1.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
2.
Longitude Act
–
The Longitude Act was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed in July 1714 at the end of the reign of Queen Anne. It established the Board of Longitude and offered rewards for anyone who could find a simple. The Act of 1714 was followed by a series of other Longitude Acts that revised or replaced the original, as transoceanic travel grew in significance, so did the importance of accurate and reliable navigation at sea. Scientists and navigators had been working on the problem of measuring longitude for a long time, while determining latitude was relatively easy, early ocean navigators had to rely on dead reckoning to find longitude. This brought the problem of measuring longitude at sea into sharp focus once more, following the Merchants and Seamen Petition, which called for finding an adequate solution and was presented to Westminster Palace in May 1714, the Longitude Act was passed in July 1714. For details on many of the efforts towards determining the longitude, the Longitude Act offered a series of rewards, rather than a single prize. The rewards increased with the accuracy achieved, £10,000 for anyone who could find a way of determining longitude at sea to an accuracy of not greater than one degree of longitude. The reward was to be increased to £15,000 if the accuracy was not greater than 40 minutes, many rewards were paid out over the 114 years of the Board of Longitudes existence. John Harrison received more money than any individual, with several rewards from the 1730s-1750s. Subsequent Longitude Acts offered different rewards, in 1820 £5,000 was paid to the officers and crews of HMS Hecla and HMS Griper under this Act. Alexi Baker, Longitude Acts, Board of Longitude project, University of Cambridge Digital Library
3.
Philip II of Spain
–
Philip II of Spain, called the Prudent, was King of Spain, King of Portugal, King of Naples and Sicily, and jure uxoris King of England and Ireland. He was also Duke of Milan, from 1555, he was lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands. Known in Spain as Felipe el Prudente, his empire included territories on every continent then known to Europeans, during his reign, Spain reached the height of its influence and power. This is sometimes called the Golden Age, the expression, the empire on which the sun never sets, was coined during Philips time to reflect the extent of his dominion. During Philips reign there were separate state bankruptcies in 1557,1560,1569,1575 and this was partly the cause of the declaration of independence that created the Dutch Republic in 1581. The Ambassador went on to say He dresses very tastefully, the culture and courtly life of Spain were an important influence in his early life. He was tutored by Juan Martínez Siliceo, the future Archbishop of Toledo, Philip displayed reasonable aptitude in arms and letters alike. Later he would study with more illustrious tutors, including the humanist Juan Cristóbal Calvete de Estrella, though Philip had good command over Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese, he never managed to equal his father, Charles V, as a polyglot. While Philip was also a German archduke of the House of Habsburg, Philip felt himself to be culturally Spanish, he had been born in Spain and raised in the Castilian court, his native tongue was Spanish, and he preferred to live in Spain. This would ultimately impede his succession to the imperial throne, in April 1528, when Philip was eleven months old, he received the oath of allegiance as heir to the crown from the Cortes of Castile. Philip was also close to his two sisters, María and Juana, and to his two pages, the Portuguese nobleman Rui Gomes da Silva and Luis de Requesens, the son of his governor Juan de Zúñiga. These men would serve Philip throughout their lives, as would Antonio Pérez, Philips martial training was undertaken by his governor, Juan de Zúñiga, a Castilian nobleman who served as the commendador mayor of Castile. The practical lessons in warfare were overseen by the Duke of Alba during the Italian Wars, Philip was present at the Siege of Perpignan in 1542 but did not see action as the Spanish army under Alba decisively defeated the besieging French forces under the Dauphin of France. On his way back to Castile, Philip received the oath of allegiance of the Aragonese Cortes at Monzón. The king-emperors interactions with his son during his stay in Spain convinced him of Philips precocity in statesmanship, Philip, who had previously been made the Duke of Milan in 1540, began governing the most extensive empire in the world at the young age of sixteen. Charles left Philip with experienced advisors—notably the secretary Francisco de los Cobos, Philip was also left with extensive written instructions that emphasised piety, patience, modesty, and distrust. These principles of Charles were gradually assimilated by his son, who would grow up to become grave, self-possessed, personally, Philip spoke softly and had an icy self-mastery, in the words of one of his ministers, he had a smile that cut like a sword. After living in the Netherlands in the years of his reign
4.
Philip III of Spain
–
Philip III of Spain was King of Spain and Portugal. A member of the House of Habsburg, Philip III was born in Madrid to King Philip II of Spain and his wife and niece Anna. Philip III later married his cousin Margaret of Austria, sister of Ferdinand II, V. Wedgwood, R. Stradling and J. H. Elliott. In particular, Philips reliance on his chief minister, the Duke of Lerma, drew much criticism at the time. For many, the decline of Spain can be dated to the difficulties that set in during the early years of his reign. After Philip IIIs older brother Don Carlos died insane, Philip II had concluded that one of the causes of Carlos condition had been the influence of the factions at the Spanish court. Philip II appointed Juan de Zúñiga, then Prince Diegos governor, to continue this role for Philip and they were joined by Cristóbal de Moura, a close supporter of Philip II. In combination, Philip believed, they would provide a consistent, stable upbringing for Prince Philip, nonetheless, Philip does not appear to have been naive – his correspondence to his daughters shows a distinctive, cautious streak in his advice on dealing with court intrigue. Philip first met the Marquis of Denia – the future Duke of Lerma – then, Lerma and Philip became close friends, but Lerma was considered unsuitable by the King and Philips tutors. Lerma was dispatched to Valencia as a Viceroy in 1595, with the aim of removing Philip from his influence, the prince received a new, conservative Dominican confessor. The following year, Philip II died after an illness, leaving the empire to his son. Philip married his cousin, Margaret of Austria, in 1599, Margaret, the sister of the future Emperor Ferdinand II, would be one of three women at Philips court who would apply considerable influence over the king. Margaret continued to fight a battle with Lerma for influence up until her death in 1611. Philip had an affectionate, close relationship with Margaret, and paid her additional attention after she bore him a son in 1605 and they were successful, for example, in convincing Philip to provide financial support to Ferdinand from 1600 onwards. Philip steadily acquired other religious advisors, similarly Mariana de San Jose, a favoured nun of Queen Margarets, was also criticised for her later influence over the Kings actions. The Spanish crown at the time ruled through a system of royal councils and these councils were then supplemented by small committees, or juntas, as necessary, such as the junta of the night through which Philip II exercised personal authority towards the end of his reign. As a matter of policy, Philip had tried to avoid appointing grandees to major positions of power within his government and relied heavily on the lesser nobles, the so-called service nobility. To his contemporaries, the degree of personal oversight he exercised was excessive, Philip first started to become engaged in practical government at the age of 15, when he joined Philip IIs private committee
5.
States General of the Netherlands
–
The States General is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets at the Binnenhof in The Hague, the States General originated in the 15th century as an assembly of all the provincial states of the Burgundian Netherlands. The States General were replaced by the National Assembly after the Batavian Revolution of 1795, only to be restored in 1814, the States General was divided into a Senate and a House of Representatives in 1815, with the establishment of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. On exceptional occasions, the two form a joint session known as the United Assembly. The President of the Senate serves as President of the States General during a United Assembly, ankie Broekers-Knol has been President of the Senate since 2013. The archaic Dutch word staten originally related to the classes in which medieval European societies were stratified, the clergy, the nobility. The word eventually came to mean the political body in which the estates were represented. Each province in the Habsburg Netherlands had its own staten and these representative bodies in turn were represented in the assembly that came to be known as Staten-Generaal, or Algemene Staten. The English word states may have a meaning as the Dutch word staten. The English phrases States General is probably a translation of the Dutch word. Historically, the term was used for the name of other national legislatures as, for example, the Catalan and Valencian Generalitat. Several geographic place names are derived from the States General, in 1609, Henry Hudson established Dutch trade in Staten Island, New York City and named the island Staaten Eylandt after the States General. Isla de los Estados, now an Argentine island, was named after this institution. Abel Tasman originally gave the name Staten Landt to what would become New Zealand, Staaten River is a river in the Cape York Peninsula, Australia. Later, regular sessions were held at Coudenberg in Brussels, Brabant, the next important event was the convocation of the States General by the ducal Council for 3 February 1477 after the death of Charles the Bold. In this session the States General forced the grant of the Great Privilege by Mary of Burgundy in which the right of the States General to convene on their own initiative was recognised, in 1576 the States General as a whole, however, openly rebelled against the Spanish crown. In 1579 the States General split as a number of provinces, united in the Union of Arras returned to obedience, while other provinces. After the Act of Abjuration in 1581 the northern States General replaced Philip II as the authority of the northern Netherlands
6.
Robert Hooke
–
Robert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath. Allan Chapman has characterised him as Englands Leonardo, Robert Gunthers Early Science in Oxford, a history of science in Oxford during the Protectorate, Restoration and Age of Enlightenment, devotes five of its fourteen volumes to Hooke. Hooke studied at Wadham College, Oxford during the Protectorate where he became one of a tightly knit group of ardent Royalists led by John Wilkins. Here he was employed as an assistant to Thomas Willis and to Robert Boyle and he built some of the earliest Gregorian telescopes and observed the rotations of Mars and Jupiter. In 1665 he inspired the use of microscopes for scientific exploration with his book, based on his microscopic observations of fossils, Hooke was an early proponent of biological evolution. Much of Hookes scientific work was conducted in his capacity as curator of experiments of the Royal Society, much of what is known of Hookes early life comes from an autobiography that he commenced in 1696 but never completed. Richard Waller mentions it in his introduction to The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, the work of Waller, along with John Wards Lives of the Gresham Professors and John Aubreys Brief Lives, form the major near-contemporaneous biographical accounts of Hooke. Robert Hooke was born in 1635 in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight to John Hooke, Robert was the last of four children, two boys and two girls, and there was an age difference of seven years between him and the next youngest. Their father John was a Church of England priest, the curate of Freshwaters Church of All Saints, Robert Hooke was expected to succeed in his education and join the Church. John Hooke also was in charge of a school, and so was able to teach Robert. He was a Royalist and almost certainly a member of a group who went to pay their respects to Charles I when he escaped to the Isle of Wight, Robert, too, grew up to be a staunch monarchist. As a youth, Robert Hooke was fascinated by observation, mechanical works and he dismantled a brass clock and built a wooden replica that, by all accounts, worked well enough, and he learned to draw, making his own materials from coal, chalk and ruddle. Hooke quickly mastered Latin and Greek, made study of Hebrew. Here, too, he embarked on his study of mechanics. It appears that Hooke was one of a group of students whom Busby educated in parallel to the work of the school. Contemporary accounts say he was not much seen in the school, in 1653, Hooke secured a choristers place at Christ Church, Oxford. He was employed as an assistant to Dr Thomas Willis. There he met the natural philosopher Robert Boyle, and gained employment as his assistant from about 1655 to 1662, constructing, operating and he did not take his Master of Arts until 1662 or 1663
7.
