Simeon Lord and Mary Hyde Collection

This Powerhouse Museum  collection of artefacts relates to two people closely associated with the pioneering of Sydney's shipping and manufacturing business. Simeon Lord and his wife Mary were both emancipated convicts whose full and remarkable lives carved out a new role for local businessmen and women. In addition they initiated what must be considered some of the first large scale manufacturing of local produce to occur in Australia. 

Lord was born in England in 1771 and at nineteen he was convicted and deported to Australia for stealing cloth. He arrived in Sydney in 1791 and was assigned as a servant to Captain Thomas Rowley. Lord was emancipated early and in 1798 bought a warehouse, presumably purchased from the money he made trading spirits. By 1801 he had set himself up as an auctioneer and was selling the goods he brought directly from the ships, or acting as the agent of the ships captains. 

Lord made huge profits on the back of this trade and attempted to branch out and import his own cargoes. Even though these cargoes were potentially far more profitable it was also a very risky business enterprise and Lord's precious cargoes went down with ships wrecked at sea and in some cases were sold off, along with the vessel, by unscrupulous captains never to be seen again. In 1805 Lord formed a partnership with Henry Kable and James Underwood who had exported whale oil and sealskins to England but by 1807 this partnership had dissolved into a maze of lawsuits which eventually favoured Lord. The monopoly of the East India Company, and his convict past, was a continual bane for Lord who managed his ships and cargoes through a complex network of friends and partnerships. Lord was also involved in some of the early whale oil, seal skin, and sandalwood trade within the Pacific and reputedly brought the first load of Fijian sandalwood to Sydney in 1804.

The ambrotype portrait in this collection is of Lord's widow Mary taken sometime around 1860. But marriage to this important figure was not Mary's sole claim to fame, as her life was equally remarkable. She was born Mary Hyde, in England in 1779, before being convicted of stealing clothing and transported to Sydney in 1798.

One of 95 female convicts on the Brittania II she met, and started a relationship with a ship's officer, John Black, and gave birth to two of his children. She raised both children almost exclusively by herself as her husband was away for long periods before he eventually died on a voyage back from India, in 1802. Sometime around 1805 Mary started a new relationship with Simeon Lord who also became step-father to Mary's two children while Mary became mother to a young girl Lord had adopted. In 1806 Mary bore the first of ten children to Lord and in 1814 their partnership became legal when Mary and Simeon were married at St Phillip's Church in Sydney. 

By 1810 the Lords' profits from sealing were in decline and they abandoned the industry looking instead to local manufacture to by-pass the rigid international importation laws. Simeon did however continue to act as an auctioneer and indulged in the occasional trading activity right through to 1820 when he and Francis Shortt were involved in exporting cedar to England. Primary among Lord's manufacturing businesses was the making of hats which was conducted in partnership with his son-in-law Francis Williams. In 1812 they appear to have been interested in expanding their business as they advertised for glass-blowers and by 1813 were offering apprenticeships for weavers, spinners, potters and dyers. Interestingly it was also around this time that they claimed to have produced a perfect set of tumblers, perhaps the very ones in the Powerhouse Museum collection. The firm dissolved in 1813 when Williams went to Tasmania but in 1814 Lord opened a new factory at Botany to manufacture shoes, hats, harnesses and textiles. In 1821 he moved into 'Botany House' located near his factory and died in 1840. Under the terms of the will Mary was made executor of the estate making her one of the wealthiest women in the colony. She continued to manage Lord's affairs after his death and employed many people in the Botany factory before it was closed by the flooding of her land as a part of the Sydney Water Board's development of the area. Mary took them to court to get compensation and four years later won the case and was eventually awarded over £15,000, a sum measured in the millions by today's standards. 

Mary died in December 1864 leaving her estate to all her children in an attempt to ensure the daughters were treated equally, and could manage their inheritance in their own right. Unfortunately this was not possible in the eyes of the law and the money passed into the hands of male heirs and husbands. 

