Edwin Dunkin. 53 



EDWIN DUNKIN. 1821-1898. 



EDWIN DUNKIN, the third son of William Dunkin, was born at 

 Truro on August 19, 1821. His father had been for many years one 

 of the established calculators of the ' Nautical Almanac,' performing 

 the work at his residence at Truro until the organisation of the 

 ' Nautical Almanac ' office in London, under Lieutenant Stratford, 

 R.N., caused him to be removed thereto. Mr. Dunkin received his 

 general education at private schools at Truro and in London, being 

 finally sent to a French school at Guines, near Calais, from which he 

 returned on the death of his father in the summer of the year 1838. 

 In August following he joined the staff of computers, organised by 

 Sir George Airy, at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, for reduction 

 of the planetary and lunar observations made at Greenwich from the 

 time of Bradley in 1750 to 1830, a position which he occupied until 

 the year 1840, when, on the establishment of the Magnetical and 

 Meteorological Department of the Observatory, he was transferred 

 thereto, being one of the assistants (another being Mr. J. R. Hind, 

 afterwards for many years superintendent of the ' Nautical Almanac ') 

 placed under Mr. James Glaisher as chief. 



Although some attempt had been already made to apply photography 

 to record the variations of meteorological instruments, there seemed at 

 the moment little prospect of practical application of such method to 

 the instruments of an observatory, and the work during Mr. Dunkin's 

 time was consequently arduous, since eye observation of the mag- 

 netical and meteorological instruments had to be made at intervals of 

 two hours day and night (except on Sunday, when a few observations 

 only were made). Oil one day in each month observations of the 

 magnets were taken at intervals of five minutes throughout the 

 twenty-four hours in conjunction with similar observations made at 

 observatories in other parts of the world, besides which during periods 

 of magnetic disturbance, so long as it lasted, observations had to be 

 continuously made. One of the first remarkable magnetic storms 

 observed was that of September 25, 1841, and the writer of this notice 

 very well remembers the lively interest created when it became known 

 that in such distant parts of the world as Toronto, Trevandrum, and 

 the Cape of Good Hope magnetic disturbance of a like character had 

 occurred on the same day, said as regards Toronto as appearing to 

 have commenced "nearly at the same absolute time as at Greenwich. " 



In October, 1845, Mr. Dunkin was transferred to the Astronomical 

 Department of the Observatory, and in the year 1847 was placed in 



