Joseph Norman Lockyer

Infobox Scientist
name = Joseph Norman Lockyer
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caption = from "Proceedings of the Royal Society" (1909)
birth_date = birth date|1836|05|17
birth_place = Rugby, Warwickshire, England
death_date = death date and age|1920|08|16|1836|05|17
death_place = Salcombe Regis, Devon, England
residence =
citizenship =
nationality = England
ethnicity =
field = Astronomy
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known_for = Discovery of helium
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Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer, FRS (May 17, 1836 – August 16, 1920) was an English scientist and astronomer. Along with the French scientist Pierre Janssen he is credited with discovering the gas helium. Lockyer also is remembered for being the founder and first editor of the influential journal "Nature".

Biography

Lockyer was born in Rugby, Warwickshire. After a conventional schooling supplemented by travel in Switzerland and France, he worked for some years as a civil servant in the British War office. He settled in Wimbledon, south London after marrying Winifred James. A keen amateur astronomer with a particular interest in the Sun, Lockyer eventually became director of the solar physics observatory in Kensington London.

In the 1860s Lockyer became fascinated by electromagnetic spectroscopy as an analytical tool for determining the composition of heavenly bodies. During the solar eclipse of October, 1868, Lockyer observed a prominent yellow line from a spectrum taken near the edge of the Sun from Vijaydurg. With a wavelength of about 588 nm, slightly less than the so-called "D" lines of sodium. the line could not be explained as due to any material known at the time, and so it was suggested by Lockyer that the yellow line was caused by an unknown solar element. He named this element helium after the Greek word 'Helios' meaning 'sun'. An observation of the new yellow line also was made by Janssen at the same eclipse, and so he and Lockyer usually are awarded joint credit for helium's discovery. Terrestrial helium was found about 10 years later by William Ramsay. In his work on the identification of helium, Lockyer collaborated with the noted chemist Edward Frankland. [cite book | author = Hearnshaw, J. B. | title = The Analysis of Starlight | year = 1986 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | place = Cambridge| pages = 84 – 85 ]

To facilitate the transmission of ideas between scientific disciplines, Lockyer established the general science journal "Nature" in 1869. He remained its editor until shortly before his death.

After his retirement in 1911, Lockyer established an observatory near his home in Salcombe Regis near Sidmouth, Devon. Originally known as the Hill Observatory, the site was renamed the Norman Lockyer Observatory after his death. For a time the observatory was a part of the University of Exeter, but is now owned by the East Devon District Council, and run by the Norman Lockyer Observatory Society. The Norman Lockyer Chair in Astrophysics at the University of Exeter is currently held by Professor Tim Naylor, who heads a star formation group there.

Lockyer died at his home in Salcombe Regis in 1920, and was buried there in the churchyard of St Peter and St Mary. [cite web | last = Jacobson | first = Walter | title = Around the Churches of East Devon | url = http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/DevonIndexes/EastDevonChurches.html | accessdate = 2008-01-30 ] [cite journal | last = Edwards | first = D. L. | title = Report of the Proceedings of the Sidmouth, Norman Lockyer Observatory | journal = Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | volume = 97 | pages = 309 – 310 | date = 1937 | url = http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/seri/MNRAS/0097//0000309.000.html | access-date = 2008-01-30]

