Alfred Joseph Lowe (1789 - 1856) J.P. was a horticulturalist, meteorologist and astronomer based in Nottingham.

Life

He was born on 1 August 1789, the son of Joseph Hurst Lowe (1766-1817) and Elizabeth Langstaff (1770-1826). He was baptised on 13 September 1789 at High Pavement Chapel. He married Charlotte Octavia Swann (1792-1865), daughter of Edward Swann, Mayor of Nottingham, in

St Mary's Church, Nottingham The Church of St Mary the Virgin is the oldest parish churchDomesday Book: A Complete Translation (Penguin Classics) of Nottingham, in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest church after the Cathedral in the city of Nottingham. The church ...

on 30 October 1812. They had the following children. *Captain Alfred Hurst Lowe (1814-1870) *Charlotte Lavina Lowe (1816-1899) *Marianne Agnes Lowe (1817-1884) *

Edward Joseph Lowe Edward Joseph Lowe FRS FGS FRAS FLS (11 November 1825 – 10 March 1900) was a renowned English botanist, meteorologist and astronomer, who published papers on a wide variety of subjects, including luminous meteors, sunspots, the zodiacal li ...

(1825-1900) *Colonel Arthur Swann Howard Lowe (1826-1888) He died on 10 August 1856 at

Highfield House, Nottingham Highfield House is a Grade II listed building in University Park, Nottingham, in the Nottingham district, in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire, England. History The building was designed by architect William Wilkins the Elder and was bui ...

and was interred at the family vault in Sneinton.

Career

He was a magistrate for Nottinghamshire, and for many years vice-chairman of the Radford Union. He was Sheriff of Nottingham in 1812-13. He was a founding member and treasurer of the

Nottingham Mechanics' Institution The Nottingham Mechanics' Institution was founded in 1837 in Nottingham to improve the knowledge of working men with classes and lectures, the provision of libraries, performances of music, drama and readings, and through social contact with a g ...

. In 1846 he started a vocal music class which evolved into the

Nottingham Harmonic Society Nottingham Harmonic Society is Nottingham's civic choir, and has established itself as one of the leading provincial choruses in Britain. It started life as the Vocal Music Club of the Nottingham Mechanics' Institution under the direction of Alfre ...

. He applied the principle of the Jacquard loom to the bobbin net lace machine which produced the pattern in the lace at the same time as manufacturing the fabric. This invention resulted in a significant improvement in productivity of lace, and turned Nottingham into the centre of mechanical lace production in England. As a horticulturalist, he developed the estate at

by planting Cedrus deodara, Cupressus excelsa, Cryptomeria Japonica, Aurucaria Ombricata,

Scotch Pine ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orang ...

, Portugese Laurels, Myrtles and Arbutus. In the Nottingham Horticultural competition of 1853 he was awarded the Silver Cup for the best collection of greenhouse plants. As a meteorologist and astronomer, he built an observatory at Highfield House which was equipped with a barometer, a telescope on the roof, Negretti thermometers to determine terrestrial radiation and solar radiation, wet and dry bulb thermometers by Barrow, minimum and maximum thermometers by Bennett, rain gauges, an ozonometer, a wind vane high with Lind’s anemometer. He and his son

were founder members of the Meteorological Society which later became the

Royal Meteorological Society The Royal Meteorological Society is a long-established institution that promotes academic and public engagement in weather and climate science. Fellows of the Society must possess relevant qualifications, but Associate Fellows can be lay enthus ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowe, Alfred People from Nottingham 1789 births 1856 deaths English botanists 19th-century British astronomers Sheriffs of Nottingham