Background
James Glaisher was born on April 7, 1809, in Rotherhithe, United Kingdom. He was the son of a London watchmaker.
United Kingdom
Glaisher was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1849.
United Kingdom
James Glaisher
United Kingdom
James Glaisher
United Kingdom
Glaisher was a member of the council of the Royal Aeronautical Society from its foundation in 1866 until his death.
aeronaut Astronomer meteorologist
James Glaisher was born on April 7, 1809, in Rotherhithe, United Kingdom. He was the son of a London watchmaker.
Glaisher seems to have been largely self-educated and to have acquired his interest in science on visits to Greenwich observatory.
In 1833 Glaisher attracted the attention of George Airy, who appointed him assistant at Cambridge observatory. When Airy became astronomer royal in 1835, Glaisher soon followed him to Greenwich. In 1838 a magnetic and meteorological department was formed at Greenwich with Glaisher as superintendent, a post he held until his retirement at the statutory age in 1874. This appointment determined the course of Glaisher’s life. He effectively organized meteorological observations and climatological statistics in the United Kingdom. And although more than 120 papers appeared under his name, his importance in the history of his chosen science lies chiefly in the great energy and persistence that he displayed in this work.
Glaisher’s first extensive scientific paper was on the radiation of heat from the ground at night, published in 1847, and in the same year he published his Hygrometrical Tables Adapted to the Use of the Dry and Wet Bulb Thermometer, which, although entirely empirical in construction, remained in use by British meteorologists for almost a century. His most spectacular activity, which brought him to the attention of the public, was a series of scientific balloon ascents with the aeronaut Henry Coxwell in 1862, under the auspices of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Between 1862 and 1866, they made numerous ascents to measure the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere at its highest levels. His ascent on 5 September 1862 broke the world record for altitude, but he passed out around 8,800 metres before a reading could be taken. One of the pigeons making the trip with him died. Estimates suggest that he rose to more than 9,500 metres and as much as 10,900 metres above sea-level.
Glaisher was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1849 and took a leading part in the founding of the British (now the Royal) Meteorological Society in 1850. He was also a member and president of the Royal Microscopical Society, the Photographic Society, and a member of the council of the Royal Aeronautical Society from its foundation in 1866 until his death.
In 1843 Glaisher married Cecilia Louisa Belville, a daughter of Henry Belville, Assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. James and Cecilia Glaisher had two sons, Ernest Glaisher and the mathematician James Whitbread Lee Glaisher, and one daughter Cecilia Appelina.