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algol.html
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<html>
<head>
<title>Algol</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" link="#555555" vlink="#000000" alink="#000000">
<h1><a href="index.html"><img src="folklore-icon.gif" alt="Folklore" align="bottom" width="31" height="33"></a>
Algol</h1>
<p>Sitting on the grass outside Goodricke library, many people claim not
to have seen this sculpture. The artist is H. Mercer (who also did the
railway sculpture at the back of Goodricke) and the work represents the
binary star Algol (once known as the ``Demon Star'').</p>
<p>John Goodricke was an astronomer living in York. He was deaf since his
birth in 1764, but became a scientist and astronomer.
In 1782 he was the first to explain the variations in the brightness of the
star Algol - the star consists of two spheres which closely orbit one
another. They have different brightnesses and pass in front of each other, so
we see different brightnesses at different times. Algol was the first
star to be identified as a binary.</p>
<p>The raw material for the sculpture was a large pile of steel
cogs and gears, of railway origin.</p>
<p>When new (some time before 1971), the globes were lit
from within (you can still see the electrical
connections) in an approximation to the relative brightness of the real
stars - one red, one blue. The sculpture was unveiled (probably by
Sir Kenneth Clarke, no documentary
evidence yet) at night for full effect. After a speech, the lights
dimmed, and the stars lit up, and the honourable speaker was heard to
say ``Good God!'' down the mic in a fairly disturbed voice.</p>
<p>Reports indicate they were still lit in 1978-9.
Now woefully undermaintained, bits fall off from time to time.</p>
<p><strong>Related pages:</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<img src="/icons/greendot.gif" alt="*">
<a href="colleges.html">History of the Colleges</a><br>
<img src="/icons/greendot.gif" alt="*">
<a href="a_wright.html">Dryad, Tears of St Lawrence, `Library Sculpture', Three Norns</a><br>
<img src="/icons/greendot.gif" alt="*">
<a href="antiphon.html">Antiphon</a><br>
<img src="/icons/greendot.gif" alt="*">
<a href="may.html">Mayflower 1</a><br>
<img src="/icons/greendot.gif" alt="*">
<a href="buddah.html">The Buddah</a><br>
<img src="/icons/greendot.gif" alt="*">
<a href="rose.html">Rose of York</a>
</blockquote>
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