|
Gerald Lenox-Conyngham
Sir Gerald Ponsonby Lenox-Conyngham (21 August 1866 – 27 October 1956) was an Irish surveyor and geodesist. He was the last superintendent of the Great Trigonometrical Survey from 1912 to 1921, and was reader in geodesy at the University of Cambridge from 1922 to 1947. Early life and family He was born at Springhill House, Springhill, Moneymore, County Londonderry, to Laura Calvert Arbuthnot, fourth daughter of Isabella Boyle and George Gough Arbuthnot, George Arbuthnot, and Sir William Fitzwilliam Lenox-Conyngham. He was the seventh of eleven children. When he was aged ten, his family moved to Edinburgh, where he attended Edinburgh Academy. He went to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Royal Military Academy at Woolwich when he was seventeen years old and passed out first with the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst#Sword of Honour, sword of honour and the Pollock Medal. Attached to the Royal Engineers as a lieutenant, he spent two years at the Royal School of Military Engine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pollock Medal
The Pollock Medal was a prize awarded to the best cadet of the season, in commemoration of Sir George Pollock's exploits in Afghanistan, first at the East India Company's Military Seminary at Addiscombe, and later at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Foundation In 1844, the British inhabitants of Calcutta raised a subscription of 11,000 rupees to commemorate General George Pollock's victories in Afghanistan after the disastrous retreat of the British army of occupation from Kabul in January 1842. This was to consist of a medal to be presented twice a year “to the most distinguished cadet at the East India Company’s Military Seminary, at Addiscombe, near Croydon in England, on passing the biennial examination for a commission.” Description The original medal, with a weight of 2oz and valued at sixteen guineas, was designed by General Macleod and was first presented in December 1847, with the following inscription: ''To commemorate eminent services'' ''Major-Gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh Newall
Hugh Frank Newall, FRS FRAS (21 June 1857 – 22 February 1944) was a British astrophysicist. He was Professor of Astrophysics (1909) at Cambridge. He was the son of Robert Stirling Newall FRS and his wife Mary, daughter of Hugh Lee Pattinson, FRS. Newall took the Mathematics and Natural Sciences Tripos from Trinity College, Cambridge, and was elected Fellow in 1909. His father was an astronomer, and the Newall Telescope, a 25-inch refractor, built at Gateshead, was in its time the largest in existence. As things turned out, the telescope would dominate the son's life. Newall took up school mastering at Wellington after graduating. He returned to Cambridge when J.J. Thomson, the Nobel prizewinning physicist, asked him to be his assistant. After a period as demonstrator in experimental physics at the Cavendish Laboratory he turned to astronomy. This came about because in 1889 the university was offered Newall senior's telescope, but claimed to lack the funds to receiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minute And Second Of Arc
A minute of arc, arcminute (abbreviated as arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of Angular unit, angular measurement equal to of a Degree (angle), degree. Since one degree is of a turn (geometry), turn, or complete rotation, one arcminute is of a turn. The nautical miles, nautical mile (nmi) was originally defined as the meridian arc, arc length of a minute of latitude on a spherical Earth, so the actual Earth's circumference is very near . A minute of arc is of a radian. A second of arc, arcsecond (abbreviated as arcsec), or arc second, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of Angular unit, angular measurement equal to of a minute of arc, of a degree, of a turn, and (about ) of a radian. These units originated in Babylonian astronomy as sexagesimal (base 60) subdivisions of the degree; they are used in fields that involve very small angles, such as astronomy, optometry, ophthalmology, optics, navigation, land surveying, and marksmanship. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surgeon-General
Surgeon general (: surgeons general) is a title used in several Commonwealth countries and most NATO nations to refer either to a senior military medical officer or to a senior uniformed physician commissioned by the government and entrusted with public health responsibilities. The title originated in the 17th century, as military units acquired their own physicians. In the United Kingdom, the Surgeon General is the professional head of the military medical services and carries the rank of rear admiral, major general, or air vice marshal. In the United States, the chief public health officer is the Surgeon General of the United States, and a small number of states have state surgeons general. Moreover, three of the U.S. military services have their own surgeon general, namely the Surgeon General of the United States Army, Surgeon General of the United States Navy, and Surgeon General of the United States Air Force. See also * Chief Medical Officer (Ireland) * Chief Medic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latitude
