Ertach Kernow - Planet Neptune discovered by a Cornish farmers son
Neptune the planet in the outer reaches of the solar system cannot be seen without a good telescope. However, Cornwall is fortunate not to be so badly polluted by light with many places where people can go to observe the wider firmament even with the naked eye. Advances in affordable telescopes allows us to see even further than our ancestors could even imagine. Cornwall also has two International Dark Sky Parks at Bodmin Moor official designated in 2017 and later West Penwith in 2021. Being naturally dark at night with very low traces of light pollution, places them among the best places in the Cornwall and England to view the star-studded skies at night. This year many people throughout Cornwall have even been able to see the aurora borealis.
A brief background of astronomy from early times:
Heavenly bodies have been of interest and influenced virtually every aspect of human life for millennia from Neolithic times. Later peoples such as the Egyptians, Mayan and Greek stamped their ideas on human beliefs. Plato in the 4th century BCE would influence thinking for two thousand years with his theory the Sun, Moon and planets circling the earth perfectly. A century later Aristarchus of Samos proposes his heliocentric model placing the Sun at its centre, with Earth as just one planet orbiting it. This was not taken seriously by his contemporaries.
Ptolemy the Alexandrian mathematician, astronomer and all-round man of the moment in the 2nd century BCE expanded on the theory of Plato and this view was shared throughout the European and Arabic worlds through his book Almagest. This work continues placing Earth at the centre with planets circling it and the Sun placed between Venus and Mars. Over the coming centuries there were many new and updated theories and calculations relating to the planets and Earth science, many surprisingly quite accurate. It was the work of Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543 which saw what is termed the Copernican Revolution that began to change the age-old beliefs and bringing in the heliocentric model first proposed by Aristarchus of Samos some 1,800 years previously. This was followed up by work by Johannes Kepler who correctly replaced the circular orbits of Plato with elliptical ones. Galileo Galilei with his improved telescope saw and recorded distant moons and the Milky Way. There were many other contributors but the Copernican Revolution ended with the seminal work of Isaac Newton setting out new laws of motion in his Principia Mathematica published in 1687. In 1781 William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus, the first planet beyond Saturn which had been known about for thousands of years.
As always click the images for larger view
Now we come to our own Cornish astronomical hero John Couch Adams who in 1845 discovered through mathematics the existence of a new planet to be named Neptune. Coming from a humble farming background John Couch Adams was born in 1819 at Lidcott, a farm in the parish of Laneast, six miles from Launceston, part of the Tregeare Estate. Lidcott Farm mentioned on large scale maps during the late 19th and early 20th centuries is no longer marked as such and was a medieval settlement first mentioned in 1464 and still occupied today.
The family were strong Wesleyan Methodists and John was baptised at the chapel at Tregeare in Egloskerry. John’s father Thomas was a tenant farmer and the family had farmed in the Laneast area for at least four generations, his brother George would carry on that tradition. Thomas was an understanding father and John was fortunate that his mother Tabitha Knill Grylls had come from a family leaving her bequests. A small estate from her aunt Grace Couch with a library of books, including some on astronomy, from an uncle aided John’s education and astronomical interests. His early education was at a village school in Laneast taught by Mr R C Sleep. His progression was such that at the age of twelve he attended a private school in Devonport run by his mother’s cousin the Reverend John Couch Grylls. Further education under the guidance of Reverend Grylls took place at schools in Landulph and Saltash.
Receiving the usual education of the time in mathematics and classics, at fourteen John was showing his passion for astronomy. Reading books about his favourite subjects avidly he spent much of his spare time in the Devonport Mechanics Institute. After three weeks looking for Halley’s comet in 1835 he eventually wrote with great excitement to his parents telling them he had seen it. It would not appear again until 1910. In 1836 a letter to his brother Thomas explained that an eclipse would take place and wished for him to observe it based on his own calculations specifically for Lidcott. His aptitude began to be noticed in 1837 when a description of an eclipse was published in the Telegraph newspaper and other London papers.
