Warren De La Rue

Welcome to the curiosity of a child episode 33 we are back and we've got another Guernsey Great this episode.

Yay!

Yes, I know you've been wanting one of those so.

Umm, but we've also both got slightly running lasers, so hopefully that way into info with the recording too much, but we've been taking our lateral flow tests and we're all clear there, which is good.

So we get straight into it.

With the show.

Today we are covering another Guernsey Great. This time Warren De La Rue. Have you heard of him?

Uhm, not before you started the research of this.

OK, so lots for you to find out apart and then now I chose Warren De La Rueto tie in with the launch of the James Webb telescope as Mr De La Rue was a pioneer in astrophotography.

And James Nasmyth actually called him the father of celestial photography.

And during his lifetime he had not only create some of the finest images of the moon, but also and the sun, but also design and develop the apparatus and techniques which will continue to advance the field after his death.

It's pretty good.

Yeah, I mean he's not actually as well known as some of his contemporaries, but maybe he should be better known than he is.

That's why we're covering him. 'cause that's going to get maybe three more people knowing him.

Exactly, and he's reached the big time now.

With us talking about him.

So he was born 18th of January 1815 right here in Ghanzi and his dad is Thomas Delarey and he's the founder of the delivery printing company which are still around today and a big multinational printers.

And the family I actually moved to England before Warren 2nd birthday, so I think I'm stretching the guns. You great concept a little.

Bit here, but his wife is local.

I'm not quite sure how they met as he may never actually return to guns. He actually lived, but he did stay in touch with people locally in early life.

He didn't have all the conflict, which is that he would or his family would gain in later years and actually his grandfather had fallen into debt. He he was a farmer and

His dad also like Thomas was he had debts at some point of his life and earlier on in his career he made straw hats.

He ate straw hats.

Then they made straw hats, maybe ate them as well. Maybe they're that hungry.

Oh made straw hats.

Yeah, I just added that.

I'm actually not going to cover their early life too much because it'll be another episode I think on Thomas Delivery where we cover that and the printing business. So in other games you great for the future.

But just so you know, today the delivery printers, they are the largest commercial printer of money in the world.

And 1/3 of all banknotes in circulation were designed by.

Them that's.

Cool yeah, so they they literally print money.

I think if you come from that kind of background, you know that it's going to be somebody who's got a real attention to detail.

And I.

Think you'll see that through war and every life.

So by his teams it seems the family must have started to gain some success because at age 15 Warren was sent to be educated in Perry.

But there was a much stronger emphasis on science in the education than there was in England, and Warren later wrote to his father.

I perceive now the French education is much superior to the English.

Thank you very well done.

And by all accounts he was a good student who's mature good at maths, drawing intelligent and generally good to get along with.

But if he was born in 1815 and travelled to Paris aged 15, what year would that be?

1830

That's right, and do you know what happened in 1830 in Paris?

No, but I probably will later.

Yeah, in July of that year the French had one of their many revolutions and charged, the 10th was deposed.

Now this wasn't the big French Revolution, which you usually hear about, but it's still a time of unrest. And here's a rather fantastic painting of it.

It's cool.

Now due to the unrest, when he returned to England and joined his father in the family firm where he would become instrumental to its future growth.

Now at heart, I think Warren. He was a real scientist. He loved to experiment and through this developed improvements to the printing surface of paper and formers for inks which was really into his chemistry.

But his curiosity wasn't just limited to printing, and in 1837, eight just 22, he had published his first scientific papers on the Daniel Battery, and he would also go on to become a founding member of the Chemical Society in 1841 and would later become much president.

Pretty good.

Now I've been newspaper report from the 1880s here, which I'm going to struggle to read at this distance.

Let's see if I can zoom in progress in chemistry. Some interesting points in the progress of modern chemistry were touched upon in the address by Doctor Del Rey at the late anniversary of the British Chemical Society. So rapid, he says, has been the development of chemistry.

That much of the aspect of chemical thought has altered in the last few years old and once familiar bodies have not only changed but new and unfamiliar individuals and families have crowded and greatly extending the domain of chemistry.

It's hard to read this as an older brain tap up. That's just to give you an idea of how the field of chemistry was really changing. A lot to this time. So exciting.

Be part of it.

And to keep up with that, you obviously have to have a certain level of intellect. Now do you remember back in episode 21 where we covered pigments? There was a red pigment made The Beatles.

Do you remember it?

Yeah, I remember that I remember I did some homework for school as well, so that was the inspiration for it.

