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John Herschel Biography

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HERSCHEL, Sir JOHN Frederick William (1792–1871). An eminent English astronomer, the only son of the astronomer William Herschel. He was born at Slough, near Windsor, March 7, 1792, and was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. His first publication was A Collection of Examples of the Application of the Calculus of Finite Differences (1820). In 1822 he applied himself especially to astronomy, using his father's methods and instruments in observing the heavens. For a time he worked with Sir James South in reëxamining the nebulæ and clusters of stars described in his father's catalogues. The results of the reëxamination were given in 1833 to the Royal Society in the form of a catalogue. The catalogue contained observations on 525 nebulæ and clusters of stars not noticed by his father and on a great number of double stars—in all, between 3000 and 4000. His "Treatise on Sound" appeared in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana in 1830, and his "Treatise on the Theory of Light" in the same work in 1831, in which year also appeared in Lardner's Cyclopædia his "Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy." In 1836 appeared his "Treatise on Astronomy," in Lardner's Cyclopædia. At this time Herschel was at the Cape of Good Hope, where he arrived in January, 1834, with the intention of completing the survey of the sidereal heavens by examining the Southern Hemisphere as he had done the Northern. Here he established his observatory at a place called Feldhausen, 6 miles from Table Bay. On March 5, 1834, he began his observations, which were embodied in his Results of Astronomical Observations Made during 1834–38 at the Cape of Good Hope; Being a Completion of a Telescopic Survey of the Whole Surface of the Visible Heavens, Commenced in 1825 (1847). On his return to England, in 1838, honors were showered on him. He had been awarded the Royal Society's gold medal in 1826; he now was made a D.C.L. of Oxford, was created Baronet, and succeeded the Duke of Sussex as president of the Royal Society, and in 1848 he became president of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1849 he published his Outlines of Astronomy. In 1850 he was appointed master of the mint. This office, on account of ill health, he resigned in 1855. Consult Clerke, The Herschels and Modern Astronomy (London, 1895). For a list of his contributions, consult the Royal Society's great catalogue.