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Charles Piazzi Smyth

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Astronomer

The Resume

    (January 3, 1819-February 21, 1900)
    Born in Naples, Italy
    Astronomer and pyramidologist
    Astronomer Royal for Scotland (1846-88)
    Wrote 'Our Inheritance in the <11601>Great Pyramid<11601>' (1864), 'Life and Work at the Great Pyramid' (1867) and 'On the Antiquity of Intellectual Man' (1868)
    Uncle of Robert Baden-Powell

Why he might be annoying:

    He claimed the British were one of the Lost Tribes of Israel.
    He claimed, without any evidence, that the ancient Egyptians used a 'pyramid inch' (equal to 1.001 British inches) that was handed down from God by way of Noah's son Shem.
    Since the inch was divinely inspired, he opposed the metric system as atheistic.
    He claimed that the passages inside the Great Pyramid were a record of future events.
    Based on his measurements, he concluded the Second Coming would happen in 1882. Or 1892. OK, how about 1911?
    He resigned as Astronomer Royal partly because the Royal Society refused to publish his papers about the pyramids.

Why he might not be annoying:

    In a series of experiments at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, he demonstrated that visibility improved dramatically at higher altitudes.
    His account of the experiments was the first book illustrated with 3-D stereoscopic photos.
    Despite the wackiness of his pyramid theories, he performed valuable work by making a more accurate set of measurements of the Great Pyramid and taking the first photos of its interior passages.
    He has a crater on the Moon named after him.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 6 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 9 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 8 Votes: 75.00% Annoying