Sydney Observatory Papers No.31
SYDNEY OBSERVATORY : 1858 to 1958 Part 8
By HARLEY WOOD
JAMES NANGLE
In April, 1926, James Nangle (born 1868, December 28), the
Superintendent of Technical Education, a well known amateur
astronomer and member of the Board of Visitors of the Observatory,
was asked to report on “the simplest
and most economical was of carrying on some of the more necessary
activities of the Sydney Observatory, having in view the fact that it
is intended to transfer this work to the Branch. Department of
Technical Education”. He outlined the
minimum requirements for a time service and urged that the work on
the Astrographic Catalogue should continue, even though on a reduced
scale, as it was portion of an international undertaking to which the
State was committed. He expressed appreciation of his appointment to
direct the Observatory but said he “would be even better pleased if the
Government decided not to interfere with the establishment at
all”. His recommendations were in the
main accepted and he assumed control of the Observatory on 1926,
September 1. Three of the staff were retained and renovations to the
building were made before he moved into residence in 1927. As part of
this re-organisation a trained librarian was borrowed for a period
from the Public Library of New South Wales and the library of the
Observatory put on a better basis.
When Nangle took over almost all of the plates for the
Astrographic Catalogue had been accepted and most of the remaining
ones were taken by the end of 1928. Because of an accumulation of
measures of the co-ordinates of the stars on the plates and of
transit observations for their reduction was possible to continue the
work for a few years even with the staff reduced as it was. This work
was carried on with devotion by W. C. Graham. Eventually, however, it
became necessary to obtain more assistance for him, and Nangle and
the Board of Visitors made recommendations which led in 1937 to the
appointment of two assistants for the measuring work. Thirteen more
volumes of the Catalogue were published in Nangle’s time.
In the meantime Raymond was carrying on the transit work to obtain
positions of reference stars for the Catalogue. Naturally
single-handed work of this kind proceeded rather slowly and
eventually the preparation of Catalogue volumes overran the supply of
reference stars and, in order to take advantage of the resources
granted for printing, it became necessary to publish some of the
volumes without plate constants. In order to reduce the transit
programme to give hope of completing it within more reasonable time
it was then decided to give up the attempt to observe all of the
reference stars at Sydney but to make use of positions available from
published catalogues.
Sydney Observatory took part the World Longitude Campaign in 1926,
October and November. When in 1938 the observations were made for
re-determination of the longitude of Lord Howe Island the resulting
longitude for the Observatory was 10h 4m
48.97″, a value very close to one obtained 1921. In 1927 a
request for redetermining of the latitude of Parramatta Observatory
was received from A. Wegener with the idea of providing a test of his
theory of drift of the continents. It was not practicable to do this
but the Surveyor General arranged for a connection between Sydney
Observatory and the position of the transit instrument of the
Parramatta Observatory and Nangle remeasured the latitude Sydney. No
change from the old determinations was measurable.
Nangle attached much importance to the educational work of the
Observatory. In 1927 he arranged for H.E.G. Rayner, who had been
transferred from the staff a year before, to be employed on a part
time basis to give evening demonstrations to public visitors. This is
an activity which has continued to grow ever since. In [pg. 23] 1929
heprepared a book, “Stars of the
Southern Heavens”, to serve as a guide
for amateurs wishing to observe the sky with field glasses or small
telescopes. By 1937 a third edition of this work was necessary.
Nangle had several difficulties to contend with one of which was
the uncertainty time as to the respective responsibilities of the
State and Commonwealth Governments for astronomical work. In March,
1927, a conference was held in to discuss the organisation of
astronomical work in Australia. It was by all of the state government
astronomers, the director of the Commonwealth Solar Observatory and
the Chairman of the Council for Scientific and Research, but the
views put forward varied so much that they were only able to urge the
Commonwealth to take a more active interest in astronomical and the
state governments to give more generous resources towards the
Astrographic Catalogue. Then from 1930 onward for several years,
Australia, like most countries of the world, was affected by severe
economic depression and ways of economising were sought on all sides.