Oh, you didn't, yeah.

Yes, game bullets called.

Hey, Coach Neil probably got that wrong. Granny is going to turn me off.

Yeah, yeah, he wrote some papers about that too. And making pigments with it.

So he was clearly involved with the scientific scene and he even assisted Michael Faraday in his studies of gold film in the 1850s. So have you heard of Michael Faraday?

I think so.

Well, just put it this way, he's a major player in the world of science.

But Are you ready to have your mind blown?

OK.

Are you sure? Because your curiosity centre of your brain could actually come running out of your.

Ears with us. Well, I'm I'm glad that.

Actually, if my mind blown.

None of us are going to have any brain left because episode one. You lost yours.

That's true, you cut it out.

And this time you're saying my, my brains are going.

To Umm I'm not so I'm not so sure now.

Well, I think I've done quite well than a brain.

So do you know what this is?

This is called the delarue platinum filament incandescent lamp, and it's a light bulb. He actually invented the light bulb.

Well, when you say somebody invents the light bulb, each person would have actually built upon the achievements and understanding and development of those who came before them.

But delivery is a light bulb which had a platinum coil which would survive in very high temperatures for a long time and also had a vacuum tube around. It was what you could call the first working example.

Of what went on to become the modern light bulb.

O pretty cool lay. He gave us light.

Do you know how filament light bulbs work?

No, oh is it.

Platinum thing inside, does it like heat up and then glow red, although all glow.

Exactly that's right, yeah. So why do you?

Think a vacuum would be useful.

Uhm, so that the flame doesn't go out. Well, like the heat doesn't go out.

Yeah yeah anyway, because if there's no other particles around it that can interact with the heated filament then it's going to keep it from.

Yeah, getting damaged really.

OK.

Wow, I explained that well in my head. I knew it better and then the words left me.

But in the 1840s, it was actually really difficult to create reliable vacuums, and platinum filament was too expensive to mass produce.

But the concept had been proven. This was the first reliable bulb, demonstrating what later people made to be Thomas Edison would go on to steal. I, I mean, perfect.

He did like her painting things, so do you know what happened in London in 1851? Big eventless.

It's right there in front of you.

Ah, the Great expedition exhibition.

Yes, it wasn't the expedition through the streets of London. It was the exhibition and this was at the Crystal Palace. And you know what it was.

Uh, was it a big football event? 'cause it's Crystal Palace or?

Now the club came about later. This is actually the first international exhibition on manufactured products and with exhibits from all around the world.

Now you could say it was a celebration of the Industrial Revolution and pretty Great Britain. Powerful position in the world at that time.

And there are actually over 6 million visitors in the first year and the UK population was only about 18 million at the time. Big deal and it was housed in this specially constructed Crystal Palace.

Which was a spectacular building. As you can see.

In that photo, just.

Like a massive greenhouse, but they'll be ornate. 1 sadly, that burnt down in 1936.

And the fire was so big that the IT said that the glow you could be seen from 50 miles away.

So there's a map here, then that little dot in the middle is it's approximate location, then that red ring of drawn around is how far you could see the delay.

Woah, far very far.

Massively, yeah.

And there are reports that the iron and the glass got so hot that they started to melt.

So that would be maybe one thousand 1500 degrees centigrade. So some people say like that could have happened to give me that hot.

But there are people saying that they saw it dripping or days later they would pick up molten.

Bits of glass?

Yeah, so so it's a shame.

But let's return to happier times. The opening of the Great exhibition on the 1st of May, 1851.

Now this is a painting by Henri Saluz. I hope I said that correctly, depicting the embling I'm featuring Queen Victoria and her beloved Prince Albert, your latest. She's not dressed in black because he's not dead yet.

Yep, happy times.

Yeah, now at the front on the right hand side is Thomas Delaware. Do you think you can spot him now that you know what he looks like so he can choose somebody?

So you said up front on the right.

Hand side

I'm going to have a closer look, so you might.

Not be able to hear me properly. OK, here is now looking closer with his face right up to the screen.

Have you chosen your selected Thomas?

Yep, I think it's.

That guy there.

And in the background somewhere is his son, Warren, which we're not gonna try and sparks. There's quite a few people in this.

Miss Thomas delarey. He purchased this painting just as kind of a way to remember the exhibition and it was donated to the VANA to the Victorian Albert Museum.

After his death.

Now both father and son. They're actually appointed jurors at the event, so they would go around and help judge some of the exhibits.

