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IN THE NEWS
TOUR OF THE MONTH
ON THIS DAY IN LONDON
17th October 1946 Born today: Vicki Hodge, London England, actress (Confessions of a Sex Maniac)
17th October 1934 Fulham footballing legend Johnny Haynes born in Kentish Town.
17th October 1922 Scottish worker begins hunger march from Glasgow on London
17th October 1814 Meux Brewery disaster at Tottenham Court Road kills 7: drowned by beer.
Balloonist Gleisher lived here
The pioneering weatherman and balloonist Glaisher lived here.
Location: 20 Dartmouth Hill, Blackheath, London
Description: James Glaisher (1809-1903) was a meteorologist & pioneer of weather forecasting, and pioneering balloonist.
In 1862 the British Association for the Advancement of Science decided to fund a series of flights to study the upper atmosphere. The balloons would have to fly as high as possible. Glaisher volunteered to perform these potentially dangerous flights. In all he made 28 ascents between 1862 and 1866, 13 of which were funded by the Association.
His usual pilot was the experienced balloonist Henry Coxwell (1819-1900). On their first ascent of 17 July 1862 they reached an altitude of 26,177 ft. without oxygen. On 5 September, in a balloon called the Mars, they managed an altitude in the region of 30,000 ft., although it almost cost them their lives. Glaisher lost consciousness and Coxwell had to climb up into the rigging to free a tangled valve line. His hands were so paralysed with cold that he had to pull the chord with his teeth in order to check their ascent. Had he failed to manage it, they would both surely have died of hypothermia or oxygen starvation.
In 1845, Glaisher published his dew point tables, for the measurement of humidity.
Glaisher was a founder member of the Meteorological Society (1850), and the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain (1866).
Aviation
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The pioneering weatherman and balloonist Glaisher lived here. |
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World's 1st Business Computer», 8.9km
Biker Denis Johnson worked here», 5.7km
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Bouncing Bomb inventor's house», 1.5km
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Edmund Halley's Tomb», 0.7km
Faraday's Apprenticeship», 7.0km
The Man who knew everything», 6.8km
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Sir Isaac Newton lived here», 6.0km
mapping London's most interesting and unusual places and history
