The gestation of the observatory on Calton Hill was very slow, and it wasn’t until 1834 that the appropriate buildings and instruments were in place.
William Henry Playfair, nephew of Professor John Playfair, was called upon to perform the architectural work for the establishment.
William Henry Playfair
Eager to start as soon as possible, a small Transit House was built to Playfair’s design (pictured above), and it was put into use during 1814.
Meanwhile, Playfair was also designing the main building which is central to Calton Hill to this day. The Foundation Stone was laid on the 25th of April 1818 and the building was complete by 1820 – with the exception of the Dome which required specialist construction techniques. Various Time Capsules were buried with the Foundation Stone.
In 1822, King George IV visited Edinburgh and the EAI made representations to him which resulted in the observatory gaining royal status, becoming the “Royal Observatory of King George IV”.
Unfortunately, however, the EAI had spent all of its funding in providing the observatory building and had no funds with which to purchase instruments. The Government was approached, and it provided the required monies. But in the process control of the Observatory from the point of view of its Director and scope of work was taken by Government.
The Government provided the funds because it had a vested interest in the success of the observatory. Indeed, it was this interest that had led to the creation of the Greenwich Observatory in 1675. And the interest was the accurate determination of position at sea, especially longitude.
Positions on the globe on which we live are recorded as Latitude and Longitude. Latitude measurement is angular in nature and relatively easy, but accurate time is required to measure Longitude, and it must be correlated with accurate time positions of celestial objects.
In the time period in which Calton Hill was being set up it was not possible for a Greenwich time to be “transmitted” to Edinburgh – or anywhere else. Hence an accurate time facility was a necessary requirement of the new observatory on Calton Hill.
Dr Bruce Vickery