Charles Piazzi Smyth

• Reference:GB 586 ROE/10.43-25.182
• Dates of Creation:1846 - 1896

• Scope and Content

  Material relating to the period during which Charles Piazzi Smyth was Astronomer Royal, Edinburgh.

• Administrative / Biographical History

  Charles Piazzi Smyth was born in Naples on 3rd January 1819 to parents, William Henry Smyth and Annarella Warington and was the second of their children and their second son. He was christened Charles Piazzi after his father’s astronomer friend, Guiseppe Piazzi in the hope that he too would

  become an astronomer.

  Charles much preferred his middle name and chose in his adult life to be known as Piazzi. When the family left Naples, they moved back to Britain and lived in Bedford (50 miles north of London) where Piazzi and his brother attended Bedford Grammar School.

  Piazzi left school however, at the age of 16 when he was offered the post of assistant to Thomas Maclear, His Majesty’s Astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope. Piazzi held this post from 1834 for the next 10 years working on numerous projects and surveys in often arduous conditions. He also produced several sketches of his observations of Comet Halley, visible in South Africa in 1836 which particularly impressed Sir John Herschel whom Piazzi met at the Cape.

  It was whilst here that Piazzi developed his passion for photography having learned about J L M Daguerre's photographic process. As early as 1843, Piazzi succeeded in producing the now oldest photographs, all calotypes, of people and scenes in South Africa.

  When Thomas Henderson, the 1st Astronomer Royal for Scotland died, Piazzi’s father applied for the vacant post on behalf of his son and, with the influence of Herschel, secured the post for him in 1845. Piazzi arrived in Edinburgh in January 1846 and a Royal Warrant, signed by Queen Victoria,

  appointed him Regius Professor of Practical Astronomy in the University of Edinburgh and, Astronomer Royal for Scotland.

  Piazzi was very enthusiastic about his new post and greatly admired the new surroundings but the building he took over was in a sorry state of neglect.

  A special grant of £2000 from government bodies enabled work to bring the observatory up to scratch.

  Having secured funding, Piazzi then set about installing a time-service and, in 1852 a time-ball was set up on top of the Nelson monument on Calton Hill which dropped daily at a signal from the observatory's clock. In 1861 he set up the time gun at Edinburgh castle which continues to this day.

  Recognising the limited observing opportunities in Edinburgh, he is known as the first astronomer to advocate placing telescopes on mountain sites. In 1856, he travelled to Tenerife to take advantage of the higher level’s clearer skies.

  Building on his technical skills in photography, begun in South Africa, Piazzi produced many beautiful photographs of his many travels – to places such as Egypt, Russia, Portugal, Paris, Sicily, Madeira, Norway, the Scottish islands, England and Ireland.

  He made a special study of phenomena connected with the sky and weather, from both the artistic and scientific points of view. He had a keen interest in clouds, producing over 500 photographs of various cloud forms.

  He was also an accomplished water colour artist and many of his sketches emulate his photographs of cloud scenes, sunsets, twilight, and the night sky. His images of the zodiacal light of the Aurora Borealis as well as many of the people and places he visited are an invaluable record of 19th century life

  and events.

  Alongside all his numerous passions, Piazzi taught practical astronomy classes at the university (much to the dismay of the university board members who did not feel the post required teaching). Nevertheless, he began a course of 30 lectures with his first class of 8 students in 1850. The lectures, and the course itself, did not last due the overwhelming workload that Piazzi had underestimated.

  By 1855, he was married to Jessica Duncan, who shared many of his passions alongside her own abilities and studies in geology. She became her husband’s most enthusiastic assistant and her love of scientific travel equalled that of her husband’s.

  When he retired, in 1888, Piazzi transferred a spectroscopic laboratory he had built to study solar spectroscopy to his home in Ripon, Yorkshire at his own expense.

  It was here that his wife, Jessica died in 1896 and Piazzi led a far more secluded life afterwards albeit keeping busy with his many projects to the very end. He died in 1900 after a short illness, aged 81 and he and his wife are buried together.

  His greatest contribution to science was his pioneering work in mountain astronomy recognising, against the blinkered beliefs of his peers, the distinct advantages of observations at high altitudes. His legacy remains to this day.

  Karen Moran 1st September 2022.