Editing Thomas Romney Robinson

{{Short description|Irish astronomer (1792–1882)}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix  = [[The Reverend]]
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS|FRAS}}
| image             = ThomasRomneyRobinson(1792-1882),EarlyInHisLife.jpg
| caption           = Robinson early in life
| birth_name        = John Thomas Romney Robinson
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=y|1792|4|23}}
| birth_place       = [[Dublin]], [[Kingdom of Ireland]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=y|1882|2|28|1792|4|23}}
| death_place       = [[Armagh]], Ireland
| alma_mater        = [[Trinity College Dublin]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
| known_for         = Inventing the cup [[anemometer]] 
| spouse            = {{marriage|Lucy Jane Edgeworth|1843}}
| relatives         = {{ubl|[[Richard Lovell Edgeworth]] (father-in-law)|[[Frances Anne Edgeworth]] (mother-in-law)|[[Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet|George Stokes]] (son-in-law)}}
| awards            = {{ubl|[[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] (1856)|[[Royal Medal]] (1862)|''[[Pour le Mérite#Civil class|Pour le Mérite]]'' (1872}}
| fields            = [[Astronomy]]
| work_institutions = [[Armagh Observatory]]
}}
[[File:Wea00920.jpg|thumb|A hemispherical cup anemometer of the type invented in 1846 by John Thomas Romney Robinson]]

'''John Thomas Romney Robinson''' {{post-nominals|FRS}} {{post-nominals|FRAS}} (23 April 1792 – 28 February 1882), usually referred to as '''Thomas Romney Robinson''', was an Irish [[astronomer]]. He was the director of the [[Armagh Observatory]], one of the chief astronomical observatories in the UK of its time. He is remembered as inventor of the 4-cup [[anemometer]].

==Biography==
Robinson was born at St Anne's in [[Dublin]], the son of the English portrait painter Thomas Robinson (d. 1810) and his wife, Ruth Buck (d. 1826).<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=9 April 2018|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was educated at [[Belfast Academy]] then studied Divinity at [[Trinity College Dublin]], where he was [[List of Scholars of Trinity College Dublin|elected a Scholar]] in 1808, graduating BA in 1810 and obtaining a fellowship in 1814, at the age of 22. He was for some years a deputy professor of [[natural philosophy]] (physics) at Trinity.

Having been also ordained as an Anglican priest while at Trinity, he obtained the [[Benefice#Church of England|church livings]] of the Anglican Church at [[Enniskillen]] and at [[Carrickmacross]] in 1824.{{cn|date=October 2021}} 

[[File:Armagh Observatory 1883b-s.jpg|left|thumb|Armagh Observatory, 1883]]
[[File:John Thomas Romney Robinson by James Simonton c1850s.png|thumb|Robinson in the 1850s by James Simonton]]
In 1823, now aged 30, he additionally gained the appointment of astronomer at the Armagh observatory.<ref name="Armagh">[http://www.arm.ac.uk/history/moore/Appendix.html "Directors of Armagh Observatory"]</ref> From then on he always resided at the Armagh observatory, engaged in researches connected with astronomy and physics, until his death in 1882.

During the 1840s and 1850s Robinson was a frequent visitor to the world's most powerful telescope of that era, the so-called [[Leviathan of Parsonstown]] telescope, which had been built by Robinson's friend and colleague [[William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse]]. Robinson was active with Parsons in interpreting the higher-resolution views of the night sky produced by Parsons' telescope, particularly with regard to the [[galaxies]] and [[nebulae]] and he published leading-edge research reports on the question.<ref>Book [https://books.google.com/books?id=wyWjVWYWoO8C&dq=Robinson&pg=PA106 ''Observing and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters''], by Wolfgang Steinicke, year 2010, pages 106–117.</ref> Back at his own observatory in Armagh, Robinson compiled a large catalogue of stars and wrote many related reports. In 1862 he was awarded a [[Royal Medal]] ''"for the Armagh catalogue of 5345 stars, deduced from observations made at the Armagh Observatory, from the years 1820 up to 1854; for his papers on the construction of astronomical instruments in the memoirs of the Astronomical Society, and his paper on electromagnets in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy"''.

Robinson is also of note as the inventor of a device for measuring the speed of the wind, the Robinson [[cup-anemometer]] (1846).

