Edward Sabine
Encyclopedia
General Sir Edward Sabine KCB
FRS
(14 October 1788 – 26 June 1883) was an Irish
astronomer
, geophysicist, ornithologist
and explorer
.
Two branches of Sabine's work in particular deserve very high credit: Determination of the length of the seconds pendulum
, a simple pendulum
whose time period on the surface of the Earth
is two seconds, that is, one second in each direction; and extensive researches connected with the Earth's magnetic field
. He led the effort to establish a system of magnetic observatories in various parts of British
territory all over the globe and a great part of his life was devoted to their direction, and to the reduction and discussion of their observations.
While the majority of his research bears on one or other of the subjects just mentioned, other research deals with such widely different topics as the birds of Greenland
(Sabine's Gull
is named for him), ocean
temperatures, the Gulf Stream
, barometric
measurement of heights, arc of the meridian, glacial
transport of rocks, the volcano
es of the Hawaiian Islands
, and various points of meteorology
.
.
He was educated at Marlow
and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. In 1803 he obtained a commission in the Royal Artillery
as a 2nd lieutenant, becoming a captain ten years later. He attained the rank of major-general in 1859.
Sabine was stationed in Gibraltar
during the Peninsular War
, but it was in the War of 1812
against the United States
that he had his first taste of combat. In May 1813, while making for Canada, the English packet-ship Manchester was attacked by an American privateer. In the ensuing battle Sabine, who was the Manchester's astronomer, reportedly handled a gun "to good effect."
In Canada Sabine commanded the batteries at the siege of Fort Erie
. After a short spell of military service in Quebec
, he returned to England
and devoted the remainder of his long life to the more peaceful pursuits of astronomy, terrestrial magnetism and physical geography.
's first Arctic expedition. As the expedition's appointed astronomer, Sabine was told to assist Ross "in making such observations as may tend to the improvement of geography and navigation, and the advancement of science in general."
Although the principal purpose of the voyage was to find the Northwest Passage
, several objects of scientific curiosity were deemed worthy of investigation, such as the location of the Earth's north magnetic pole and the behaviour of pendulums in high latitudes.
The expedition failed to discover the Northwest Passage and ended in controversy. When Ross found his progress through Lancaster Sound
blocked by sea ice, he turned around and headed back to Britain, much to the annoyance of the other members of the expedition. Both Sabine and Ross's second-in-command William Edward Parry
doubted the very existence of the so-called Croker Mountains, which it seems only Ross saw.
Objecting to Ross's precipitate retreat, Sabine later recalled his "very visible mortification at having come away from a place which I considered as the most interesting in the world for magnetic observations, and where my expectations had been raised to the highest pitch, without having had an opportunity of making them."
To make matters worse, a very public row broke out between the two men when they arrived home. Sabine objected when Ross claimed the credit for certain magnetic observations. He also accused Ross of stealing magnetic measurements without giving him due credit, and of refusing to allow him enough time on the expedition to take accurate readings.
The results of Sabine's magnetic researches were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Although he viewed his work as confirming and extending the discoveries of earlier "magnetic collectors," he stressed the need for the multiplication and repetition of observations. Sabine was a diligent and careful scientist. He generally avoided theoretical discussion in his writings, believing that a true understanding of terrestrial magnetism would only be arrived at after exhaustive observations had been made on a global scale.
The Admiralty once again instructed the participants to gather such scientific data as "must prove most valuable and interesting to the science of our country." They were to pay particular attention to magnetic measurements, especially the possible interactions between magnetic needles, atmospheric electricity and the aurora borealis. They were also to attempt to establish the location of the Earth's North Magnetic Pole, then believed to lie somewhere along the western shore of Baffin Bay
.
Like Ross, Parry did not find the passage, but he did set a new record for the "furthest west," which stood for several decades.
In order to alleviate the tedium of the long Arctic winter, Sabine produced a weekly newspaper for the amusement of the crew. Known as the North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle, it ran for twenty-one issues. Due to public demand, it was actually published on their return to Britain – much to Sabine's surprise.
