Sir Edward Sabine (1788-1883) was an Irish astronomer and geodesist who served in the Royal Artillery before participating in the Arctic expeditions of John Ross (1818) and William Parry (1819) in search of the Northwest Passage. From 1821 to 1823, Sabine traveled in the Southern hemisphere, developing Alexander von Humboldt's geomagnetic work. At that time, he began experiments to determine the Earth's shape more precisely by observing the motion of a pendulum. He devoted the rest of his life to research on terrestrial magnetism, and estabished magnetic observatories throughout the world. From 1861 to 1871, he was president of London's Royal Society. It was during this period (in 1869) that he was knighted.
