- Warren de la Rue
Warren de la Rue (
18 January 1815 –19 April 1889 ) was a Britishastronomer andchemist , most famous for his pioneering work in astronomicalphotography .Biography
He was the Son of
Thomas De la Rue , the founder of the large firm of stationers of that name inLondon , Warren was born inGuernsey . Having completed his education inParis , he entered his father's business, but devoted his leisure hours to chemical and electrical researches, and between 1836 and 1848 published several papers on these subjects.In 1840, Warren de la Rue enclosed a platinum coil in a vacuum tube and passed an electric current through it, thus creating the world's first light bulb. The design was based on the concept that the high melting point of platinum would allow it to operate at high temperatures and that the evacuated chamber would contain less gas molecules to react with the platinum, improving its longevity. Although it was an efficient design, the cost of the platinum made it impractical for commercial use.Fact|date=March 2007
Attracted to astronomy by the influence of
James Nasmyth , he constructed in 1850 a 13-inchreflecting telescope , mounted first atCanonbury , later atCranford, Middlesex , and with its aid executed many drawings of the celestial bodies of singular beauty and fidelity.His chief title to fame, however, is his pioneering work in the application of the art of photography to astronomical research. In 1851 his attention was drawn to a
daguerreotype of theMoon by G. P. Bond, shown at the great exhibition of that year. Excited to emulation and employing the more rapidwet-collodion process, he succeeded before long in obtaining exquisitely defined lunar pictures, which remained unsurpassed until the appearance of theLewis Morris Rutherfurd photographs in 1865.In 1854 he turned his attention to solar physics, and for the purpose of obtaining a daily photographic representation of the state of the solar surface he devised the
photoheliograph , described in his report to theBritish Association , "On Celestial Photography in England" (1859), and in hisBakerian Lecture ("Phil. Trans." vol. clii. pp. 333-416). Regular work with this instrument, inaugurated atKew by De la Rue in 1858, was carried on there for fourteen years; and was continued at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, from 1873 to 1882. The results obtained in. the years 1862–1866 were discussed in two memoirs, entitled "Researches on Solar Physics", published by De la Rue, in conjunction with Professor Balfour Stewart and Mr B Loewy, in the "Phil. Trans." (vol. clix. pp. 1–110, and vol. clx. pp. 389-496).In 1860 De la Rue took the photoheliograph to
Spain for the purpose of photographing the totalsolar eclipse which occurred on18 July of that year. This expedition formed the subject of the Bakerian Lecture already referred to. The photographs obtained on that occasion proved beyond doubt the solar character of the prominences or red flames, seen around the limb of the moon during a solar eclipse. In 1873 De la Rue gave up active work in astronomy, and presented most of his astronomical instruments to the university observatory, Oxford. Subsequently, in the year 1887, he provided the same observatory with a 13-inchrefractor to enable it to take part in the International Photographic Survey of the Heavens.With Dr
Hugo Muller as his collaborator he published several papers of a chemical character between the years 1856 and 1862, and investigated, 1868–1883, the discharge of electricity through gases by means of a battery of 14,600 chloride of silver cells. He was twice president of theChemical Society , and also of theRoyal Astronomical Society (1864–1866). In 1862 he received the gold medal of the latter society, and in 1864 a Royal medal from theRoyal Society , for his observations on the total eclipse of the sun in 1860, and for his improvements in astronomical photography. He died in London in 1889.See "Monthly Notices Roy. A sir. Soc." 1. 155; "Journ. Chem. Soc." lvii. 441; "Nature", xl. 26; "
The Times " (22 April 1889); Royal Society, "Catalogue of Scientific Papers".References
*1911
Honors
*Awarded the
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1862.
*Awarded theRoyal Medal from theRoyal Society in 1864.
*De La Rue crater on theMoon is named for him.
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