In 1932 after a report by a Commonwealth officer on ’overlapping of Commonwealth and State
Services”, there were suggestions that
the astronomical work of Australia should be concentrated in two
Federal observatories. Nangle vigourously opposed these moves at all
stages pointing out that the state observatories, Sydney in
particular, were doing work which must certainly be carried on and
that no economy would be by the proposed centralisation. The
community would lose a great deal allowed the Observatory to be
transferred. As there was public reaction against proposal, a
deputation to the Minister for Education arranged by influential
scientific and educational bodies and as it was proposed that New
South Wales should continue financial responsibility for work being
transferred the scheme not appear so attractive and finally, in
August 1936, a conference of Commonwealth and State Ministers agreed
that the states should remain responsible for astronomical work.
The financial depression led to the closing on the Branch
Observatory at Pennant Hills. James Short who had beenastronomical
photographer since 1896 was due to retire at the end of 1930 and
despite representations by Nangle and his Board of Visitors,
financial circumstance weighed too heavily for a successor to be
appointed and so it was necessary in 1931 to move the astrograph back
to Sydney Observatory where it was housed in the building from which
it had been taken in 1899.
Nangle retired from his position as Superintendent of Technical
Education in but he remained in charge of the Observatory. For acting
as Government astronomer he had received no salary consideration
other than occupancy of the astronomer’s residence at the Observatory and this
arrangement was continued.
At this stage it was a matter of urgency to give attention to the
staffing at the Observatory. The administration and clerical work had
been done largely by the staff under Nangle at the Technical College
but now it was necessary to appoint clerical help for the
Observatory. This was done in 1935. The, too, as Raymond was due to
retire at the end of 1933 and Graham in 1937, Nangle had begun in
1930 to urge for the appointment of a man who could gain something
from Raymond’s experience by working
with him for a time. It was not, however, till the beginning of 1936
that H. W. Wood was appointed.
Interesting minor activities of the Observatory in this period
were connected with aviation, radio time signals and tides. There
were many pioneering aviation flights in the late twenties and early
thirties. The support of such astronomical information as the aviator
needs is now thoroughly organised but in those days of the pioneers
received help from the 0bservatory and the members of the [pg. 25]
staff valued anecdotes of their contacts with the adventurers. In
July, 1940, partly as a result of the visit by the English
horologist, Frank Hope-Jones, the radio stations of Australia began
the broadcasting from the various Observatories of a six dot time
signal similar to that used in Britain. In 1940 a committee of
representatives of the Maritime and the Royal Australian Navy held a
series of meetings at the Observatory under Wood’s chairmanship to discuss the establishment
of a uniformly determined tidal datum level for the ports of New
South Wales. A final meeting of this committee was held in 1949, as a
result of which Indian spring low water level has been adopted as the
datum.
Nangle took ill in the middle of 1940. The condition of his heart
deteriorated and he died on 1941, February 22. In any assessment of
his work we must remember that he had three successful careers, as an
astronomer, an architect, and an educationalist. Indeed the last must
be regarded as his life work for he was responsible for the
organisation and tremendous growth of technical education in New
South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania and for an extensive
scheme for vocational training of soldiers returning from the
1914-1918 War. He was awarded the O.B.E. in 1920. Before he came to
the Observatory he had for many years been an active member of the
New South Wales Branch of the British Astronomical Association, being
President on many occasions, and publishing a number papers, chiefly
ondouble stars, in the journal of the Association. He was from 1913
to 1935 a fellow of the Senate of Sydney University and in 1920-21
was President of the Royal Society of New South Wales. His ability as
a speaker and, particularly, as a chairman of meetings was a
tremendous asset to the organisations for which he worked.
Nangle’s period as Government
Astronomer covered difficult years, which included the financial
depression, and the beginning of the Second World War. His
administrative ability were largely instrumental in keeping the
Observatory going on a satisfactory basis.
Last Update : 14th November 2012
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