Abstract
LIEUT.—COL. R. L. J. ELLERY, whose death we announced on January 16, was for many years the director of the Williamstown and Melbourne Observatories. To review his career is to recall the history of astronomy in Australia, so intimately was he connected with its progress. When he took up work as Government Astronomer in a rising colony, the instruments at his disposal were small, and the funds available for promoting astronomical research necessarily limited. The extension witnessed in the last forty years is due in no small measure to his initiative, and not the least of his services was to induce the colony to recognise the claims of science artd to make more liberal provision for its needs. By his efforts arose the new observatory at Melbourne, and by his activity it became the centre for the prosecution of much useful work. There, tdo, at his instigation was mounted the four-foot reflector, at-the tirrte of its-erection the most powerful instrument in the southern hemisphere. This instrument was much used for the examination of. Herschel's nebulæ, but, in a new society, intent upon material progress; such a telescope was perhaps of even greater use by the interest it aroused in science generally. It served as a permanent reminder of the progress; of science, and of the necessity of meeting its demands. For as the colonies enlarged, the claims of science required increasing support. In climatology, Col. Ellery's powers of organisation were invaluable. Not only did he collect the necessary information which indicated the more valuable localities for settlement, but gradually issued isobaric charts and storm warnings, at first applicable to the coast, but afterwards, as other colonies joined in an uniform scheme, published daily weather charts extending over the whole continent. Terrestrial magnetism;was another subject he pursued with great eagerness, and geodesy, including pendulum experiments and longitude determinations, also claimed the attention of the staff. In a word, the observatory was the centre of enterprise-and activity, encouraging the scientific Spirit in many directions.
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Lieut.—Col. R. L. J. Ellery, C.M.G., F.R.S. . Nature 77, 298 (1908). https://doi.org/10.1038/077298a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/077298a0