In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pole, with 0° at the Equator. Parallel (latitude), Lines of constant latitude, or ''parallels'', run east-west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude and longitude are used together as a coordinate pair to specify a location on the surface of the Earth. On its own, the term "latitude" normally refers to the ''geodetic latitude'' as defined below. Briefly, the geodetic latitude of a point is the angle formed between the vector perpendicular (or ''Normal (geometry), normal'') to the ellipsoidal surface from the point, and the equatorial plane, plane of the equator. Background Two levels of abstraction are employed in the definitions of latitude and longitude. In the first step the physical surface i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longitude
Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter lambda (λ). Meridians are imaginary semicircular lines running from pole to pole that connect points with the same longitude. The prime meridian defines 0° longitude; by convention the International Reference Meridian for the Earth passes near the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, south-east London on the island of Great Britain. Positive longitudes are east of the prime meridian, and negative ones are west. Because of the Earth's rotation, there is a close connection between longitude and time measurement. Scientifically precise local time varies with longitude: a difference of 15° longitude corresponds to a one-hour difference in local time, due to the differing position in relation to the Sun. Comparing local time to an absol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidney Gerald Burrard
Sir Sidney Gerald Burrard, 7th Baronet, (12 August 1860 – 16 March 1943) was a British army officer who served as Surveyor General of India and played a major role in the Great Trigonometrical Survey's work in the Himalayas and identified the source of errors resulting from the displacement of the plumbline by the gravitational attraction of the mountains. Early life Burrard was born on the Isle of Wight in a family of eminence, his father being Lieutenant-Colonel Sidney Burrard of the Grenadier Guards. Their home at The Mount had been built by his grandfather, The Reverend Sir George Burrard. He was educated at school in Lymington and then Uppingham School from 1873 where he showed his mathematical talents. In 1874 he moved to Wellington College where again he excelled at mathematics which led his father to decide that he was suited for the Royal Engineers. Career He received a commission in the Royal Engineers on 6 April 1879 and trained at the School of Military Enginee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online, with 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives. First series Hoping to emulate national biography, biographical collections published elsewhere in Europe, such as the (1875), in 1882 the publisher George Murray Smith, George Smith (1824–1901), of Smith, Elder & Co., planned a universal dictionary that would include biographical entries on individuals from world history. He approached Leslie Stephen, then editor of the ''Cornhill Magazine'', owned by Smith, to become the editor. Stephen persuaded Smith that the work should focus only on subjects from the United Kingdom and its present and former colonies. An early working title was the ''Biographia Britannica'', the na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biographical Memoirs Of Fellows Of The Royal Society
The ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society'' is an academic journal on the history of science published annually by the Royal Society. It publishes obituaries of Fellows of the Royal Society. It was established in 1932 as ''Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society'' and obtained its current title in 1955, with volume numbering restarting at 1. Prior to 1932, obituaries were published in the '' Proceedings of the Royal Society''. The memoirs are a significant historical record and most include a full bibliography of works by the subjects. The memoirs are often written by a scientist of the next generation, often one of the subject's own former students, or a close colleague. In many cases the author is also a Fellow. Notable biographies published in this journal include Albert Einstein, Alan Turing, Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since 2023; and, since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is near Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago., "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by modern humans originating in Africa. ... Coalescence dates for most non-European populations averag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chatham, Kent
Chatham ( ) is a town within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. In 2020 it had a population of 80,596. The town developed around Chatham Dockyard and several barracks for the British Army and the Royal Navy, together with 19th-century forts which provided a defensive shield for Chatham Dockyard. The Corps of Royal Engineers is still based in Chatham at Brompton Barracks. Chatham Dockyard closed on 31 March 1984, but the remaining naval buildings are an attraction for a flourishing tourist industry. Following closure, part of the site was developed as a commercial port, other parts were redeveloped for business and residential use, and part was used as the Chatham Historic Dockyard museum. Its attractions include the submarine . The town has important road links and the railway and bus stations are the main interchanges for the area. It i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
