Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Timeline Tuesday … 1870s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1870s –first Kamehameha Day, Reciprocity Agreement, Lili‘uokalani writes Aloha ‘Oe and Iolani Palace is started. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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Timeline-1870s

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Charles Lambert

Kalākaua had a great interest in science and he saw it as a way to foster Hawai‘i’s prestige, internationally.

The opportunity to demonstrate this interest and support for astronomy was made available with the astronomical phenomenon called the “Transit of Venus,” which was visible in Hawai‘i in 1874.

“The coming transit of Venus will be observed from about 75 stations, at many of which there will be a large number of instruments. … Wherever knowledge can be gained it is worth being gained … these expeditions will lead to most valuable results.”  (George Forbes, Chief Astronomer)

The King allowed the British Royal Society’s expedition to set up three sites in the Islands, Honolulu’s waterfront in a district called Apua (mauka of today’s Waterfront Plaza,) Kailua-Kona at Huliheʻe Palace and Waimea, Kauai.

The mission of the British expedition was to observe a rare transit of Venus across the Sun for the purpose of better determining the value of the Astronomical Unit – the Earth-to-Sun distance – and from it, the absolute scale of the solar system.

The orbits of Mercury and Venus lie inside Earth’s orbit, so they are the only planets which can pass between Earth and Sun to produce a transit (a transit is the passage of a planet across the Sun’s bright disk.)

Professor George Forbes was the Chief Astronomer for the British expedition.  He befriended Charles Lambert, eldest son of an English gentleman residing at Coqnimbo in Chile.  (Lambert, not one of the astronomers, had been invited by his friend Captain Ralph P Cator, (Commander of the ‘Scout’) to accompany him in his cruise to the Hawaiian Islands.)

“(Lambert) had come out for his health on the ‘Scout,’ from Valparaiso, his father being one of the richest copper-mine owners in Chile. He intended to stay here a short time with the Venus Transit party (Prof. Forbes and Barnacle.)  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 5, 1874)

Then, the fateful day … not December 8, 1874 (the date of the Transit of Venus) – rather, November 20, 1874 when tragedy struck.

“During three days previously a Kona had been blowing into the bay, and having on Thursday seen the natives using the surf-board, Mr Forbes and his friend (Lambert) thought of trying their hands at it.”

“They were furnished by the Hon. Simon Kaʻai, Sheriff and Representative of the District, with surf-boards, he not considering that there was any danger in so doing.”

“Professor Forbes entered the water first.  When it was up to his chest, being about thirty yards from the shore, he began to look out for a good wave to try to ride in upon.”

“Not having been successful and happening to look round he found that he was a hundred and fifty yards from the shore, having been carried out by the under current.  He did not however at that time apprehend any danger.”

“A small native boy, an adopted son or Simon Kaai, now shouted to him, gesticulating and pointing to Mr Lambert, who was about fifty yards nearer to the shore than himself.  He saw that Mr Lambert had let go of his surf-board, and was in difficulty.”

Forbes reached Lambert and tried to bring them both in to shore.  “He made however no head way, but was drifted farther out, and it then occurred to him that there was no prospect of either of them being saved, and he resolved to hold up his friend until they should both go down together.” (Hawaiian Gazette, December 2, 1874)

Folks on shore were able to bring a canoe out through the surf.  Henry Weeks, a carpenter putting up the astronomical buildings, and a local swam “out to their assistance, but (Weeks) was soon exhausted and was just able to reach the canoe.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 5, 1874)

“The surf was at this time dashing against the rocks at their side so that landing seemed impossible. … Ten minutes after Professor Forbes became absolutely exhausted; his arms lost their power, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that he was able to hold on to Mr Lambert, every wave engulphing them both.”

Lambert drowned.

“The Professor with the dead body of his friend was put into (the canoe,) and reached the shore in safety.”

“Great credit is due to Simon Kaʻai for his attempts to aid Professor Forbes and his friend, he (Simon Kaʻai) stated that he was much flurried, and that was why he did not think of a canoe sooner.”

“Thanks also are due to Mr Bergman, a German resident here, for coming off in the canoe, and likewise to the stepmother of Simon Kaʻai for the same service.”

“Mr Lambert met his end, as all who knew him must have felt that he would, with fortitude and resignation, it is believed that he died without pain; and the calmness of his expression showed that he died in peace.”

