| On the south side of the road
through Inverey, west of Braemar, a granite obelisk stands in
honour of John Lamont, born at Corriemoulzie. He became one
of the foremost mathematicians and astronomers of the 19th century,
determining the position of over 80,000 stars in his star maps.
He was appointed Astronomer Royal of Bavaria in 1835. His research
into Terrestrial Magnetism also resulted in him being much sought
after by countries in Europe. A prolific inventor, one of his
portable magnetic theodolites is to be seen in Marischal College.
His Handbook of Geomagnetism is used to this day.
He was awarded over 60 diplomas and honorary degrees by institutions
such as the Academies of Brussels, Upsala, Liege, Cherbourg
and Edinburgh and honoured by various Orders of Knighthood
such as Knight of the Papal Order of St. Gregory the Great,
the Order of St. Michael, the Order of the Iron Crown, the
Swedish Order of the North Star and Order of Merit of the
Bavarian Crown which conferred the title of nobility with
the privilege of using "von" before his surname.
He was also made a Fellow of the Royal Society.
There is a Lamont Observatory in California and a Lamont
University in New York State, though his name is recorded
much further afield. His pioneering work is recalled by the
Apollo mission which landed in the Sea of Tranquillity at
a spot named Lamont. This son of Deeside also has a mountain
on Mars named after him.
His memorial is in a cemetery off Lamontstrasse in Bogenhausen,
Munich where he is in the company of other great men. The
memorial depicts him open-handed to show his generosity. A
relatively wealthy man, he left his wealth for student grants
at the Academy of Science and his property (a large part of
which was a precision workshop in which among other things,
the Lamont Travelling Theodolite was built) to the University
of Munich.
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