And they also had their own stand, which won a bronze medal, and they exhibited 289 different items on their stool.

Now this is more than all the items from North America combined.

Yeah, and one of the things they exhibited was paper and it was reported that they produced the best writing papers in England.

Well done.

Yeah, but I think how important paper is.

Actually, yeah, we do use it quite a lot. I wonder if we're using like his special paper in schools and stuff.

He probably had a part in the development of at some point historically, but what was their star exhibit?

An envelope

I've just passed Anton an envelope pick up that envelope peas and they open it.

OK.

And the winner is.

It's empty.

It's open.

Yeah, their star exhibit was.

An envelope making machine.

This would pop that down even there.

Right?

Yeah, that's the envelope. Yes. He Warren delarue. He was a bit of an engineer as well and he had actually developed a machine for folding envelopes. And these yeah need to be done by hand up until that point.

That's cool.

So in 1851 million letters were being sent today in the UK and over 80% of those were sent in envelopes. So before that would have been kind of folded with the wax seal.

I I quite like how come most of them were afforded by hand and then now Pete up at school at my school. Anyway, it would be like wow you can fold and everything by hand.

That's true actually. Yeah somebody he was skilled in the manufacturing of envelopes could maybe make three thousands a day by hand and then Warren's machine promised to make 2700 an hour. So gonna transform envelope production.

Our sauce is very important, yeah?

Envelope is important thing. Keeping things safe and clean and all.

Sorts that could have could have stopped some wars.

Because there could have been a letter, a very important letter that was only protected by the envelope.

Yeah, there's a whole history of envelopes.

So as well as his envelope making machine, one has a few other inventions to his name which are most of on Earth and.

Some payment records.

Improvements in combining fluids to be burned in lamps.

And what's this one here? So it's hard to read these older documents. Improvements in treating Japan and other vegetable wax, so I had to look at what they meant here.

And it's actually a it's not a true wax. It's actually a fat, but it's a wax like fat and a byproduct of creating lacquer. And it was used in prey on.

Szepes lubricants, floor polishes, but it's meant to smell a little bit rancid.

Yeah, one more here, which is improvements in preparing surfaces or paper and cardboard.

Brother tangent time. Are you ready?

OK.

So there are other exhibitors from Guernsey at the Great exhibition. So what type of stone is Croydon Guernsey?

That's correct, yeah. So there was a Thomas Clark gas.

I think that's correct and he displayed.

Maybe yeah, and he displayed a range of granites from the baileywick.

Then there was iodine and potash made from local seaweed, and it makes me think how hard it is to make. Maybe we should try doing our own.

She has run. We did the mail science experiment. The idea?

Yeah, that was cool.

Then there were dresses are the traditional woollen Guernsey wax fruits and more. But my favourite is.

Damn, this is a good one. This is mummy taliferro wheat.

So this isn't directly from Guernsey, but there was a farmer from reading. He named Richard Webb and he claimed to have received seeds from Harry Dobry, president of the Agricultural Society of Guernsey and Dumb. These seeds have been found in the hand of an Egyptian mummy, and then he drained them.

Richard Webb, James Weldon through the web through telescope thinking.

Oh yeah, Dun Dun durn. Maybe you found a link?

There Oh my God.

Let's return to Warren, Charlie. So one of the exhibits was a delegate type of the moon by John Adams Whipple. This was a early photographic process, OK, and now Whipple he was the director of the Harvard College.

Observatory and his images were some of the clearest ever taken of the moon, and they seemed to really capture Warren's imagination.

He'd already had a keen interest in astronomy after his meetings with James Naismith in the 1840s.

You've done it again. He did it the other day. He said a straminea.

Extra money.

Yeah, where's dramani?

Where is it?

And astronomy thank you.

That's why I'm here to correct me straminea.

I can't see it now.

Astronomy astronomy?

Astronomy astronomy?

Astronomii we won't cut this down.

There go.

It seems he already had a keen interest in astronomy.

I can't say it now.

It's stuck in my head after meetings with James Naismith in the 1840s of which he said.

No one has had so greater claim on the fruit of my labours, for you inoculated me with the love of star gazing ah.

That's so romantic.

It isn't it.

Wanting to produce even clearer photos than Wibble, Warren decided to apply the new wet collodion process to his photographs and managed to capture the best images of the moon to date. And here's one example here.

Pretty good, isn't it?

That is very good.

You gotta remember, maybe people wouldn't have seen the mood more than just gazing up with it at night at this.

