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As four million pages of historical newspapers dating back three centuries go online, what were people preoccupied with 200 years ago in 1811? The British Library's online collection will be the largest collection of online papers and include titles from across the UK and Ireland. Most of those are local regional titles and a trawl through the archive from 200 years ago reveals a treasure trove of history.....
The Great Comet
Asteroids, meteor showers and other celestial bodies have continue to enthral throughout 2011, but not as much as the Great Comet of 1811, which was visible to the naked eye for more than 250 days. Amateur and professional astronomers debated the nature of the Comet in the newspapers' letters sections.
One such was Andrew Ure who founded Scotland's Garnet Hill observatory - second only to Greenwich in reputation at the time. Writing in the Caledonian Mercury in September he "begs leave" to publish a series of observations on "this leading object of curiosity" to share with other astronomers and the public. His concern was that misleading details of the Comet's orbit or "curve line" were making their way into the public consciousness.
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