“The conduct of Professor Forbes, in whose arms Mr Lambert drew his last breath, and who, with unequalled courage and devotion, risked and would have sacrificed his life to save that of his friend, is beyond all praise.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, December 2, 1874)

Lambert “was buried the next day, twelve natives carrying the coffin to the English Episcopal Church in South Kona.  The case is all the sadder from the circumstance that Lambert was actually improving here with a good prospect of completely recovering his health.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 5, 1874)

On December 8, 1874, the transit was observed by the British scientists; however, the observation at Kailua-Kona was interrupted by occasional clouds.  The Honolulu and Waimea sites were considered perfect throughout the event, which lasted a little over half a day.

Ironically, on December 8, 1874 the big day, the king was absent, being in Washington to promote Hawaiian interests in a new trade agreement with the United States.

When American astronomer Simon Newcomb combined the 18th century data with those from the 1874/1882 Venus transits, he derived an Earth-sun distance of 149.59 +/- 0.31 million kilometers (about 93-million miles), very close to the results found with modern space technology in the 20th century.

After the Transit of Venus observations, Kalākaua showed continued interest in astronomy, and in a letter to Captain RS Floyd on November 22, 1880, he expressed a desire to see an observatory established in Hawai‘i.  He later visited Lick Observatory in San Jose.

Perhaps as a result of the King’s interest, a telescope was purchased from England in 1883 for Punahou School.  The five-inch refractor was later installed in a dome constructed above Pauahi Hall on the school’s campus.

The image shows a calmer day in Kailua Bay.  (ca 1890) In addition, I have included other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

King Kalākaua – Renaissance Man

A polymath (Greek, “having learned much,”) sometimes referred to as a Renaissance man, is a cultured man who is knowledgeable, educated or proficient in a wide range of fields.

Hawaiʻi’s last King, Kalākaua, has been referred to as a Renaissance man.

Concerned about the loss of native Hawaiian culture and traditions, Kalākaua encouraged the transcription of Hawaiian oral traditions, and supported the revival of and public performances of the hula.

He advocated a renewed sense of pride in such things as Hawaiian mythology, medicine, chant and hula.  Ancient Hawaiians had no written language, but chant and hula served to record such things as genealogy, mythology, history and religion.

He is remembered as the “Merrie Monarch” because he was a patron of culture and arts, and enjoyed socializing and entertaining.

While seeking to revive many elements of Hawaiian culture that were slipping away, the King also promoted the advancement of modern sciences, art and literature.

King Kalākaua has also been described as a monarch with a technical and scientific bent and an insatiable curiosity for modern devices.

Kalākaua became king in 1874.  Edison and others were still experimenting with electric lights at that time; Edison’s first patent was filed four years later in 1878.  The first commercial installation of incandescent lamps (at the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company in New York City) happened in the fall of 1880, about six months after the Edison incandescent lamps had been installed on the steamer Columbia.

In Hawaiʻi, the cornerstone for ʻIolani Palace was laid on December 31, 1879. In an era of gas lamps, King Kalākaua was astute enough to recognize the potential of “electricity,” and helped pioneer its practice in the Hawaiian kingdom.

The king had heard and read about this revolutionary new form of energy, but he needed further evidence of its practical application. Kalākaua arranged to meet the inventor of the incandescent lamp, Thomas Edison, in New York in 1881, during his world tour.

Five years after Kalākaua and Edison met, Charles Otto Berger, a Honolulu-based insurance executive with mainland connections, organized a demonstration of “electric light” at ʻIolani Palace, on the night of July 26, 1886.

The Pacific Commercial Advertiser described the experience as, “Shortly after 7 o’clock last night, the electricity was turned on and, as soon as darkness decreased, the vicinity of Palace Square was flooded with a soft but brilliant light which turned darkness into day… by 8 o’clock an immense crowd had gathered. Before 9 o’clock, the Royal Hawaiian Military band commenced playing and the Military Companies soon marched into the square… a tea party was given under the auspices of the Society for the Education of Hawaiian Children organized by her Royal Highness the Princess Liliʻuokalani and Her Royal Highness, the Princess Likelike. The Palace was brightly illuminated, and the large crowd moving among the trees and tents made a pretty picture.”