Point so to see like a big picture like that amazing.

Now, taking photos wasn't a quick process back then, and the exposure time could be minutes, so you'd need to keep your subject very still and in focus.

And that might not seem like a problem when you're faced graphing the moon, but if you think of when the sun setting and how quickly actually goes down, you're gonna have a similar issue with the moon and so tracking it was a difficult task.

And delarue he said it was not easy to find a friend always to pay you to wait up for hours night after night, probably without attaining any result.

But he was married and had four boys and a daughter. So maybe he raped those into helping out.

Sound familiar?

Well, moving even to this broadcast.

But being a skilled engineer, he continued to improve the equipment, such as creating a sliding plate holder and a clockwork mechanism for moving the telescope at the correct speed.

Ask cycle.

And with his chemistry knowledge, he also improved the process to so he could speed up with the exposure time.

He also liked to do stereoscopic images of the Moon, so I've got some.

VR goggles for you here.

Let me just prepare it.

This is also from mouse science.

It is yes, if you're on the sponsor us.

Oh, now I've seen picture.

OK, so if you look through that.

So the stereo graph. Those are where you've got 2 pictures at slightly different angles. To give a 3D effect.

Now you don't quite have the resolution, unfortunately. On the phone there, but what was really amazing about these pictures?

Was that it allowed people to start to see depth and shape of the moon and they also did the same with the sun later on up so that you could start to see peaks and ridges and also help people maybe understand.

Let's say the flare and different phenomena on the surface of the sun as well. Kind of what was coming in what was going out.

Yeah, that's cool, yeah?

And I think from the drawings you can understand why he also got that desire to want to photograph things because of the difference between having a photo and a drawing or something in space, and because he himself said that he would always etch his images as he couldn't find an engraver careful enough for the task. But even then he had delayed the publications of his pictures.

As he doubted his own observations, was he really understood the importance of accuracy and he has an excellent eye for detail.

But it said that he'd also share his Prince and his face grass with others, so that they would benefit.

That's nice.

His photos of the moon. Our people said that they brought to light details of ***** and terraces and furrows and undulations, and the lunar surface of which no certain knowledge had previously existed.

But unfortunately he deduced from his images that the moon also had a dense atmosphere and vegetation, so didn't get that one right, and.

And this of course had been lied to. Maybe the mean endings were faked.

Dum, dum.

Now, one thing I failed to mention is that Warren was also elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1850 and was twice its vice president.

So getting an.

Idea of kind of how important or prestigious?

Kind of his role was.

Roll one.

I'm surprised it's not more well known.

Yeah, I know, yeah, and his skills as a photographer, observer, technician, scientist and more were clearly respected and made all the more evident when the Royal Society commissioned him to look into re mounting the lens created by Super Scientist Christian.

I'll reset that wrong now.

In the 1600s and was presented to the Royal Society by Super scientists at Isaac Newton.

So this was a a lens that had been made by hand, so I think these are presented it to the Royal Society. So not just an important scientific instrument, but an incredibly historic 1 as well.

Etched on it is the name of the first two first team scientists along with Warren's a name.

In 1854, Super Scientist Slaughter super scientist Rand said John Herschel stated I consider it an object of very considerable importance to secure some observatory, and indeed more than one in different localities. Daily photographic representations of the sun with a view to keep up a consecutive and perfectly faithful record.

Of the history of the spots.

So this is recording some spots so Anton can you think of anyone who might be able to fulfil this desire?

US or.

I wasn't born then and I didn't think you were either, so I think maybe I have.

To go for Warren here, what about Granny? No, not sure.

Actually, she's not never enough.

She can probably hear us because she got a super. She got tested by a scientist and was told she had very good hearing fully.

It does, it's scary, actually.

Uhm, yes he correct. It was Warren and he designed and had built the photo heliograph and this was the first instrument ever specifically constructed for photographing celestial objects.

So up until then, it always been a camera kind of stuck to a telescope, but this was actually a purpose built apparatus.

And it was housed in the Q Observatory, but getting good results proved a difficult task.

As they're getting the staff to use it so it was actually several years before it was used on a daily basis. And here's a photo of it sharpening their notes.

That's cool.

Uh, so it's not that big but.

Could you imagine designing an instrument to?

Pitch of the sun.

Not really.

Is if you have binoculars, what shouldn't you do with them?

Look at the.

Sun, yeah, you shouldn't even really look at the sun anyway with your naked eye because it's so bright, so you just think of trying to produce something that can.

