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Jesse Ramsden

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Jesse Ramsden

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edwina.jane.hunter
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Jesse Ramsden

Jesse Ramsden FRS FRSE (6 October 1735 – 5


November 1800) was a British mathematician, Jesse Ramsden
astronomical and scientific instrument maker. His
reputation was built on the engraving and design of
dividing engines which allowed high accuracy
measurements of angles and lengths in instruments. He
produced instruments for astronomy that were
especially well known for maritime use where they
were needed for the measurement of latitudes and for
his surveying instruments which were widely used for
cartography and land survey both across the British
Empire and outside. An achromatic eyepiece that he
invented for telescopes and microscopes continues to
be known as the Ramsden eyepiece.

Life Mezzotint by J. Jones, 1790, after Robert


Home. This, the only portrait of Ramsden
Ramsden was born at Salterhebble, Halifax, West shows him with the dividing engine in front of
Riding of Yorkshire, England[1] the son of Thomas him and a great circle made for the Palermo
Ramsden, an innkeeper and his wife Abigail née Astronomical Observatory behind him.
Flather.[1] Ramsden never wore fur coats but the artist
added it because the painting commemorated
Having attended the free school at Halifax from 1744
an order from the Empress of Russia that
to 1747, he was sent at the age of twelve to his
Ramsden had worked on.
maternal uncle, Mr Craven, in the North Riding, and
there studied mathematics under the Rev. Mr. Hall. Born 6 October 1735
After serving his apprenticeship as a cloth-worker in Salterhebble, Yorkshire, UK
Halifax, he went to London where, in 1755, he became Died 5 November 1800 (aged 65)
a clerk in a cloth warehouse. In 1758 he was Brighton, Sussex
apprenticed to a mathematical instrument maker[2] and Nationality British
he proved so proficient that he was able to set up his Known for Dividing engine
own business only four years later.[3] The quality and Ramsden eyepiece
accuracy of his instruments established his reputation Surveying instruments
as the most able instrument maker in Europe for the Optical telescopes
next forty years until his death in 1800.[4][1]
Awards Copley Medal (1795)
In 1765, Ramsden married Sarah Dollond, daughter of Scientific career
John Dollond, the famous maker of high quality lenses Fields astronomical
and optical instruments. Ramsden received a share in optics
Dollond's patent achromatic lens as dowry.[1] Little is
known of their life together but Sarah did not accompany him when he moved his workshop (and home).
In 1773, Ramsden moved to 199 Piccadilly but Sarah and her son lived at Haymarket at a home
belonging to her father's family. At the time of her death on 29 August 1796 she lived at Hercules
Buildings, off Westminster Road, Lambeth. She was buried at St Mary's, Lambeth, on 1 September
1796.[1] In his later years he lived above the workshop with a number of his apprentices.[5] The
Ramsdens had two sons and two daughters with only one, John, living past infancy. John later became a
commander in the East India Company's navy.[1]

Ramsden's dividing engine allowed instruments to be made smaller without loss of measurement
accuracy. The rights for a portable sextant designed by Ramsden and used for maritime navigation were
purchased by the Board of Longitude in 1777 for £300. An additional £315 was paid to allow for its
construction details to be used by other craftsmen. He also received charges for servicing of the
instruments.[1]

Ramsden was of a genial disposition, but at the same time infuriated his clients with his tardiness in
delivering their purchases, particularly of larger commissions. His three-year delay in providing William
Roy with the theodolite for the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) provoked a public row within the
portals of the Royal Society and in its Philosophical Transactions.[6] Many delays could be attributed to
Ramsden's quest for perfection, as he continually refined his designs as the slightest shortcomings were
revealed.[5]

Ramsden was elected to the Royal Society in 1786 and to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in (probably)
1798.[7] The Copley Medal of the Royal Society was bestowed upon him in 1795 for his 'various
inventions and improvements in philosophical instruments.’

