Confirmed minutes, 1802 - 1823
Scope and Contents
Minutes of Board of Longitude meetings regarding, among other matters, tables devised by José Mendoza de Ríos; correspondence with John Crosley (the astronomer with the expedition to New South Wales); a claim for a reward for Charles Mason's work on lunar tables; a report on the Arnold and Earnshaw chronometers going on the voyage of Captain Matthew Flinders; grants and awards to chronometer-makers; the observations of Nathaniel Bliss when he was Astronomer Royal; models of watch escapements produced by John Arnold and Thomas Earnshaw; methods of calculating refraction and parallax; observations made by Captain and Lieutenant Flinders; Edward Massey's patent log and sounding machine; a method of observing the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites at sea invented by John Playfair; the appointment of Thomas Young as Secretary to the Board of Longitude; the establishment of an observatory at the Cape of Good Hope; Rowland's pendulum quadrant; the voyages of HMS 'Hecla' and HMS 'Griper' to the north of America, including questions asked of the officers of these vessels on their return; questions asked of various chronometer-makers about their inventions, with answers; a joint proposal with the Académie des Sciences, Paris, to measure the exact distance between Dover and Calais; the first years of the Cape Observatory under Fearon Fallows; the re-measurement of Lacaille's arc of the meridian; observations of a biennial comet in 1823; the trials of various chronometers and other timepieces; and matters relating to computers and comparers.
Dates
- 1802 - 1823
Conditions Governing Access
Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
Extent
1 volume(s) (1 volume)
Language of Materials
English
Former / Other Reference
Vol. VII
Original geographic information
Atlantic Ocean [subject]
Original geographic information
Cape of Good Hope [subject]
Original geographic information
New South Wales [subject]
Original geographic information
Pacific Ocean [subject]
Finding aid date
2006-05-02 10:24:31+00:00
- Académie Royale des Sciences
- Arnold, Christoph, 1650 - 1695 (farmer and astronomer)
- Arnold, John, c1736 - 1799 (watch and chronometer maker)
- Astronomical observatories
- Atlantic Ocean
- Bliss, Nathaniel, 1700 - 1764 (astronomer)
- Cape of Good Hope
- Crosley, John, 1762 - 1817 (astronomer)
- Earnshaw, Thomas, 1749 - 1829 (maker of watches and chronometers)
- Fallows, Fearon, c1788 - 1831 (astronomer)
- Flinders, Matthew, 1774 - 1814 (naval officer and hydrographer)
- Flinders, Samuel Ward, 1782 - 1834 (naval officer)
- HMS Griper, gun-brig (1813-1868)
- HMS Hecla, bomb vessel (1815-1831)
- Hoppner, Henry Parkins, 1795 - 1833 (naval officer)
- Legislation
- Liddon, Matthew, c1792 - 1869 (Captain)
- Mason, Charles, 1728 - 1786 (astronomer and mathematician)
- Massey, Edward, c1768 - 1852 (nautical instrument maker)
- New South Wales
- Pacific Ocean
- Parry, William Edward, Sir, 1790 - 1855 (Knight, naval officer and Arctic explorer)
- Playfair, John, 1748 - 1819 (mathematician and geologist)
- Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope
- Ríos, José de Mendoza y, c1762 - 1816 (naval officer and astronomer)
- Sabine, Edward, Sir, 1788 - 1883 (Knight, army officer and physicist)
- Young, Thomas, 1773 - 1829 (physician, physicist and egyptologist)
Creator
- From the Management Group: Royal Greenwich Observatory (Organization)
Repository Details
Part of the Cambridge University Library Repository
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