Tame that brightness but still allow you to focus and get the most precise pictures of it ever.

And what happens when you magnify the sun? Save the magnifying glass and you find the.

Oh, it gets very hot and fire.

Uh-huh exactly yeah, so a really complicated thing to build, what I thought.

But Warren, he was a very, very talented engineer and his process for polishing mirrors of telescopes that he helped design was actually described in Encyclopaedia Britannica by Sir John Herschel on the article on telescopes.

That's cool.

He's there's so many stories of him improving equipment that he had.

18th of July 1860. River Boullosa, northern Spain. It's early afternoon. The sun is high in the sky.

But everything is plunged Into Darkness. Day becomes night.

What could be happening, Anton?

An eclipse.

Correct, yes.

Yeah, so this was a solar eclipse and Warren and 18 were in Spain with the photo heliograph to capture this amazing event.

That clearly took a lot of planning.

And in more ways than is expected as this newspaper article I found looks clear.

Oh no, he's only Mr Warren de la Reina. I'm not Doctor Warren Delano.

Yeah, so yes.

The Astronomer Royal will leave for a time his comfortable quarters at Greenwich and take part in the work accompanied by Mr Warren Delarey.

His skill as a failure. He did Rafa is to be turned to the count of taking photos of the sun's appearance at intervals, drawing the eclipse. The necessity for the exactitude of the observations is so imperative.

That the use of a lamp or artificial lights so prejudicial to the results that Mr Ori in address to the Astronomical Society urges members to practise writing their notes in the dark and provide beforehand against the failure and discipline which commonly occurs among assistants joined the strange and appalling appearance of potato eclipse.

O yeah, they had to practise writing.

In the dark.

I love that as well that the the assistants obviously go crazy or something drawing an eclipse.

Now the face graphic of the eclipse. It was a major event and are linked to a book in the show notes by war and Ellery, that covers the entire expedition and their findings.

Sense, actually, I think a really beautiful book is very well typeset, so you can see his skills as a, uh, as a typesetter and a printer there.

So here's a spread from it with a lovely would cut off the team, which I'll show you later in a moment, and also a list of chemicals that they used. He says that many astronomers.

Astronomers, many astronomers.

They wouldn't know with the chemicals that were needed for the faint traffic process, so he made them down. So there's nitrate of silver crystals of nitrate of silver nitrate of silver.

Oxide of silver.

And here's a close up of the woodcut so you can see the team and with the fader here graph set up. It's quite a big team, isn't it?

But if you look at these ladies on the left, they've got mono brows.

Yeah, they were seem a bit grumpy.

As well, yeah, so you've dragged me along here. I thought we could have a lovely time in Spain and we've been set out in this field flowers.

Now their efforts to phase graph the eclipse could have been hindered when it cost of clouds formed very rapidly and unexpectedly in the immediate neighbourhood of the sun, and completely put a stop to both optical and photographic observations.

The clouds melted away about 6 minutes after he formed, and thenceforward until the end of the eclipse all went without interruption.

So yeah, it could have all ended in failure due to some clouds.

Dun Dun Dun.

Oh, OK, so here's another spread from the book and it's a couple of reproductions of his photos, which I think it's got a lovely quality about them.

But what can you?

See around the edge of them.

I can see.

Light and fire.

Yeah, the fire or the flames.

They are called these solar.

Prominences and like you said they look just like flames.

And you can also see them on this amazing image, recently captured by Andrew McCarthy.

That's cool.

Yeah, so this is my this is a modern picture and it's made up of a common if it's 10,000 or 100,000 individual pictures.

Using special equipment, so I've actually got a copy of this.

So I emailed him.

But shall we get even closer to these provinces, so you?

Can see how big they are.

OK.

Say what's going on in this picture.

So we've got one of the flames, and then we've got the approximate size of the Earth nearer, and it's tiny.

Yeah, so these are.

I got marble.

Now, I've been debated for a long time with these prominences were originating from the sun or the moon because maybe they were a sign of the atmosphere on the moon and through the work of war and Ellery and other observers. This mystery was solved and I've actually found this really good newspaper article talking about them.

It's actually in response to another article which I couldn't find which is the same, so I think it's quite funny.

So this is from the Trinity Journal 29th of January 1870, and I think they've got some the dates.

Wrong in the article itself there.