Latitude
–
In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the north–south position of a point on the Earths surface. Latitude is an angle which ranges from 0° at the Equator to 90° at the poles, lines of constant latitude, or parallels, run east–west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude is used together with longitude to specify the location of features on the surface of the Earth. Without qualification the term latitude should be taken to be the latitude as defined in the following sections. Also defined are six auxiliary latitudes which are used in special applications, there is a separate article on the History of latitude measurements. Two levels of abstraction are employed in the definition of latitude and longitude, in the first step the physical surface is modelled by the geoid, a surface which approximates the mean sea level over the oceans and its continuation under the land masses. The second step is to approximate the geoid by a mathematically simpler reference surface, the simplest choice for the reference surface is a sphere, but the geoid is more accurately modelled by an ellipsoid. The definitions of latitude and longitude on such surfaces are detailed in the following sections. Lines of constant latitude and longitude together constitute a graticule on the reference surface, latitude and longitude together with some specification of height constitute a geographic coordinate system as defined in the specification of the ISO19111 standard. This is of importance in accurate applications, such as a Global Positioning System, but in common usage, where high accuracy is not required. In English texts the latitude angle, defined below, is denoted by the Greek lower-case letter phi. It is measured in degrees, minutes and seconds or decimal degrees, the precise measurement of latitude requires an understanding of the gravitational field of the Earth, either to set up theodolites or to determine GPS satellite orbits. The study of the figure of the Earth together with its field is the science of geodesy. These topics are not discussed in this article and this article relates to coordinate systems for the Earth, it may be extended to cover the Moon, planets and other celestial objects by a simple change of nomenclature. The primary reference points are the poles where the axis of rotation of the Earth intersects the reference surface, the plane through the centre of the Earth and perpendicular to the rotation axis intersects the surface at a great circle called the Equator. Planes parallel to the plane intersect the surface in circles of constant latitude. The Equator has a latitude of 0°, the North Pole has a latitude of 90° North, the latitude of an arbitrary point is the angle between the equatorial plane and the radius to that point. The latitude, as defined in this way for the sphere, is termed the spherical latitude
8.
Declination
–
In astronomy, declination is one of the two angles that locate a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system, the other being hour angle. Declinations angle is measured north or south of the celestial equator, the root of the word declination means a bending away or a bending down. It comes from the root as the words incline and recline. Declination in astronomy is comparable to geographic latitude, projected onto the celestial sphere, points north of the celestial equator have positive declinations, while those south have negative declinations. Any units of measure can be used for declination, but it is customarily measured in the degrees, minutes. Declinations with magnitudes greater than 90° do not occur, because the poles are the northernmost and southernmost points of the celestial sphere, the Earths axis rotates slowly westward about the poles of the ecliptic, completing one circuit in about 26,000 years. This effect, known as precession, causes the coordinates of stationary celestial objects to change continuously, therefore, equatorial coordinates are inherently relative to the year of their observation, and astronomers specify them with reference to a particular year, known as an epoch. Coordinates from different epochs must be rotated to match each other. The currently used standard epoch is J2000.0, which is January 1,2000 at 12,00 TT, the prefix J indicates that it is a Julian epoch. Prior to J2000.0, astronomers used the successive Besselian Epochs B1875.0, B1900.0, the declinations of Solar System objects change very rapidly compared to those of stars, due to orbital motion and close proximity. This similarly occurs in the Southern Hemisphere for objects with less than −90° − φ. An extreme example is the star which has a declination near to +90°. Circumpolar stars never dip below the horizon, conversely, there are other stars that never rise above the horizon, as seen from any given point on the Earths surface. Generally, if a star whose declination is δ is circumpolar for some observer, then a star whose declination is −δ never rises above the horizon, as seen by the same observer. Likewise, if a star is circumpolar for an observer at latitude φ, neglecting atmospheric refraction, declination is always 0° at east and west points of the horizon. At the north point, it is 90° − |φ|, and at the south point, from the poles, declination is uniform around the entire horizon, approximately 0°. Non-circumpolar stars are visible only during certain days or seasons of the year, the Suns declination varies with the seasons. As seen from arctic or antarctic latitudes, the Sun is circumpolar near the summer solstice, leading to the phenomenon of it being above the horizon at midnight
9.
Dead reckoning
–
The corresponding term in biology, used to describe the processes by which animals update their estimates of position or heading, is path integration. Dead reckoning is subject to cumulative errors, however, inertial navigation systems, which provide very accurate directional information, use dead reckoning and are very widely applied. Often, this implies that the changes are not known accurately. The earlier value and the changes may be measured or calculated quantities, there is speculation on the origin of the term, but no reliable information. As each estimate of position is relative to the one, errors are cumulative, or compounding, multiplicatively or exponentially. The accuracy of dead reckoning can be increased significantly by using other, localizing a static sensor node is not a difficult task because attaching a GPS device suffices the need of localization. But a mobile sensor node, which change its geographical location with time is difficult to localize. Mostly mobile sensor nodes within some particular domain for data collection can be used, i. e, within these scenarios a GPS device for each sensor node cannot be afforded. Some of the reasons for this include cost, size and battery drainage of constrained sensor nodes, to overcome this problem a limited number of reference nodes within a field is employed. These nodes continuously broadcast their locations and other nodes in proximity receive these locations, for localization, at least three known reference locations are necessary to localize. Several localization algorithms based on Sequential Monte Carlo method have been proposed in literatures, sometimes a node at some places receives only two known locations and hence it becomes impossible to localize. To overcome this problem, dead reckoning technique is used, with this technique a sensor node uses its previous calculated location for localization at later time intervals. This not only localizes a node in less time but also localizes in positions where it is difficult to get three reference locations, in studies of animal navigation, dead reckoning is more commonly known as path integration. Animals use it to estimate their current location based on their movements from their last known location. Animals such as ants, rodents, and geese have been shown to track their locations relative to a starting point and to return to it. In marine navigation a dead reckoning plot generally does not take account the effect of currents or wind. Aboard ship a dead reckoning plot is considered important in evaluating position information, dead reckoning begins with a known position, or fix, which is then advanced, mathematically or directly on the chart, by means of recorded heading, speed, and time. Speed can be determined by many methods, before modern instrumentation, it was determined aboard ship using a chip log
10.
Galilean moons
–
The Galilean moons are the four largest moons of Jupiter—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They were first seen by Galileo Galilei in January 1610, and they are the first objects found to orbit another planet. Their names derive from the lovers of Zeus and they are among the largest objects in the Solar System with the exception of the Sun and the eight planets, with radii larger than any of the dwarf planets. Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, and is bigger than the planet Mercury. The three inner moons—Io, Europa, and Ganymede—are in a 4,2,1 orbital resonance with each other, because of their much smaller size, and therefore weaker self-gravitation, all of Jupiters remaining moons have irregular forms rather than a spherical shape. The Galilean moons were discovered in either 1609 or 1610 when Galileo made improvements to his telescope, galileos discovery showed the importance of the telescope as a tool for astronomers by proving that there were objects in space that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Galileo initially named his discovery the Cosmica Sidera, but the names that eventually prevailed were chosen by Simon Marius. Marius discovered the moons independently at the time as Galileo, and gave them their present names. As a result of improvements Galileo Galilei made to the telescope, with a capability of 20×. This allowed Galilei to discover in either December 1609 or January 1610 what came to be known as the Galilean moons, on January 7,1610, Galileo wrote a letter containing the first mention of Jupiters moons. At the time, he saw three of them, and he believed them to be fixed stars near Jupiter. He continued to observe these celestial orbs from January 8 to March 2,1610, in these observations, he discovered a fourth body, and also observed that the four were not fixed stars, but rather were orbiting Jupiter. Galileos discovery proved the importance of the telescope as a tool for astronomers by showing that there were objects in space to be discovered that until then had remained unseen by the naked eye, nevertheless, Galileo accepted the Copernican theory. In 1605, Galileo had been employed as a tutor for Cosimo de Medici. In 1609, Cosimo became Grand Duke Cosimo II of Tuscany, Galileo, seeking patronage from his now-wealthy former student and his powerful family, used the discovery of Jupiters moons to gain it. Galileo asked whether he should name the moons the Cosmian Stars, after Cosimo alone, or the Medician Stars, the secretary replied that the latter name would be best. On March 12,1610, Galileo wrote his letter to the Duke of Tuscany. Behold, therefore, four stars reserved for your illustrious name, make their journeys and orbits with a marvelous speed around the star of Jupiter
11.
Jupiter
–
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a giant planet with a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants, the other two giant planets, Uranus and Neptune are ice giants. Jupiter has been known to astronomers since antiquity, the Romans named it after their god Jupiter. Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen with a quarter of its mass being helium and it may also have a rocky core of heavier elements, but like the other giant planets, Jupiter lacks a well-defined solid surface. Because of its rotation, the planets shape is that of an oblate spheroid. The outer atmosphere is visibly segregated into several bands at different latitudes, resulting in turbulence, a prominent result is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm that is known to have existed since at least the 17th century when it was first seen by telescope. Surrounding Jupiter is a faint planetary ring system and a powerful magnetosphere, Jupiter has at least 67 moons, including the four large Galilean moons discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Ganymede, the largest of these, has a greater than that of the planet Mercury. Jupiter has been explored on several occasions by robotic spacecraft, most notably during the early Pioneer and Voyager flyby missions and later by the Galileo orbiter. In late February 2007, Jupiter was visited by the New Horizons probe, the latest probe to visit the planet is Juno, which entered into orbit around Jupiter on July 4,2016. Future targets for exploration in the Jupiter system include the probable ice-covered liquid ocean of its moon Europa, Earth and its neighbor planets may have formed from fragments of planets after collisions with Jupiter destroyed those super-Earths near the Sun. Astronomers have discovered nearly 500 planetary systems with multiple planets, Jupiter moving out of the inner Solar System would have allowed the formation of inner planets, including Earth. Jupiter is composed primarily of gaseous and liquid matter and it is the largest of the four giant planets in the Solar System and hence its largest planet. It has a diameter of 142,984 km at its equator, the average density of Jupiter,1.326 g/cm3, is the second highest of the giant planets, but lower than those of the four terrestrial planets. Jupiters upper atmosphere is about 88–92% hydrogen and 8–12% helium by percent volume of gas molecules, a helium atom has about four times as much mass as a hydrogen atom, so the composition changes when described as the proportion of mass contributed by different atoms. Thus, Jupiters atmosphere is approximately 75% hydrogen and 24% helium by mass, the atmosphere contains trace amounts of methane, water vapor, ammonia, and silicon-based compounds. There are also traces of carbon, ethane, hydrogen sulfide, neon, oxygen, phosphine, the outermost layer of the atmosphere contains crystals of frozen ammonia. The interior contains denser materials - by mass it is roughly 71% hydrogen, 24% helium, through infrared and ultraviolet measurements, trace amounts of benzene and other hydrocarbons have also been found
12.