During this expedition, which lasted from May 1819 to November 1820, Sabine noted that changes in magnetic intensity had taken place since his previous visit. He attributed such changes to either a fluctuation in the Earth's magnetic intensity or the shifting positions of the terrestrial magnetic poles.
For his work in the Arctic Sabine received the Copley Medal
from the Royal Society in 1821.
.
By measuring the length of a seconds pendulum in different latitudes, one can calculate the "oblateness" of the Earth - i.e. the degree to which the "figure of the Earth" departs from perfect sphericity. Attempts to do this had been made in the eighteenth century, but it was not until Sabine's lifetime that precision instruments were available to allow sufficiently accurate measurements to be made.
Sabine threw himself into the task with his usual diligence. Between 1821 and 1823 he travelled halfway around the world with his pendulums and carried out innumerable measurements on the intertropical coasts of Africa
and the Americas. He also returned to the Arctic, journeying up the eastern coast of Greenland with Captain D Clavering on Parry's old ship the Griper. Observations were made at Little Pendulum Island
, in latitude 74° 30', and among the snows of Spitsbergen
. Sabine even had an island named in his honour
during this expedition.
The results of his research were published in 1825. They represented the most accurate assessment of the figure of the earth that had ever been made.
Not content to rest on his laurels, Sabine conducted further pendulum experiments throughout the 1820s, determining the relative lengths of the second's pendulum in Paris
, London
, Greenwich
, and Altona
.
(Newton
’s successor as Lucasian professor at Cambridge
) had theorized that one could calculate both the latitude and longitude of any position on the surface of the earth by measuring the magnetic dip of a compass needle.
But the extraordinarily accurate chronometers of John Harrison
were generally available from the 1820s on, rendering the whole question immaterial. By the time Sabine became interested in the problem, it had already been solved, and in 1828 the British government abolished the Board of Longitude
. As it happened, secular changes in the Earth's magnetic field meant that Halley and Whiston's method would never have been practicable.
But Sabine did make one notable contribution to the longitude problem. In 1825 he and fellow-astronomer Sir John Herschel
collaborated with a French government commission to determine the precise difference of longitude between the observatories of Paris and Greenwich. By means of rocket-signals the difference was found to be 9' 21.6" – an error of less than one arcsecond.
granted Sabine general leave of absence from the army on the understanding "that he was usefully employed in scientific pursuits." But his leave did not last very long. Political agitation in Ireland necessitated an increased military presence in the country, and in 1830 Sabine was recalled to military duty. He remained in his native land for the next seven years, but he did not allow his new military duties to interrupt his scientific endeavours. He continued his pendulum investigations and in 1834 commenced a systematic magnetic survey of Ireland – the first of its kind in what was then the United Kingdom
. It was extended to Scotland
in 1836, and to England the following year.
, and Thomas Young
were chosen. Sabine's appointment was violently attacked by Charles Babbage
, the father of the computer, (largely on account of his associations with the Royal Society, whose scientific credentials Babbage did not recognise) in a pamphlet entitled Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of its Causes. Sabine, however, refused to be drawn into the controversy.
To solve this mystery once and for all, a number of physicists recommended that a magnetic survey of the entire globe be carried out. Sabine was one of the instigators of this "Magnetic Crusade," urging the government to establish magnetic observatories throughout the empire. He also recruited many disciples to the cause – most notably James Clark Ross
, a nephew of Sir John's, the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt
and the astronomer royal, George Airy.
A committee, of which Sabine was a prominent member, was established to work out the details. Suitable locations for the observatories were selected in both hemispheres and representations were made to despatch an expedition to the Southern Ocean
to carry out a magnetic survey of the Antarctic
. In the spring of 1839, the government approved the scheme. Observatories were to be established at Toronto
, St. Helena, Cape Town
, Tasmania
and at stations to be determined by the East India Company
, while other nations were invited to co-operate. Sabine was appointed to superintend the entire operation.
Most of these observatories were of limited size and were dismantled as soon as the initial survey was complete, but the one founded by Sabine at Toronto in 1840 is still in existence. Originally housed in a modest building at the newly established University of Toronto
, it was called the Toronto Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory
. It was the first scientific institution in the country.
