John Mackenzie Bacon


John Mackenzie Bacon, FRAS was an English astronomer, aeronaut, and lecturer. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1888. He and his daughter Gertrude Bacon made some of the earliest attempts to film a total solar eclipse. Their first expedition, to Vadso, Lapland, was unsuccessful due to cloudy weather. They went home and planned another, this time to Buxar, India. They succeeded in filming the eclipse, but unfortunately the film has been lost.
A third attempt with John Nevil Maskelyne in Wadesborough, North Carolina was also successful. Bacon and Maskelyne went on to file a patent for inflating balloons.