History of longitude
–
The history of longitude is a record of the effort, by astronomers, cartographers and navigators over several centuries, to discover a means of determining longitude. The measurement of longitude is important to both cartography and navigation, in particular to provide safe ocean navigation, knowledge of both latitude and longitude was required. Finding an accurate and reliable method of determining longitude took centuries of study, eratosthenes in the 3rd century BC first proposed a system of latitude and longitude for a map of the world. By the 2nd century BC Hipparchus was the first to use such a system to uniquely specify places on the earth and he also proposed a system of determining longitude by comparing the local time of a place with an absolute time. This is the first recognition that longitude can be determined by knowledge of time. In the 11th century Al-Biruni believed the earth rotated on its axis and this forms our modern notion of how time and longitude are related. Determining latitude was relatively easy in that it could be found from the altitude of the sun at noon with the aid of a table giving the suns declination for the day, for longitude, early ocean navigators had to rely on dead reckoning. This was inaccurate on long voyages out of sight of land, determining longitude at sea was also much harder than on land. Whatever could be discovered from solving the problem at sea would improve the determination of longitude on land. In order to avoid problems with not knowing ones position accurately, navigators have and they would sail to the latitude of their destination, turn toward their destination and follow a line of constant latitude. This was known as running down a westing and this prevented a ship from taking the most direct route or a route with the most favourable winds and currents, extending the voyage by days or even weeks. This increased the likelihood of short rations, which could lead to health or even death for members of the crew due to scurvy or starvation. Errors in navigation have also resulted in shipwrecks. for such person or persons as shall discover the Longitude, the prizes were to be awarded for the discovery and demonstration of a practical method for determining the longitude of a ship at sea. Prizes were offered in graduated amounts for solutions of increasing accuracy and these prizes, worth the equivalent of millions of pounds in todays currency, motivated many to search for a solution. Britain was not alone in the desire to solve the problem, frances King Louis XIV founded the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1666. It was charged with, among a range of scientific activities, advancement of the science of navigation. From 1715, the Académie offered one of the two Prix Rouillés specifically for navigation, spains Philip II offered a prize for the discovery of a solution to the problem of the longitude in 1567, Philip III increased the prize in 1598. Holland added to the effort with a prize offered in 1636, navigators and scientists in most European countries were aware of the problem and were involved in finding a solution
13.
Scilly naval disaster of 1707
–
The Scilly naval disaster of 1707 was the loss of four warships of a Royal Navy fleet off the Isles of Scilly in severe weather on 22 October 1707. 1550 sailors aboard the vessels lost their lives, making the incident one of the worst maritime disasters in the history of the British Isles. The main cause of the disaster was the inability to accurately calculate their positions. During this campaign, which was fought from 29 July to 21 August, the overall campaign was nevertheless unsuccessful and the alliance was ultimately defeated by Franco-Spanish units. The British fleet was ordered to home, and set sail from Gibraltar to Portsmouth in late September. The force under Shovells command comprised fifteen ships of the line as well as four fireships, the sloop Weazel, the passage was marked by extremely bad weather and constant squalls and gales. As the fleet sailed out on the Atlantic, passing the Bay of Biscay on their way to England, the weather worsened and storms gradually pushed the ships off their planned course. Finally, on the night of 22 October 1707 Old Style, the fleet was thought to be sailing safely west of Ushant, an island outpost off the coast of Brittany. Following behind the Association was St George, whose crew saw the flagship go down in three or four minutes. St George also struck rocks and suffered damage but eventually managed to get off, HMS Eagle, a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line commanded by Captain Robert Hancock, hit the Crim Rocks and was lost with all hands on Tearing Ledge amongst the Western Rocks. It is estimated that the HMS Eagle had at least as many crew as the HMS Association, sinking a few hundred metres away from Bishop Rock, her wreck lies in a depth of 130 feet. HMS Romney, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the commanded by Captain William Coney, hit Bishop Rock. The sole survivor from the three largest ships was George Lawrence, who had worked as a butcher before joining the crew of Romney as quartermaster. HMS Firebrand, a fireship commanded by Captain Francis Percy, struck the Outer Gilstone Rock like Association, the exact number of officers, sailors and marines who were killed in the sinking of the four ships is unknown. Statements vary between 1,400 and over 2,000, making it one of the greatest maritime disasters in British history, for days afterwards, bodies continued to wash onto the shores of the isles along with the wreckage of the warships and personal effects. Many dead sailors from the wrecks were buried on the island of St Agnes, a small memorial was later erected at this site. The circumstances under which the remains were found gave rise to stories. Shovell was temporarily buried on the beach on St Marys, by order of Queen Anne his body was later exhumed, embalmed and taken to London where he was interred in Westminster Abbey
14.
Isaac Newton
–
His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first published in 1687, laid the foundations of classical mechanics. Newton also made contributions to optics, and he shares credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing the infinitesimal calculus. Newtons Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that dominated scientists view of the universe for the next three centuries. Newtons work on light was collected in his influential book Opticks. He also formulated a law of cooling, made the first theoretical calculation of the speed of sound. Newton was a fellow of Trinity College and the second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, politically and personally tied to the Whig party, Newton served two brief terms as Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, in 1689–90 and 1701–02. He was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705 and he spent the last three decades of his life in London, serving as Warden and Master of the Royal Mint and his father, also named Isaac Newton, had died three months before. Born prematurely, he was a child, his mother Hannah Ayscough reportedly said that he could have fit inside a quart mug. When Newton was three, his mother remarried and went to live with her new husband, the Reverend Barnabas Smith, leaving her son in the care of his maternal grandmother, Newtons mother had three children from her second marriage. From the age of twelve until he was seventeen, Newton was educated at The Kings School, Grantham which taught Latin and Greek. He was removed from school, and by October 1659, he was to be found at Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, Henry Stokes, master at the Kings School, persuaded his mother to send him back to school so that he might complete his education. Motivated partly by a desire for revenge against a bully, he became the top-ranked student. In June 1661, he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge and he started as a subsizar—paying his way by performing valets duties—until he was awarded a scholarship in 1664, which guaranteed him four more years until he would get his M. A. He set down in his notebook a series of Quaestiones about mechanical philosophy as he found it, in 1665, he discovered the generalised binomial theorem and began to develop a mathematical theory that later became calculus. Soon after Newton had obtained his B. A. degree in August 1665, in April 1667, he returned to Cambridge and in October was elected as a fellow of Trinity. Fellows were required to become ordained priests, although this was not enforced in the restoration years, however, by 1675 the issue could not be avoided and by then his unconventional views stood in the way. Nevertheless, Newton managed to avoid it by means of a special permission from Charles II. A and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1672. Newtons work has been said to distinctly advance every branch of mathematics then studied and his work on the subject usually referred to as fluxions or calculus, seen in a manuscript of October 1666, is now published among Newtons mathematical papers
15.
Edmond Halley
–
Edmond Halley, FRS was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist who is best known for computing the orbit of Halleys Comet. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed, Halley was born in Haggerston, in east London. His father, Edmond Halley Sr. came from a Derbyshire family and was a wealthy soap-maker in London, as a child, Halley was very interested in mathematics. He studied at St Pauls School, and from 1673 at The Queens College, while still an undergraduate, Halley published papers on the Solar System and sunspots. While at Oxford University, Halley was introduced to John Flamsteed, influenced by Flamsteeds project to compile a catalog of northern stars, Halley proposed to do the same for the Southern Hemisphere. In 1676, Halley visited the south Atlantic island of Saint Helena, while there he observed a transit of Mercury, and realised that a similar transit of Venus could be used to determine the absolute size of the Solar System. He returned to England in May 1678, in the following year he went to Danzig on behalf of the Royal Society to help resolve a dispute. Because astronomer Johannes Hevelius did not use a telescope, his observations had been questioned by Robert Hooke, Halley stayed with Hevelius and he observed and verified the quality of Hevelius observations. In 1679, Halley published the results from his observations on St. Helena as Catalogus Stellarum Australium which included details of 341 southern stars and these additions to contemporary star maps earned him comparison with Tycho Brahe, e. g. the southern Tycho as described by Flamsteed. Halley was awarded his M. A. degree at Oxford, in 1686, Halley published the second part of the results from his Helenian expedition, being a paper and chart on trade winds and monsoons. The symbols he used to represent trailing winds still exist in most modern day weather chart representations, in this article he identified solar heating as the cause of atmospheric motions. He also established the relationship between pressure and height above sea level. His charts were an important contribution to the field of information visualisation. Halley spent most of his time on lunar observations, but was interested in the problems of gravity. One problem that attracted his attention was the proof of Keplers laws of planetary motion, Halleys first calculations with comets were thereby for the orbit of comet Kirch, based on Flamsteeds observations in 1680-1. Although he was to calculate the orbit of the comet of 1682. They indicated a periodicity of 575 years, thus appearing in the years 531 and 1106 and it is now known to have an orbital period of circa 10,000 years. In 1691, Halley built a bell, a device in which the atmosphere was replenished by way of weighted barrels of air sent down from the surface
16.
Degree (angle)
–
A degree, usually denoted by °, is a measurement of a plane angle, defined so that a full rotation is 360 degrees. It is not an SI unit, as the SI unit of measure is the radian. Because a full rotation equals 2π radians, one degree is equivalent to π/180 radians, the original motivation for choosing the degree as a unit of rotations and angles is unknown. One theory states that it is related to the fact that 360 is approximately the number of days in a year. Ancient astronomers noticed that the sun, which follows through the path over the course of the year. Some ancient calendars, such as the Persian calendar, used 360 days for a year, the use of a calendar with 360 days may be related to the use of sexagesimal numbers. The earliest trigonometry, used by the Babylonian astronomers and their Greek successors, was based on chords of a circle, a chord of length equal to the radius made a natural base quantity. One sixtieth of this, using their standard sexagesimal divisions, was a degree, Aristarchus of Samos and Hipparchus seem to have been among the first Greek scientists to exploit Babylonian astronomical knowledge and techniques systematically. Timocharis, Aristarchus, Aristillus, Archimedes, and Hipparchus were the first Greeks known to divide the circle in 360 degrees of 60 arc minutes, eratosthenes used a simpler sexagesimal system dividing a circle into 60 parts. Furthermore, it is divisible by every number from 1 to 10 except 7 and this property has many useful applications, such as dividing the world into 24 time zones, each of which is nominally 15° of longitude, to correlate with the established 24-hour day convention. Finally, it may be the case more than one of these factors has come into play. For many practical purposes, a degree is a small enough angle that whole degrees provide sufficient precision. When this is not the case, as in astronomy or for geographic coordinates, degree measurements may be written using decimal degrees, with the symbol behind the decimals. Alternatively, the sexagesimal unit subdivisions can be used. One degree is divided into 60 minutes, and one minute into 60 seconds, use of degrees-minutes-seconds is also called DMS notation. These subdivisions, also called the arcminute and arcsecond, are represented by a single and double prime. For example,40. 1875° = 40° 11′ 15″, or, using quotation mark characters, additional precision can be provided using decimals for the arcseconds component. The older system of thirds, fourths, etc. which continues the sexagesimal unit subdivision, was used by al-Kashi and other ancient astronomers, but is rarely used today
17.
