astronomy

Leopold Hartley Grindon

Leopold Hartley Grindon is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Leopold Hartley Grindon rather than just read about it. In short: Leopold Hartley Grindon (28 March 1818 – 20 November 1904) was an English educator and botanist, and a pioneer in adult education. His plant collection and botanical drawings and writings formed a major asset of the herbarium at Manchester Museum, when it was founded in 1860.

Key takeaways

Leopold Hartley Grindon belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Leopold Hartley Grindon to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Leopold Hartley Grindon from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Leopold Hartley Grindon (28 March 1818 – 20 November 1904) was an English educator and botanist, and a pioneer in adult education. His plant collection and botanical drawings and writings formed a major asset of the herbarium at Manchester Museum, when it was founded in 1860.

Early life Leopold Hartley Grindon was born in Bristol on 28 March 1818 and educated at Bristol College. He established the Bristol Philobotanical Society while still at school. He moved to Manchester at the age of 20, spending a year as an apprentice in a warehouse before becoming a cashier for John Whittaker & Company's cotton business until 1864.

Botany Grindon, whose father was a solicitor and coroner, showed an early interest in botany and was self-taught in other areas of science, such as astronomy and geology. At the age of 13, he started collecting dried plants and by 18 he envisaged creating a herbarium of all the cultivated and wild plants found in Britain. He grew many specimens from seed and collected writings and drawings, particularly of plants that were difficult to grow or obtain in specimen form. As he put it, "I desired also to introduce every bit of printed matter referring to the plant that might come in my way, with descriptions alike of the individual species and of the Natural Orders, the uses and other particulars also have a place and seeing that Botany is wreathed also with all kinds of poetical and other human associations, everything that would illustrate these was also to go into the Herbarium so-called, which thus to be a Herbarium and a Botanical library fused into one." In 1860, Grindon and a calico printer, Joseph Sidebotham, founded the Manchester Field-Naturalists' Society. He attended the Mechanics' Institute and was appointed to lecture on botany at the Manchester Royal School of Medicine, while offering private tuition in the subject.

Death

Grindon moved to Manchester, living initially in Portland Street, then in Romford Street for 30 years. In 1883 he moved to Cecil Street in Greenheys, where he died aged 87 in 1904. He married Rosa Elverson, a sympathiser with the feminist movement and lecturer at local institutions such as the Manchester Geographical Society and the Manchester Working Men's Clubs Association. She outlived him and donated a large stained-glass window to Manchester Central Library in his memory. The window, designed by Robert Anning Bell, is above the entrance to the library's Shakespeare Hall.

Publications

Among Grindon's publications, many written while still employed as a cashier, are:

Life, its Nature, Varieties and Phenomena. London: Whittaker & Co. 1856. Manchester Walks and Wild Flowers (1858) The Manchester Flora. London: William White. 1859. British and Garden Botany. London: Routledge, Warne & Routledge. 1864. Summer Rambles in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire. Manchester: Palmer & Howe. 1866. The Trees of Old England. London: F. Pitman. 1868. Echoes in Plant and Flower Life. London: F. Pitman. 1869. The Fairfield Orchids (1872) The Pathway to Botany. London: F. Pitman. 1872. History of the Rhododendron (1876) Figurative Language. London: James Spiers. 1879. Country Rambles. Manchester: Palmer & Howe. 1882. The Shakespeare Flora. Manchester: Palmer & Howe. 1883. Fruits and Fruit Trees. Manchester: Palmer & Howe. 1885. Lancashire; brief historical and descriptive notes. London: Seely and Co. 1892. Grindon also contributed to many journals and to the Manchester City News, and wrote works unconnected with botany, such as Manchester Banks and Bankers (1877) and A History of Lancashire (1882). He was elected to membership of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on 21/4/1863.

References

Further reading King, Daniel Q. (April 2007). "A checklist of sources of the botanical illustrations in the Leo Grindon Herbarium, The Manchester Museum". Archives of Natural History. 34. Edinburgh University Press for The Society for the History of Natural History: 129–139. doi:10.3366/anh.2007.34.1.129. ISSN 0260-9541. (subscription required) The Manchester Guardian (21 November 1904). "Mr. Leo Grindon". The Manchester Guardian. Manchester. p. 12. ProQuest 474370580. (subscription required) Percy, John (1991). "Scientists in humble life; the artisan naturalists of South Lancashire" (PDF). Manchester Region History Review. Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 March 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2012.

External links Official blog of the Manchester Museum Herbarium Works by Leo Hartley Grindon at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Leopold Hartley Grindon at the Internet Archive

Illustrations

Leopold Hartley Grindon: Frontispiece to The Manchester Flora, a Leo. H. Grindon book published in 1859. — Frontispiece to The Manchester Flora, a Leo. H. Grindon book published in 1859.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Leopold Hartley Grindon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Leopold Hartley Grindon claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Leopold Hartley Grindon before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Leopold Hartley Grindon ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Leopold Hartley Grindon

In research: Leopold Hartley Grindon appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Leopold Hartley Grindon in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Leopold Hartley Grindon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1818 births, 1904 deaths, 19th-century English botanists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Leopold Hartley Grindon outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Leopold Hartley Grindon” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Leopold Hartley Grindon in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Leopold Hartley Grindon means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Leopold Hartley Grindon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Leopold Hartley Grindon in simple terms?

Why does Leopold Hartley Grindon matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Leopold Hartley Grindon?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Leopold Hartley Grindon.