AstrotalkUK

Not for profit website/blog on astronomy, space and my writing

  • Home
    • FAQ
    • Contact
    • About
    • Privacy Policy
  • Content
    • Podcast
    • All episodes
    • Book Review
    • Cyber Security
  • Events

BIS Northern Meeting 19th May 2012,York – Final Update

By Gurbir Dated: May 17, 2012 3 Comments

This is the final post before Saturday’s event.

Currently there are about 35 of the 50 seats sold. You can still buy on line or take the chance and just turn up.

I have “partnered” with the BBC and this event is now part of “The Great British Story“.

If you have purchased a ticket online – no need to print anything out to bring with you. The BIS will supply a list of names that we will check against during registration. Please arrive around 09:30 for the 09:50 start.

A short discussion, about 10 minutes will take place during the lunch break to consider/plan the “next” BIS northern meeting. All welcome to participate.

There will be a raffle. I will be donating a copy of my book “Yuri Gagarin in Manchester and London” – other donations welcome.

Do bring a packed lunch if you like. Lunch has not been organised as part of this event although hot drinks will be available.

David Woods will have copies of his book “How Apollo Flew to the Moon” for sale on the day.

There has been a change to the running order. Download, print and bring this pdf with you for Saturday. It containing the updated program and other details.

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook

Remembering the Manchester Interplanetary Society

By Gurbir Dated: May 15, 2012 1 Comment

From L to R - Tony Cross, Tony Llyod MP, Frank O'Rourke and Alistair Scott

A plaque was unveiled by the Right Hon. Tony Lloyd MP in front of a packed room at the Clayton Vale Visitors centre yesterday. President Elect Alistair Scott from the British Interplanetary Society traveled up to Manchester to participate in this unique event to celebrate the contribution in rocket development made by the Manchester Interplanetary Society, 75 years ago.

Plaque unveiled by Tony Lloyd MP 14 May 2012

Kevin Kilburn spoke about the MIS’s founder, Eric Burgess who he last met in 1978. Burgess left the UK for the US in 1956 and was based there until his death in 2005. Other guests included Colin Rowe – a real life rocket scientist and Philip Turner, son of MIS member Harry Turner. Dave and Leslie Wright traveled up from Liverpool and members of Salford and Manchester Astronomical Society also attended.

Earlier in the week, I had spoken to Eric Burgess’ daughter Janis who continues to live in California. She was delighted that this event was taking place and shared the following words about her farther.

Eric Burgess was a great scientific thinker and philosopher with ideas that were ahead of his time. He was a many faceted man with a great variety of interests and hobbies.

As I continue to learn more about Eric Burgess, I am increasingly aware that he was of a man of gentle quiet nature and may not have received proper recognition for all his achievements.

Clayton Vale Visitors' Centre

Thanks to all who came and made this a memorable event especially the hospitality and assistance of Friends of Clayton Vale.  The plaque is located inside the visitors’ centre which is not open on a daily basis. More details about the Clayton Vale Visitor’s Centre via their website www.friendsofclaytonvale.org.uk

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook

BIS Northern Meeting 19th May 2012,York – Update

By Gurbir Dated: May 4, 2012 2 Comments

Two weeks to go. Here is a quick update.

Currently 26 individuals have got tickets from the online system and we received a request to reserve an additional two for collection at the door.

I have had to make a change in the program.  Kevin Kilburn has had to pull out, but Mike Hall, a BIS member since 1966 and a Fellow of the BIS since 1982, has stepped in. Mike’s subject is one of the hottest topics in spaceflight right now – “The Chinese Space program“.  Kevin had warned me of this possibility back in February and Mike offered this “backup” option at around the same time, too.

Given that Kevin’s subject “History of BIS in the Northwest” is central to this meeting, he has come up with a novel suggestion. Kevin has asked me to do his talk. So I will cover Kevin’s topic and drop my Gagarin talk.

I have updated the original details here and in this pdf too.

Want to publicise this event locally? You can download a  single A4 MSword document here. Each page has two A5 leaflets. Please share.

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook

Episode 50: 26th March 2012: Manchester first Rocket Scientists

By Gurbir Dated: March 27, 2012 1 Comment

27th March 1937 - Foreground (left to right): Eric Burgess, Bill Heeley, Trevor Cusack, Harry Turner (Picture – Philip Turner)

Robert Goddard in America , Sergei Korolev in the Soviet Union and Herman Oberth in Germany are three names credit with the development of rocket propulsion during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Each led a very small group with more dedication then resources working on a shoestring budget usually in their own time after work. Their collective work eventually lead to Sputnik, the space race and one of mankind’s greatest technological achievement – Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969.