Minute and second of arc
–
A minute of arc, arcminute, arc minute, or minute arc is a unit of angular measurement equal to 1/60 of one degree. Since one degree is 1/360 of a turn, one minute of arc is 1/21600 of a turn, a second of arc, arcsecond, or arc second is 1/60 of an arcminute, 1/3600 of a degree, 1/1296000 of a turn, and π/648000 of a radian. To express even smaller angles, standard SI prefixes can be employed, the number of square arcminutes in a complete sphere is 4 π2 =466560000 π ≈148510660 square arcminutes. The standard symbol for marking the arcminute is the prime, though a single quote is used where only ASCII characters are permitted. One arcminute is thus written 1′ and it is also abbreviated as arcmin or amin or, less commonly, the prime with a circumflex over it. The standard symbol for the arcsecond is the prime, though a double quote is commonly used where only ASCII characters are permitted. One arcsecond is thus written 1″ and it is also abbreviated as arcsec or asec. In celestial navigation, seconds of arc are used in calculations. This notation has been carried over into marine GPS receivers, which normally display latitude and longitude in the format by default. An arcsecond is approximately the angle subtended by a U. S. dime coin at a distance of 4 kilometres, a milliarcsecond is about the size of a dime atop the Eiffel Tower as seen from New York City. A microarcsecond is about the size of a period at the end of a sentence in the Apollo mission manuals left on the Moon as seen from Earth, since antiquity the arcminute and arcsecond have been used in astronomy. The principal exception is Right ascension in equatorial coordinates, which is measured in units of hours, minutes. These small angles may also be written in milliarcseconds, or thousandths of an arcsecond, the unit of distance, the parsec, named from the parallax of one arcsecond, was developed for such parallax measurements. It is the distance at which the radius of the Earths orbit would subtend an angle of one arcsecond. The ESA astrometric space probe Gaia is hoped to measure star positions to 20 microarcseconds when it begins producing catalog positions sometime after 2016, there are about 1.3 trillion µas in a turn. Currently the best catalog positions of stars actually measured are in terms of milliarcseconds, apart from the Sun, the star with the largest angular diameter from Earth is R Doradus, a red supergiant with a diameter of 0.05 arcsecond. The dwarf planet Pluto has proven difficult to resolve because its angular diameter is about 0.1 arcsecond, space telescopes are not affected by the Earths atmosphere but are diffraction limited. For example, the Hubble space telescope can reach a size of stars down to about 0. 1″
18.
John Harrison
–
John Harrison was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea. His solution revolutionized navigation and greatly increased the safety of long-distance sea travel, the problem he solved was considered so important following the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 that the British Parliament offered financial rewards of up to £20,000 under the 1714 Longitude Act. Harrison came 39th in the BBCs 2002 public poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, John Harrison was born in Foulby, near Wakefield in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the first of five children in his family. His father worked as a carpenter at the nearby Nostell Priory estate, a house on the site of what may have been the family home bears a blue plaque. In around 1700, the Harrison family moved to the Lincolnshire village of Barrow upon Humber, following his fathers trade as a carpenter, Harrison built and repaired clocks in his spare time. Legend has it that at the age of six, while in bed with smallpox, he was given a watch to amuse himself and he spent hours listening to it and he also had a fascination for music, eventually becoming choirmaster for Barrow parish church. Harrison built his first longcase clock in 1713, at the age of 20, the mechanism was made entirely of wood, which was a natural choice of material for a joiner. The second is also in the Science Museum in London, and the third is at Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, in the early 1720s, Harrison was commissioned to make a new turret clock at Brocklesby Park, North Lincolnshire. The clock still works, and like his previous clocks has a movement of oak. Unlike his early clocks, it incorporates some features to improve timekeeping. Between 1725 and 1728, John and his brother James, also a skilled joiner, the grid-iron pendulum was developed during this period. These precision clocks are thought by some to have been the most accurate clocks in the world at the time and they are the direct link to the Harrisons sea clocks. Number 1, now in a collection, belonged to the Time Museum, USA, until the museum closed in 2000. Number 2 is in the Leeds City Museum, Number 3 is in the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers collection. Harrison was a man of many skills and he used these to improve the performance of the pendulum clock. He invented the pendulum, consisting of alternating brass and iron rods assembled so that the thermal expansions and contractions essentially cancel each other out. Another example of his genius was the grasshopper escapement – a control device for the step-by-step release of a clocks driving power. Developed from the escapement, it was almost frictionless, requiring no lubrication because the pallets were made from wood
19.
Houghton Library
–
Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, is Harvard Universitys primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the system of Harvards Faculty of Arts. Harvards first special collections library began as the Treasure Room of Gore Hall in 1908, the Treasure Room moved to Widener Library after that library was completed in 1915. Funding for Houghton was raised privately, with the largest portion coming from Arthur A. Houghton Jr. in the form of shares of stock in Corning Glass Works. Construction was largely completed by the fall of 1941, and the library opened on February 28,1942. S, eliot, E. E. Cummings, Henry James, William James, James Joyce, John Updike and many others. Houghton also holds the letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who commanded the 54th Massachusetts during the Civil War, Houghton has five main curatorial departments, Early Books and Manuscripts, which includes a large collection of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and over 2,500 incunabula. Modern Books & Manuscripts New Acquisitions Blog Printing & Graphic Arts which documents the history, the Harvard Theatre Collection covering the history of the performing arts. Alices Adventures in Wonderland at 150 Houghton Library Blog Department of Modern Books & Manuscripts new acquisitions blog
20.
Thomas Mudge (horologist)
–
Thomas Mudge was an English horologist who invented the lever escapement, the greatest single improvement ever applied to pocket watches. Thomas Mudge was the son of Zachariah Mudge, headmaster and clergyman. He was born in Exeter, but when he was young, the moved to Bideford. Thomas attended the school and, when 14 or 15, was sent to London to be apprenticed to George Graham. Graham’s business was situated in Water Lane, Fleet Street, when Mudge qualified as a watchmaker in 1738 he began to be employed by a number of important London retailers. He is known to have made at least five watches for Ferdinand, in 1748 Mudge set himself up in business at 151 Fleet Street, and began to advertise for work as soon as his old master, George Graham, died in 1751. He rapidly acquired a reputation as one of England’s outstanding watchmakers, in 1753 he married Abigail Hopkins of Oxford, with whom he had two sons. In 1765 he published the book, Thoughts on the Means of Improving Watches, in 1770, due to ill-health Mudge, quit active business and left London to live in Plymouth with his brother Dr John Mudge. He sent the first of these for trial in 1774, and was awarded 500 guineas for his design and he completed two others in 1779 in the continuing attempt to satisfy the increasingly difficult requirements set by the Board of Longitude. They were tested by the Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, there followed a controversy in which it was claimed that Maskelyne had not given them a fair trial. A similar controversy had arisen when John Harrison had been denied the full amount of the 1714 prize by the Board of Longitude, in 1770 George III purchased a large gold watch produced by Mudge, that incorporated his lever escapement. This he presented to his wife, Queen Charlotte, and it remains in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. In 1776 Mudge was appointed watchmaker to the king, in 1789 his wife, Abigail died. Thomas Mudge died at the home of his son, Thomas, at Newington Butts. He was buried at St Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street
21.
Marine chronometer
–
A marine chronometer is a timepiece that is precise and accurate enough to be used as a portable time standard, it can therefore be used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation. Timepieces made in Switzerland may display the word chronometer only if certified by the COSC, to determine a position on the Earths surface, it is necessary and sufficient to know the latitude, longitude, and altitude. Altitude considerations can, of course, be ignored for vessels operating at sea level, until the mid-1750s, accurate navigation at sea out of sight of land was an unsolved problem due to the difficulty in calculating longitude. Navigators could determine their latitude by measuring the angle at noon or, in the Northern Hemisphere. To find their longitude, however, they needed a standard that would work aboard a ship. Observation of regular celestial motions, such as Galileos method based on observing Jupiters natural satellites, was not possible at sea due to the ships motion. The lunar distances method, initially proposed by Johannes Werner in 1514, was developed in parallel with the marine chronometer, the Dutch scientist Gemma Frisius was the first to propose the use of a chronometer to determine longitude in 1530. The purpose of a chronometer is to measure accurately the time of a fixed location. This is particularly important for navigation, knowing GMT at local noon allows a navigator to use the time difference between the ships position and the Greenwich Meridian to determine the ships longitude. The creation of a timepiece which would work reliably at sea was difficult, christiaan Huygens, following his invention of the pendulum clock in 1656, made the first attempt at a marine chronometer in 1673 in France, under the sponsorship of Jean-Baptiste Colbert. He obtained a patent for his invention from Colbert, but his clock remained imprecise at sea, the first published use of the term was in 1684 in Arcanum Navarchicum, a theoretical work by Kiel professor Matthias Wasmuth. This was followed by a theoretical description of a chronometer in works published by English scientist William Derham in 1713. Attempts to construct a marine chronometer were begun by Jeremy Thacker in England in 1714. In 1714, the British government offered a prize for a method of determining longitude at sea. His first two sea timepieces H1 and H2 used this system, but he realised that they had a sensitivity to centrifugal force. However, H3s circular balances still proved too inaccurate and he abandoned the large machines. Harrison solved the problems with his much smaller H4 chronometer design in 1761. H4 looked much like a large five-inch diameter pocket watch, in 1761, Harrison submitted H4 for the £20,000 longitude prize
22.
Tobias Mayer
–
Tobias Mayer was a German astronomer famous for his studies of the Moon. He was born at Marbach, in Württemberg, and brought up at Esslingen in poor circumstances, a self-taught mathematician, he earned a living by teaching mathematics while still a youth. He had already published two original geometrical works when, in 1746, he entered J. B. Homanns cartographic establishment at Nuremberg. Here he introduced improvements in mapmaking, and gained a scientific reputation which led to his election to the chair of economy. In 1754 he became superintendent of the observatory, where he worked until his death in 1762 and his first important astronomical work was a careful investigation of the libration of the moon, and his chart of the full moon was unsurpassed for half a century. But his fame rests chiefly on his tables, communicated in 1752, with new solar tables to the Königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. In 1755 he submitted to the British government an amended body of manuscript tables and he found these to be sufficiently accurate to determine the moons position to 5, and consequently the longitude at sea to about half a degree. An improved set was published in London, as also the theory upon which the tables are based. His widow, with whom they were sent to England, received in consideration from the British government a grant of £3,000, Mayer left behind him a considerable quantity of manuscript material, part of which was collected by G. C. Lichtenberg and published in one volume, the remaining manuscripts included papers on atmospheric refraction from 1755, on the motion of Mars as affected by the perturbations of Jupiter and the Earth, and on terrestrial magnetism. In 1881 Ernst Klinkerfues published photo-lithographic reproductions of Mayers local charts and his star catalogue was re-edited by Francis Baily in 1830 and by Arthur Auwers in 1894. His son Johann Tobias Mayer became a noted German physicist, VI,746,1039 Siegmund Günther, Mayer, Johann Tobias, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie,21, Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot, pp. 109–116 Ripley, George, Dana, Charles A. eds. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain. Eric G. Forbes, Tobias Mayer, pioneer of enlightened science in Germany, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,1980 ISBN 3-525-85268-1 German edition as, Tobias Mayer, Pionier der Naturwissenschaften der deutschen Aufklärungszeit übers. von Maria Forbes u. Hans-Heinrich Vogt. Marbach am Neckar, Tobias-Mayer-Museum-Verein,1993 Sarah Lowengard, Tobias Mayers Trichromatic Graph, The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-Century Europe New York, Columbia University Press,2006. Http, //www. gutenberg-e. org/lowengard/A_Chap03. html#31 Tobias Mayer, Tobias Mayers Opera inedita, London, Macmillan,1971 ISBN 0-333-12743-9 (American ed. New York, American Elsevier,1971 ISBN 0-444-19578-5 Tobias Mayer, ISBN 3-525-85257-6, ISBN 3-525-85258-4, ISBN 3-525-85259-2 The Euler-Mayer correspondence, 1751-1755, a new perspective on eighteenth-century advances in the lunar theory, by Eric G. Forbes. London, Macmillan,1971 ISBN 0-333-12742-0 OConnor, John J. Robertson, Edmund F. Tobias Mayer, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, entry in the Mathematics Genealogy Project
23.