The birthplace of Canadian astronomy was a simple log building held together with copper nails and brass fastenings. Non-magnetic materials were used to avoid the problem of "local attraction." A second room was built to house a telescope, which was used to make accurate time readings based on the movement of the Sun and stars. The modern stone observatory was erected in 1855.
In those days, there was no way to take continuous readings: everything had to be done by hand. Thousands of painstaking observations were taken by the staff – sometimes as frequently as every five minutes! These observations were all carefully scrutinised by Sabine back in Britain.
In 1852, Sabine recognized from the Toronto records that magnetic variations could be divided into a regular diurnal cycle and an irregular portion. The irregularity correlated very closely with fluctuations in the number of sunspots, whose cyclic nature had been discovered in 1844 by the German amateur astronomer Heinrich Schwabe
. Sabine was the first to recognize that solar disturbances affected the Earth's magnetic environment. On 6 April 1852 he announced that the Sun's 11-year sunspot cycle was "absolutely identical" to the Earth's 11-year geomagnetic cycle.
The following year, Sabine also made a similar correlation with the Moon, establishing that that celestial body too had an influence on the Earth's magnetic field. He concluded that the Moon must have a significant magnetic field of its own to cause such an effect. But for once he was mistaken: the effect is actually the result of gravitational tides in the ionosphere. (Nevertheless, a crater
on the Moon has been named in his honour.)
Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, Sabine continued to superintend the operation of magnetic observatories throughout the British Empire. The result was Sabine's magnum opus: as complete a magnetic survey of the globe as was then humanly possible.
(from 1867) and president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
He was knighted in 1869, becoming a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. He retired from the army on full pay in 1877, by which time he had achieved the rank of General.
In 1879 Sabine's wife, Elizabeth Leeves, died. An accomplished woman in her own right, she had assisted her husband in his scientific endeavours for more than half a century. Her four-volume translation of Alexander von Humboldt’s monumental textbook of geophysics Kosmos, was published 1849-1858.
Sir Edward Sabine died at East Sheen, Surrey, on 26 June 1883 and was buried in the family vault at Tewin, Hertfordshire. He was 94.
The California
n Gray Pine
(Pinus sabineana) is named after him, as is Sabine's Gull
(Larus sabini).
A crater on the Moon
is named in his honor. Sabine Crater lies directly adjacent to the landing site of the first manned mission to Luna, by the crew of Apollo XI in July 1969, in the southern Mare Tranquillitatis
region.
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
FRS
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
(14 October 1788 – 26 June 1883) was an Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
, geophysicist, ornithologist
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
and explorer
Exploration
Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
.
Two branches of Sabine's work in particular deserve very high credit: Determination of the length of the seconds pendulum
Seconds pendulum
A seconds pendulum is a pendulum whose period is precisely two seconds; one second for a swing in one direction and one second for the return swing, a frequency of 1/2 Hz....
, a simple pendulum
Pendulum
A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced from its resting equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the equilibrium position...
whose time period on the surface of the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
is two seconds, that is, one second in each direction; and extensive researches connected with the Earth's magnetic field
Earth's magnetic field
Earth's magnetic field is the magnetic field that extends from the Earth's inner core to where it meets the solar wind, a stream of energetic particles emanating from the Sun...
. He led the effort to establish a system of magnetic observatories in various parts of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
territory all over the globe and a great part of his life was devoted to their direction, and to the reduction and discussion of their observations.
While the majority of his research bears on one or other of the subjects just mentioned, other research deals with such widely different topics as the birds of Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
(Sabine's Gull
Sabine's Gull
The Sabine's Gull is a small gull. Its generic placement is disputed; some authors treat it as the sole species in the genus Xema as Xema sabini, while others retain it in the genus Larus as Larus sabini. It breeds in the arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through northernmost North America...
is named for him), ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
temperatures, the Gulf Stream
Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates at the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean...
, barometric
Barometer
A barometer is a scientific instrument used in meteorology to measure atmospheric pressure. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather...
measurement of heights, arc of the meridian, glacial
Glacier
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...
transport of rocks, the volcano
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
es of the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, and various points of meteorology
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
.
