John Mackenzie Bacon
John Mackenzie Bacon, FRAS (19 June 1846 – 26 December 1904) was an English astronomer, aeronaut, and lecturer. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1888.[1] Both John and his daughter Gertrude were members of the British Astronomical Association.[2] The BAA organised expeditions to observe total solar eclipses, which John and Gertrude went on. The first was to Vadso, Lapland (eclipse date 9 August 1896), which was unsuccessful due to cloudy weather.[3] The second was to Buxar, India (eclipse date 22 January 1898).[4] Here they succeeded in filming the eclipse, but unfortunately the film has been lost. [5] The Bacons also went on a ballon flight in November 1899 piloted by Stanley Spencer to observe the Leonid meteors. The flight took off from Newbury at 4:00am on Thursday 16 November and drifted westward with the flight ending near Neath. Very few meteors were observed however.[6] A third eclipse expedition was to Wadesborough, North Carolina (eclipse date 28 May 1900) and was also successful.[7][8] Bacon and John Nevil Maskelyne went on to file a patent for inflating balloons.[9]
References
- "Obituary Notice: Fellows:- Bacon, John Mackenzie". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 65, p.334. 1805. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
- "1905JBAA...15..128. Page 128". articles.adsabs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
- "1898MmBAA...6....1. Page 1". articles.adsabs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
- E. Walter Maunder, F. r a s (1899). The Indian Eclipse, 1898.
- Bottomore, Stephen. "John Mackenzie Bacon". Who's Who of Victorian Cinema. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
- Wide World Magazine. Robarts - University of Toronto. London.CS1 maint: others (link)
- Haines, Catharine M. C. (2001). International women in science: a biographical dictionary to 1950. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1576070905.
- British Astronomical Association; Maunder, E. Walter (Edward Walter) (1901). The total solar eclipse, 1900; report of the expeditions organized by the British astronomical association to observe the total solar eclipse of 1900, May 28. University of California Libraries. London, "Knowledge" office.
- French patent 332409 (1903) at European Patent Office site
External links
Library resources about John Mackenzie Bacon |
By John Mackenzie Bacon |
---|
- Works by John Mackenzie Bacon at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about John Mackenzie Bacon at Internet Archive
- Works by or about John Mackenzie Bacon in libraries (WorldCat catalog)