Hi Gary & All,
Quote:
Originally Posted by gary
When I made the original post, I was hoping you might know more
because of your connection to the observatory.  |
Most of the material I researched was for a possible article on re-observing the Hargrave pairs for AS&T -- and doing the observations using the telescope (a 40cm Meade Schmidt-Cassegrainian) in the same dome (North Dome, Sydney Observatory) where they were discovered -- and using the background material on the life and times of Lawrence.
As it turned out, I went and researched (re-observed) his short list of pairs and only a couple of the 20-odd were in any way interesting. All the others were either very wide or had very large magnitude differences or were rather faint (often all three) so the article never actually eventuated beyond research and concept. Hargrave was an interesting character, obviously very bright, imaginative and methodical. Though, during the course of research, it turned out his dad (John Hargrave) was at least as interesting as a character.
After University, John (a Cambridge man) was called to the bar in 1941 (Lincoln's Inn) and practised for about ten years after which he retired (apparently for medical reasons though he also inherited his father's estate around the same time). His wife had him committed to Colney Hatch lunatic asylum Middlesex in 1851 suffering from "melancholy", and he spent over three months as an involuntary patient and a couple of years as an outpatient. This was a big turning point in his life and he never forgave his wife for subjecting him to that indignity.
Upon his release, perceiving his reputation and career to be in tatters, he followed his brother Richard, took his two eldest sons (Edward and Ralph) and set off for the colonies (NSW) in 1856 where he set up legal practice, was appointed a judge of the Quarter-Sessions Court (forerunner of the District Court) and moved quickly and upwardly in political circles. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1859 through several offices until appointment to the NSW Legislative Council and to Attorney General in 1860 and appointed to "silk" in 1863. He remained in parliament only until 1865 when he resigned and was immediately appointed a judge of the Supreme Court in both Equity and Divorce (the latter field is now covered by the federal Family Court, but was until 1975 a state jurisdiction). He was so disliked in the legal community, his swearing-in was boycotted by the NSW bar.
He rapidly developed a very poor reputation as a Supreme Court Judge and the chief complaint was that he was lazy, refusing to sit before 11am or after 1pm. He was apparently exceptionally biased against female suitors and almost always found against them irrespective of the cause or evidence. He spent 16 years on the bench and was also a law-lecturer at Sydney University.
Lawrence remained in England after his father escaped to NSW to finish his education. His brother Ralph was dispatched to fetch him and bring young Lawrence to NSW in 1865 when he was 15 years old. His dad obviously envisaged a career in the law and employed a private tutor for him. John, by this time had the family home in Ruscutters Bay (I think called "Sunbeam Cottage") and several other properties, many of which were grants from the NSW government. This included the extensive property at Stanwell Park and Coalcliff.
Lawrence however had a penchant for the wide-open spaces and signed on to an expedition to north Queensland and Papua. Lawrence failed his matriculation examination and eventually was apprenticed to the Australasian Steam Navigation Co. where he worked for five years, learning design and other practical skills -- and he also participated in a couple of other expeditions to New Guinea.
One of Lawrence's earliest inventions (there were many) were shoes for walking on water. They were in effect a pair of matched narrow canoes with a saw-tooth lower surface on the bottom strapped to the feet like skis. To prove his invention, one Sunday, he set off from Dawes Point and "walked" all the way to a park at Rushcutters Bay where he was greeted by a crowd of onlookers. To his dismay (expecting cheering) several of the crowd threw stones and accused him of blasphemy, daring to walk on the water on a Sunday.
Lawrence was "spotted" by Henry Russell at Royal Society meetings where both men presented material with frequency. Hargrave, mainly on his several early inventions and his private research that collected quite a body of evidence that Spanish expeditions (the Lope de Vega theory) had explored Sydney Cove and surrounds and the east coast of Australia in the early 17th century -- almost 200 years before Cook.
Russell, who seeming admired this gifted young methodical observer/engineer, offered him the position at Sydney Observatory in 1878. He married the same year. Most of Hargrave's work revolved around re-observing and measuring the Cape Observatory pairs.
By 1883, Lawrence was already in receipt of a considerable income (over £1,000 per annum) from a mining lease on his land (given to him by his father) at Coalcliff and retired from the observatory in 1883 not long after the transit of Venus expeditions. I can't exactly recall his role in the transit, but I have a distant memory that he was stationed at Bega and successfully observed the event. His father died in 1885 and it was at this point Lawrence removed to Stanwell Park and continued his experiments. His brother Ralph died shortly after that and Lawrence inherited Ralph's house "Hilltop Cottage" at Stanwell Tops. In 1894 he became the first human to make a flight in a heavier than air machine (un-powered) (a very large connected contraption mainly consisting of box-kites) on the beach at Stanwell Park and worked constantly on developing a means of propulsion -- but was beaten to the punch by the Wright Brothers who probably copied Hargaves idea/invention of the "aerofoil".
He married Margaret Preston in 1878 (this was one of his prime motivations for taking the offered employment at Sydney Observatory) and the union produced six children, five of whom survived, only one was a son; Geoffrey who was killed in action in 1915 at Gallipoli. Hargrave himself succumbed to peritonitis arising from appendicitis in 1915 and is buried near his father at Waverley Cemetery. A son of Ralph (Lawrence's brother) was killed in a coal mine collapse (he was a mine engineer) at Helensburgh during WWI and he is buried in Helensburgh Cemetery. I found that grave as part of the research for the article that in the end, was never written.
Hoping this is of some interest.
Best,
L.