Shortly after this event, David Bowers Smith, a North Carolinian businessman living in Hawaiʻi, persuaded Kalākaua to install an electrical system on the palace grounds. The plant consisted of a small steam engine and a dynamo for incandescent lamps. On November 16, 1886 – Kalākaua’s birthday – ʻIolani Palace was lit by electricity.

With the palace lit, the government began exploring ways to a provide power plant to light the streets of Honolulu.  They turned to hydroelectric, using the energy of flowing water to drive the turbines of a power plant built in Nuʻuanu Valley.

On Friday, March 23, 1888, Princess Kaʻiulani, the king’s niece, threw the switch that illuminated the town’s streets for the first time. The Honolulu Gazette wrote of that moment: “At 7:30 p.m. the sound of excitement in the streets brought citizens, printers, policemen and all other nocturnal fry rushing outdoors to see what was up. And what they did see was Honolulu lighted by electricity. The long looked for and anxiously expected moment had arrived.”

A year later, the first of a handful of residences and business had electricity. By 1890, this luxury had been extended to 797 of Honolulu’s homes.

It’s interesting to note that the first electric lighting was installed in the White House in 1891 – after ʻIolani Palace.  (Contrary to urban legend that it also pre-dated the British palace, Buckingham Palace had electricity prior to ʻIolani Palace.  It was first installed in the Ball Room in 1883, and between 1883 and 1887 electricity was extended throughout Buckingham Palace.)

Some suggest ʻIolani Palace had telephones before the White House, too.  However, the White House had a phone in 1879 (President Rutherford B. Hayes’ telephone number was “1”.)  “By the fall of 1881 telephone instruments and electric bells were in place in the Palace.”  (The Pacific Commercial, September 24, 1881)

“The first telephone ever used in Honolulu belonged to King Kalakaua.  Having been presented to him by the American Bell Telephone Company.”  (Daily Bulletin, December 4, 1894)

Kalākaua’s interest in modern astronomy is evidenced by his support for an astronomical expedition to Hawaiʻi in 1874 that came from England to observe a transit of Venus (a passage of Venus in front of the Sun – used to measure an ‘astronomical unit,’ the distance between the Earth and Sun.)

Kalākaua addressed those astronomers in 1874 stating, “It will afford me unfeigned satisfaction if my kingdom can add its quota toward the successful accomplishment of the most important astronomical observation of the present century and assist, however humbly, the enlightened nations of the earth in these costly enterprises…”

Later, in 1881, during his travels to the US, King Kalākaua visited the Lick Observatory in California and was the first to view through its new 12” telescope (which was temporarily set up for that purpose in the unfinished dome.)

It was not long after this that King Kalākaua expressed his interest in having an observatory in Hawaiʻi. Perhaps as a result of the King’s interest, a telescope was purchased from England in 1883 for Punahou School.  The five-inch refractor was later installed in a dome constructed above Pauahi Hall on the school’s campus.

In 1891, while ill in bed, King Kalākaua recorded a message on a wax-type phonograph in the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

According to an August 2, 1936 account in The Honolulu Advertiser, Kalākaua is recorded to say, “Aloha kaua — aloha kaua. Ke hoʻi nei no paha makou ma keia hope aku i Hawaiʻi, i Honolulu. A ilaila oe e haʻi aku ai ʻoe i ka lehulehu i kau mea e lohe ai ianei,” which translates to:

“We greet each other – we greet each other. We will very likely hereafter go to Hawaiʻi, to Honolulu. There you will tell my people what you have heard me say here.”

Kalākaua died in San Francisco a few days later (January 20, 1891.)

King Kalākaua’s desire for technology had an effect on all Hawaiʻi; technology changed the way the people of Hawaiʻi lived.  King Kalākaua wanted Hawaiʻi to be seen as a modern place and not an isolated, primitive kingdom.

The image shows the last photograph of Kalākaua, taken in San Francisco by Thomas C. Marceau, in early January 1891.  In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Transit of Venus – 1874 – 2012