Lunar distance (navigation)
–
In celestial navigation, lunar distance is the angle between the Moon and another celestial body. The lunar distances method uses this angle, also called a lunar, by comparing that calculated time to the measured local time, the navigator can determine longitude. The method was published in 1763 and used until about 1850 when it was superseded by the marine chronometer. It saw limited usage all the way up to the beginning of the 20th century on smaller vessels that could not afford a chronometer or had to rely on this technique for correction of the chronometer, a similar method uses the positions of the Galilean moons of Jupiter. In celestial navigation, knowledge of the time at Greenwich and the positions of one or more celestial objects allows the navigator to calculate latitude and longitude. Reliable marine chronometers were unavailable until the late 18th century and not affordable until the 19th century, conversely, a mariner with a chronometer could check its accuracy using a lunar determination of Greenwich time. The method saw usage all the way up to the beginning of the 20th century on smaller vessels that could not afford a chronometer or had to rely on the technique for correction of the chronometer. The method relies on the quick movement of the moon across the background sky. In an hour then, it will move about half a degree, roughly its own diameter, with respect to the background stars, using a sextant, the navigator precisely measures the angle between the moon and another body. That could be the Sun or one of a group of bright stars lying close to the Moons path, near the ecliptic. At that moment, anyone on the surface of the earth who can see the two bodies will observe the same angle. The navigator then consults a prepared table of distances and the times at which they will occur. By comparing the corrected lunar distance with the values, the navigator finds the Greenwich time for that observation. Knowing Greenwich time and local time, the navigator can work out longitude, local time can be determined from a sextant observation of the altitude of the Sun or a star. Then the longitude is readily calculated from the difference between time and Greenwich Time, at 15 degrees per hour. Having measured the distance and the heights of the two bodies, the navigator can find Greenwich time in three steps. Step one – Preliminaries Almanac tables predict lunar distances between the centre of the Moon and the other body, however, the observer cannot accurately find the centre of the Moon. Instead, lunar distances are measured to the sharply lit
24.
James Cook
–
Captain James Cook FRS RN was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755 and he saw action in the Seven Years War, and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec. This helped bring Cook to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society, in three voyages Cook sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe. He mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in greater detail, as he progressed on his voyages of discovery he surveyed and named features, and recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, Cook was attacked and killed while attempting to kidnap the native chief of Hawaii during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779. He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge which was to influence his successors well into the 20th century, and numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him. James Cook was born on 7 November 1728 in the village of Marton in Yorkshire and baptised on 14 November in the church of St Cuthbert. He was the second of eight children of James Cook, a Scottish farm labourer from Ednam in Roxburghshire, in 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at Great Ayton, where his fathers employer, Thomas Skottowe, paid for him to attend the local school. In 1741, after five years schooling, he work for his father. For leisure, he would climb a hill, Roseberry Topping, enjoying the opportunity for solitude. Cooks Cottage, his parents last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in Melbourne, having moved from England and reassembled, brick by brick. In 1745, when he was 16, Cook moved 20 miles to the village of Staithes. Historians have speculated that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window. After 18 months, not proving suitable for work, Cook travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby to be introduced to friends of Sandersons, John. The Walkers, who were Quakers, were prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade and their house is now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. Cook was taken on as a merchant navy apprentice in their fleet of vessels. His first assignment was aboard the collier Freelove, and he spent several years on this and various other coasters, sailing between the Tyne and London. As part of his apprenticeship, Cook applied himself to the study of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation and his three-year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on trading ships in the Baltic Sea
25.
Thomas Earnshaw
–
Thomas Earnshaw was an English watchmaker who following John Arnolds earlier work, further simplified the process of marine chronometer production, making them available to the general public. He is also known for his improvements to the clock at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London and his invention of a chronometer escapement. In 1780, he devised a modification to the chronometer escapement. This spring detent escapement was patented by Thomas Wright in 1783, John Arnold also invented a similar escapement in 1782. In 1805, Earnshaw and Arnold were granted awards by the Board of Longitude for their improvements to chronometers, Earnshaw received £2500, although he was principally a watchmaker, he didnt shy away from building clocks. When asked by Nevil Maskelyne, he produced a clock for the Armagh Observatory and this clock incorporated Earnshaws new design of escapement and had a number of novel features including an air-tight case. It was highly praised by John Thomas Romney Robinson in the 19th century who at that time believed it to be the most accurate clock in the world. In 1794, its price was £100 and Earnshaw charged £100 to travel with it to Armagh. The Observatory also purchased Earnshaws second clock which was operated at sidereal rate with Edward Troughtons Equatorial Telescope and this was the second expedition that Bligh had undertaken with this mission. The first expedition was with HMS Bounty which had ended in the mutiny led by Fletcher Christian. The second expedition, however, was entirely successful, around 1796 Earnshaw, who had temporarily lost interest in the Board of Longitude reward, was tempted back by the failure of Josiah Emery to win it. Earnshaw had a low opinion of Emerys chronometers and claimed that an already existing chronometer of his,265, could outperform Emerys even though it had just returned from a voyage to the West Indies and had not been cleaned. Earnshaw was easily proved right in this and his chronometer had an average rate over a 12-month trial. Ironically, this method had originally proposed by Earnshaws ally Maskelyne. In June 1801, Matthew Flinders ship, HMS Investigator, carried two boxed Timekeepers by Earnshaw E520 and E543, at a cost of 100 Guineas each, Investigator also carried two of Arnleds timekeepers on the first circumnavigation and mapping of the coastline of Australia. The chronometer, E520, is mounted in a box with gimbals to compensate for the motion of the ship. Flinders went to shore regularly to check the settings of the chronometers against the stars, the Earnshaw chronometer was the only one working at the end of the journey, causing Flinders to refer to it in his book A Voyage to Terra Australis as this excellent timekeeper. Flinders was taken prisoner-of-war by the French in Mauritius, in 1805 Captain Aken, a fellow prisoner, was released and returned to England
26.
Charles Mason
–
The border between Delaware and Maryland is also defined by a part of the Mason–Dixon line. Masons early career was spent at the Royal Greenwich Observatory near London and he served as assistant astronomer from 1756 to 1760 under the Reverend James Bradley, the Astronomer Royal. While employed at the Greenwich Observatory, Mason became familiar with Professor Tobias Mayer’s Tables of the Moon, the Lunar Tables were designed to solve the problem of determining longitude at sea, a challenge that frustrated scientists and navigators for decades. Mason worked throughout his life to perfect the Lunar Tables as a method of improving navigation at sea, in 1787, Mason was awarded £750 by the Board of Longitude for his work on perfecting the Tables. Mason was joined by Jeremiah Dixon, a surveyor and amateur astronomer from Cockfield in the County of Durham. Owing to an attack by a French man-of-war, they did not reach their destination in time for the transit and were forced to record their observations from the Cape of Good Hope. On the way back from the Cape they visited St Helena where they made a series of observations with the astronomer Nevil Maskelyne, from November 1763 to 1768, Mason and Jeremiah Dixon established the boundary line between the American provinces of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Colonial surveyors had been unable to establish the boundary due to their poor training. The pair also conducted a number of experiments for the Royal Society such as measuring a degree of longitude, mason’s journal provides the most complete record of the survey and its progress. The journal includes his observations and personal notes about the American frontier environment. Mason and Dixon failed to measure the length of the south boundary of Pennsylvania as determined by its charter. In the summer of 1767, the party crossed the Monongahela River. Not wishing to risk inciting native hostilities, Mason and Dixon were forced to return east after making their final observations at the crest of Browns Hill, after completing the boundary survey in America, Mason returned to Greenwich where he continued work on Mayers Lunar Tables. He also contributed to the Nautical Almanac, working under Nevil Maskelyne, on 27 September 1786, Mason wrote to Benjamin Franklin claiming to have returned to Philadelphia with his wife, seven sons, and one daughter. Mason was very ill and confined to his bed, Mason also shared with Franklin the design for an astronomical project. Mason provided no explanation for his return to America, and nothing more is known of Masons proposed project, Mason died on 26 October 1786, in Philadelphia. He was buried there in Christ Church Burial Ground, the crater Mason on the Moon is named after him. Mason is one of the characters of Thomas Pynchons 1997 novel Mason & Dixon
27.
Larcum Kendall
–
Larcum Kendall was a British watchmaker. There is no relationship between his business and that of the Larcum Kendall watch brand based in Chiasso, Switzerland. Kendall was born on 21 September 1719 in Charlbury and his father was a mercer and linen draper named Moses Kendall, and his mother was Ann Larcum from Chepping Wycombe, they married on 18 June 1718. The cottage where they lived is thought to be on the site of Charlburys post office on Market Street, in 1735 Kendall was apprenticed to the London watchmaker John Jeffreys. He was living with his parents in St Clement Danes at the time, Jeffreys created a pocket watch for John Harrison, who later used ideas from pocket watches in his H4. Kendall set up his own business in 1742, working with Thomas Mudge to make watches, working for the watch and clock maker George Graham. In 1765 he was one of six selected by the Board of Longitude to witness the operation of John Harrisons H4. The first model finished by Kendall was a copy of John Harrisons H4, cost £450. It was engraved in 1769, and was presented to the Board of Longitude on 13 January 1770, the original H4, the first successful chronometer, had an astronomical price £400 in 1750, which was approximately 30% of the value of a ship. James Cook and William Wales tested the clock on Cooks second South Seas journey and were full of praise after initial skepticism, Kendalls watch has exceeded the expectations of its most zealous advocate, Cook reported in 1775 to the admiralty. Cook also described it in his log as our trusty friend the Watch and it was thus K1 which proved to a doubting scientific establishment that H4s success was no fluke. Three other clocks, constructed by John Arnold, had not withstood the loads of the same journey, although constructed like a watch, the chronometer had a diameter of 13 centimetres and weighed 1.45 kilograms. K1 was used again by Cook for his third voyage, in April 1779 off Kamkatcha K1 stopped. A seaman with watchmaking experience cleaned it and started it again, after its arrival in Britain in September 1780 it was returned to Kendall for repairs. K1 left England in May 1787 with the First Fleet voyaging to New South Wales in HMS Sirius, K1 was transferred to HMAT Supply in the Indian Ocean, and arrived at Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. After some months ashore with Astronomer Lieutenant William Dawes, K1 was returned to HMS Sirius, K1 went to sea with Admiral Sir John Jervis in 1793. He took it to the West Indies and the Mediterranean and it was on board HMS Victory at the Battle of Cape St Vincent and it was finally pensioned off to Greenwich in 1802. K1 was described by John Gilbert, Master of the Resolution on Cooks second voyage as The greatest piece of mechanism the world has ever seen, K1 is now kept in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England
28.
