Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800): London’s Leading Scientific Instrument Maker

341 Pages·2016·8.695 MB·English

by  Anita McConnell

JESSE RAMSDEN (1735–1800)
LONDON’S LEADING
SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MAKER
Science, Technology and
Culture, 1700–1945
Series Editors
David M. Knight
University of Durham
and
Trevor Levere
University of Toronto
Science, Technology and Culture, 1700–1945 focuses on the social, cultural,
industrial and economic contexts of science and technology from the ‘scientific
revolution’ up to the Second world War. It explores the agricultural and
industrial revolutions of the eighteenth century, the coffee-house culture of the
Enlightenment, the spread of museums, botanic gardens and expositions in the
nineteenth century, to the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, seen as a victory for
German science. It also addresses the dependence of society on science and
technology in the twentieth century.
Science, Technology and Culture, 1700–1945 addresses issues of the interaction
of science, technology and culture in the period from 1700 to 1945, at the same
time as including new research within the field of the history of science.
Also in the series
Phrenology and the Origins of Victorian Scientific Naturalism
John van Wyhe
John Herschel’s Cape Voyage
Private Science, Public Imagination and the Ambitions of Empire
Steven Ruskin
Jeremiah Joyce
Radical, Dissenter and Writer
John Issitt
Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800)
London's Leading Scientific
Instrument Maker
ANITA McCONNELL
First published 2007 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of/he Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © Anita McConnell 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
Anita McConnell has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
McConnell, Anita
Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800) : London's leading scientific
instrument maker. - (Science, technology and culture,
1700-1945)
I. Ramsden, 1. (Jesse), 1735-1800 2. Machinists - Great
Britain - Biography 3. Scientific apparatus and instruments
- Design and construction - History - 18th century
4. Scientific apparatus and instruments industry - England
- London - History - 18th century
1. Title
681.7'5'092
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McConnell, Anita
Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800) : London's leading scientific instrument maker / Anita McConnell.
p. cm. - (Science, technology, and culture, 1700-1945)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
I. Ramsden, 1. (Jesse), 1735-1800.2. Instrument manufacture-Great Britain-Biography. 3.
Optical engineering-Great Britain-Biography. 4. Machinists-Great Britain-Biography. 5.
Scientific apparatus and instruments-England-London-History-18th century. 1. Title.
TS511.G72L66762007
681' .75092-dc22
[BJ
2007005528
Transfered to Digital Printing in 20 II
ISBN 9780754661368 (hbk)
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
List of Plates, Picture Credits ix
Abbreviations for Manuscript Sources xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
Foreword xvii
Introduction 1
1 Early Life 11
2 Entering Trade 25
3 The Dividing Engines 39
4 ‘At the Sign of the Golden Spectacles’: The Piccadilly Workshop 53
5 Observatory Instruments and Expeditions, before 1786 77
6 Observatories and Expeditions after 1786 113
7 A Miscellany of Instruments 157
8 Surveying and the Great Geodetic Theodolites 191
9 Roy and Ramsden: Dispute Over his Standard of Work 223
10 Final Years 231
11 Ramsden’s Will and Probate 247
12 Sarah and John Ramsden 251
13 The Craft Inheritors at Piccadilly 255
14 Tales of a Great Man 275
Bibliography 279
Appendices 297
Index 313
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List of Illustrations
1 Sir Joseph Banks, portrait by Joshua Rynolds 4
2 Sir Charles Blagden, etching by Mary Dawson Turner 5
1.1 Jesse Ramsden, engraving by C. Knight 13
1.2 Set-square with Ramsden’s trial engraving, 1757 16
1.3 The Haymarket, Westminster, in the eighteenth century 18
1.4 A restored eighteenth-century shop front in Haymarket. WA,
F138 (35) 19
1.5 Ground plan of 199 Piccadilly, 1799 22
2.1 Ramsden’s invoice to Banks for an equatorial telescope, 1772 28
2.2 Engraving of a sextant, from Ramsden’s pamphlet 34
2.3 Pillar and bridge sextant signed Berge 35
3.1 Ramsden’s circular dividing engine. Engraving, 1777 44
4.1 Street plan of 196 to 199 Piccadilly, c.1776 54
4.2 Isometric plan of workshop behind 196 Piccadilly, 1781 56
4.3 Ramsden’s tube-drawing machine 69