Early life
He was born in Dublin to Joseph Sabine, member of a prominent Anglo-Irish family whose connections with the country can be traced back to the seventeenth century. His mother died when he was just one month old. His elder brother was naturalist Joseph SabineJoseph Sabine
Joseph Sabine was an English lawyer, naturalist and writer on horticulture.He was born into a prominent Anglo-Irish family in Tewin, Hertfordshire, the eldest son of Joseph Sabine. His younger brother was Sir Edward Sabine....
.
He was educated at Marlow
Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Marlow is a town and civil parish within Wycombe district in south Buckinghamshire, England...
and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. In 1803 he obtained a commission in the Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
as a 2nd lieutenant, becoming a captain ten years later. He attained the rank of major-general in 1859.
Sabine was stationed in Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
during the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
, but it was in the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
against the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that he had his first taste of combat. In May 1813, while making for Canada, the English packet-ship Manchester was attacked by an American privateer. In the ensuing battle Sabine, who was the Manchester's astronomer, reportedly handled a gun "to good effect."
In Canada Sabine commanded the batteries at the siege of Fort Erie
Fort Erie
Fort Erie was the first British fort to be constructed as part of a network developed after the Seven Years' War was concluded by the Treaty of Paris at which time all of New France had been ceded to Great Britain...
. After a short spell of military service in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, he returned to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and devoted the remainder of his long life to the more peaceful pursuits of astronomy, terrestrial magnetism and physical geography.
The Ross Expedition
Sabine was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April 1818, and it was thanks to the society's recommendations that he was invited to take part that year in Captain John RossJohn Ross (Arctic explorer)
Sir John Ross, CB, was a Scottish rear admiral and Arctic explorer.Ross was the son of the Rev. Andrew Ross, minister of Inch, near Stranraer in Scotland. In 1786, aged only nine, he joined the Royal Navy as an apprentice. He served in the Mediterranean until 1789 and then in the English Channel...
's first Arctic expedition. As the expedition's appointed astronomer, Sabine was told to assist Ross "in making such observations as may tend to the improvement of geography and navigation, and the advancement of science in general."
Although the principal purpose of the voyage was to find the Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
, several objects of scientific curiosity were deemed worthy of investigation, such as the location of the Earth's north magnetic pole and the behaviour of pendulums in high latitudes.
The expedition failed to discover the Northwest Passage and ended in controversy. When Ross found his progress through Lancaster Sound
Lancaster Sound
Lancaster Sound is a body of water in Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut, Canada. It is located between Devon Island and Baffin Island, forming the eastern portion of the Northwest Passage. East of the sound lies Baffin Bay; to the west lies Viscount Melville Sound...
blocked by sea ice, he turned around and headed back to Britain, much to the annoyance of the other members of the expedition. Both Sabine and Ross's second-in-command William Edward Parry
William Edward Parry
Sir William Edward Parry was an English rear-admiral and Arctic explorer, who in 1827 attempted one of the earliest expeditions to the North Pole...
doubted the very existence of the so-called Croker Mountains, which it seems only Ross saw.
Objecting to Ross's precipitate retreat, Sabine later recalled his "very visible mortification at having come away from a place which I considered as the most interesting in the world for magnetic observations, and where my expectations had been raised to the highest pitch, without having had an opportunity of making them."
To make matters worse, a very public row broke out between the two men when they arrived home. Sabine objected when Ross claimed the credit for certain magnetic observations. He also accused Ross of stealing magnetic measurements without giving him due credit, and of refusing to allow him enough time on the expedition to take accurate readings.
The results of Sabine's magnetic researches were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Although he viewed his work as confirming and extending the discoveries of earlier "magnetic collectors," he stressed the need for the multiplication and repetition of observations. Sabine was a diligent and careful scientist. He generally avoided theoretical discussion in his writings, believing that a true understanding of terrestrial magnetism would only be arrived at after exhaustive observations had been made on a global scale.
