Hugh NewallBorn 21 Jun 1857; died 22 Feb 1944 at age 86. Hugh Frank Newall was an English astronomer and physicistwho held the first chair of astrophysics at Cambridge University (1909-1928). After teaching at Wellington College, he went to Cambridge to be an assistant to J. J. Thomson. He changed his interests from being senior demonstrator in experimental physics to astronomy when he facilitated the university's acquisition of the 25-inch Newall Telescope after the death of his father, Robert Stirling Newall, in 1889. His father, an engineer in manufacturing wire ropes and submarine telegraph cables, had the telescope built for private use at his Gateshead home. Hugh paid the moving expenses. When built, it was the largest in the world, and remained so for many years. He designed spectrographs and studied the solar corona, became director of the Solar Physics Observatory (1913) and led many eclipse expeditions.« |