Geoff Barker, September 2009

References
D. R. Hainsworth, 'Lord, Simeon (1771 - 1840)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, Melbourne University Press, 1967, pp 128-131
Mary Hyde, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Hyde

Sydney Observatory Star Camera First Photographs 1890

During his term as Government Astronomer H.C. Russell worked on two internationally significant photographic projects. The first was the organisation of photography for the New South Wales section of the 1874 Transit of Venus. The second was mapping of the stars in the southern section of the heavens using photography. Planning for this began in 1887 and started in 1892 after which it continued to play a major role in the activities at Sydney Observatory up until the 1960s. 

The success of this project depended upon a special kind of photographic telescope, officially known as an 'astrograph', but which Russell often referred to as the 'Star Camera'. The casing and mounts for the 'Star Camera' were made in New South Wales and all the smaller parts and the assembly of the instrument were done by Mr. W. I. Masters, the instrument maker at Sydney Observatory. 

However there were still some aspects of instrument making which were beyond the skills of Australian manufacturers. One of these was the making of high quality lenses and in September 1887 Russell ordered a photographic objective from the workshops of Sir Howard Grubb in Ireland. The making of a lens was no simple matter and with other observatories also requesting lenses Sydney Observatory did not receive theirs until late 1890; some time after the casing and fittings for the 'Star Camera' had been completed. 

While Russell was waiting for the Grubb lens he placed a six inch portrait lens made by J.H. Dallmeyer on the mounting for the 'Star Camera". Using this camera Russell took a number of scientific photographs of the stars. These he felt were "…the first of their kind of the Southern Skies." 

Between April and October 1890 the Observatory took a number of photographs of the Milky-Way, the 'Large' and 'Small' Magellaic clouds, and other interesting celestial objects, which he printed and bound into a book. While there is no indication of a printer or publisher inside the book it was probably made in a very limited run to promote these photographs. The copy now held in the Powerhouse Museum (96/6/1) was presented to the New South Wales Branch of the British Astronomical Association by H. Wright on 25 September 1923. (See attached pdf facsimilie) 

These photographic plates are of scientific significance as they are possibly the earliest scientific photographs of the southern stars taken in Australia. They are also of immense significance due to their relationship to Australia's early scientific history, its scientists and the instruments used to create the photographs.

Geoff Barker, December, 2008

References
Airy, G. B, Account of the Observation of the Transit of Venus, 1874, December 8, Made Under the Authority of the British Government and of the reduction of the Observations, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1881
Bhathal, R., Australian Astronomer; John Tebbutt, Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst, NSW, 1993
De-Clerq, P.R., Nineteenth Century Instruments and their Makers; Rodopi, Amsterdam, 1985
Forwarded to H. M. Secretary of State by Despatch, No. 141, 1847, Federation and Meteorology, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/1541.html
Haynes, Raymond, Haynes, Roslynn, Malin, David, McGee, Richard, Explorers of the Southern Sky, Cambridge University Press, 1996
Hünsch, Matthias, Hamburg Observatory - Overview: Buildings & Telescope, http://www.hs.uni-hamburg.de/EN/Oef/Stw/aequator/aequator.html
Nangle, J., 'The Sydney Observatory; its history and work, Sydney Technical College, 1930
Russell, H.C., Photographs of The Milky-Way & Nubeculae taken at Sydney Observatory, 1890, publisher unknown, 1891-1907
Scott, W., Astronomical Observations made at the Sydney Observatory in the Year 1860, Thomas Richard, Government Printer, Sydney, 1861
Todd, David, P., Stars and Telescopes, Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., 1900

Sydney Observatory Star Camera and Mouchez's Reseau 1891

In 1870 H. C. Russell was appointed Government Astronomer at Sydney Observatory. He quickly grasped the significant role photography was beginning to play in astronomy and by the end of the nineteenth century Sydney Observatory had embarked on several photographic projects of international significance. 

