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Managing the observatory: discipline, order and disorder at Greenwich, 1835–1933

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2021

Scott Alan Johnston
Scott Alan Johnston*
Affiliation:
Independent scholar
*
*Email: sajohnston1989@gmail.com
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Abstract

This article presents a case study of life and work at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich (1835–1933) which reveals tensions between the lived reality of the observatory as a social space, and the attempts to create order, maintain discipline and project an image of authority in order to ensure the observatory's long-term stability. Domestic, social and scientific activities all intermingled within the observatory walls in ways which were occasionally disorderly. But life at Greenwich was carefully managed to stave off such disorder and to maintain an appearance of respectability which was essential to the observatory's reputation and output. The article focuses on three areas of management: (1) the observatory's outer boundaries, demonstrating how Greenwich navigated both human and environmental intrusions from the wider world; (2) the house, examining how Greenwich's domestic spaces provided stability, while also complicating observatory life via the management of domestic servants; and (3) the scientific spaces, with an emphasis on the work and play of the observatory's boy computers. Together, these three parts demonstrate that the stability of the observatory was insecure, despite being perpetuated via powerful physical and social boundaries. It had to be continually maintained, and was regularly challenged by Greenwich's occupants and neighbours.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 155 - 175
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of British Society for the History of Science

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References

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6 Several other authors have worked with similar assumptions. For example, see Finnegan, op. cit. (1), p. 384. Finnegan suggests that in order to deal with social norms, ‘science depends on the manufacture and management of different spaces – real or imagined – to accomplish its objectives and establish its credentials’. Also relevant is Withers and Livingstone, op. cit. (1), p. 8. Withers and Livingstone suggest that scientific spaces struggle to enable or constrain ‘activities that are carried out within their confines’ in order to manage their reputations. For further examinations of the role of observatories in nineteenth-century society see David Aubin, Charlotte Bigg and Otto Sibum (eds.), The Heavens on Earth: Observatories and Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.

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26 Greenwich was used by much of the world's shipping already, but in 1884 an international conference recommended that it be made the international prime meridian. It took several decades before this recommendation was adopted worldwide. See Scott Johnston, ‘The construction of modern timekeeping in the Anglo-American world’, PhD dissertation, McMaster University, 2018.

27 Various documents related to the 1894 bombing attempt can be found in ‘The Explosion in Greenwich Park on 1894 February 15’, RGO 7/58.

28 Astronomer Royal to Secretary of the Admiralty, 24 February 1913, RGO 7/58; R.R. Scott to Frank Dyson, 4 December 1915, RGO 7/58.

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31 ‘A student of the stars: half an hour with Miss Alice Everett, M.A.’, The Sketch, 22 November 1893, p. 192.

32 Mr Davis to William Christie, 15 August 1888, RGO 7/58.

33 Mr Turner to Mr Davis, 20 August 1888, RGO 7/58.

34 J. Carter to Astronomer Royal, 29 July 1910, RGO 7/58; Mr Lifton to Astronomer Royal, 29 July 1910, RGO 7/58; J. Carter to the Chief Assistant, 8 August 1910, RGO 7/58; Astronomer Royal to Superintendent of Parks, 8 August 1910, RGO 7/58.

35 See, for example, Iwan Rhys Morus, ‘“The nervous system of Britain”: space, time and the electric telegraph in the Victorian age’, BJHS (2000) 33, pp. 455–75.

36 Gooday, op. cit. (3), pp. 790–1.

37 Simon Werrett, Thrifty Science: Making the Most of Materials in the History of Experiment, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2019, p. 5.

38 Rob Iliffe and Frances Willmoth, ‘Astronomy and the domestic sphere: Margaret Flamsteed and Caroline Herschel as assistant-astronomers’, in Lynett Hunter and Sarah Hutton (eds.), Women, Science and Medicine 1500–1700, Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1997, pp. 235–65, 248.

39 See Amy Miller, ‘The Maskelynes at home’, in Rebekah Higgitt (ed.), Maskelyne: Astronomer Royal, London: Robert Hale, 2015, pp. 277–99; Iliffe and Willmoth, op. cit. (38), p. 261.

40 Werrett, op. cit. (37), pp. 167–8.

41 Schaffer, op. cit. (24), p. 150.

42 Schaffer, op. cit. (24), p. 150. On the other hand, sometimes the knowledge products of country houses required much effort to be ‘authoritative’. See Soraya de Chadarevian, ‘Laboratory science versus country-house experiments: the controversy between Julius Sachs and Charles Darwin’, BJHS (1996) 29, pp. 17–41.

43 Macdonald, op. cit. (25), pp. 297–8.

44 Maria Mitchell, Life, Letters, and Journals, Boston, MA: Lee and Shepard, 1896, p. 99.

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50 For more discussion of the presence of labourers at Greenwich under Airy see Daniel Belteki, ‘Overseeing the production of space and time: a history of the Airy transit circle’, PhD dissertation, University of Kent, 2019.

51 Mr Jordan to George Airy, 3 December 1877, RGO 7/58.

52 Memo concerning maids, 3 December 1877, RGO 7/58.

53 Examples of such letters to schools seeking applications, and requests for information about the exams, can be found in RGO 7/133, 134, 135.

54 Christabel Airy to William Christie, 29 December 1895, RGO 7/134. In this instance, by the time Christie had an availability, the son of the orphanage master had found work elsewhere.

55 Kevin Donnelly, ‘On the boredom of science: positional astronomy in the nineteenth century’, BJHS (2014) 47, pp. 479–503, 489–90.

