D, 2023, ‘The grand strategy of an observatory’: George Airy’s vision for the division of astronomical labour among observatories during the nineteenth century’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 77/1, pp 135–151, DOI 10.1098/rsnr.2021.0034.
%Z See above, note 9, RGO 6/54 f.40r
%Z See above, note 9, RGO 6/54 f.79r
%Z ‘This afternoon, bring a plane into the Computing Room, and plane off all the inky patches from the desks and tables. See if we have any thing like a tray in which the ink bottle can stand’, ‘Correspondence with tradesmen, 1851’, letter from Airy to Green, 20 September 1851, RGO 6/724 f.377. ‘Plane the ink stains from the Desks in Computing Room’, ‘Correspondence with tradesmen, 1859 – 1861’, letter from Airy to Green, 4 March 1861, RGO 6/739 f.272.
%Z See images held within Harvard University Archives: https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/4/resources/4018 (accessed 31 January 2023). For a detailed narrative see Sobel, D, 2017, The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars (United States: Penguin Publishing Group)
%Z ‘Astronomer Royal's journal, 1862 – 1876’, entry for 19 August 1875, RGO6/26, f.223v. More details at Graham Dolan: Royal Observatory Greenwich: Anniversary celebrations of the Observatory’s foundation, http://www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=1252 (accessed 31 January 2023)
%Z Laurie (1967, p 346), suggests that the reason for this change was economy.
%Z This was part of a photograph album presented to Dyson as a leaving gift, largely composed of individual portraits of each member of staff, shown alongside their respective instruments of expertise or within their workspace, such as the repair workshop or Porter’s Lodge. This valuable record of life at the Observatory in 1933 is now held by Royal Museums Greenwich, object ref. AST1113.46, and can be partially viewed online: https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-1192938  (accessed 31 January 2023).
%Z ‘Inventory of art and furniture, 1955–1973’, RGO 39/13, second page.
%Z Records held by the National Maritime Museum for AAF0023: Observatory Table; REG10/000050 and GEN/15878.
%Z This image, from The Graphic (30 June 1900), p 963, reproduced here: http://www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/devblog/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Greenwich-Observatory-Astronomer-Royals-Room-1900.jpg (accessed 31 August 2023). 
%Z The ‘Board of Longitude’ designation was highly erroneous given that the table appears to date from the 1860s, several decades after the Board was dissolved in 1828. In addition, the Board usually met at the Admiralty, rather than at Greenwich. The papers of the Board of Longitude, including the Meeting Minutes, have been digitised and can be viewed here: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/rgo14/1 (accessed 31 January 2023).
%Z ‘Desde as 13h 55m 4s deste dia o pêndulo mostrou-se inquieto até às 17h 40m, hora a que executou uma oscilação, partindo de E. para W., com a amplitude de 2mm,40 (0",62). Seguidamente registaram-se uma serie de oscilações, 7 das quais de amplitude superior a 17mm,00 (4",42), produzindo o deslocamento da posição de equilíbrio. A amplitude das oscilações diminuiu gradualmente até atingir 0mm,70 (0",18) às 18h10m 3s, em que voltou a aumentar, partindo o pêndulo de W. para E., e atingindo o valor de 1mm,40 (0",36). Tornou a diminuir e parou, às 18h 55m 4s. Tremor domesticus. Epicentro em Benavente. Sentido em Coimbra com a força VI (Forel-Mercalli).’
%Z On the evolution of different types of seismographs, see Batlló, 2014.
%Z R W Munro & Co was founded in 1864 by Robert William Munro (1839–1912) and quickly became known for its precision instruments. In 1890 Milne and Munro began working together to develop and manufacture a highly accurate portable seismograph. The successful Milne seismograph developed in 1895 is the result of their collaboration.
%Z The systematic and regular publication of meteorological data began in 1870. From 1874, the annual bulletins also began to publish magnetic data and, from 1909, the analyses of the seismic records made at OMMUC.
%Z See for example, Herbert-Gustar and Nott (1980). However, Rose (2022) has recently challenged Milne's traditional reputation as the ‘father of seismology’, prompting a re-evaluation of his role in the field.
%Z Besides being a professor of physics in different subjects, both theoretical and practical, Santos Viegas also held important positions in the university. He was Director of the Faculty of Philosophy, Director of the Physics Office and Director of OMMUC, positions he held from 1880 to 1911. He was also rector of the University in two periods, from 1890 to 1892 and from 1896 to 1898. 
%Z The Ohm (for resistance), the Volt (for electromotive force), the Ampere (for current intensity), the Coulomb (for electric charge) and the Faraday (for capacity). 
%Z Livro de Copiador, N.1, fl. 62, OGAUC Archives. The instrument takes its name from its inventor, Alfred Angot (1848–1924) physicist and meteorologist at the French Bureau central météorologique, of which he became director in 1908. There is no picture, or detailed description of the Angot seismograph at OMMUC, nor could we find a Breguet catalogue showing it. The Breguet house itself, which we contacted, said it did not have a catalogue from this period.
%Z On the baro-psychograph, by Patrick Adie, see Peres, I M, Jardim, M E, and Costa, F M, 2010, ‘The Photographic Self-Recording of Natural Phenomena in the Nineteenth Century’, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of the ESHS, Barcelona 2010, pp 462–76.
%Z In the introductory note of the Yearbook of the observations for the year 1901 it says: ‘The work of the Observatory, increased in recent years with seismic observations, in addition to astronomical observations for the determination of the hour, have continued with the possible regularity [...], Coimbra, August 15, 1904.’
%Z Livro de Copiador n.1, fls.103-104, OGAUC Archives
%Z Later, with the seismograph already delivered, he asked Milne himself to send him the article ‘On the installation and working of Milne's horizontal pendulum, 1901’: letter to Milne, 27 May 1901, Livro de Copiador, N.2, fl.2v.
%Z The cost of the seismograph was £50, to which was added £9 relating to checking, packing and despatch expenses: Livro de Copiador N.1, fl.108, OGAUC Archives.
%Z Letter to Munro, 17 July 1903, Livro de Copiador N.1.fl 10v, OGAUC Archives
%Z Letter to Charles Chree, 28 March 1902, Livro de Copiador, N.2, fl. 7v, OGAUC Archives
%Z Livro de Copiador, N.2, fl. 10v, OGAUC Archives
%Z Over the years other seismographs and instruments were introduced, such as the Astatic Wiechert seismograph, which started operating in 1915, or the Vertical Wiechert seismograph, which began its recording activity in 1926. Others followed. Currently the IOC station is operating an STS-2 seismograph installed in 2007.
%I The Science Museum Group
%@ 2054-5770
%B eng
%U https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/revealing-observatory-networks-through-object-stories-object-itineraries/
%J Science Museum Group Journal