Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (17 May 1836 – 16 August 1920) was an English scientist andastronomer. Along with the French scientistPierre Janssen, he is credited with discovering the gashelium. Lockyer also is remembered for being the founder and first editor of the influential journalNature.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
This building on Sheep Street, Rugby was Lockyer's birthplace, as is declared bya blue plaque
Lockyer was born inRugby, Warwickshire. His early introduction to science was through his father, who was a pioneer of theelectric telegraph. After a conventional schooling supplemented by travel inSwitzerland andFrance, he worked for some years as acivil servant in the BritishWar Office.[9] He settled inWimbledon, South London after marrying Winifred James, who helped translate at least four French scientific works into English.[10] He was a keenamateur astronomer with a particular interest in theSun. In 1885 he became the world's first professor of astronomical physics at theRoyal College of Science, South Kensington, now part ofImperial College. At the college, the Solar Physics Observatory was built for him and here he directed research until 1913.[11][12]
In the 1860s Lockyer became fascinated byelectromagnetic spectroscopy as an analytical tool for determining the composition of heavenly bodies. He conducted his research from his new home in West Hampstead, with a6+1⁄4-inch telescope which he had already used in Wimbledon.[1]
In 1868 a prominent yellow line was observed in a spectrum taken near the edge of the Sun. Its wavelength was 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, after he had observed it from London, that the yellow line was caused by an unknown solar element. He named this elementhelium after the Greek word ἥλιος (helios) meaning 'sun'. An observation of the new yellow line had been made earlier by Janssen at the18 August 1868 solar eclipse[13], and because their papers reached the French academy on the same day, he and Lockyer usually are awarded joint credit for helium's discovery. Terrestrial helium was found about 27 years later by the Scottish chemistWilliam Ramsay. In his work on the identification of helium, Lockyer collaborated with the noted chemistEdward Frankland.[14]
To facilitate the transmission of ideas between scientific disciplines, Lockyer established the general science journalNature in 1869.[15] He was elected as a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1874.[16] He remained its editor until shortly before his death.
Lockyer is among the pioneers ofarchaeoastronomy. Travelling 1890 in Greece he noticed the east–west orientation of many temples, in Egypt he found an orientation of temples to sunrise at midsummer and towards Sirius. Assuming orientation of the Heel-Stone ofStonehenge to sunrise at midsummer he calculated the construction of the monument to have taken place in 1680 BC. Radiocarbon dating in 1952 gave a date of 1800 BC. He also confirmed the alignment of the Parthenon on the rising point of the Pleiades and did extensive work on the solar and stellar alignments of Egyptian temples and their dating, presented in his book The Dawn Of Astronomy.
Lockyer's first wife Winifred née James died in 1879. They had six sons and two daughters in all. In 1903, Lockyer started a second marriage, to suffragistThomazine Mary Brodhurst (née Browne).[17] After his retirement in 1913, Lockyer established an observatory near his home inSalcombe Regis nearSidmouth,Devon. Originally known as the Hill Observatory, the site was renamed theNorman Lockyer Observatory after his death and directed by his fifth sonWilliam J.S. Lockyer. For a time the observatory was a part of theUniversity of Exeter, but is now owned by the East Devon District Council, and run by the Norman Lockyer Observatory Society. The Norman Lockyer Chair inAstrophysics at theUniversity of Exeter is currently held by Professor Tim Naylor, who is the member of the Astrophysics group there which studiesstar formation andextrasolar planets. Naylor was the lead scientist for theeSTAR Project.
English Heritage plaque in Penywern Road,Earls Court, London.1873 illustration of Lockyer.
Lockyer died at his home in Salcombe Regis in 1920, and was buried there in the churchyard of St Peter and St Mary.[18][19]
Wilkins, G. A. (1994). "Sir Norman Lockyer's Contributions to Science".Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society.35:51–57.Bibcode:1994QJRAS..35...51W.