Hawaii is tiny; we are a speck of islands within Earth’s largest ocean.  And, it is a metaphor for Earth’s place in space.
Interest in the heavens goes back far into the ancient fabric of Polynesian culture.  Many of the early Polynesian gods derived from or dwelt in the heavens, and many of the legendary exploits took place among the heavenly bodies.
Early Polynesians, who trusted their navigational instincts and skills to the nighttime stars above, currents, winds and waves, sailed thousands of miles over open ocean across the Pacific to Hawai‘i.
They had names for their star guides: Ka Maka – the point of the fishhook in the constellation Scorpius; Makali‘i – the Little Eyes within the Pleiades, Hoku‘ula – The Red Star in the constellation Taurus and Hokupa‘a – the North Star (fixed star,) as well as others.
After the Polynesians came, in 1778, the Europeans, under the command of Captain James Cook, arrived.  He brought with him spyglasses, clocks, sextants, charts, foreign ideas and techniques – new tools of navigation.
A new awareness of the skies was reborn under the scientific patronage of King David Kalākaua, (Kalākaua reigned over the Kingdom of Hawai‘i from 1874 to 1891.)
Kalākaua had a great interest in science and he saw it as a way to foster Hawai‘i’s prestige, internationally.
The opportunity to demonstrate this interest and support for astronomy was made available with the astronomical phenomenon called the “Transit of Venus,” which was visible in Hawai‘i in 1874.
The King allowed the British Royal Society’s expedition a suitable piece of open land for their viewing area; it was not far from Honolulu’s waterfront in a district called Apua (mauka of today’s Waterfront Plaza.)
They built a wooden fence enclosure and soon a well-equipped nineteenth-century astronomical observatory took shape, including a transit instrument, a photoheliograph, a number of telescopes and several temporary structures including wooden observatories.
Subsequently, auxiliary stations – though not so elaborate as the main station in Honolulu – were established in two other island locations: one at Kailua-Kona and the other at Waimea, Kaua‘i.
In addition, Hawai‘i was not the only site to observe the transit; under the British program, observations were also made in Egypt, Island of Rodriquez, Kerguelen Island and New Zealand.  (Other countries also conducted Transit observations.)
On Dec. 8, 1874, the transit was observed by the British scientists; however, the observation at Kailua-Kona was marred by clouds.  But the Honolulu and Waimea sites were considered perfect throughout the event, which lasted a little over half a day.
After the Transit of Venus observations, Kalākaua showed continued interest in astronomy, and in a letter to Captain RS Floyd on November 22, 1880, he expressed a desire to see an observatory established in Hawai‘i.  He later visited Lick Observatory in San Jose.
It was not long after this that a telescope was purchased from England in 1883 and set up at Punahou School.
In 1884, the five-inch refractor was installed in a dome constructed above Pauahi Hall on the school’s campus (the first permanent telescope in Hawai‘i.)
In 1956, this telescope was installed in Punahou’s newly completed MacNeil Observatory and Science Center.  (Unfortunately, it is not known where that telescope is today.
Why was the Transit of Venus important?
Although Copernicus had, by the 16th century, put the known planets in their correct order, their absolute distances remained unknown.  Astronomers still needed a celestial yardstick of “Astronomical Units” with which to measure distances among the planets and to link the planets to the stars beyond.
The mission of the British expedition was to observe a rare transit of Venus across the Sun for the purpose of better determining the value of the Astronomical Unit – that is, the Earth-to-Sun distance – and from it, the absolute scale of the solar system.
The orbits of Mercury and Venus lie inside Earth’s orbit, so they are the only planets which can pass between Earth and Sun to produce a transit (a transit is the passage of a planet across the Sun’s bright disk.)  Transits are very rare astronomical events; in the case of Venus, there are on average two transits every one and a quarter centuries.
Ironically, on December 8, 1874 the big day, the king was absent, being in Washington to promote Hawaiian interests in a new trade agreement with the United States.
When American astronomer Simon Newcomb combined the 18th century data with those from the 1874/1882 Venus transits, he derived an Earth-sun distance of 149.59 +/- 0.31 million kilometers (about 93-million miles), very close to the results found with modern space technology in the 20th century.
The image shows the Transit of Venus site at Apua, in Honolulu.  Much of the information here is from NASA and Institute for Astronomy.  In addition, I have posted other images, maps and related stuff on the Transit of Venus in a folder of like name in the Photos section.
Today (June 5, 2012,) we in Hawai‘i are again fortunate to be able to witness the Transit of Venus – beginning at 12:10 pm and ending at 6:45 pm (the next Transit of Venus will occur in 2117.)  There are lots of places across the State set up to help people witness this astronomical event.
Folks on Mauna Kea are hosting a live webcast: http://venustransit.nasa.gov/webcasts/nasaedge/
Remember – Never observe the sun with the naked eye or through a telescope, camera or other optical device.