Joseph Norman Lockyer

Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer, FRS (17 May 1836 – 16 August 1920) was an English scientist and astronomer. Along with the French scientist Pierre Janssen he is credited with discovering the gas helium. Lockyer also is remembered for being the founder and first editor of the influential journal Nature. Lockyer was born in Rugby, Warwickshire. After a conventional schooling supplemented by travel in Switzerland and France, he worked for some years as a... more

Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer, FRS (17 May 1836 – 16 August 1920) was an English scientist and astronomer. Along with the French scientist Pierre Janssen he is credited with discovering the gas helium. Lockyer also is remembered for being the founder and first editor of the influential journal Nature. Lockyer was born in Rugby, Warwickshire. After a conventional schooling supplemented by travel in Switzerland and France, he worked for some years as a civil servant in the British War office. He settled in Wimbledon, south London after marrying Winifred James. A keen amateur astronomer with a particular interest in the Sun, Lockyer eventually became director of the solar physics observatory in Kensington London. In the 1860s Lockyer became fascinated by electromagnetic spectroscopy as an analytical tool for determining the composition of heavenly bodies. During the solar eclipse of October, 1868, Lockyer observed a prominent yellow line from a spectrum taken near the edge of the Sun from... less