Coats Observatory

Located in Oakshaw Street West, Paisley, Renfrewshire, the observatory has been operational since 1 October 1883 and continues to function to this day, offering visitors the opportunity to view the night sky through the powerful telescopes housed within the building.

[1] The PPI was founded on 13 October 1808, having its origins among the educated and professional gentlemen of the burgh, such as ministers, doctors, lawyers and bankers.

The building consists of a three-storey tower, reaching a height of almost 20 metres, and topped by a copper-plated domed roof, within which the telescope is housed.

MacFarlanes were responsible for a great deal of the surviving 19th Century wrought ironworks throughout the city and even further afield – for example their work adorns the Raffles Hotel in Singapore.

With the construction of the tower well underway it was decided to commemorate the new building with the laying of a memorial stone, a duty performed by Thomas Coats on 8 March 1882 at an event attended by a number of local dignitaries, including the Provost, Magistrates and Town Council and members of the PPI.

The stone was accompanied by a 'time capsule' containing newspapers, small portraits of Mr & Mrs Coats and some coins of the realm.

A presentation of a silver trowel was made to Thomas Coats as a memento of the day and he is recorded as saying that he hoped the observatory would "prove a stimulus to interest the rising generation of the town and neighbourhood in the study of astronomy – a science little understood among us, but which may, under the leading spirits of our Philosophical Institution, become a subject of instruction that will be eagerly sought after.

The delay was partly caused by the construction of a smaller building behind the observatory tower to house an astronomical clock and telescope.

Coats Observatory was officially opened for business on 1 October 1883, and the first visitor to the building was Robert Grant, Professor of Astronomy at Glasgow University.

As well as the everyday visitor there are many notable guests, such as William Speirs Bruce, the leader of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition from 1902 to 1904; Howard Grubb, telescope maker; David Gill, Her Majesty's Royal astronomer at the Cape Observatory in South Africa from 1879 to 1907; Frank Watson Dyson, Astronomer Royal of England from 1910 to 1933; and Keir Hardie, one of the founders of the Labour Party.

After Thomas Coats' death his son James took over the family involvement in the Observatory, increasing the endowment and purchasing a number of pieces of scientific equipment for use in the building.

A pavilion was built behind the main observatory building, which was opened by Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Secretary of State for Scotland, on 14 September 1898.

After being given a tour of the buildings and the equipment he is noted as 'expressing his gratitude for what he had seen and congratulating the citizens of Paisley on the opportunities which they possessed for the study of Astronomy'.

[5] Throughout the early years of the 20th century the observatory continued to operate as it had done, with visits by schools, other groups and members of the public, astronomical society meetings and daily weather recordings.

This was remedied in 1924, when the telescopes were given a major overhaul and repairs carried out to the building, although a setback occurred in April 1925 when the adjoining building, housing the Paisley Photographic Society meeting rooms, went on fire, causing damage to the weather recording instruments housed there After the Second World War the value of the endowment decreased further and the running costs for the Observatory had to be partly met by the income from the winter lecture series of the PPI.

The original deed of gift drawn up by Thomas Coats contained a proviso that if ever the Philosophical Institution should find itself unable to continue to pay for the upkeep of the Observatory it should be offered to Paisley Town Council, as the local authority was then.

Coats Observatory was furnished with a wide range of scientific apparatus for observing the night sky and making meteorological records.

The collection includes equipment from the leading manufacturers of the day such as telescopes by Troughton & Simms, microscopes by R&J Beck, spectroscopes by Adam Hilger and Howard Grubb and seismometers by R.W.

Thomas Coats had meticulously recorded the weather at his home of Ferguslie House in Paisley since 1858 and gifted the observatory a barometer and thermometer prior to its opening.