John Hartnup
John Chapman Hartnup (1806–1885), astronomer
1831 Assistant to John Wrottesley, setting up his observatory and making the measurements.
1841 The Liverpool Dock Act contained a section relating to the establishment of an observatory. This act enabled the town council to erect an observatory and meet the expenses out of dock dues. The observatory building was opened on Waterloo Dock in 1845.
1843 On the recommendation of G. B. Airy, Hartnup was appointed as the first director of the Liverpool observatory. He had three main tasks: to determine the longitude of Liverpool with as much accuracy as possible; to give accurate time to the port (this was to be done by use of a time-ball like that at Greenwich); and, most importantly, to test and rate chronometers. It was the third area that consumed the bulk of Hartnup's efforts and led to his invention of the "Hartnup balance".
1847 His ideas for a new sort of balance was put into effect by William Shepherd, a Liverpool chronometer maker, but the balance was not widely used.
1863 the observatory was transferred to Bidston on the Wirral. Shortly before the move, Hartnup's son had become an assistant to his father.
1885 resigned the directorship due to his failing health, handing it over to his son, and moved to London where he died.