The Parry Expedition
The following year (1819) both Sabines returned to the Arctic as members of Lieutenant William Edward Parry's expedition in search of the Northwest Passage.The Admiralty once again instructed the participants to gather such scientific data as "must prove most valuable and interesting to the science of our country." They were to pay particular attention to magnetic measurements, especially the possible interactions between magnetic needles, atmospheric electricity and the aurora borealis. They were also to attempt to establish the location of the Earth's North Magnetic Pole, then believed to lie somewhere along the western shore of Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay , located between Baffin Island and the southwest coast of Greenland, is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea...
.
Like Ross, Parry did not find the passage, but he did set a new record for the "furthest west," which stood for several decades.
In order to alleviate the tedium of the long Arctic winter, Sabine produced a weekly newspaper for the amusement of the crew. Known as the North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle, it ran for twenty-one issues. Due to public demand, it was actually published on their return to Britain – much to Sabine's surprise.
During this expedition, which lasted from May 1819 to November 1820, Sabine noted that changes in magnetic intensity had taken place since his previous visit. He attributed such changes to either a fluctuation in the Earth's magnetic intensity or the shifting positions of the terrestrial magnetic poles.
For his work in the Arctic Sabine received the Copley Medal
Copley Medal
The Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society of London for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science, and alternates between the physical sciences and the biological sciences"...
from the Royal Society in 1821.
The Figure of the Earth
Sabine next turned his attention to the science of geodesy, which had already engaged his attention during the first of his Arctic voyages, and in particular the determination of the length of the seconds pendulumSeconds pendulum
A seconds pendulum is a pendulum whose period is precisely two seconds; one second for a swing in one direction and one second for the return swing, a frequency of 1/2 Hz....
.
By measuring the length of a seconds pendulum in different latitudes, one can calculate the "oblateness" of the Earth - i.e. the degree to which the "figure of the Earth" departs from perfect sphericity. Attempts to do this had been made in the eighteenth century, but it was not until Sabine's lifetime that precision instruments were available to allow sufficiently accurate measurements to be made.
Sabine threw himself into the task with his usual diligence. Between 1821 and 1823 he travelled halfway around the world with his pendulums and carried out innumerable measurements on the intertropical coasts of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and the Americas. He also returned to the Arctic, journeying up the eastern coast of Greenland with Captain D Clavering on Parry's old ship the Griper. Observations were made at Little Pendulum Island
Little Pendulum Island
Little Pendulum Island is an island to the north east of Wollaston Foreland, Greenland. Together with Sabine Island , it constitutes the Pendulum Islands, named by Douglas Charles Clavering’s 1823 expedition, during which the Irish scientist Edward Sabine swung the pendulum on the largest of the...
, in latitude 74° 30', and among the snows of Spitsbergen
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
. Sabine even had an island named in his honour
Sabine Island
Sabine Island is an island to the northeast of Wollaston Foreland, previously known as Inner Pendulum Island. It was named by the Second German North Polar Expedition 1869–70 as Sabine Insel for Edward Sabine, who carried out pendulum experiments on the island in 1823.Sabine Island is 16 km long...
during this expedition.
The results of his research were published in 1825. They represented the most accurate assessment of the figure of the earth that had ever been made.
Not content to rest on his laurels, Sabine conducted further pendulum experiments throughout the 1820s, determining the relative lengths of the second's pendulum in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
, and Altona
Altona, Hamburg
Altona is the westernmost urban borough of the German city state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864 Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937...
.
The problem of longitude
Sabine was also drawn into the famous "longitude problem," which was one of the great controversies of the age. Determining one's longitude remained the primary navigational concern at that time. Sabine hoped to devise a simple method of achieving this by measuring minute variations in the Earth's magnetic field. In the eighteenth century Sir Edmund Halley and William WhistonWilliam Whiston
William Whiston was an English theologian, historian, and mathematician. He is probably best known for his translation of the Antiquities of the Jews and other works by Josephus, his A New Theory of the Earth, and his Arianism...
(Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
’s successor as Lucasian professor at Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
) had theorized that one could calculate both the latitude and longitude of any position on the surface of the earth by measuring the magnetic dip of a compass needle.
