Isabel Gill, Victorian Stargazer

September 16, 2004 9:10 AM

IN 1877 Isabel Gill visited an inhospitable volcanic blob in the mid-Atlantic to help her husband with ground-breaking astronomical measurements. Then she wrote a wrote a book about it, including an attempt to explain to fellow Victorian ladies the concept of a solar parallax in terms she thought they might be able to grasp:"I myself do not understand mathematical terms, so how could I use them with the hope of explaining these things to my readers? However, I can use knitting-needles, and perhaps they may do just as well."
Wierdly, more than a century later another astronomer visited the site and found the sandy paths which marked the Gill's lava-top camp still undisturbed by the Atlantic winds.
posted by penguin pie (17 comments total)

In other WierdNews from Ascension Island, while most of the island is dry volcanic rock, there is a tiny, man made rainforest at the top of its one mountain, which is making some scientists rethink the idea that tropical forests take aeons to develop.
posted by penguin pie at 9:14 AM on September 16, 2004

SIX MONTHS

IN

A S C E N S I O N

An Unscientific Account of a Scientific Expedition.

By Mrs. Gill.

With a map.

Heh. Love the way everything has a period after it. I can never resist a book about inhospitable volcanic blobs. This is a great first post, penguin pie. The knitting needles reference is in chapter one of the book, for anyone who wants to zero in on that.
posted by iconomy at 9:39 AM on September 16, 2004

This is very cool.
posted by putzface_dickman at 9:43 AM on September 16, 2004

Great find!
posted by me3dia at 9:46 AM on September 16, 2004

What a fantastic post! Thank you so much.

Anybody who ever saw the film made from A.S. Byatt's Angels and Insects will recognize the genre-- and the often unsung contributions of 19th C. women towards the popularizing of science for a general audience (and in the education of children, as well).

Thanks again. Welcome to Mefi, if this is your first post. Just watch out for any thread that has the words 'Bush', 'Cheney', or 'Rumsfeld' in the FPP. :)
posted by jokeefe at 9:58 AM on September 16, 2004

Thanks, guys, glad you like it (breathes sigh of relief as MeFiCherry pops). I went to Asi a few months ago, but sadly didn't find this site until afterwards so didn't go to Mars Bay to see where it all happened.

It's a wierd, but wonderful place.
posted by penguin pie at 10:03 AM on September 16, 2004

Popular science writing, circa 1878. As a physicist, I find it oddly reassuring to know that the problem of explaining science to non-scientists has a long history...

I especially like the anecdote she opens the book with.
posted by Johnny Assay at 10:11 AM on September 16, 2004

[This is good!] Thanks, PP!
posted by Lynsey at 10:27 AM on September 16, 2004

Nice links!
posted by drezdn at 10:55 AM on September 16, 2004

This reminds me of the writings of Gill's contemporary, Isabella Bird, who documented her travels to Hawaii, to Asia, and to the American West. I've had a book on her Hawaiian travels sitting in my "to read" pile for a long time now.

Fascinating post, penguin pie! Thanks!
posted by Songdog at 11:06 AM on September 16, 2004

See also:

Women's Travel Writing, 1830 - 1930, which links to the ETRC Database with numbers of online texts. Texts are also sorted by Geographic Area and Theme on this page.
posted by jokeefe at 2:24 PM on September 16, 2004

Love the way everything has a period after it

This kind of punctuation was standard in book titling, newspaper headlines, etc. It followed a punctuation style intended to guide readers-out-loud, so a period meant a pause. I believe it's called rhetorical punctuation, as distinct from our standard style today in which punctuation is based on sentence structure rather than spoken delivery or intonation.

Vestiges of the rhetorical style can be found in the titles of some newspapers, like the Wall Street Journal, which still have a period after their logo. (At the New York Times, it is said, the period was eliminated after some beancounter calculated how many tons of ink it consumed each year.)

My father used to tell me that when signing one's name, the signature should always end with a period, something he was taught in school.
posted by beagle at 2:29 PM on September 16, 2004

Very nifty! These are great links. Thanks, penguin pie.
posted by lobakgo at 5:17 PM on September 16, 2004

I just wanted to point out what a well-constructed post this is, as well. It's concise, accurate, and intruiging right off the bat; there are just enough supplementary links, and those given are completely relevant to the subject; and it's easily searchable. This is what I come to Mefi for: the wonderful stuff that I have never seen before and may well have never found otherwise. Nice going, penguin pie.
posted by jokeefe at 8:03 PM on September 16, 2004

Yes - lovely! And thanks!
posted by carter at 12:28 AM on September 17, 2004

Sheesh, you guys. Now about Dick Cheney...
posted by penguin pie at 4:53 AM on September 17, 2004

I just wanted to point out what a well-constructed post this is, as well. It's concise, accurate, and intruiging right off the bat;

Nice post, but wierd is spelled weird...

I think this is one of the most misspelled words in English. I just happen to always notice this one because I've a (Dutch) friend named Wierd.

And no, my spelling isn't perfect either. But there is that spell check button...
posted by lagado at 5:56 AM on September 17, 2004