4.4 Opera-glass signed Ramsden 70
5.1a Vilnius Observatory today 81
5.1b Vilnius Observatory, 3½-foot achromatic telescope, signed
Ramsden 82
5.2 Transit telescope signed Ramsden London 83
5.3a Mural quadrant signed Ramsden London 84
5.3b Detail of quadrant arch 84
5.4a Padua Observatory today 95
5.4b Mural quadrant signed Ramsden 96
5.5 Astronomical quandrant signed Ramsden 98
5.6 Equatorial telescope signed Ramsden 99
6.1 Dunsink Observatory, Ramsden’s astronomical circle,
engraving 117
6.2 Dunsink Observatory, remaining portions of Ramsden’s circle
in the 1950s 118
6.3a Mountain barometer signed Ramsden 120
6.3b Detail of the cistern 120
6.4 Mannheim Observatory today 121
6.5a Franz Xavier von Zach, engraving 125
6.5b Seeberg Observatory, engraving 125
6.6 Ramsden’s invoice to the University of Milan, 1790 140
6.7 Jean-Dominique Cassini, engraving 143
7.1 Ramsden’s invoice to Joseph Banks, 1772 158
7.2 Ramsden’s electrical machine, engraving 161
7.3a Open cistern domestic barometer signed Ramsden 162
viii Jesse Ramsden (1735–1800): London’s Leading Scientific Instrument Maker
7.3b Ramsden’s portable barometer 162
7.3c Ramsden’s portable domestic barometer, engraving 163
7.4 Theodolite signed Ramsden, early model 169
7.5 Surveyor’s level signed Berge 170
7.6 Achromatic telescope signed Berge 171
7.7a Dynameter signed Berge, in case 175
7.7b Diagram of a dynameter 175
7.8 Long-beam precision balance signed Ramsden 179
7.9 Ramsden’s invoice to Banks, 1788 179
7.10 Microtome signed Ramsden 182
7.11 Coin balance signed Ramsden 185
8.1 Measuring the Hounslow base with the glass tubes, engraving
from Philosophical Transactions 197
8.2 Ramsden’s pyrometer, engraving from Philosophical
Transactions 199
8.3 Ramsden’s three-foot geodetic theodolite, engraving from
Philosophical Transactions 202
8.4 Hoisting the geodetic theodolite, engraving from Philosophical
Transactions 204
8.5 Eighteen-inch geodetic theodolite 208
8.6 The ‘improved’ geodetic theodolite, engraving from James
(1902), unnumbered plate 211
8.7 Cary’s invoice to the Royal Society, 1822 213
10.1 Ramsden, engraving by Jones, 1790 234
10.2 Ramsden, engraving by Turner, 1801 234
13.1 Berge’s letterhead, 1801 255
13.2 Berge’s price-list, 1801 256
13.3a,b Berge’s estimate to Piazzi, 1808 261
13.4 Portable transit telescope signed Berge London 262
13.5 Surveyor’s chain and box signed Berge 263
13.6 Mountain barometer signed Berge 264
13.7 Reflecting circle, radius 5 inches, signed Allan 265
13.8 Marine barometer signed Worthington & Allen London 267
13.9 Portable altazimuth circle signed Worthington 269
13.10 Worthington’s undertaking, 1821, to the Board of Longitude 270
13.11 Ramsden’s circular dividing engine, 1890 271
List of Plates, Picture Credits
List of Plates
1 Jesse Ramsden by Robert Home, probably 1790. Oil on canvas,
© The Royal Society xviii
2 Astronomical circle made by Ramsden for Palermo Observatory.
Courtesy of Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo Giuseppe S. Vaiana ixx
3 Geodetic theodolite by Ramsden, 1787. © Science Museum / SSPL xx
4 © Hans Moritz, Count Bruhl, James Northcote, 1796. Petworth
House, The Egremont Collection (acquired in lieu of tax by H.M.
Treasury in 1957 and subsequently transferred to the National
Trust). Oil on canvas (1270 mm × 1005 mm) xxi
Picture Credits
Introduction 1, Introduction 2: © National Portrait Gallery, London.
1.1, 10.1, 10.2: ©Wellcome Library, London.
1.3, 1.4: © Westminster Archives Centre.
1.5, 4.1© The National Archives.
2.1, 7.1, 7.9: Sir Joseph Banks Electronic Archive, State Library of New South
Wales.
2.2, 6.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.7, 13.1, 13.9: By permission of the Syndics of Cambridge
University Library.
2.3, 4.4, 7.4: © National Museums of Scotland.
3.1, 7.7a, 7.7b, 8.6: © H.A.L. Dawes.
4.2: © The Bethlem Art and History Collections Trust.
4.3: © Rijksarkivet, Stockholm.
5.1b, © Romualdas Svierdrys, reproduced by permission of Stasé Matulaityé.
5.2, 5.3a, 5.3b: © Romualdas Svierdrys.
5.4: Reproduced by courtesy of Museo La Specola, INAF-Astronomical
Observatory of Padova, Italy.
5.5, 5.6: © Istituto Geografico Militare, Firenze.
6.2: Reproduced by courtesy of Mrs Mary Brück.
6.3: Reproduced by courtesy of Kai Budde, Landesmuseum für Technik und
Arbeit in Mannheim.
6.5a, 6.5b: Reproduced by courtesy of Peter Brosche.
6.6: © Courtesy of Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera.
6.7: © Observatoire de Paris, Bibliothèque.
7.2: Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington.
Plate 3, 7.8: © Science Museum/SSPL.
13.11: Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington.