Ebook David Gill

Shortly before his death Sir David Gill's monumental work, A History and Description of the Cape Observatory, was issued by the Admiralty in a handsome volume. Any further complete summary of his scientific work would fill several volumes. Gill's contributions to astronomy are mentioned in this book only as throwing a light upon his character. His friends have expressed a desire to have some memories preserved of David Gill, the man, whom they had learnt to love. Primarily for these friends this book is written. During the twenty-seven years, however, which he spent in raising the Cape of Good Hope Observatory to the highest position in equipment and work done, while astronomers were filled with admiration, the general public were not told much about what he was doing for science and the empire. A secondary purpose of this book is to make his personality, untarnished by self-advertisement, real for those who knew him not, and possibly as inspiring and elevating to some of them as it has certainly been to the biographer privileged to study the innermost workings of his mind.

To David Gill astronomy was almost a religion. This reverence for his chosen science was tempered by human sympathies; and the present book, while telling of his growth, from schoolboy and watchmaker to leader of astronomical research, deals also with his friendships, his delightful social and domestic life, his humour, his enjoyment of the world and his varied employments, among which deer-stalking occupied a special place.