The first of these was organising the New South Wales contingent of observers for the 1874 transit of Venus. The second was the mapping of the stars in the southern section of the heavens using photography. Often referred to as the 'Carte du Ciel' or ''Mapping the Stars'' project, Sydney and Melbourne observatories, were responsible for the belts of the sky covering -52° to -64° and -65° to -90° respectively. 

The planning for this began in 1887 and in July 1890 James Short was appointed to the observatory staff to operate the 'Star Camera'. Between 1890 and his retirement in 1930 Short produced almost all of the photographs taken with the Sydney 'Star Camera'. By 1891 H. C. Russell and James Short had gathered enough equipment to start a series of photographic experiments for the 'Mapping the Stars' project. The telescope they used was officially known as an 'astrograph' but Russell often referred to it as the 'Star Camera'. Its casing and mounts were made in New South Wales and the lens, ordered in 1887, was made by Sir Howard Grubb. 

While Short and Russell had experimented with the camera in 1890 using a 6 inch Dallmeyer portrait lens none of these results were taken to the standards set by the 1887 convention. By June 1891 the Grubb lens and an extra enlarging lens arrived at the observatory and it was these that Russell and Short experimented with. 

These photographs although taken using the correct lens and the astrographic camera were not accepted for the ''Mapping the Stars'' project. The reason for this was that the reseaux for this project were all to be made in France, to a standard size and precisely graduated scale. These then needed to be thoroughly tested before being sent out to each participating observatory. Unfortunately the reseau Russell was experimented with was an untested one sent to him by Admiral Mouchez, the Director of the Paris Observatory, making them inadmissible for the 'Carte du Ciel' project. 

Russell and Short conducted their experiments with both the Grubb and Dallmeyer lenses while waiting for the reseau to be completed by Gautier in Paris. It seems that two star groups, Kappa Crucis and Eta Argus (now known as Eta Carinae), occupied their attention throughout 1891 and the museum holds a number of these early experimental plates taken using the astrograph.

Russell described some of the experiments to the New South Wales Royal Society in July 1891 … I am able to shew [sic] you three plates, one exposed thirty seconds, another two minutes, and a third thirty minutes, on the well known star Kappa Crucis. You will see thirty seconds is enough to get images of stars to the 9th magnitude, and that two minutes gives images of stars to the 11th magnitude, and takes in also some of the 12th and one of 13th magnitudes. 

The plates were exposed one after another, on a night that seemed uniform, and when the two minutes plate was a success the thirty minutes one ought also to have been. 

These photographic plates are of scientific significance both for their international role in the ''Mapping the Stars'' project as examples of the experimentation phase in the first years of using the star camera. They are also of immense significance due to their relationship to Australia's early scientific history, its scientists and the instruments used to create the photographs.

Geoff Barker, September 2008

The 1874 Transit of Venus

"I do not suggest that photographic observations should displace eye observations; on the contrary, I think that both eye and photographic observations ought to be made." Warren de la Rue 1873 

By 1874 advances in the use of photography for astronomical observations meant it was now an indespensible part of the major astronomical event of that year, the Transit of Venus. Around the world, observatories and astronomers were busy making preparations and designing new equipment and training staff to capture the event on film.

In Sydney Henry Chamberlin Russell brought new photographic equipment and modified some of the existing telscopes to turn them into cameras. From 1871 preparations for the 1874 transit had occupied much of Russell's time as he worked to set up observation stations at Goulbourn, Woodford, Eden and Bathurst to photograph the event.

The most impressive instrument was the new 11.4 inch telescope purchased from the optician and instrument maker, Hugo Schroeder and this was installed in the South Dome of the Observatory. For the Transit of Venus it was fitted with a camera and enlarging lens that magnified the Sun's image to four inches. The wet collodion photographic plates were placed at the end of the camera and held in place by a spring. The camera end passed into a dark room tent raised inside the dome and connected to the telescope by a flexible sleeve. Some of the Observatory's older instruments were transported along with the prefabricated observatories to the rural stations.