But the extraordinarily accurate chronometers of John Harrison
John Harrison
John Harrison was a self-educated English clockmaker. He invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought device in solving the problem of establishing the East-West position or longitude of a ship at sea, thus revolutionising and extending the possibility of safe long distance sea travel in the Age...
were generally available from the 1820s on, rendering the whole question immaterial. By the time Sabine became interested in the problem, it had already been solved, and in 1828 the British government abolished the Board of Longitude
Board of Longitude
The Board of Longitude was the popular name for the Commissioners for the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea. It was a British Government body formed in 1714 to administer a scheme of prizes intended to encourage innovators to solve the problem of finding longitude at sea.-Origins:Navigators and...
. As it happened, secular changes in the Earth's magnetic field meant that Halley and Whiston's method would never have been practicable.
But Sabine did make one notable contribution to the longitude problem. In 1825 he and fellow-astronomer Sir John Herschel
John Herschel
Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH, FRS ,was an English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work...
collaborated with a French government commission to determine the precise difference of longitude between the observatories of Paris and Greenwich. By means of rocket-signals the difference was found to be 9' 21.6" – an error of less than one arcsecond.
Leave of Absence
In 1827 The Duke of WellingtonArthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
granted Sabine general leave of absence from the army on the understanding "that he was usefully employed in scientific pursuits." But his leave did not last very long. Political agitation in Ireland necessitated an increased military presence in the country, and in 1830 Sabine was recalled to military duty. He remained in his native land for the next seven years, but he did not allow his new military duties to interrupt his scientific endeavours. He continued his pendulum investigations and in 1834 commenced a systematic magnetic survey of Ireland – the first of its kind in what was then the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It was extended to Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in 1836, and to England the following year.
Scientific Adviser to the Admiralty
On the abolition of the Board of Longitude in 1828, it was arranged that three scientific advisers to the Admiralty should be nominated from the council of the Royal Society. Sabine, Michael FaradayMichael Faraday
Michael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
, and Thomas Young
Thomas Young (scientist)
Thomas Young was an English polymath. He is famous for having partly deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics before Jean-François Champollion eventually expanded on his work...
were chosen. Sabine's appointment was violently attacked by Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage, FRS was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer...
, the father of the computer, (largely on account of his associations with the Royal Society, whose scientific credentials Babbage did not recognise) in a pamphlet entitled Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of its Causes. Sabine, however, refused to be drawn into the controversy.
The Magnetic Crusade
During these decades the Royal Navy and Royal Society devoted so much energy to the problems of magnetic variation that magnetism came to be seen as an eminently "British" science. There was intense interest in figuring out what many called "the great remaining physical mystery since Newton's work on gravitation." By the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was widely recognized that the Earth's magnetic field was continually changing over time in a complicated way that interfered with compass readings. It was a mystery which some scientists believed might be associated with weather patterns.To solve this mystery once and for all, a number of physicists recommended that a magnetic survey of the entire globe be carried out. Sabine was one of the instigators of this "Magnetic Crusade," urging the government to establish magnetic observatories throughout the empire. He also recruited many disciples to the cause – most notably James Clark Ross
James Clark Ross
Sir James Clark Ross , was a British naval officer and explorer. He explored the Arctic with his uncle Sir John Ross and Sir William Parry, and later led his own expedition to Antarctica.-Arctic explorer:...
, a nephew of Sir John's, the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
and the astronomer royal, George Airy.
A committee, of which Sabine was a prominent member, was established to work out the details. Suitable locations for the observatories were selected in both hemispheres and representations were made to despatch an expedition to the Southern Ocean
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions...
to carry out a magnetic survey of the Antarctic
Antarctic
The Antarctic is the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence...
. In the spring of 1839, the government approved the scheme. Observatories were to be established at Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, St. Helena, Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
and at stations to be determined by the East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, while other nations were invited to co-operate. Sabine was appointed to superintend the entire operation.
Most of these observatories were of limited size and were dismantled as soon as the initial survey was complete, but the one founded by Sabine at Toronto in 1840 is still in existence. Originally housed in a modest building at the newly established University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, it was called the Toronto Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory
Toronto Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory
The Toronto Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory is a historical observatory located on the grounds of the University of Toronto, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The original building was constructed in 1840 as part of a worldwide research project run by Edward Sabine to determine the cause of...
. It was the first scientific institution in the country.
The birthplace of Canadian astronomy was a simple log building held together with copper nails and brass fastenings. Non-magnetic materials were used to avoid the problem of "local attraction." A second room was built to house a telescope, which was used to make accurate time readings based on the movement of the Sun and stars. The modern stone observatory was erected in 1855.
In those days, there was no way to take continuous readings: everything had to be done by hand. Thousands of painstaking observations were taken by the staff – sometimes as frequently as every five minutes! These observations were all carefully scrutinised by Sabine back in Britain.
In 1852, Sabine recognized from the Toronto records that magnetic variations could be divided into a regular diurnal cycle and an irregular portion. The irregularity correlated very closely with fluctuations in the number of sunspots, whose cyclic nature had been discovered in 1844 by the German amateur astronomer Heinrich Schwabe
Heinrich Schwabe
Samuel Heinrich Schwabe a German astronomer remembered for his work on sunspots.Schwabe was born at Dessau. At first an apothecary, he turned his attention to astronomy, and in 1826 commenced his observations on sunspots. Schwabe was trying to discover a new planet inside the orbit of Mercury...
. Sabine was the first to recognize that solar disturbances affected the Earth's magnetic environment. On 6 April 1852 he announced that the Sun's 11-year sunspot cycle was "absolutely identical" to the Earth's 11-year geomagnetic cycle.
The following year, Sabine also made a similar correlation with the Moon, establishing that that celestial body too had an influence on the Earth's magnetic field. He concluded that the Moon must have a significant magnetic field of its own to cause such an effect. But for once he was mistaken: the effect is actually the result of gravitational tides in the ionosphere. (Nevertheless, a crater
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
on the Moon has been named in his honour.)
Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, Sabine continued to superintend the operation of magnetic observatories throughout the British Empire. The result was Sabine's magnum opus: as complete a magnetic survey of the globe as was then humanly possible.
Later life
Throughout his long life Edward Sabine received numerous decorations for his contributions to science. In 1849 the Royal Society awarded him one of its gold medals for his work on terrestrial magnetism. Sabine was president of the society from 1861 until his resignation ten years later. He was a member of the Royal Commission of 1868-1869 for standardizing weights and measures. Both Oxford and Cambridge bestowed honorary doctorates on him. He was a fellow of the Linnean and the Royal Astronomical Societies, a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...
(from 1867) and president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
He was knighted in 1869, becoming a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. He retired from the army on full pay in 1877, by which time he had achieved the rank of General.
In 1879 Sabine's wife, Elizabeth Leeves, died. An accomplished woman in her own right, she had assisted her husband in his scientific endeavours for more than half a century. Her four-volume translation of Alexander von Humboldt’s monumental textbook of geophysics Kosmos, was published 1849-1858.
Sir Edward Sabine died at East Sheen, Surrey, on 26 June 1883 and was buried in the family vault at Tewin, Hertfordshire. He was 94.
The California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
n Gray Pine
Gray Pine
Pinus sabiniana , with the common names gray pine, California foothill pine, and the more historically and internationally used digger pine, is a pine endemic to California in the United States...
(Pinus sabineana) is named after him, as is Sabine's Gull
Sabine's Gull
The Sabine's Gull is a small gull. Its generic placement is disputed; some authors treat it as the sole species in the genus Xema as Xema sabini, while others retain it in the genus Larus as Larus sabini. It breeds in the arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through northernmost North America...
(Larus sabini).
A crater on the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
is named in his honor. Sabine Crater lies directly adjacent to the landing site of the first manned mission to Luna, by the crew of Apollo XI in July 1969, in the southern Mare Tranquillitatis
Mare Tranquillitatis
Mare Tranquillitatis is a lunar mare that sits within the Tranquillitatis basin on the Moon. The mare material within the basin consists of basalt formed in the intermediate to young age group of the Upper Imbrian epoch. The surrounding mountains are thought to be of the Lower Imbrian epoch, but...
region.