Storms in the sun. There appears in the advertiser some weeks since a paragraph declaring that a column of magnetic light is shooting out from the sun at prestigious speed that it already reaches halfway to the earth, and that in all probability by another summer we shall have a celestial and atmospheric phenomena. Besides which, our rudist winter winds will seem like a June morning in Paradise.

When the Big Tonga fire touches the earth, it will likely lap us up and adlab in one mouthful.

Very many have made enquiries of me concerning this prodigy and with your leave I'll try to satisfy their curiosity and perhaps their fears.

So their worries that the flames from the sun are going to come and go for.

The earth it.

Has been named for some time at drawing a total eclipse.

Red flames were seen to play about the edge of the moon. Join the eclipses of 1868 and 1869, so that's where I think the dates wrong.

It was definitely settled that they were entirely disconnected from the moon and were vast tongues of fire, darting out from the sun's disc, but observations with the spectroscope and also by means of the wonderful phase graphs of the sun taken by delarue.

Join the eclipse of 1869, which is 1860, where it was discovered that these fire mountains consisted mainly of.

Burning hydrogen gas.

This was precious information to secure in the midst of the excitement and novelty, and in the brief duration of the total eclipse, it did not have a fair, satisfy scientific men for two years.

Mr Lockyer, aided by a grant from Parliament, constructed a superior instrument and had been experimenting and searching in order to detect these flames at other times.

Other than the rare occurrence of potato eclipse on the 29th of October 1868, he obtained a distinct image of one of the provinces which he after is traced entirely around the sun. Astronomers can therefore now study these flames at any time. The result of the observation.

Now being taken, show that storms raise up on the surface with such violence, of which we can form a conception hurricane sweep over its surface with terrific violence, vast cyclones wrap fires into whirlpools.

At the bottom of which the Earth could lie like a boulder in a volcano, he's flames dart out to enormous distances and.

Fly over the sun with a speed greater than the Earth itself through space.

At one time, a cone of fire shot out 80,000 miles, then died away in all of 10 minutes.

Besides such awful convulsions, the mimic display of a terrestrial volcano or earthquake sinks into insignificance. There's nothing in this phenomena to alarm us.

They have in all probability happened constantly for ages past that we now have a means to investigate their nature and measure their height and velocity furnishes no cause for anxiety.

Rumours of these discoveries have crept into the papers and exaggerated by repeated copying and sensational editions and have given rise to this mysterious and uncalled for predictions.

So you see there the.

Uh, first of all, the excitement around these discoveries and the scientific achievements that are going on at the time, but also how they get sensationalised in the press.

Do you think things have changed since then?

I haven't really healthy, that's why it's so important to try and have a good knowledge and listen to experts on these subjects. So with each new thing we learn comes new ideas either confirming or debunking.

And you need to understand these to stop rumours and misinformation spreading.

It's very easy to take half an idea something misunderstood and turn it into something bigger and new and scary, isn't it?

It's simply incorrect. I think this is a sentiment that would have been shared by Warren himself. Here's a quote from him.

We want science really cared for in England by the state. We want all state questions relating to science properly considered by a body capable of dealing with them.

There's great difficulty, in fact, under existing circumstances, with the state dealing at all with science or with scientific men.

There's no department of the Government as far as I know, able to fully appreciate the advantages that science confers on the state.

So he's saying there that at governmental level there isn't a.

Good enough understanding of the importance of.

Not all of Warren's experiments were so successful.

In 1874, he hoped to capture the transit of Venus using his photo heliograph, and while she did get images like this one here, which shows Venus, the little dot 'cause he was using a negative technique.

Now they weren't, when enlarged, accurate enough to get reliable observations from.

But he was really trying to push the technology, but it wasn't quite there in all cases. By the 1870s his eyesight was beginning to fail and he took a less active role in making observations, but he still continued to fight for funding for the and support for the sciences. He was also a very wealthy man himself, thanks to the success of the printing business.

Where he was now chairman.

And he donated his telescope to Oxford University, where his friend Charles Pritchard was professor.

And as you know previously he had struggled for assistance, and they come to stay up all night, so he actually also paid for four years salary for assistance to help run the telescopes at Oxford.

Sounds good.

And as a sign of respect that he had with his peers, there was and to make best use of these things here donated.

There's a new Dame built to Oxford University and it's named after him, so the right hand Dame there. That's the delerue Dame.

That's cool.

I have his support continued, and in 1887 he provided 238 centimetre mirrors and around £600.

It's a lot of money in those days to buy further equipment.