Marine chronometers
–
A marine chronometer is a timepiece that is precise and accurate enough to be used as a portable time standard, it can therefore be used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation. Timepieces made in Switzerland may display the word chronometer only if certified by the COSC, to determine a position on the Earths surface, it is necessary and sufficient to know the latitude, longitude, and altitude. Altitude considerations can, of course, be ignored for vessels operating at sea level, until the mid-1750s, accurate navigation at sea out of sight of land was an unsolved problem due to the difficulty in calculating longitude. Navigators could determine their latitude by measuring the angle at noon or, in the Northern Hemisphere. To find their longitude, however, they needed a standard that would work aboard a ship. Observation of regular celestial motions, such as Galileos method based on observing Jupiters natural satellites, was not possible at sea due to the ships motion. The lunar distances method, initially proposed by Johannes Werner in 1514, was developed in parallel with the marine chronometer, the Dutch scientist Gemma Frisius was the first to propose the use of a chronometer to determine longitude in 1530. The purpose of a chronometer is to measure accurately the time of a fixed location. This is particularly important for navigation, knowing GMT at local noon allows a navigator to use the time difference between the ships position and the Greenwich Meridian to determine the ships longitude. The creation of a timepiece which would work reliably at sea was difficult, christiaan Huygens, following his invention of the pendulum clock in 1656, made the first attempt at a marine chronometer in 1673 in France, under the sponsorship of Jean-Baptiste Colbert. He obtained a patent for his invention from Colbert, but his clock remained imprecise at sea, the first published use of the term was in 1684 in Arcanum Navarchicum, a theoretical work by Kiel professor Matthias Wasmuth. This was followed by a theoretical description of a chronometer in works published by English scientist William Derham in 1713. Attempts to construct a marine chronometer were begun by Jeremy Thacker in England in 1714. In 1714, the British government offered a prize for a method of determining longitude at sea. His first two sea timepieces H1 and H2 used this system, but he realised that they had a sensitivity to centrifugal force. However, H3s circular balances still proved too inaccurate and he abandoned the large machines. Harrison solved the problems with his much smaller H4 chronometer design in 1761. H4 looked much like a large five-inch diameter pocket watch, in 1761, Harrison submitted H4 for the £20,000 longitude prize
29.
Jesse Ramsden
–
Jesse Ramsden FRS FRSE was an English mathematician, astronomical and scientific instrument maker. Ramsden was born at Salterhebble, Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Having attended the school at Halifax for three years, he was sent at the age of twelve to his uncle at Craven in the North Riding. After serving his apprenticeship as a cloth-worker in Halifax, he went to London where, in 1755, in 1758 he was apprenticed to a mathematical instrument maker and he proved so proficient that he was able to set up his own business only four years later. The quality and accuracy of his instruments established his reputation as the most able instrument maker in Europe for the forty years until his death in 1800. Ramsden married Sarah Dollond, daughter of John Dollond the famous maker of quality lenses. Little is known of their life together but Sarah did not accompany him when he moved his workshop, in his later years he lived above the workshop with a number of his apprentices. The acrimony sometimes got out of hand, in his favour it should be pointed out that many delays could be attributed to Ramsdens quest for perfection, continually refining his designs as the slightest shortcomings were revealed. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1786 and to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1798. The Copley Medal of the Royal Society was bestowed him in 1795 for his various inventions and improvements in philosophical instruments. ’ He died five years later at Brighton. Ramsden created one of the first high-quality dividing engines and this led to his speciality in dividing circles, which began to supersede the quadrants in observatories towards the end of the 18th century. He published a Description of an Engine for dividing Mathematical Instruments in 1777 and this work provided the basis for the subsequent Ordnance Survey of the counties of Britain. Ramsden is also responsible for the achromatic eyepiece named after him, the exit pupil of an eyepiece was once called the Ramsden disc in his honour. In 1791 he completed the Shuckburgh telescope, an equatorial mounted refracting telescope, chisholm, Hugh, ed. Ramsden, Jesse, Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition,17, Cambridge University Press. Notes and records of the Royal Society, a review of the book by Anita McConnell, Jesse Ramsden, Londons leading scientific instrument maker. The Tale of the Great Theodolites, FIG Working Week on Integrating the Generations. Kern, Ralf, Wissenschaftliche Instrumente in ihrer Zeit, Account of the life and labours of the late Mr. Ramsden. Letter of Professor Giuseppe Piazzi to M. de Lalande, the Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction
30.
John Arnold (watchmaker)
–
John Arnold was an English watchmaker and inventor. John Arnold was the first to design a watch that was practical and accurate, and also brought the term Chronometer into use in its modern sense. His technical advances enabled the quantity production of Marine Chronometers for use on ships from around 1782. The basic design of these has remained, with a few modifications unchanged until the twentieth century. With regard to his legacy, one can say that both he and Abraham-Louis Breguet largely invented the mechanical watch. Certainly one of his most important inventions, the Overcoil balance spring is still to be found in most mechanical wristwatches to this day and it was from around 1770 that Arnold developed the portable precision timekeeper, almost from the point where John Harrison ended his work in this field. But, compared to Harrisons complicated and expensive watch, Arnolds basic design was simple whilst consistently accurate, importantly, the relatively simple and conventional design of his movement facilitated its production in quantity at a reasonable price whilst also enabling easier maintenance and adjustment. He probably also worked with his uncle, a gunsmith, around 1755, when he was 19, he left England and worked as a watchmaker in the Hague, Holland, returning to England around 1757. In 1762, whilst at St Albans, Hertfordshire, he encountered William McGuire for whom he repaired a repeating watch. Arnold made a sufficient impression so that McGuire gave him a loan, enabling him to set up in business as a watchmaker at Devereux Court, Strand, London. In 1764, Arnold obtained permission to present to King George III an exceptionally small half quarter repeating watch cylinder escapement watch mounted in a ring. A similar repeating watch by Arnold has survived, it is of interest that the movement is Swiss in origin. The escapement of watch was later fitted with one of the first jewelled cylinders made of ruby. Arnold made another watch for the King around 1768, which was a gold and enamel pair cased watch with a movement that had every refinement, including minute repetition and centre seconds motion. In addition, Arnold fitted bi-metallic temperature compensation, and not only was every pivot hole jewelled, Arnold designated this watch Number 1, as he did with all watches he made that he regarded as significant, these numbering twenty in all. Other early productions by Arnold from 1768 to 1770 display both originality and ingenuity, this includes a centre seconds watch wound up by depressing the pendant once a day, the movement of this watch was also fully jewelled with a temperature compensation device and a ruby stone cylinder escapement. In fact, it was a complex and technically very advanced piece of micro engineering. However, the challenge was taken up by Larcum Kendall, who spent two years making an identical copy that cost £450, a huge sum at the time
31.
Leonhard Euler
–
He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. He is also known for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, astronomy, Euler was one of the most eminent mathematicians of the 18th century, and is held to be one of the greatest in history. He is also considered to be the most prolific mathematician of all time. His collected works fill 60 to 80 quarto volumes, more than anybody in the field and he spent most of his adult life in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and in Berlin, then the capital of Prussia. A statement attributed to Pierre-Simon Laplace expresses Eulers influence on mathematics, Read Euler, read Euler, Leonhard Euler was born on 15 April 1707, in Basel, Switzerland to Paul III Euler, a pastor of the Reformed Church, and Marguerite née Brucker, a pastors daughter. He had two sisters, Anna Maria and Maria Magdalena, and a younger brother Johann Heinrich. Soon after the birth of Leonhard, the Eulers moved from Basel to the town of Riehen, Paul Euler was a friend of the Bernoulli family, Johann Bernoulli was then regarded as Europes foremost mathematician, and would eventually be the most important influence on young Leonhard. Eulers formal education started in Basel, where he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother. In 1720, aged thirteen, he enrolled at the University of Basel, during that time, he was receiving Saturday afternoon lessons from Johann Bernoulli, who quickly discovered his new pupils incredible talent for mathematics. In 1726, Euler completed a dissertation on the propagation of sound with the title De Sono, at that time, he was unsuccessfully attempting to obtain a position at the University of Basel. In 1727, he first entered the Paris Academy Prize Problem competition, Pierre Bouguer, who became known as the father of naval architecture, won and Euler took second place. Euler later won this annual prize twelve times, around this time Johann Bernoullis two sons, Daniel and Nicolaus, were working at the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. In November 1726 Euler eagerly accepted the offer, but delayed making the trip to Saint Petersburg while he applied for a physics professorship at the University of Basel. Euler arrived in Saint Petersburg on 17 May 1727 and he was promoted from his junior post in the medical department of the academy to a position in the mathematics department. He lodged with Daniel Bernoulli with whom he worked in close collaboration. Euler mastered Russian and settled life in Saint Petersburg. He also took on a job as a medic in the Russian Navy. The Academy at Saint Petersburg, established by Peter the Great, was intended to improve education in Russia, as a result, it was made especially attractive to foreign scholars like Euler
32.
Elizabeth Johnson (pamphleteer)
–
Elizabeth Johnson née Reynolds was an English pamphleteer who attempted to win one of the rewards offered by the Longitude Act passed in 1714. Johnson and Jane Squire are the two women known to have done so. It was not considered a subject for early modern women especially given its financial, maritime. She was born to the Rev. Samuel Reynolds and his wife Theophilia in Plympton, Devon, among her siblings was the acclaimed artist Sir Joshua Reynolds, who used her as a model for works which were widely copied in mezzotint. The two would later quarrel over Joshuas lack of piety and over her husbands precarious financial situation and their other siblings included the author Mary Palmer and painter Frances Reynolds. On 7 January 1753, Elizabeth Reynolds married William Johnson at St. Michael, the marriage produced seven children before her spouse abandoned the family, leaving Elizabeth at least in part dependent on her literary endeavors. Johnson, sister of Sir Joshua Reynolds, when extremely poor she posted up to Oxford to get it published, being a real enthusiast. The Astronomy and Geography of the Created World, her fourth pamphlet published in 1785, included a short reference to longitude. The pamphlet ended with the claim if the palm for finding the longitude, is not given to the author of the Explanation of the Vision to Ezikiel it will never be given to another. However, it was not the early modern pamphlet to address both religion and longitude. Elizabeth Johnson died in Great Torrington, Devon in 1800
33.
