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Article by Tim Kent 2009 ©
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Born in 1847 in
Monmouthshire, Wales the son of a local clergyman it almost
seemed inevitable that he should enter Holy Orders, as did his
brother. A scholar from Canterbury and later at Cambridge,
there is the possibility that he had met George Biddell Airy,
the future Astronomer Royal, who was born in Alnwick. His
career seems to have started in the Penzance area, or to be more
precise, for those who know the area, Madron and in those days
of zero light pollution and no TV, often men of learning turned
their attentions to the heavens. |
His next mirror was from the
prolific maker George Henry With, who is credited with the manufacture
of 200 mirrors, from Hereford. It was an 18” and presumably fitted again
into the Berthon mount. Perry was destined not to keep this for too long
and the mirror was sold to Nathaniel Green an artist who subsequently
presented it to the British Astronomical Association in 1897 during the
time of his presidency.
Again Perry bought another 18” mirror, this time from George
Calver of Chelmsford Essex and as far as I can ascertain this mirror was
remounted and as late as 1994 was still being used in an observatory
near Lancaster by Denis Buczynski, who today is an active comet hunter.
Perry was also interested in the weather (as we all are!) and
was a prolific contributor to the magazine Nature in the 1880’s with
articles concerning the “weather in Northumberland and its fitness for
astronomical observations”. Judging by his letter in the Feb 1882
edition, they faired no better then than we do now, as a large number of
evenings were considered too cloudy for observing. In the late 1890’s
Perry produced a paper on the weather in Northumberland and torrential
rains that had fallen on the moors. Obviously a keen golfer, he is
mentioned in 1888, as having one of only four “tall lockers” in the
Alnmouth golf club.
Writing in “The Astronomical Register” of August 1883 Perry had
been observing the “Red Spot” on Jupiter with his 18 ¼” reflector and
reported that the spot was reducing in colour strength and at times was
almost indistinguishable from the background, along with the author of
the article Mr WF Denning, there was concern that as the planet became
too low to observe, by it’s return, the red spot may have disappeared.
No need to have worried, it’s still there!
The Rev Edward Lyon Berthon (1813-99) was a prolific Victorian inventor and looking at his numerous interests it is surprising is parishioners would have seen much of him.
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He had intended to be a surgeon,
but then trained as an engineer and finally took Holy Orders in 1845.
With his strong connections to the sea, and the terrible death toll of
sailors, he set about inventing ways of storing small “escape boats”
from sailing ships. Finally in 1873 he set up a factory, employing about
100 men, to manufacture collapsible lifeboats, no they didn’t collapse
IN the water, but have been seen as the forerunner to the inflatable
dingy of today. Other notable inventions credited to Berthon were a log
for accurately measuring the speed of ships and an early version of the
screw propeller. |
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© Northumberland Astronomical Society 2010