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57 Regulations for Supernumerary Computers, November 1888, RGO 7/134.

58 Dolan, op. cit. (56).

59 William Christie, 29 January 1883, RGO 7/133.

60 For more on Greenwich computers see Croarken, op. cit. (10); Grier, op. cit. (4); Meadows, op. cit. (14); Aubin, op. cit. (10), pp. 177–96.

61 William Christie regarding John Power, 19 February 1890, RGO 7/138. See also ‘Mr. John Power’, Nature (21 April 1934) 133, p. 602.

62 Regulations for Supernumerary Computers, November 1888, RGO 7/134.

63 C.M. to William Christie, 2 July 1890, RGO 7/139. The author has anonymized the youths’ names throughout.

64 George Airy to William Christie, 3 May 1881, RGO 7/133.

65 Mary Brück, ‘Lady computers at Greenwich in the early 1890s’, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1995) 36, pp. 83–95, 85.

66 Regulations for Supernumerary Computers, November 1888, RGO 7/134. Permanent employees were better off. Established computers made between £80 and £300 yearly. Assistants made between £180 and £500 per year, while the Astronomer Royal received over £1,000 per year. For an excellent compilation of pay at the observatory see Graham Dolan, ‘Pay 1871–1945’, The Royal Observatory Greenwich, at www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=942, accessed 12 September 2020.

67 Smith, op. cit. (9), p. 14; Chapman, op. cit. (10).

68 Esquiros, op. cit. (29), p. 19.

69 Smith, op. cit. (9), p. 14; Chapman, op. cit. (10), p. 332.

70 Smith, op. cit. (9), p. 14.

71 Esquiros, op. cit. (29), p. 20.

72 Schaffer, op. cit. (9), pp. 118–19.

73 Aubin, op. cit. (10), p. 187.

74 Aubin, op. cit. (10), p. 185.

75 William Christie regarding John Power, 19 February 1890, RGO 7/138.

76 Archival records for the lady computers can be found in RGO7/138, 140. See also Mullen, Karen, ‘Temporary measures: women computers at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1890–1895’, Journal for the History of Astronomy (2020) 51, pp. 88–121CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kidwell, Peggy, ‘Women astronomers in Britain, 1780–1930’, Isis (1984) 75, pp. 534–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, ‘Obligatory amateurs: Annie Maunder (1868–1947) and British women astronomers at the dawn of professional astronomy’, BJHS (2000) 33, pp. 67–84; Mary Brück, Women in Early British and Irish Astronomy, Cham: Springer, 2009; Brück, ‘Alice Everett and Annie Russell Maunder: torch bearing women astronomers’, Irish Astronomical Journal (1994) 21, pp. 280–91; Brück, op. cit. (65).

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79 George Airy to William Ellis, 1 March 1881, RGO 7/133.

80 William Ellis to George Airy, 1 March 1881, RGO 7/133.

81 George Airy to William Ellis, 3 March 1881, RGO 7/133.

82 Boy Computers to George Airy, 29 April 1881, RGO 7/133.

83 George Airy to Boy Computers, 12 May 1881, RGO 7/133.

84 George Airy to Boy Computers, 12 May 1881, RGO 7/133.

85 ‘Number of temporary and established computers at the Royal Observatory’, RGO 7/139.

86 H.T. to William Christie, 14 November 1895, RGO 7/134; Frank Dyson to H.T., 15 December 1895, RGO 7/134.

87 Astronomer Royal to the Secretary of the Admiralty, 6 July 1901, RGO 7/132.

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94 Frank Dyson to Supernumerary Computers, 31 October 1910, RGO 7/132.

95 Frank Dyson to Supernumerary Computers, 31 October 1910, RGO 7/132.

96 ‘The Greenwich Observatory: a plea for the supernumerary computers’, John Bull, 13 May 1911, RGO 7/139.

97 Frank Dyson to Llewellyn, 21 November 1933, RGO 7/139; Dolan, op. cit. (56).

98 Office of Works to William Christie, 27 March 1883, RGO 7/58; Mr Weatherfield? [illeg.] to William Christie, 23 May 1886, 70773, RGO 7/58.

99 The hockey club had been around since 1893. See Graham Dolan, ‘The Royal Observatory Hockey Club (ROHC)’, The Royal Observatory Greenwich, at www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=1198, accessed 12 September 2020.

100 William Christie to the Secretary of the Office of Works, 11 May 1905, RGO 7/58.

101 Andrew Warwick, Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003, pp. 179, 213.

102 J.T. to Astronomer Royal, 23 February 1880 [the date given in the letter is a typo; this incident occurred in 1881]. RGO 7/139.

103 J.T. to Astronomer Royal, 23 February 1880 [the date given in the letter is a typo; this incident occurred in 1881]. RGO 7/139.

104 George Airy to J.T., 24 February 1881, RGO 7/139.

105 H.P to Astronomer Royal, 1 April 1881, RGO 7/139.

106 H.P. to Astronomer Royal, 1 April 1881, RGO 7/139.

107 George Airy to Mr Dunkin, 1 April 1881, RGO 7/139; Mr Dunkin to George Airy, 1 April 1881, RGO 7/139; George Airy to J.T., 4 April 1881, RGO 7/139; J.T. to George Airy, 4 April 1881, RGO 7/139.

108 A.D.G. Grommelin to Astronomer Royal, 17 November 1906, RGO 7/139.

109 A.D.G. Grommelin to Astronomer Royal, 17 November 1906, RGO 7/139.

110 General Order, 15 February 1913, RGO 7/136.