George III of the United Kingdom
–
He was concurrently Duke and prince-elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire until his promotion to King of Hanover on 12 October 1814. He was the third British monarch of the House of Hanover, early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britains American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence, further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In the later part of his life, George III had recurrent, although it has since been suggested that he had the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established, on George IIIs death, the Prince Regent succeeded his father as George IV. Historical analysis of George IIIs life has gone through a kaleidoscope of changing views that have depended heavily on the prejudices of his biographers and the sources available to them. Until it was reassessed in the half of the 20th century, his reputation in the United States was one of a tyrant. George was born in London at Norfolk House and he was the grandson of King George II, and the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. As Prince George was born two months prematurely and he was unlikely to survive, he was baptised the same day by Thomas Secker. One month later, he was baptised at Norfolk House. His godparents were the King of Sweden, his uncle the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, George grew into a healthy but reserved and shy child. The family moved to Leicester Square, where George and his younger brother Prince Edward, Duke of York, Family letters show that he could read and write in both English and German, as well as comment on political events of the time, by the age of eight. He was the first British monarch to study science systematically and his religious education was wholly Anglican. At age 10 George took part in a production of Joseph Addisons play Cato and said in the new prologue, What. It may with truth be said, A boy in England born, historian Romney Sedgwick argued that these lines appear to be the source of the only historical phrase with which he is associated. Georges grandfather, King George II, disliked the Prince of Wales, however, in 1751 the Prince of Wales died unexpectedly from a lung injury, and George became heir apparent to the throne. He inherited one of his fathers titles and became the Duke of Edinburgh, now more interested in his grandson, three weeks later the King created George Prince of Wales. Georges mother, now the Dowager Princess of Wales, preferred to keep George at home where she could imbue him with her moral values
34.
Rupert Gould
–
Rupert Thomas Gould, was a lieutenant commander in the British Royal Navy noted for his contributions to horology. He was also an author and radio personality, Gould grew up in Southsea, near Portsmouth, where his father, William Monk Gould, was a music teacher, organist, and composer. He became a midshipman, and thereby a naval officer, on 15 May 1907 and he initially served on HMS Formidable and HMS Queen in the Mediterranean. Subsequently he was posted to China, in 1919 he was promoted to Lieutenant-Commander. On 9 June 1917 he married Muriel Estall and that marriage ended by judicial separation in November 1927. They had two children, Cecil and Jocelyne and his last years were spent at Barford St Martin near Salisbury, where he used his horological skills to repair and restore the defunct clock in the church tower. He gained permission in 1920 to restore the marine chronometers of John Harrison, and his horological book, The Marine Chronometer, its history and development, was first published in 1923 by J. D. Potter and was the first scholarly monograph on the subject. It was generally considered the text on marine timekeepers for at least half a century. Gould had many interests and activities. In spite of two more nervous breakdowns he wrote and published a series of books on topics ranging from horology to the Loch Ness Monster. He was an educator, giving a series of talks for the BBCs Childrens Hour starting in January 1934 under the name The Stargazer. He was a member of the BBC radio panel The Brains Trust and he umpired tennis matches on the Centre Court at Wimbledon on many occasions during the 1930s. In 1947 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the British Horological Institute, Gould died on 5 October 1948 at Canterbury, Kent, from heart failure. Gould took interest in investigating cryptozoological and paranormal claims, spurred on by the attention to the Loch Ness Monster in the popular press and his previous work on the sea serpent, Gould spent some days at Loch Ness travelling around it by motorcycle. He interviewed many witnesses and collated evidence for the creature that resulted in the first major work on the phenomenon, entitled The Loch Ness Monster, after this, Gould became the de facto spokesman on the subject, being a regular contributor to radio shows and newspaper articles. In the drama, Gould was played by Jeremy Irons, historian Mike Dash has described Gould as Britains answer to Charles Fort. Paranormal writer Jerome Clark has described Gould as a conservative and analytical Fortean writer, however, skeptical investigator Joe Nickell has described Gould as an overly credulous paranormalist. All works published as Rupert T. Gould, for a full bibliography of all Goulds works, see Betts 2006, Appendix 1
35.
International Standard Book Number
–
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
36.
Dava Sobel
–
Dava Sobel is an American writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. Sobel was born on June 15,1947 in the Bronx and she graduated from The Bronx High School of Science and Binghamton University. She wrote Longitude, The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time in 1995. The story was made into a movie, of the same name by Charles Sturridge and Granada Film in 1999. Her book Galileos Daughter, A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and she holds honorary doctor of letters degrees from the University of Bath, and Middlebury College, Vermont, both awarded in 2002. Sobel made her first foray into teaching at the University of Chicago as the Vare Writer-in-Residence in the winter of 2006 and she taught a one-quarter seminar on writing about science. She served as a judge for the PEN/E, O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award in 2012. Longitude, The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time ISBN 1-85702-571-7, the book itself won the 1997 British Book of the Year award. ISBN 1-85702-850-3, OCLC77646686 A More Perfect Heaven, How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos, OCLC819387028 The Glass Universe, How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars ISBN9780143111344, OCLC972263666 The asteroid 30935 Davasobel is named after her. Sobel states she is a chaser of solar eclipses and that its the closest thing to witnessing a miracle, as of August 2012 she had seen eight, and planned to see the November 2012 total solar eclipse in Australia. Dava Sobel at the Internet Movie Database About the Author, Dava Sobel, Book Review, Longitude by Dava Sobel
37.
Longitude (book)
–
The book was made into a television series entitled Longitude. In 1998, The Illustrated Longitude was published, supplementing the text with 180 images of characters, events, instruments, maps. Determining longitude on land was fairly easy compared to the task at sea, a stable surface to work from, a comfortable location to live in while performing the work and the ability to repeat determinations over time made for great accuracy. Whatever could be discovered from solving the problem at sea would improve the determination of longitude on land. Determining latitude was relatively easy in that it could be found from the altitude of the sun at noon with the aid of a table giving the suns declination for the day, for longitude, early ocean navigators had to rely on dead reckoning. This was inaccurate on long voyages out of sight of land, in order to avoid problems with not knowing ones position accurately, navigators have, where possible, relied on taking advantage of their knowledge of latitude. They would sail to the latitude of their destination, turn toward their destination and this was known as running down a westing. This prevented a ship taking the most direct route or a route with the most favourable winds and currents. This increased the likelihood of short rations, scurvy or starvation leading to health or even death for members of the crew. Errors in navigation have also resulted in shipwrecks. and announced the Longitude Prize for such person or persons as shall discover the Longitude, the prizes were to be awarded to the first person to demonstrate a practical method for determining the longitude of a ship at sea. Each prize, in increasing amounts, was for solutions of increasing accuracy and these prizes, worth millions of dollars in todays currency, motivated many to search for a solution. Britain was not alone in the desire to solve the problem, frances King Louis XIV founded the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1666. It was charged with, among a range of scientific activities, from 1715, the Académie offered one of the two Prix Rouillés specifically for navigation. Spains Philip II offered a prize for the discovery of a solution to the problem of the longitude in 1567, holland added to the effort with a prize offered in 1636. Navigators and scientists in most European countries were aware of the problem and were involved in finding the solution, due to the international effort in solving the problem and the scale of the enterprise, it represents one of the largest scientific endeavours in history. As Dava Sobel explains, to know ones longitude at sea, one needs to know what time it is aboard ship, the two clock times enable the navigator to convert the hour difference into geographical separation. Since the earth takes 24 hours to revolve 360 degrees, one hour marks 1/24 of a revolution or 15 degrees, and so each hours time difference between the ship and starting point marks a progress of fifteen degrees of longitude to the east or west. One degree of longitude equals four minutes of time the world over, although in terms of distance, one degree shrinks from 60.15 nautical miles or 111 km, to virtually nothing at the poles
38.
ITV Studios
–
ITV Studios is a television production company owned by the British television broadcaster ITV plc. It is primarily based in Greater Manchester and London in the United Kingdom and it was formerly ITV Productions, and originally Granada Productions. ITV Studios not only makes programmes primarily for its parent company ITV plc, the division is also responsible for ITVs production facilities The London Studios, 3SixtyMedia, and location hire company ProVision. ITV Studios Global Entertainment is responsible for sales of finished programmes, formats, programmes on non-ITV channels retained the Granada brand until 2009. Many of the programmes shown on ITV network show the end-board featuring the ITV Studios logo after the credits as of 2009, ITV Studios is a major commercial TV producer in the UK, creating over 3,500 hours of original programming each year across all genres except news. Its network programmes include Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Heartbeat, Marple and Agatha Christies Poirot, Brainiac, Science Abuse, parkinson, Ant & Decs Saturday Night Takeaway, Tonight, The Jeremy Kyle Show and This Morning. ITV Studios also produces programmes for other UK broadcasters outside of its own network and these include the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and BSkyB. ITV Studios is based in London and Manchester, with the centre in Leeds now only home to Emmerdale, the production centres in Bristol and Norwich closed in 2006 and 2012 respectively. ITV Studios also owns So Television after acquiring Graham Nortons production company in 2012, on 22 April 2013, ITV announced they had acquired production company The Garden for £18 million, which is best known for producing Channel 4 series 24 Hours in A&E. In 2013, ITV launched a new company named Potato. 2016 sees ITV Studios secure a four-year British horse racing deal which will see the Cheltenham Festival, since 14 January 2013, the ITV logo has been added to the opening credits of the majority of ITV Studios-produced shows airing on ITVs channels, similar to the BBC. In 2004, a duopoly had formed, and Granada owned six franchises, Granada bought a 64% controlling stake and took over Carlton in 2004 with the amalgamation of ITV. Consequently, programmes produced by all divisions were referred to as A Granada Manchester Production, A Granada London Production, in 2006, Granada, in association with FremantleMedia North America, produced Gameshow Marathon, an American version of Ant & Decs Gameshow Marathon for CBS. The company was formerly Granada America but was re-branded in May 2009, ITV announced on 7 May 2014, the acquisition of Leftfield Entertainment Group, which produces shows such as Pawn Stars, Counting Cars and American Restoration. The company has its origins in production company Artist Services, a company formed in 1989 by a group of investors including Steve Vizard, producing many classic shows. Half of the company was sold to John Fairfax Holdings in 1995 for A$9 million, in 1998, the entire company was acquired by Granada for A$25 million. The company rebranded as ITV Studios Australia in January 2013, with the first program carrying the new branding being the season of ABC comedy program Shaun Micallefs Mad as Hell. ITV Studios Germany programmes include Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus, Star Duell and Deutschlands Beste Doppelgänger for RTL, and East-West German comedy Ei Verbibbsch for Sat.1
39.
A&E (TV channel)
–
The channel originally focused programming on biographies, documentaries, and drama series but has later expanded to include reality television programming. As of July 2015, the A&E network is available to approximately 95,968,000 pay television households in the United States, the U. S. version of the channel is shown in Canada while international versions exist for Australia, Latin America, and Europe. A&E launched on February 1,1984, initially available to 9.3 million cable television homes in the U. S. the network is a result of the 1984 merger of Hearst/ABCs Alpha Repertory Television Service and RCA-owned The Entertainment Channel. When A&E debuted, the took over the satellite transponder timeslot that ARTS occupied from its launch in 1981. Childrens television channel Nickelodeon signed off just before 9 p. m. Eastern Time, and A&E took over at 9 p. m. with a programming block. However, some cable providers continued to carry Nickelodeon and A&E on the same channel and it was not until the early 1990s that these companies found separate channels for both networks. A&E was envisioned as a counterpart to PBS, and in its early days focused on such PBS-style programming as the Leonard Bernstein Fidelio. By 1990, A&Es original programming accounted for 35 to 40 percent of the program content. The comedy series An Evening at the Improv built a young audience in the late 80s. Also, Comedy On the Road won a CableACE Award, both series were produced by Larry ODaly, A&Es signature show was Biography, a one-hour documentary series that A&E revived in 1987. In 1994, airings of Biography went from weekly broadcasts to airing five nights a week, the nightly series became A&Es top-rated show and one of cable televisions most notable successes. Biography received Primetime Emmy Awards in 1999 and 2002, in its first decade, A&E had limited advertising, with fewer commercials at the time, mostly for A&E programs and its magazine. Beginning in the mid-90s, advertising was increased substantially on the channel, in May 1995, the channels name officially changed to the A&E Network, to reflect its declining focus on arts and entertainment. By 1996, the network had branded itself as simply A&E, even the arts patron often finds arts on TV not as satisfying as it should be. And the word entertainment is too vague, therefore, much like ESPN uses its letters rather than what they stand for – Entertainment Sports Network – we decided to go to just A&E. The network created two original weekly series, Sidney Lumets 100 Centre Street and Nero Wolfe, both of which lasted from 2001 to 2002. In May 2003, A&E launched a campaign with the networks new tagline. In addition, A&E had garnered favorable notice for true-crime documentary series such as Cold Case Files, American Justice, City Confidential, Investigative Reports, the network also cut back on its broadcasts of Biography from originally twice daily to weekend mornings only
40.