I've got another clipping here now. This is just talking about donations to science generally, and it mentions Delaware again, hangers delrie, for instance, provided an electric battery at the cost of many thousands.

So there's a lot of money, and he actually did some early experiments with batteries and electricity as well. Made, and I think I come over the places now, but he he invented a type of battery during his life as well, but on the 19th of April 1889, one Delarue died of pneumonia, aged 74.

Now his estate at his death was worth £300,000.

And in today's money, that's nearly 40 million. So as well as all of his scientific achievements, he was incredibly successful businessman.

Uhm, that's a lot of money.

But it wasn't just his money left behind, he like wants it left.

Lots of books. I like the names of older books as well. This was a rough list choice and valuable books.

A rough choice.

A rough list of choice and viable books, including the Scientific Library of the Late War and Ellery yeah. So this is actually a catalogue of his books when they're going up for sale. There's all sorts of categories of books here which he had American antiquity.

The Australasia Egypt.

Uhm, foxes. Martis Ireland mathematics microscopes photography Scotland, Shakespeare and all sorts.

Zoological Society.

Huh, yeah, those are the minutes from them.

But I like this at the bottom.

It goes.

The printing and pasting of my rough list is a considerable expense to me.

I therefore appeal to recipients to favour me occasionally with an order. Otherwise the sending of these catalogues must be suspended.

And then I actually went through the list. I got a little bit distracted here and I pulled out a few that I like.

So this is in the section on America and its Cortez the pleasant history of the conquest of West India, now called New Spain most delectable to read. So that's the delectable read on how.

Europeans went and slaughtered the Aztecs and the Indians and everyone nice isn't it? Yeah then on each or on many of the books there's also a little bit more description so that always set in black letter so you know that style of tap type or text and it was old Green Morocco.

So I wonder what Morocco meant and that was actually the type of leather used, and this would be goats leather, and it was really, really thick and it had to.

Be pounded thin.

So I got another.

One here, this is Crania Americana or a comparative view of the skulls of various Aboriginal nations of North and South America.

Now I've got a collection of nearly 100 letters from eminent scientific men to war and Ellery.

Another one here, which is called the felony of New South Wales, being a faithful picture of the real raiments of life in Botany Bay, with anecdotes of Botany Bay Society.

Going to China now. We've got Chinese mythology or book of demigods by Chinese artists. A collection of 100 drawings splendidly executed in colours, including pictures of the most important gods of the Chinese mythology.

Then there's a description added by the seller of the books. Rarely does one meet with such highly artistic work from the hands of native artists, sort of inherent racism there.

Again, this is a good one, so this was worth £96 was being sold for £96 which today would be over £12,000.

And this is Virgil's. And this is from 1501, and it was by a printer called Aldous mountainous.

And it was typeset by Francesco Griffo. Here's the type cutter, and it's the first ever book to be set in what's called italic type, so slanted type. So up until that had been Raymond or black letter had been used for printing.

And where this book was so important, these books, they were the forerunner to today's paperbacks.

They were much smaller books because Italic text actually helped save space and they aimed more casual readers.

So that's a very historically important book that one and wonder if you had it just being a printer.

But he just collected these things.

I like this one says got a copy of Encyclopaedia Britannica and the comment here. It's a review from the Glasgow News.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica is one of the cheapest books in existence. This volume, for example, contains close to 900 pages, crowned with information which could not be collected in any other way for 10 times the money.

The invasion of England and book about Napoleon Bonaparte.

But I like the comments here. The desire of a French invasion of England is not extinct.

And one last one, because this is being sold here for £750, which would be nearly £100,000 today and it was a collection of images from Turner. You know, the artist.

Say there's a print here and just look at the quality of the light, and that's beautiful, isn't it?

But more important than his books and his money is the legacy and feeling that he left with people during his life.

As I've said, he held many important roles in the key and prestigious institutions during his life and he also worked with some of the greatest scientists of the day. His involvement in chemistry and trustee physics printing and of course Astra many astronomy. That's good money.

No, you said at the second time.

Astro mini astronomy.

Astronomy and of course astronomy.

This whole podcast was curious Studies Road to learning words.

It is I struggle.

Uhm, so I've got part of an arbitrary here. Death of a scientist. The death is announced of Mr. Warren Delaware.

Kev at the age of 84 years.

I'm sure you're 74 earlier.

Oh OK, see there are funny dates another bit as well.

Maybe he discovered more than just fate laughing space. He learned how to twist spacetime.

Mr Delory, who was a native of the island of Guernsey, had been a prominent figure in the scientific world.

