1125
Photography was one of these tools, and despite
severe fi nancial limitations Piazzi Smyth made several
extremely important advances in Egypt, where he ap-
plied new techniques that had not yet been tested in the
fi eld. The gear that he and his wife packed for their jour-
ney in November 1864 included a dry-plate apparatus,
a pair of small-format cameras wet plates, magnesium
wire, chemicals, a dark tent, a microscope, and various
measuring implements. Piazzi Smyth specially designed
the small cameras to produce miniature (1 inch square)
negatives on 1 x 3-inch glass microscope slides, and to
keep out the dust that caused problems for wet collo-
dion. (He had experimented with the miniature format
in Russia in 1859, achieving instantaneous effects in
urban scenes and englarging them later.) To document
his measurements of the pyramid’s exterior, he took
photographs that include rods and fi gures for scale. But
to photograph the dark interior chambers, he generated
bright light by employing magnesium wire, which had
been discussed in the photographic journals and pre-
sented by Brewster at the March 1864 meeting of the
Photographic Society of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Returning to the U.K. with 166 images (about half
on dry plates and half on miniature wet collodion
plates), he set about making enlargements, breaking
with current precedent by cropping selectively. Prints
were exhibited at the September 1865 meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science,
held in Birmingham, and the images reached a much
wider audience through lantern-slide lectures. Piazzi
Smyth’s ideas about the pyramids attracted a following
of religious fanatics but were viewed with suspicion in
scientifi c circles. The Royal Society’s dismissive atti-
tude prompted Piazzi Smyth to resign his fellowship in
1874, but he continued to make valuable contributions
in various fi elds, spectroscopy in particular. In 1876 he
designed another special small-plate camera, this time
to produce systematic photographs of cloud forma-
tions—the fi rst application of photography as a serious
tool for meteorological research. Piazzi Smyth retired
from his professorship and his post of Royal Astronomer
on 18 August 1888, and he and his wife settled near
Ripon, in Yorkshire. There Piazzi Smyth adapted his
solar spectrograph for photographic work and recorded
the entire range of the solar spectrum. He also resumed
cloud photography, making 500 photographs in three
years and presenting examples to the Royal Society
and to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He died on 21
February 1900.
Britt Salvesen
Biography
Charles Piazzi Smyth was born in 1819 in Naples, Italy,
the son of amateur astronomer Vice-Admiral William
Henry Smyth. He received his scientifi c education in his
father’s observatory at Bedford and then at the Royal
Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
(1835–45). In 1845 Piazzi Smyth was named Astrono-
mer Royal for Scotland, and in 1846 became Professor
of Practical Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh.
He published the fi rst stereoscopically illustrated book,
Teneriffe, an Astronomer’s Experiment, in 1858, and in
subsequent trips to Russia (1859) and to Egypt (1864)
continued to employ photography for documentary
purposes, putting into practice theoretical improvements
such as dry plates, miniature negatives, and magnesium
fl ares. In his fi nal decades, Piazzi Smyth was somewhat
alienated from the British scientifi c community, largely
owing to his eccentric views on pyramidology. He re-
signed from the Royal Society in 1874, retired from his
professorship in 1888, and settled in the Lake District,
where he designed cameras suitable for spectroscopy
and cloud photography. He died at Clova, his Yorkshire
home, on 21 February 1900.
See also: Archaeology; Artifi cial Lighting;
Astronomy; Books Illustrated with Photographs:
1850s; Books Illustrated with Photographs: 1860s;
Camera Design: 3. 1860–1870s; Camera Design:- Specialist and novelty cameras; Meteorological
Photography; Mountain Photography; Royal Society,
London; Science; Sky and Cloud Photography;
Spectrography and Spectroscopy; Travel
Photography; and Wet Collodion Negative.
Further Reading
Brück, Hermann Alexander, The Peripatetic Astronomer: The
Life of Charles Piazzi Smyth, Bristol/Philadelphia: A. Hilger,
1988.
Gill, Arthur, “Photography at the Great Pyramid in 1865,” Pho-
tographic Journal 105/4 (April 1965):.109–18.
Nicol, John, “Photography in and about the Pyramids: How it was
accomplished by Professor C. Piazzi Smyth,” British Journal
of Photography 13/318 (8 June 1866): .268–70.
Piazzi Smyth, Charles, Journals, albums of paintings, and pho-
tographs, Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Piazzi Smyth, Charles, Laboratory notebooks, log books, and
correspondence, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.
Piazzi Smyth, Charles, Teneriffe, an Astronomer’s Experiment;
or, Specialities of a Residence above the Clouds, London:
Lovell Reeve, 1858.
Piazzi Smyth, Charles, Life and Work at the Great Pyramid dur-
ing the months of January, February, March, and April, A.D.
1865; with a discussion of the facts ascertained, Edinburgh:
Edmonston and Douglas, 1867.
Piazzi Smyth, Charles, A Poor Man’s Photography at the Great
Pyramid in the Year 1865, London: Henry Greenwood,
1870.
Schaaf, Larry, “Charles Piazzi Smyth’s 1865 Conquest of
the Great Pyramid,” History of Photography 3/4 (October
1979):331–354
Warner, Brian, Charles Piazzi Smyth Astronomer-Artist, His Cape
Years, Cape Town, 1983.