Another important instrument purchased was an astrographic telescope made by J. H. Dallmeyer which was developed especially for photographing the Venus transit. It was set up at Woodford in the Blue Mountains at the residence of A. Fairfax. There were seven observers present for the occasion: P. F. Adams, Surveyor-General; Hirst, a well known amateur astronomer; Mr Vessy of the Trigonomical Survey; Mr Du Faur of the Survey Department; Mr Bischoff, the photographer, and two unnamed carpenters. 

Geoff Barker, December, 2008

References
Todd, David, P., Stars and Telescopes, Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., 1900
Haynes, Raymond, Haynes, Roslynn, Malin, David, McGee, Richard, Explorers of the Southern Sky, Cambridge University Press, 1996
Russell, H., C., "Report of Astronomer for 1874 & 1875', New South Wales Government Printer, 1876

… the most powerful and perfect spectroscope of its time

This spectroscope was made by the Adam Hilger of 192 Tottenham Court Road, London. It is also one of the earliest spectroscopes Hilger made as Henry Chamberlin Russell, Government Astronomer at the Sydney Observatory, ordered it in 1875; the same year Hilger opened his business. After being tested it arrived in Sydney in 1876 and Russell appears to have been very happy with the workmanship. 

In his 1876 Government Report he described it as being the “most powerful and perfect one in the world at the time of its manufacture”. It was certainly well used as Russell connected it to the Observatory’s Merz 7.25-inch telescope to make spectral measurements. In 1878 it was also taken to the Blue Mountains to enable Russell to conduct tests to find out whether the performance of the observatory’s astronomical equipment was improved in the mountain air.

The spectroscope is an instrument which is attached to a telescope to spread light from the lens into lines of spectral wavelengths. This light is passed through a slit, and collimator, and then through a prism, or prisms, to disperse it into different wavelengths.

In 1859 Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff worked out how to measure the spectrums cast by the spectroscope and began using it to identify the chemical constitution of substances in the atmosphere. Initially experiments focussed on the earth’s atmosphere but by 1860 a number of astronomers had begun to pioneer the use of spectroscopes for measuring the chemical composition of bodies in space.

One of the most significant events occurred in 1864 when William Huggins and W. A. Miller published their paper on stellar spectra. This identified elements from stars which were the same as those on earth and made it clear other planets, like the sun, had atmospheres as well.

References
Todd, David, P., Stars and Telescopes, Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., 1900
Chaldecott, J., ‘Printed Ephemera of Some Nineteenth Century Instrument Makers’, in Blondel, C., Parot, F., Turner, A., Williams, M., (eds), Studies in the History of Scientific Instruments, Rogers Turner Books, London, 1989
McConnell, A., Instrument Makers to the World; a History of Cooke, Troughton and Simms, William Sessions, York, England, 1992
Knight, E., H., (ed), ‘Knight’s American Mechanical Dictionary’, Vol III, J.B. Ford and Company, New York, 1874, p.2259
King, H., C., The History of the Telescope, Dover Publications, New York, 1955

Slide Rules

Cylindrical slide-rule made by Keuffel & Esser about in 1885, on patent by Edwin Thatcher in 1881

Loose pebbles were the first objects used to aid humans in calculating numbers. Later they were used as counters on ruled boards before a range of materials were used to suspend counters on wire frames. This fixed wire structure known as the 'abacus' was developed in India and later adopted in China and Europe.

Sydney Observatory and the Carte Du Ciel or Mapping the Stars Project

In Autumn 1886, George Gabriel Stokes, President of the Royal Society of London received a letter from Admiral Mouchez, the Director of the Paris Observatory, "… in response to the presentation of specimens of the admirable star photographs by the MM. Henry, several astronomers to whom they had been sent suggested that it would be well that a conference of astronomers of various nations should be held, with a view to taking concerted action for obtaining on a uniform plan a complete map of the whole starry heavens."