Signs of mathematical prowess led John being accepted into St John’s College at Cambridge in 1839. He came top of his year in college examinations graduating in 1843 as Senior Wrangler, the top mathematics undergraduate at Cambridge University. This a position once considered ‘the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain’. He was elected a fellow of the college that year. As early as 1841 aged just twenty-two he made a note he was going to investigated irregularities in the motions of Uranus and whether this was due to the existence of an unknown planet beyond it. In October 1845 he wrote to the Astronomer Royal at the Greenwich Observatory with details of the mass and orbit of the new planet. Meanwhile a Frenchman Le Verrier was also working on the same theory and presented his paper in November to the Académie des sciences in Paris. There followed some bickering about the original discoverer which actually continues to this day. Adams no doubt has some claim to fame for his work as an outstanding mathematician and astronomer relating to the discovery of Neptune irrespective of who or when. As a young man had he been given the proactive support he deserved and not perhaps looked down upon, the discovery would have been attributed to him earlier. Adams acknowledged that they completely separately reached the same conclusions.
At the Meridian Conference of 1884 which set the prime meridian for international use at Greenwich, Adams attended as one of the delegates representing Great Britain. He later carried out work relating to gravitational astronomy and terrestrial magnetism. Adams also made many other astronomical discoveries including that relating to the annual Leonid meteor shower and its elongated ellipse over 33.25 years in 1867. He was appointed as Professor to the Lowndean Chair of Astronomy and Geometry at the University of Cambridge in 1859 which he held until his death thirty-three years later. He was twice elected President of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1851 and 1874 and in 1866 won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1849 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London and as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. It is said he turned down an offer of a knighthood from Queen Victoria in 1847 as well as the opportunity to become the Astronomer Royal in 1881. Perhaps the simple life of carrying out his passions in mathematics and astronomy and work at Cambridge gave him more than sufficient personal satisfaction.
Today it is likely that Adams would have been diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder or Asperger syndrome. He was described as uncompetitive, forgetful, and reluctant to publish work that wasn't perfect. It was said at the time of his discovery ‘Adams though a great philosopher in his way, has shown no worldly wisdom, indeed has acted like a bashful boy rather than a man who had made a great discovery’. Caroline Fox one of the creators of the Falmouth Royal Polytechnic Society said of him in 1847 ‘The delight of working it out was far more than any notoriety could give, for his love of pure truth is evidently intense, an inward necessity unaffected by all the penny trumpets of the world.’ He was said to love a joke, enjoyed all things with a boyish zest and loved to join in games with friends children as well as being a good son. After his recent appointment as a professor and visiting his home his father asked him to drive sheep on foot to market in Launceston, which he happily did. He loved nature and was happy wandering the cliffs and moors of Cornwall. John was said to be a delightful companion always cheerful and genial, sympathetic and generous. A man it seems with no airs and graces and a thoroughly decent likeable person.
In October 1862 Adams met Elizabeth Bruce, from Dublin. After a short romance Adams proposed marriage to Elizabeth and they were married on 2 May 1863. Elizabeth survived him by twenty-seven years and was buried with him. Following his death John Couch Adams had much of his work published in 1896. This was edited by his brother William Grylls Adams who was himself Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy at Kings College in London. The papers extended from 1844, when just 25 years of age through to 1890. They consisted of about 50 Astronomical Papers and 11 Papers on Pure Mathematics along with a quantity of previously unpublished works.
John was buried at The Ascension Parish Burial Ground St Giles in Cambridge, with a substantial cross marking his grave, certainly not a seventy-foot cross as reported in some articles. There was a royal suggestion that he be buried at Westminster Abbey but perhaps more fitting for such a man it was close by his beloved observatory. However, he is memorialised with a tablet in Westminster Abbey, close to that of Sir Isaac Newton, and also in Truro Cathedral. This brilliant man from a humble background joins many Cornish men and women who today should be better remembered in their homeland.
Heritage Column
