Cambridge Encyclopedia :: Cambridge Encyclopedia Vol. 38

James Glaisher

Meteorologist, born in London, UK. He joined the Ordnance Survey in 1829, and later became chief meteorologist at Greenwich. He made a large number of balloon ascents, once reaching a height of over 11 km/7 mi to study the higher strata of the atmosphere. He compiled dew-point tables and wrote on several scientific subjects.

James Glaisher was an English meteorologist and aeronaut (April 7, 1809 - February 7, 1903).

Educated at St Paul's School in London, and Trinity College, Cambridge, Glaisher was an assistant at the Royal Greenwich Observatories at Cambridge and Greenwich, and Superintendent of the Department of Meteorology and Magnetism at Greenwich for thirty-four years.

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).

He is most famous, however, as a pioneering balloonist. Between 1862 and 1866, usually with Henry Tracey Coxwell as his co-pilot, Glaisher made numerous ascents in order to measure the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere at its highest levels.

Glaisher, James (glā'shur) [key], 1809–1903, English meteorologist and balloonist, b.

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