Person
Smalley, George Robarts (1822 - 1870)
- Born
- 1822
Banbury, Oxfordshire, England - Died
- 11 July 1870
New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Astronomer
Summary
George Smalley was Government Astronomer and the second Director of the Sydney Observatory from 1864 to 1870. He was appointed on the recommendation of Astronomer Royal George Airy, whose program for the Observatory proved too ambitious for the available facilities. Smalley's interests were mainly meteorology and trigonometric surveying rather than celestial astronomy. He organised the automatic recording of harbour tides at Fort Denison, and expanded network of volunteer weather observers throughout the colony, with data being telegraphed on a daily basis. Magnetic and geodetic surveys of New South Wales were instituted by Smalley. With Charles Todd he fixed boundary between South Australia and New South Wales. Smalley palyed a major role in the transformation of the Philosophical Society of New South Wales to the Royal Society. He was an early advocate for the greater participation of women in science.
Details
Chronology
- 1846
- Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA), St John's College, University of Cambridge
- 1846 - 1851
- Career position - Third Assistant, Cape Observatory, South Africa
- 1851 - 1854
- Career position - Professor of Mathematics, South African College, Cape Town, South Africa
- 1854 - 1862
- Career position - Teacher of mathematics, King's College, London
- 1864
- Life event - Migrated to New South Wales
- 1864 - 1870
- Career position - Government Astronomer, Sydney Observatory
- 1865
- Career position - Member of Council, Philosophical Society of New South Wales
- September 1865 - 1866
- Career position - Member, Philosophical Society of New South Wales
- 1867 - 1870
- Career position - Vice-President, Royal Society of New South Wales
Related entries
Archival resources
Powerhouse Museum
- George Robarts Smalley - Records, 1864 - 1870; Powerhouse Museum. Details
Published resources
Books
- Wood, H. W., Sydney Observatory, 1858 to 1958 (Sydney: 1958). Details
Book Sections
- Wood, Harley, 'Smalley, George Robarts (1822-1870), astronomer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 6: 1851 - 1890 R - Z, Bede Nairn, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1976), pp. 136-137. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060156b.htm. Details
Journal Articles
- Clarke, W. B., 'Annivesary address', Transactions of the Royal Society of New South Wales, [4] (1871), 1-48. Details
- Smith, J., 'Opening address to the Royal Society, delivered at its first meeting, 12th May, 1871', Transactions of the Royal Society of New South Wales, [5] (1872), 1-14. Details
- Tyler, Peter J., 'Seeing Stars in the City: a History of Early Astronomy in Sydney', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 142 (3/4) (2009), 1-14. Details
- Wood, H., 'Sydney Observatory 1858-1983', Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 5 (2) (1983), 273-281. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1323358000017094. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q24204987. Details
- 'Smalley, George Robarts (1822-1870)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1468068. Details
Resource Sections
- 'Smalley, George Robarts', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P000131p.htm. Details
See also
- Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_s.html. Details
- Bhathal, Ragbir, '150 Years of Sydney Observatory', Astronomy & Geophysics, 50 (3) (2009), 26-30. Details
Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023
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