Sir Frank Dyson | |
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| Born | (1868-01-08)8 January 1868 Measham, Leicestershire, England |
| Died | (1939-05-25)25 May 1939 (aged 71) At sea |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Known for | Astronomer Royal |
| Awards | Royal Medal(1921) |
| 9th Astronomer Royal | |
| In office 1910–1933 | |
| Preceded by | William Christie |
| Succeeded by | Harold Spencer Jones |
| Signature | |
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Sir Frank Watson Dyson,KBE,FRS,[1]FRSE (8 January 1868 – 25 May 1939) was an Englishastronomer and the ninthAstronomer Royal. He is remembered today largely for introducingtime signals ("pips") from Greenwich, England, and for the role he played in proving Einstein's theory ofgeneral relativity.
Dyson was born inMeasham, nearAshby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, the son of the Rev Watson Dyson, a Baptist minister, and his wife, Frances Dodwell.[2] The family lived on St John Street inWirksworth while Frank was one to three years old.[3] They moved toYorkshire in his youth. There he attendedHeath Grammar School,Halifax, and subsequently won scholarships toBradford Grammar School andTrinity College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics and astronomy, being placedSecond Wrangler in 1889.[4][5][6][7][8]
In 1894 he joined theRoyal Astronomical Society, theBritish Astronomical Association and was given the post of Senior Assistant at Greenwich Observatory and worked on theAstrographic Catalogue, which was published in 1905.[9][6][10] He was appointedAstronomer Royal for Scotland from 1905 to 1910, and Astronomer Royal (andDirector of the Royal Greenwich Observatory) from 1910 to 1933.
In 1928, he introduced in the Observatory a newfree-pendulum clock, the most accurate clock available at that time and organised the regular wireless transmission from the GPO wireless station at Rugby ofGreenwich Mean Time. He also, in 1924, introduced the distribution of the "six pips" via the BBC. He was for several years President of theBritish Horological Institute and was awarded their gold medal in 1928.[6]
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Dyson was noted for his study ofsolar eclipses and was an authority on thespectrum of thecorona and on the chromosphere. He is credited with organising expeditions to observe the 1919 solar eclipse atBrazil andPríncipe, which he somewhat optimistically began preparing for prior to theArmistice of 11 November 1918.
Dyson presented his observations of thesolar eclipse of May 29, 1919 to a joint meeting of theRoyal Society and Royal Astronomical Society on 6 November 1919. The observations confirmedAlbert Einstein's theory of the effect of gravity on light which until that time had been received with some scepticism by the scientific community.[11]
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In 1894 he married Caroline Bisset Best (d.1937), the daughter of Palemon Best, with whom he had two sons and six daughters: Stella, Evelyn, Sylvia, Margaret, Palemon, Watson, Elsie and Ruth.
Frank Watson Dyson died at sea on board the ‘Ascanius’ returning from Australia on 25 May 1939. He was buried at sea the same day.[13][6]
Although Frank Dyson and theoretical physicistFreeman Dyson were not known to be related, their fathers Rev Watson Dyson andGeorge Dyson both hailed fromWest Yorkshire where the surname originates and is most densely clustered.[14] Freeman Dyson credited Sir Frank with sparking his interest in astronomy: because they shared the same last name, Sir Frank's achievements were discussed by Freeman Dyson's family when he was a young boy.[citation needed]
Inspired, Dyson's first attempt at writing was a 1931 piece ofjuvenilia entitled "Sir Phillip Robert's Erolunar Collision" – Sir Philip being a thinly disguised version of Sir Frank.
ActorAlec McCowen was cast as Sir Frank Dyson in the TV seriesLongitude, broadcast in 2000.[15]
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