Book ID: CBB001553302

William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse: Astronomy and the Castle in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (2014)

unapi

Mollan, R. C. (Editor)


Manchester University Press


Publication Date: 2014
Physical Details: xxii + 368 pp.; ill.
Language: English

This book provides the first comprehensive biographical account of the Third Earl of Rosse. A remarkable man, he was a resident landlord and a key member of the Protestant ascendancy in nineteenth-century Ireland before, during and after the devastating Irish famine of the 1840s. He has received lasting fame as the builder of Birr Castle in County Offaly, where he constructed enormous reflecting telescopes which allowed the recognition for the first time of the spiral shape of some galaxies. As well as giving a comprehensive account of the engineering genius the astronomical achievements of the Earl and his assistants, the book reveals new details about his other key roles, not only in the local community at Birr, but in the Royal Society, of which he was president from 1848-54, in the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and in various political and administrative structures in Ireland. This volume also sheds new light on the family life of the Earl and Countess, whose children included Sir Charles Parsons, the inventor of the steam turbine engine, which revolutionised electricity generation and marine transport. The Countess' own pioneering achievements in photography are detailed here alongside reproductions of her work. With chapters from an international selection of distinguished contributors, this book will interest a wide readership, particularly historians of nineteenth-century British and Irish science, astronomy and photography, and those studying nineteenth-century Irish history.

...More
Reviewed By

Review Paul Fayter (2015) Review of "William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse: Astronomy and the Castle in Nineteenth-Century Ireland". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 938-939). unapi

Review Kirwan, Adrian James (2015) Review of "William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse: Astronomy and the Castle in Nineteenth-Century Ireland". British Journal for the History of Science (p. 699). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001553302/

Similar Citations

Article Hoskin, Michael; (2002)
The Leviathan of Parsonstown: Ambitions and Achievements (/isis/citation/CBB000200355/)

Book Mark McCartney; Andrew Whitaker; Alastair Wood; (2019)
George Gabriel Stokes: Life, Science and Faith (/isis/citation/CBB129904697/)

Book Brück, M. T.; (2002)
Agnes Mary Clerke and the Rise of Astrophysics (/isis/citation/CBB000201312/)

Article MacKeown, P. Kevin; (2007)
William Doberck---Double Star Astronomer (/isis/citation/CBB000831606/)

Article Hoskin, Michael; (2008)
Gravity and Light in the Newtonian Universe of Stars (/isis/citation/CBB000930128/)

Essay Review Ashmore, Patrick; (2000)
Archaeoastronomy of the British Isles (/isis/citation/CBB000110356/)

Article Laura Kelly; (2017)
Irish Medical Student Culture and the Performance of Masculinity, c. 1880–1930 (/isis/citation/CBB197683118/)

Book Andrews, John Harwood; (2002)
A Paper Landscape: The Ordnance Survey in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (/isis/citation/CBB000201627/)

Book Numbers, Ronald L.; Stenhouse, John; (1999)
Disseminating Darwinism: The Role of Place, Race, Religion, and Gender (/isis/citation/CBB000110621/)

Article Anne van Weerden; Steven Wepster; (2018)
A Most Gossiped About Genius: Sir William Rowan Hamilton (/isis/citation/CBB864123041/)

Book Greta Jones; (2021)
‘Doctors for Export’: Medical Migration from Ireland c.1860 to 1960 (/isis/citation/CBB145847782/)

Book Juliana Adelman; (2009)
Communities of Science in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (/isis/citation/CBB484642492/)

Thesis Ashley Elizabeth Bashaw; (2015)
Mapping the Vagina: Nineteenth-Century Narratives of Scientific Specularity (/isis/citation/CBB115536099/)

Article Neswald, Elizabeth; (2006)
Science, Sociability and the Improvement of Ireland: The Galway Mechanics' Institute, 1826--51 (/isis/citation/CBB000771295/)

Article Newcomb, Sally; (2012)
Richard Kirwan (1733--1812) (/isis/citation/CBB001251743/)

Article Sawyer, Roy T.; (2013)
History of the Leech Trade in Ireland, 1750--1915: Microcosm of a Global Commodity (/isis/citation/CBB001320598/)

Authors & Contributors
Hoskin, Michael A.
Anne van Weerden
Robert E. Abrams
Ashley Elizabeth Bashaw
Wood, Alastair
Whitaker, Andrew
Concepts
Astronomy
Science and society
Diffusion of innovation; diffusion of knowledge; diffusion of technology
Medicine
Biology
Biographies
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
17th century
20th century, early
20th century
Prehistory
Places
Ireland
Great Britain
Scotland
France
Australia
Hong Kong
Institutions
Royal Society of London
Markee Observatory
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Ireland, Ordnance Survey
Cambridge University
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment