If ever there were two people who were in the right place at the right time, they were William Wallace and Thomas Henderson. It was these two individuals who enabled the aspirations of the EAI to be enacted.
The first President of the Edinburgh Astronomical Institution, John Playfair, died in 1819. At the time he was Professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University. The University chose to move the Professor of Mathematics to this post leaving the former vacant. William Wallace was appointed as Professor of Mathematics in the same year.
William Wallace
Wallace was deeply interested in Astronomy, immediately joined the EAI, and not long thereafter was appointed as convenor of the sub-committee specifying and purchasing the instruments of the Observatory. The principal instrument was a Transit Telescope (pictured). This was constructed in Germany and its main lens was fashioned by the premier glassblower of the time, Joseph von Fraunhofer. When delivered in 1831 this was almost certainly the best Transit Instrument in the world.
In 1825, Wallace was also appointed as the Principal Observer, which gave him overall control of the workings of the Observatory – at that time served by the small Transit Instrument installed in 1814. At this time Wallace nurtured the career of a young Legal expert, Thomas Henderson, building on his acute mathematical abilities and ultimately guiding him to be Scotland’s first Astronomer Royal.
William Wallace, his wife and seven of their children are buried in Greyfriars – hence there are three co-located gravestones. There were at least two more children in this family though they may never have lived in Edinburgh.
A death mask of Isaac Newton, owned by Wallace, is held in the valuable Crawford Collection at the current Royal Observatory of Edinburgh on Blackford Hill.
Dr Bruce Vickery