He applied his great scientific knowledge to purposes of practical utility and invented a great number of new processes and machines.

Among the former are the processes for utilising Earth oils in the latter machinery for printing surface colouring, paper pasting cards and folding envelopes. He also distinguished himself by the eminent success with which he applied photography to record this celestial phenomena.

Among the officers he occupied were those of the President of the Chemical Society, the President of the London Institution and the Secretary of the Royal Institution.

If the heart fails and tears gather in thinking of the band of noble work as fast, being broken up by death greatly intensified is the feeling and thinking or Speaking of an individual death, especially when the worker called to die was one. See, kindly say Curtis, say full of gracious and graceful ways, as was Mr Delory.

Fortunate and many things in life. Here's fortunate and.

Two to the last, almost taking pleasure in his favourite science, watching with keen interest and sympathy, the excellent, enthusiastic work of Professor Pritchard and directing the construction of new instruments to meet the most recent astronomical requirements. He may be said to have died working for astronomy and still.

Fully in touch with those developments of which he had laboured so well to build up.

Yes, there's going to be a kind and helpful man as well in life.

Because I didn't really cover what he did to try and make sure that there was funding for the sciences and the Royal Institute.

The best biography it has well be said cannot be written. It is always difficult to present the man who lives and moves behind demand doings. 2 aspects of Mr. Delarue. However, I cannot conclude without touching on.

First, his wise and liberal assistance to science by the presence and sympathy as well as by gifts. The Royal Institution in particular, which he honoured and served by honorary secretary ship for a time, received liberal donation and viable apparatus from him.

His gift to the University of Oxford have already been mentioned. Next, his service to science by the work.

Councils and committees committee work is often tedious and difficult and rarely receives the thanks it deserves few men ever more effectively and agreeably. Discharged committee duties. That Mr.

Valerie, his insight, his judgement, his ready tact and is considered to torina's bind to make him a power in council and committee conciliatory illness. He regarded as the most viable quality.

I am the man with the oil can. I've heard him say and the description was as true as it was graphic.

Now, if you were to take a telescope and look up at the northeastern edge of the million, he might just be able to spot a small crater.

The delarey traitor.

Wow, I think that is a wrap for.

Cal, Yeah, So what do you?

Think he he seems very cool. Pressuring the Galaxy Great but still still great.

Yeah, so with the launch. Well hopefully successful launches. We're recording this beforehand at the James Webb telescope scene, which will should bring us amazing new images of space. One of The Pioneers, he started it all off was war and Ella.

He had a real love then. Seems like a very intelligent man who.

Wanted to understand say, many different things and bring them all together. That combination of his ability as an engineer and his attention to detail, and it seems that a real genuine kindness and passion there as well.

On the that's not kind of network, of which we are a member. Now that's interesting. They are releasing an episode on the James Word Telescope, so make sure you listen out for that. And I'm going to plug another show here. This is the lunatic radio hour. Let's play the trailer.

We're back, we are back up. So where can you find a sensation metre on Tom?

Uhm Twitter Instagram Facebook.

Yeah, but how do you find?

US in these networks.

Curious child pod.

That's correct.

You can also visit our website, the curiosity of a child com.

And we also have merchandise.

Which is.

Order now before Christmas.

Arrive after Christmas.

At shopped at the curious of A.

Child.com

That's correct, yes. And I believe you might have a YouTube channel, is that correct?

Uh-huh, I think I've got from recording this I think got 66 subscribers now which is really good, which is the curiosity of gaming on YouTube.

That is incredible, yeah?

That's correct, yeah. So you go and have a look at Anton's Minecraft builds because he he combines not only fabulous but simple bills for people to do.

I don't mean that in a good way, but he also includes history of the vehicles there, so you get real value for money.

Really fun to do as well.

Yes, and we should be doing another one before Christmas, hopefully as.

As I rope Anton into doing this podcast, he wrote me into being his video editor.

I think that I think that we should come.

Do a tank build up or something, but we make it slightly Christmassy or we do like a Christmas special in on my channel somehow. Yeah, yeah.

The giant Turkey.

Yes, I hope you enjoyed the episode. I felt a little bit rusty so fingers crossed this comes out OK and it's not too echoey.

Huh, and we've both had slightly runny noses, so you might have been hearing some louder breathing or some sniffing or something.

Yes, but don't be put off by that. Yeah, you're safe in with your headphones. Yep, so thank you very much and we will see you again soon.

See ya.