Publications

* cite book
title=Elementary Lessons in Astronomy
author=Norman Lockyer
year=1889
publisher=Macmillan and co.
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=76ABAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=norman+lockyer&lr=&as_brr=1#PPR3,M2 (1868-94)
* "Questions on Astronomy" (1870)
* cite book
title=Contributions to Solar Physics
author=Norman Lockyer
year=1874
publisher=Macmillan and co.
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yggAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=norman+lockyer&as_brr=1#PPR3,M2"Contributions (1873)
* cite book
title=The Spectroscope and Its Applications
author=Joseph Norman Lockyer
year=1873
publisher=Macmillan and Co.
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=EbANQlPbaS0C&pg=PA1&dq=norman+lockyer&lr=&as_brr=1#PPP9,M2 (1873)
* cite book
title=Stargazing
author=Norman Lockyer, George Mitchell Seabroke
year=1878
publisher=Macmillan and co.
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=fRVDAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=norman+lockyer&lr=&as_brr=1#PPR3,M2 (1878)
* cite book
title=Studies in spectrum analysis
author=Norman Lockyer
year=1878
publisher=C. K. Paul
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=sOvH6Cr8GEoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=norman+lockyer&lr=&as_brr=1#PPR3,M1 (1878)
* "Report to the Committee on Solar Physics on the Basic Lines Common to Spots and Prominences" (1880)
* cite book
title=The Movements of the Earth
author=Joseph Norman Lockyer, Norman Lockyer
year=1887
publisher=Macmillan and co.
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=sZ05AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Movements+of+the+Earth&as_brr=1#PPR3,M2 (1887)
* cite book
title=The Chemistry of the Sun
author=Norman Lockyer
year=1887
publisher=Macmillan and co.
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=tr8KAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=norman+lockyer&lr=&as_brr=1#PPR3,M2 (1887)
* cite book
title=The Meteoritic Hypothesis
author=Norman Lockyer
year=1890
publisher=Macmillan
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=qTUJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=norman+lockyer&as_brr=1#PPR3,M2 (1890)
* cite book
title=The Dawn of Astronomy
author=Norman Lockyer
year=1894
publisher=Cassell
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=FQZDAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=norman+lockyer&as_brr=1#PPR5,M2 (1894)

* "The Rules of Golf: Being the St. Andrews Rules for the Game" (1896), with William Rutherford
* cite book
title=The Sun's Place in Nature
author=Norman Lockyer
year=1897
publisher=The Macmillan company
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=egsAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PR15&dq=norman+lockyer&lr=&as_brr=1#PPR3,M2 (1897)
* "Recent and Coming Eclipses" (1900)
* cite book
title=Inorganic Evolution as Studied by Spectrum Analysis
author=Norman Lockyer
year=1900
publisher=Macmillan and co., limited
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=ui1KAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA167&dq=norman+lockyer&lr=&as_brr=1#PPR3,M2 (1900)
* cite book
title=On the Influence of Brain Power on History
author=Norman Lockyer
year=1903
publisher=Macmillan and Co., Limited
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Vw8BAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=norman+lockyer&lr=&as_brr=1#PPA5,M2 (1903)
* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/sac/index.htm "Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments Astronomically Considered"] (1906; second edition, 1909)
* cite book
title=Education and National Progress
author=Norman Lockyer, Joseph Norman Lockyer
year=1906
publisher=Macmillan and co.
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=9w4CAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=norman+lockyer&as_brr=1#PPR3,M2 (1907)
* cite book
title=Surveying for Archaeologists
author=Norman Lockyer, Joseph Norman Lockyer
year=1909
publisher=Macmillan and co., limited
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Pr9CAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=norman+lockyer&lr=&as_brr=1#PPR3,M1 (1909)
* cite book
title=Tennyson, as a Student and Poet of Nature
author=Norman Lockyer, Winifred Lucas Lockyer
year=1910
publisher=Macmillan
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=lm1LAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=norman+lockyer&as_brr=1#PPA1,M2 (1910)

Honours and awards

* Fellow of the Royal Society (1869)

* Janssen Medal, Paris Academy of Science (1875)

* Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (1897) [cite book | last = Meadows | first = A. J. | title = Science and Controversy | publisher = MIT Press | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | year = 1972 | page = 237]

* President, British Association (1903 – 1904)

* Lockyer crater on the Moon and Lockyer crater on Mars are named after him.

References

Further reading

*

*- A biography of Lockyer

*

External links

* [http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/nlo/welcome.htm Norman Lockyer Observatory & James Lockyer Planetarium]
* [http://www.vub.ac.be/STER/JAD/JAD10/jad10_7/jad10_7p.pdf Archives of the Norman Lockyer Observatory (University of Exeter)]
* [http://www.gb2nlo.com Norman Lockyer Observatory radio station in Sidmouth]
* [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqSearch=RefNo='EC/1869/11'&dsqDb=Catalog Certificate of candidacy for Lockyer's election to the Royal Society]
* [http://www.plicht.de/chris/03lockye.htm Brief biography of Lockyer by Chris Plicht]
* [http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/people/timn/ Prof. Tim Naylor, Norman Lockyer Professor of Astrophysics]
* [http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/ Astrophysics Group, University of Exeter]