Description

Description: In this three-page autograph letter signed (Nov 4, 1863) from the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Smyth writes to editor James Samuelson about his inability to access the woodcut “Firing the Time-Gun,” that the publisher (Alexander Strahan) of Good Words–a 19th c. monthly periodical directed at evangelists and nonconformists about several topics– had lent once to the Observatory. He also expresses his willingness to write about four other Time-Guns. In 1861, Smyth installed the One O’Clock Gun, which signaled time to ships in the nearby port of Leith, at the Edinburgh castle .

Smyth provides Samuelson with an address (A. Strahan Esq, 32 Ludgate Hill, London), so that he could apply directly to the publisher. Smyth adds that he is willing to “write one or more descriptive pages,” as there were “2 time-guns in Glasgow, 1 in Newcastle, & 1 in Shields all electrically fired from [Edinburg], so that the subject could admit to several picturesque vignettes, & many descriptive particulars, [should Samuelson be] inclined to make room for it.” The letter is signed, “Yours Truly/C. Piazzi Smyth”

Written on 8” X 5” stationery of the  Royal Observatory, Edinburgh. Item #A01799

Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819-1900) was a British astronomer and artist. His godfather was Guiseppe Piazzi, the Italian astronomer who introduced his father, Admiral William Smyth to astronomy. At the age of 16, Charles Smyth started working as an assistant at the Cape of Good Hope observatory established by Thomas Maclear and William Herschel. He was a Fellow of Royal Society of Edinburgh and Fellow of the Royal Society, from which he later resigned amidst the growing controversy regarding his pseudoscientific speculations about the pyramids in Giza. He was instrumental in installing the time ball and the One O’Clock Gun, both of which signaled time to ships in the port of Leith in Edinburgh. A crater on the moon–Piazzi Smyth–is named after him.

James Samuelson (1829-1918) was a Liverpool industrialist, magazine founder and a prolific writer. He co-founded with William Crookes–the pioneer of vacuum tubes–the Quarterly Journal of Science in 1864. As a businessman, he started a profit sharing scheme in his industry.  He wrote extensively on socio-economic topics such as labor and reform.

Condition: Mailing fold lines, some light offsetting on page three, generally very good condition.