GLAISHER J

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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7.4.1809 London/UK - 7.2.1903 Croyden/UK

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At the age of 20, James Glaisher was appointed an assistant on the principal triangulation of the Irish ordnance survey, in which charge he made meteorological observations in Galway, and later in Limerick. It was this appointment which developed his taste for aerial physics. He stated that he was led to study the colors of the sky, the delicate tints of the clouds, the motion of opaque masses, and the forms of snow crystals. These observations led Glaisher to the idea that better still than the mountain top for cloud observation would be the balloon, and therefore determined the classic scientific balloon ascents that significantly added to the knowledge of the atmosphere.

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From 1833 to 1836, Glaisher was an assistant at Cambridge University, from where he was appointed an assistant to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. In 1840, he became superintendent of the magnetical and meteorological department. Glaisher made no less than 28 scientific balloon ascents, the results of which were published in the Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science from 1862 to 1866. In parallel, Glaisher published his popular book Travels in the air, a notable work including 125 photos of the ascent. Until then it had been thought that the decrease of temperature in ascending was constant at a rate of −1° C for some 1,000 m of elevation. Glaisher proved that no such uniformity exists and that the temperature of any point in the immediate atmosphere depends on local conditions such as the season, the time of the day, clear or cloudy sky and the wind currents. Glaisher was the founder of the Royal Meteorological Society in 1850; in 1866 he was a founding member of the Aeronautical Society and in the Opening Speech he eloquently urged the important claims of aeronautics as a science. He further stated that this subject may take its standing among the sciences, indeed a noteworthy hope which fulfilled within some decades.

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_{Anonymous (1903). The late James Glaisher. Aeronautical Journal 7(2): 22-24. P}

_{Glaisher, J. (1850). On the meteorology of England. London.}

_{Glaisher, J. (1850). On the corrections to be applied to the monthly means of meteorological observations, taken at any hour, to convert into mean monthly values. Taylor: London.}

_{Glaisher, J. (1863). Scientific experiments in balloons. London. Glaisher, J. (1871). Travels in the air. Bentley: London.}

_{Süring, R. (1903). Zum Gedächtnis an James Glaisher. Aeronautische Mitteilungen 7: 132-136. P http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10405976&wwwflag=2&imagepos=9 P}