During the inter war years, the northwest of England gave rise to organisations that nurtured the science of rockets and space travel. In 1933, Philip Cleater in Liverpool founded the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) to promote spaceflight, an institution which continues to exist to this day. A little known group established in 1936, called the Manchester Interplanetary Society (MIS) shared the lofty idea of space travel and had the ambition and talent to design, build and test rockets that could help to realise it.

The MIS founded by an ambitious and gifted sixteen year old Mancunian Eric Burgess in 1936.  Initially, Burgess used his own home, 683 Aston New Road as the headquarters but  moved to a founder member, Harry Turner’s house in Lonsdale Place not far Manchester City centre in the following year. Arthur C Clarke a member of both the science and sci-fi communities visited Harry in Manchester several times and promoted both.

Clayton Vale, a stone’s throw from the velodrome in East Manchester, is now a small picturesque park with the river Medlock running through its length.  On Saturday 27th March 1937 it was more of a slag heap for the nearby coal mine and local industry and a site used by the Manchester Interplanetary Society (MIS) to test launch rockets made by its members. Following five largely unsuccessful cardboard rocket launch attempts the sixth constructed from aluminium exploded injuring three, one requiring hospital attention.  The event was heavily featured in local and national press. Malcolm Wade, the MIS secretary said in the 29th March 1937 edition of the Daily Herald “If only the crowds had remained at a proper distance during Saturday’s trials instead of hustling around us, there would have been no accident.”

Most of the active members of the MIS received a summons to appear at the City Police Court on May 14. The charge against Harry Turner was that he “unlawfully did manufacture a certain explosive you not being allowed by section 4 and 39 of the Explosives Act, 1875 to do so“. Harry like most of the members was not eighteen so his father Henry is also named on the summons.  In the event, Eric Burgess successfully argued that they were not manufacturing explosives but conducting rocket propulsion experiments.  No one was found guilty. They agreed not to use Clayton Vale but another site in Glossop instead.

Pioneer 10 Plaque - the original idea from Eric Burgess

After the war Eric Burgess emigrated to America and worked for NASA and the space industry. He wrote many books including one of the earliest dedicated to rocket propulsion.

Perhaps Burgess’s most remarkable achievement is the least well known. Over dinner in November 1971 with Carl Sagan Burgess proposed that a message from humanity should accompany the Pioneer 10 destined for Jupiter in the following spring. Pioneer 10 would be the first man-made object to achieve solar system escape velocity and head in to interstellar space.  The plaque was designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake and successfully incorporated in to the mission in a very short time.  Although Burgess was informed about the plaque prior to launch, the image of a naked man and woman was so controversial in the 1970’s conservative America that NASA insisted on a news embargo until after launch.

Philip Turner

A plaque on display at the Smithsonian Institute in America recognises Eric Burgess’s contribution to space travel. In Manchester there is nothing to mark the unique achievements of Eric Burgess, Harry Turner, Malcolm Wade and others who were Manchester’s very first rocket scientists.

In this interview Philip Turner’s son, Philip talks about Harry but fist, Harry’s widow Marion on how she first met Harry.

 

https://media.blubrry.com/astrotalkuk_podcast_feed/astrotalkuk.org/wp-content/uploads/episode50.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (12.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS | More

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
« Previous Page
Next Page »

Find me online here

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube

subscribe to mailing list and newsletter

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Browse by category

Recent Comments

  • Frank Pleszak on Episode 117 – Early Aviation in Manchester
  • Gurbir Singh on Episode 111 – Chandrayaan-3
  • Lunar Polar Exploration Mission: Difference between revisions – भोजपुरी on Episode 82: Jaxa and International Collaboration with Professor Fujimoto Masaki
  • Gurbir on Public Event. Anglo Indian Stephen Smith – India’s forgotten Rocketeer
  • Sandip Kumar Chakrabarti on Public Event. Anglo Indian Stephen Smith – India’s forgotten Rocketeer

Archives

Select posts by topic

apollo astrobiology Astrophotography BIS Book Review Carl Sagan CCD CCSK China Cloud Computing cnsa commercial Cosmology curiosity Education ESA Gagarin History India Infosec ISRO jaxa Jodrell Bank Mars Media Moon NASA podcast radio astronomy Rakesh Sharma rocket Rockets Roscosmos Science Science Fiction seti Solar System soviet space space spaceflight titan USSR video Vostok Yuri Gagarin

Copyright © 2008–2025 Gurbir Singh - AstrotalkUK Publications Log in