Michael Gambon
–
Sir Michael John Gambon CBE is an Irish-born English actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. He has won four BAFTA TV Awards and three Olivier Awards, Gambon was born in Cabra, Dublin, during World War II. His father, Edward Gambon, was an engineer, and his mother and his father decided to seek work in the rebuilding of London, and so the family moved to Mornington Crescent in north London, when Gambon was five. His father had him made a British citizen, a decision that would later allow Gambon to receive a substantive, rather than honorary, knighthood, brought up as a strict Roman Catholic, he attended St Aloysius Boys School in Somers Town and served at the altar. He then moved to St Aloysius College in Hornsey Lane, Highgate, London and he later moved to North End, Kent, and attended Crayford Secondary School, before leaving with no qualifications at fifteen. He then gained an apprenticeship with Vickers Armstrong as a toolmaker, by the time he was 21, he was a qualified engineer. He kept the job for a year, acquiring a fascination and passion for collecting antique guns, clocks, watches. At age 24, Gambon wrote a letter to Micheál Mac Liammóir and it was accompanied by a CV describing a rich and wholly imaginary theatre career – and he was taken on. Gambon made his professional stage début in the Gate Theatre Dublins 1962 production of Othello, playing Second Gentleman, followed by a European tour. Gambon, along with Robert Stephens, Derek Jacobi and Frank Finlay, was hired as one of the to be renowned and played any number of small roles, appearing on cast lists as Mike Gambon. The company initially performed at the Old Vic, their first production being Hamlet, directed by Olivier and starring Peter OToole. Gambon played for four years in many NT productions, including named roles in The Recruiting Officer and The Royal Hunt of the Sun, working with directors William Gaskill, after three years at the Old Vic, Olivier advised Gambon to gain experience in provincial rep. In 1967, he left the NT for the Birmingham Repertory Company, Gambon was suggested for the role of James Bond in On Her Majestys Secret Service, although he was dismissed for being even less known than George Lazenby who was cast. His rise to fame began in 1974 when Eric Thompson cast him as the vet in Alan Ayckbourns The Norman Conquests at Greenwich. A speedy transfer to the West End established him as a actor, squatting at a crowded dining table on a tiny chair. He is also one of the few actors to have mastered the demands of the vast Olivier Theatre, as Simon Callow once said, Gambons iron lungs and overwhelming charisma are able to command a sort of operatic full-throatedness which triumphs over hard walls and long distances. This was to him in good stead in John Dexters masterly staging of The Life of Galileo in 1980. Hall called him unsentimental, dangerous and immensely powerful, and The Sunday Times called his performance a decisive step in the direction of great tragedy, Great acting, while fellow actors paid him the rare compliment of applauding him in the dressing room on the first night
41.
Jeremy Irons
–
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. In 1984, he made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppards The Real Thing, Irons first major film role came in the 1981 romantic drama The French Lieutenants Woman, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. After starring in such as Moonlighting, Betrayal, and The Mission. In 1990, Irons played accused murderer Claus von Bülow in Reversal of Fortune, other notable films have included Steven Soderberghs mystery thriller Kafka, the period drama The House of the Spirits, the romantic drama M. Irons has also made several notable appearances on TV. He earned his first Golden Globe Award nomination for his role in the ITV series Brideshead Revisited. In 2005, Irons starred opposite Helen Mirren in the historical miniseries Elizabeth I, for which he received a Golden Globe Award, from 2011 to 2013 he starred as Pope Alexander VI in the Showtime historical series The Borgias. He is one of the few actors who won the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, in October 2011, he was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Irons was born in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, the son of Paul Dugan Irons, an accountant and his paternal great-great-grandfather was a Metropolitan Policeman who was sacked for drunkenness, and later a Chartist. He has an amount of Irish ancestry, tracing back to County Cork. Irons has a brother, Christopher, and a sister, Felicity Anne and he was educated at the independent Sherborne School in Dorset from 1962 to 1966. He was the drummer and harmonica player in a school band called the Four Pillars of Wisdom. Irons trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and he made several appearances on British television, including the childrens television series Play Away and as Franz Liszt in the BBC1974 series Notorious Woman. More significantly he starred in the 13-part adaptation of H. E, the role which brought him fame was that of Charles Ryder in the television adaptation of Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited. First broadcast on ITV, the ranks among the greatest British television dramas. Brideshead reunited him with Anthony Andrews, with whom he had appeared in The Pallisers seven years earlier, in the same year he starred in the film The French Lieutenants Woman opposite Meryl Streep. On 23 March 1991, Irons hosted Saturday Night Live on NBC in the US, in 2005, Irons won both an Emmy award and a Golden Globe award for his supporting role in the TV mini-series, Elizabeth I. A year later Irons was one of the participants in the series of the BBC documentary series Who Do You Think You Are. In 2008, he played Lord Vetinari in Terry Pratchetts The Colour of Magic, on 6 November 2008, TV Guide reported he would star as photographer Alfred Stieglitz with Joan Allen as painter Georgia OKeeffe, in a Lifetime Television biopic, Georgia OKeeffe
42.
Umberto Eco
–
Umberto Eco OMRI was an Italian novelist, literary critic, philosopher, semiotician, and university professor. He is best known internationally for his 1980 novel Il nome della rosa, a historical mystery combining semiotics in fiction with biblical analysis, medieval studies and he later wrote other novels, including Il pendolo di Foucault and Lisola del giorno prima. His novel Il cimitero di Praga, released in 2010, topped the charts in Italy. Eco also wrote texts, childrens books, and essays. Eco was born in the city of Alessandria, in Piedmont in northern Italy and his father, Giulio, one of thirteen children, was an accountant before the government called him to serve in three wars. During World War II, Umberto and his mother, Giovanna, Eco received a Salesian education and made references to the order and its founder in his works and interviews. His family name is supposedly an acronym of ex caelis oblatus, during his university studies, Eco stopped believing in God and left the Catholic Church. After that, Eco worked as an editor for the state broadcasting station Radiotelevisione Italiana. A group of artists, painters, musicians and writers. This was especially true after the publication of his first book in 1956, Il problema estetico in San Tommaso and this also marked the beginning of his lecturing career at his alma mater. In September 1962 he married Renate Ramge, a German art teacher with whom he had a son and he divided his time between an apartment in Milan and a vacation house near Urbino. He had a 30,000 volume library in the former and he was a visiting professor at Columbia University several times in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1992–1993 Eco was the Norton professor at Harvard University, six books that were authored, co-authored, or co-edited by Eco were published by the Indiana University Press. He frequently collaborated with his friend Thomas Sebeok, semiotician and Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at Indiana University and he became Satrap of the Collège de ‘Pataphysique in 2001. On 23 May 2002, Eco received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, in 2009, the University of Belgrade in Serbia awarded him an honorary doctorate. Eco was a member of the Italian skeptic organization Comitato Italiano per il Controllo delle Affermazioni sulle Pseudoscienze CICAP, Eco died at his Milanese home of pancreatic cancer, from which he had been suffering for two years, on the night of 19 February 2016. At the time of his death at the age of 84, he was a professor emeritus at the University of Bologna, in 1959 Eco published his second book, Sviluppo dellestetica medievale, on medieval philosophy. After 18 months military service in the Italian Army, he left RAI in 1959 to become the senior editor of the Bompiani publishing house in Milan
43.
Jonathan Swift
–
Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patricks Cathedral, Dublin. Swift is remembered for such as A Tale of a Tub, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, Gullivers Travels. He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language and he originally published all of his works under pseudonyms – such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, Drapiers Letters as MB Drapier – or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles and his deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal, has led to such satire being subsequently termed Swiftian. Jonathan Swift was born on 30 November 1667 in Dublin, Ireland and he was the second child and only son of Jonathan Swift and his wife Abigail Erick of Frisby on the Wreake. Swifts father died in Dublin about seven months before he was born, Swifts family had several interesting literary connections. His grandmother Elizabeth Swift was the niece of Sir Erasmus Dryden, the same grandmothers aunt Katherine Dryden was a first cousin of Elizabeth, wife of Sir Walter Raleigh. His great-great grandmother Margaret Swift was the sister of Francis Godwin and his uncle Thomas Swift married a daughter of poet and playwright Sir William Davenant, a godson of William Shakespeare. Swifts benefactor and uncle Godwin Swift took primary responsibility for the young man and he attended Dublin University in 1682, financed by Godwins son Willoughby, from which he received his B. A. in 1686 and developed his friendship with William Congreve. Temple was an English diplomat who arranged the Triple Alliance of 1668 and he had retired from public service to his country estate to tend his gardens and write his memoirs. Gaining his employers confidence, Swift was often trusted with matters of great importance, within three years of their acquaintance, Temple had introduced his secretary to William III and sent him to London to urge the King to consent to a bill for triennial Parliaments. Swift took up his residence at Moor Park where he met Esther Johnson, then eight years old, Swift was her tutor and mentor, giving her the nickname Stella, and the two maintained a close but ambiguous relationship for the rest of Esthers life. In 1690, Swift left Temple for Ireland because of his health, the illness consisted of fits of vertigo or giddiness, now known to be Ménières disease, and it continued to plague him throughout his life. During this second stay with Temple, Swift received his M. A. from Hart Hall, then he left Moor Park, apparently despairing of gaining a better position through Temples patronage, to become an ordained priest in the Established Church of Ireland. He was appointed to the prebend of Kilroot in the Diocese of Connor in 1694, with his parish located at Kilroot, Swift appears to have been miserable in his new position, being isolated in a small, remote community far from the centres of power and influence. While at Kilroot, however, he may well have become involved with Jane Waring, whom he called Varina. A letter from him survives, offering to remain if she would marry him and promising to leave and she presumably refused, because Swift left his post and returned to England and Temples service at Moor Park in 1696, and he remained there until Temples death. There he was employed in helping to prepare Temples memoirs and correspondence for publication, during this time, Swift wrote The Battle of the Books, a satire responding to critics of Temples Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning, though Battle was not published until 1704
