… 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

Sydney Observatory 1858 -1926

Sydney Observatory, The Rock, Tyrrell photographic collection, Powerhouse Museum, c1900 

In 1847 the Colonial Government closed the old Parramatta Observatory and put its instruments into storage. The colony seemed to have sufficient scientific supporters for a new observatory in Sydney but initially the idea floundered. One of the reasons was the skepticism of Colonial authorities and George Biddell Airy, President of the Royal Astronomical Society in England, who were less than enthusiastic. This was all the more surprising given the demonstrable need for accurate timekeeping, tidal monitoring and weather prediction in a city so reliant on the sea.

Early Meteorology in Australia

Lieutenant William Dawes, who came out to Australia with the First Fleet, made the first recorded meteorological observations in Australia but the next set were probably made from Parramatta Observatory between October 1822 and March 1824. 

In 1821 Governor Brisbane had arrived in New South Wales and set up the colony's first observatory in the grounds of Government House at Parramatta. Although it is uncertain which meteorological instruments Brisbane may have brought with him in 1821 we do know that by 1847 Parramatta observatory had: two mountain barometers, one of which was made by Troughton, an ordinary barometer by Banks, an eirometer by Jones and a hygrometer by Saussiere. 

By 1840 meteorological stations were established at South Head, Port Macquarie and in Melbourne. The observations were kept by convicts of a class known as 'specials', or gentlemen convicts, who, because the work was specifically recommended by the Secretary of State, were paid and annual per diem of one shilling and six pence. The abstracts of their work were published weekly in the Government Gazette. 

The new Sydney Observatory was completed in 1858 and by the middle of that year the Government Astronomer, William Scott, had unpacked twelve sets of meteorological instruments and made journey's into the country to establish meteorological stations at Albury, Armidale, Bathurst, Cooma, Deniliquin, Goulburn, Maitland, Parramatta, Gabo Island, and Newcastle. 

Meteorological work was amongst the most important undertaken by the Sydney Observatory and in 1858 Scott presented a 'progress report' on meteorology to the Philosophical Society of New South Wales. Scott also saw the summaries were sent as monthly reports to be published in the Sydney Morning Herald. 

In 1860, due to the inconstancies in the recording of information from country stations, Scott requested that eight sets of instruments should be transported to telegraph stations. As a result meteorological observations and a monthly return of their observations to Sydney Observatory become a part of the telegraph clerk's duties. 

The next Government Astronomer G. R. Smalley was appointed in 1864. The extensive list of projects prepared for the new astronomer was made up by the Astronomer Royal at Greenwich. Although the list proved impossible for Smalley to accomplish on the observatory's limited budget he did initiate the first systematic recording of tides in Sydney Harbour. These were conducted at Fort Denison and by 1866 were being recorded automatically. A second major project initiated by Smalley was the establishment of a coterie of volunteer observers. By 1870 forty three of these observers were situated around the colony where they recorded rainfall, evaporation, temperature and wind at 9 a.m. each day. Each observer was also provided with the requisite set of instruments necessary for making these records. 

Smalley died in 1870 and was replaced by H.C. Russell who revoked Smalley's policy to enable the observatory to focus more on astronomical work. However meteorological work was not ignored and in 1877 Russell arranged for the telegraphic exchange of observations to be expanded to include observations from selected stations in other Australian states and also began publishing a daily weather chart for Sydney. By 1898 the number of volunteer observers had grown to over 1600. 

The next Government Astronomer was H. A. Lenehan who was appointed to the position in 1903 after Russell became ill. Lenehan himself became ill and died in 1908 but one of his major achievements was the starting, in 1906, of the recording of the earth's activity using a Milne Seismograph. This device continued to be used for the next 40 years. 

By 1896 H. A. Hunt was working with Russell and had assumed responsibility for preparing the daily weather charts. However after Russell left the Sydney Observatory's meteorological duties were complicated by the introduction of the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology, headed by H.A. Hunt, on 1 January 1908. This initiated a separation of the work of the meteorological branch from other activities at the observatory. 

Lenehan's replacement, W. E. Cooke, was appointed in 1912 while the New South Wales office of the Weather Bureau still occupied the residence part of the Observatory building. The Weather Bureau was moved out of the Observatory around 1917 and initially occupied the Observatory messenger's cottage. From 1922 moved into a purpose-built building on Observatory Hill. 

text and photo by Geoff Barker

References
Harley Wood, 'The Sky and the Weather', A Century of Scientific Progress: the Centenary Volume of the Royal Society of New South Wales, Published by the Society, Science House, Sydney, 1986?
H.C. Russell, 'Astronomical and Meteorological Worker in New South Wales, 1778 to 1860, in Proceedings of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, Sydney, 1888
Russell, H. C., 'Moving Anticyclones in the Southern Hemisphere', in Abercromby, R., Three Essays on Australian Weather, Frederick W. White, Sydney, 1896
G. P. Walsh, 'Henry Chamberlin Russell', in (ed) G. Searle and R. Ward, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, 1851-1890, Melbourne University Press 1968
Gipps, Sir George, to Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Dispatch 144, 3 June 1847, Historical records of Australia, Series 1, Governor's Dispatches to and From England, Volume 25, April 1846 - September 1847, Library Committee of the Commonwealth parliament, 1925, p.183