He was president of the [[Royal Irish Academy]] from 1851 to 1856, and was a long-time active organiser in the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/life-society/science-technology/irish-scientists/robinson-thomas-romney/|title= Thomas Romney Robinson (1793–1882)|publisher= Ask about Ireland|access-date = 7 August 2013}} Robinson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1856: {{cite web|url = http://royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=41&dsqSearch=%28%28text%29%3D%27robinson%27%29|title= Library archive|publisher= [[Royal Society]]|access-date = 7 August 2013}}</ref>

Robinson was a friend of [[Charles Babbage]], who said he was "indebted" for having reminded him about the first time he came up with the idea of the calculating machine.<ref>Scientific types (1968). James Gerald Crowther. Barrie & Rockliff, p. 274</ref>

==Family==
He married twice: firstly Eliza Isabelle Rambaut (d. 1839) and secondly Lucy Jane Edgeworth (1806–1897), the lifelong disabled<ref>Jean E. Friedman, Glenna R. Schroeder-Lei (2001). Ways of Wisdom: Moral Education in the Early National Period. University of Georgia Press. p. 247</ref> daughter of the politician [[Richard Lovell Edgeworth]]. His daughter Mary Susanna Robinson married the physicist [[George Gabriel Stokes]]. Stokes frequently visited Robinson in Armagh in Robinson's later years.<ref>Details of Stokes's summer vacations are in the biography of Stokes by Stoke's daughter at [https://archive.org/details/memoirscientific01stokuoft Archive.org].</ref>

==Recognition==
On the Moon, [[Robinson (crater)]] is named in his honour.

A plant genus was named ''Romneya'' in commemoration of him by his friend Dr. Thomas Coulter c.1833. The common name of California Tree Poppy is given to the species Romneya coulteri. Source 'Trees and Shrubs in the British Isles' 4th ed  vol.IV. 1980

==Works==
* ''[https://archive.org/details/poemsbythomasrom00robi Poems by Thomas Romney Robinson, written between the age of seven and thirteen; to which is prefixed A short account of the author]'' (1808)
* ''On voltaic electricity'' (1818)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/systemofmechanic00robiuoft A system of mechanics, for the use of the students in the University of Dublin]'' (1820)
* ''Description of a New Air-pump'' (1825)
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Rx1bAAAAcAAJ Astronomical Observations made at the Armagh Observatory]'' (1829)
* ''Astronomical Observations'', Part 1, Volume 1 (1829)
* ''On the Longitude of the Armagh Observatory'' (1839)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/jstor-20520110 An Account of the Casting of the Great Speculum by the Earl of Rosse]'' (1 January 1840)
* ''On the Difference of Longitude Between the Observatories of Armagh and Dublin, Determined by Rocket Signals'' (1840)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/jstor-30079129 On the Difference of Longitude between the Observatories of Armagh and Dublin, Determined by Rocket Signals]'' (1 January 1843)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/jstor-30079133 On the Constant of Refraction, Determined by Observations with the Mural Circle of the Armagh Observatory]'' (1 January 1843)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/jstor-30079006 On the Effect of Heat in Lessening the Affinities of the Elements of Water]'' (31 December 1846)
* ''Collection of Articles on Meteorology and Magnetism'' (1846), coauthor
* ''On the Effect of Heat in Lessening the Affinities of the Elements of Water'' (1847)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/jstor-30079819 On the Relation between the Temperature of Metallic Conductors, and Their Resistance to Electric Currents]'' (1 January 1849)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/jstor-20489764 On Electro-Magnets]'' (1 January 1850)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/jstor-20489719 On a Thunder-Shower Observed at Markree Castle, on June 30, 1851]'' (1 January 1850)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/jstor-20489743 On the Ordinary Theorem by Which the Magnifying Power of a Telescope Is Determined]'' (1 January 1850)
* ''Speeches of the Rev. Thomas Romney Robinson, at the Twenty-second Annual Meeting, Held in Belfast, September 1852''
* ''Effects Produced by the Vicinity of a Railroad'' (1852)
* ''On the Probable Errors of the Eye and Ear in Transit Observations'' (1853)
* ''Labourers together with God: A sermon on 1 Cor. III. 9'' (1853)
* ''Places of 5,345 stars observed from 1828 to 1854, at the Armagh observatory: By Rev. T.R. Robinson'' (1859)
* ''Experimental researches on the lifting power of the Electro-Magnet'' (1859)
* ''Light: A Lecture'' (1862)
* ''On Spectra of Electric Light, as Modified by the Nature of the Electrodes and the Media of Discharge'' (1862)
* ''Description of the Great Melbourne Telescope'' (1869)
* ''Speeches delivered in the General Convention of the Church of Ireland'' (1870)

; Posthumous
* ''Rev. Thomas Romney Robinson correspondence'' (2008)

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*[http://www.arm.ac.uk/history/moore/Part02.html History of Armagh Observatory under Romney Robinson]
*[http://star.arm.ac.uk/history/trr.html Portraits of and Poems by TR Robinson] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514185737/http://star.arm.ac.uk/history/trr.html |date=14 May 2011 }}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, John Thomas Romney}}
[[Category:1792 births]]
[[Category:1882 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin]]
[[Category:Doctors of Divinity]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish Anglican priests]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish astronomers]]
[[Category:Irish inventors]]
[[Category:Irish Protestants]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Irish Academy]]
[[Category:People educated at the Belfast Royal Academy]]
[[Category:Scientists from Dublin (city)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:Royal Medal winners]]
[[Category:Scholars of Trinity College Dublin]]
[[Category:Christian clergy from County Dublin]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish physicists]]