NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: the Shovell Disaster
From: Nicol�s de Hilster
Date: 2007 Nov 14, 23:11 +0100
From: Nicol�s de Hilster
Date: 2007 Nov 14, 23:11 +0100
Ted and I discussed the Flamsteed lens a bit further off-list. In his book Astronomical Minds Ted not only shows who invented the Flamsteed lens, he also gives an earlier date of its use than I had before, namely 1677. For the fact that Hooke was the inventor of the Flamsteed lens Ted refers to the book "London's Leonardo" by Jim Bennett (Oxford, 2003) in which the latter gives a quote by Hooke who is complaining that he invented the lens but that someone else took credit for it some ten years later. Hook did not mention who that was, but that is quite clear. The earlier reference to the use of the Flamsteed lens comes from Colin Roman's book "Edmund Halley; Genius in Eclipse" (London 1970). Ted, I am glad you mentioned Hooke being the inventor of the Flamsteed lens as without that remark I would probably not have found out. Being not available from Dutch libraries your book and the reference works are all out of my reach right now, but not for long as our discussion made me order them. If anyone on this list has an earlier reference to the use of the Flamsteed lens (I stick to that termonology) I would certainly like to know. Nicol�s Nicol�s de Hilster wrote: > Ted Gerrard wrote: > >> As I said before, I have absolutely no idea >> > Sorry, I misunderstood that previous post, I did not read it properly. > > Ted Gerrard also wrote: > >> ...a back-staff fitted with a Flamsteed lens (invented by Robert >> Hooke)... >> > According to Moore (1681) the lens "... was the contrivance of Ingenious > Mr. Flamsteed". Perkins (1682, published posthumously) too seems to > mention Flamsteed as the inventor (I have not yet read this book, but it > is mentioned by both Waters and Cotter). May (1973) confirms this, but > wrote that "... it was not universally accepted..." (Flamsteed being the > inventor). Other modern authors like Waters (1958), Cotter (1983), > Warner (1988) and M�rzer Bruyns (1994) contribute the invention to > Flamsteed without hesitation. M�rzer Bruyns (2003) tells us that since > 1662 Hooke was 'curator of experiments' of the Royal Society. Hooke is > of course known for his single reflecting instrument, which he presented > in 1666. > > Now if you say that Hooke invented the Flamsteed lens then I guess that > shares you among those that make it not universally accepted and it > makes me very curious as well. Could you please explain where we can > base this on? Is it because Hooke was curator of experiments or was it > actually mentioned somewhere? When the Philosophical Transactions became > available on-line earlier this year I tried to find more information on > the Flamsteed lens. Flamsteed did publish a whole lot around the period > the lens was introduced, but nothing about the lens itself (or I did not > find it). I always found it strange that there was no such publication > by Flamsteed which could be explained when Hooke did invent the lens. > > Nicol�s > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---