John Mackenzie Bacon

John Mackenzie Bacon, FRAS (19 June 1846 – 26 December 1904) was an English astronomer, aeronaut, and lecturer. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1888.[1] Both John and his daughter Gertrude were members of the British Astronomical Association.[2] The BAA organised expeditions to observe total solar eclipses, which John and Gertrude went on. The first was to Vadso, Lapland (eclipse date 9 August 1896), which was unsuccessful due to cloudy weather.[3] The second was to Buxar, India (eclipse date 22 January 1898).[4] Here they succeeded in filming the eclipse, but unfortunately the film has been lost. [5] The Bacons also went on a ballon flight in November 1899 piloted by Stanley Spencer to observe the Leonid meteors. The flight took off from Newbury at 4:00am on Thursday 16 November and drifted westward with the flight ending near Neath. Very few meteors were observed however.[6] A third eclipse expedition was to Wadesborough, North Carolina (eclipse date 28 May 1900) and was also successful.[7][8] Bacon and John Nevil Maskelyne went on to file a patent for inflating balloons.[9]

References
  1. "Obituary Notice: Fellows:- Bacon, John Mackenzie". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 65, p.334. 1805. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
  2. "1905JBAA...15..128. Page 128". articles.adsabs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  3. "1898MmBAA...6....1. Page 1". articles.adsabs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  4. E. Walter Maunder, F. r a s (1899). The Indian Eclipse, 1898.
  5. Bottomore, Stephen. "John Mackenzie Bacon". Who's Who of Victorian Cinema. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
  6. Wide World Magazine. Robarts - University of Toronto. London.CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. Haines, Catharine M. C. (2001). International women in science: a biographical dictionary to 1950. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1576070905.
  8. British Astronomical Association; Maunder, E. Walter (Edward Walter) (1901). The total solar eclipse, 1900; report of the expeditions organized by the British astronomical association to observe the total solar eclipse of 1900, May 28. University of California Libraries. London, "Knowledge" office.
  9. French patent 332409 (1903) at European Patent Office site
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