Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse, LLD. F.R.S., late president of the American Philosophical Society, &c. : $b interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men : with an appendix, containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been publishedBarton, William
History
Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse, LLD. F.R.S., late president of the American Philosophical Society, &c. : $b interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men : with an appendix, containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been published
“It is now about thirty years, since those very ingenious makers of
time-keepers, Harrison, Cummings, Kendal, Arnold, and Mudge, among the
English,—Le Roy, and Berthoud, among the French,—devised various and
excellent ones for the use of navigators, and brought to a great
degree of perfection those marine watches, called by the English,
Time-keepers. As every one knows their use in ascertaining the
longitude, on a _sea-voyage_, I shall not say any thing more of them
here.—A similar time-piece, made by the celebrated watch-maker Mr.
Thomas Mudge, and often referred to in the royal observatory of
Greenwich, was, in 1784, made use of by the Hon. Vice-Admiral (John)
Campbell, commander of the naval squadron[88a] on the Newfoundland
station,—going thither and returning; and from that time was
diligently examined, at the observatory of his Excellency Count Bruhl,
in Dover street London.
“This very marine time-piece was confided to my charge, in the year
1786, for the purpose of determining the longitudes of my journey by
land; when, called from London by his Serene Highness the Duke of
Saxe-Gotha,—the patron of all the sciences and liberal arts, but more
especially favouring astronomy,—I returned to Germany; where the
erecting of a complete and splendid Observatory, at Gotha, was placed
under my direction.[88b] I then took with me, by the command of his
Serene Highness, a watch of a smaller size, which he usually carried
in his fob,—called by the English a Pocket-chronometer,—made by a
London artist, Mr. Josiah Emery:[88c] which, being made with the
greatest accuracy and ingenuity, yielded nothing in point of
correctness to the larger nautical time-keepers, as may be seen from
three tables of their movements by the illustrious Count Bruhl, and
also of others, by Dr. Arnold, lately established by authenticated
certificates.
“About the end of the year 1786 and the beginning of 1787, I
accompanied His Serene Highness, in a tour through Germany, France and
Italy. In this journey, the longitudes of several places and
astronomical observatories were determined, from a comparison of the
time of a nautical time-keeper (which was set by the solar mean time
in Dover street, London,) with the mean time of the place; which
appears by the altitudes of the sun, by Hadley’s sextant—those which
we call _corresponding_, or by a comparison with it, as transmitted to
us in observatories, by those astronomers. By the same instruments,
therefore, when I arrived at Gotha, I ascertained the longitude of the
future observatory there, with the greatest care and attention; which
the Duke, going to London a few days after, taking with him his
chronometer, at length fully verified.”
Footnote 88a:
Here is a reference, in the text, to note 89.
Footnote 88b:
Here is a reference, in the text, to note 90.
Footnote 88c:
Here is a reference, in the text, to note 91.
Footnote 89:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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