Ramsden's health began to fail and he traveled to Brighton on the south coast to try to benefit from its
better climate; he died there on 5 November 1800. He was buried at St James's Church, Piccadilly on 13
November. His instrument-making business in London was taken over by his foreman, Matthew Berge
until his death in 1819. The estate passed on to his son.[1] Many of Ramsden's apprentices such as
William Cary went on to establish their own instrument-making ventures. Others like Edward Troughton
incorporated ideas from Ramsden into their own designs.[8]

Ramsden's instruments

Dividing engines
Ramsden created one of the first high-quality dividing engines. 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.[3]

Other instruments
He also built an early plate electrostatic generator in 1768.

Surveying instruments
In about 1785, Ramsden provided General William Roy a
new large theodolite[9] which was used for the
measurement of the latitude and longitude separations of
London (Greenwich) and Paris and later for the Principal
Triangulation of Great Britain. This work provided the
basis for the subsequent Ordnance Survey of the counties
of Britain.

Telescopes
Ramsden is also responsible for the achromatic eyepiece
named after him. In its simplest form it consists of two
planoconvex lenses with the curved sides facing each other
and separated by a gap of about 2/3 of their focal length. It
had the additional advantage of allowing a greater distance
(or eye relief) between the lens and the eye. It thus also
allowed sunshades and prisms to be placed before it.[10]

The exit pupil of an eyepiece was once called the Ramsden


disc in his honour.
The 5-foot diameter Palermo circle
In 1791, he completed the Shuckburgh telescope, an
manufactured by Jesse Ramsden to
equatorial mounted refracting telescope.[11][12] measure apparent positions of astronomical
objects.
His most celebrated work was a 5-feet vertical circle,
which was finished in 1789 and was used by Giuseppe
Piazzi at the Palermo Astronomical Observatory in
constructing his catalogue of stars and in the discovery of
the dwarf planet Ceres on 1 January 1801.[11][13][14]

Micrometers
He was the first to carry out in practice a method of reading
off angles (first suggested in 1768 by the Duc de Chaulnes)
by measuring the distance of the index from the nearest
A brass refractor telescope by Jesse
division line by means of a micrometer screw which moves
Ramsden at the Herschel Museum of
one or two fine threads placed in the focus of a Astronomy in Bath
microscope.[3]

Honours
Ramsden Rock in Antarctica is named after Jesse Ramsden.

Notes and references


1. Chapman, Allan (2004). "Ramsden, Jesse (1735–1800)". Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23105 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F23105).
(Subscription or UK public library membership (https://www.oxforddnb.com/help/subscribe#publi
c) required.)
2. The workshop of Mr Burton in Denmark Street.
3. Chisholm 1911.
4. McConnell 2007 Jesse Ramsden (1735–1800).
5. Ramsden the optician
6. Roy 1787 describes the argument between Roy and Ramsden.
7. "Former RSE Fellows 1783-2002 (page 144)" (http://www.rse.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biogra
phical_index/all_fellows.pdf) (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved
29 September 2013.
8. Troughton, Edward (1809). "An Account of a Method of Dividing Astronomical and Other
Instruments, by Ocular Inspection; In Which the Usual Tools for Graduating Are Not
Employed; The Whole Operation Being So Contrived, That No Error Can Occur but What is
Chargeable to Vision, When Assisted by the Best Optical Means of Viewing and Measuring
Minute Quantities" (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frstl.1809.0006). Philosophical Transactions
of the Royal Society of London. 99: 105–145. Bibcode:1809RSPT...99..105T (https://ui.adsa
bs.harvard.edu/abs/1809RSPT...99..105T). doi:10.1098/rstl.1809.0006 (https://doi.org/10.10
98%2Frstl.1809.0006). JSTOR 107252 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/107252).
9. Insley (2008)
10. Abraham, R.M. (1926). Surveying instruments (https://archive.org/stream/surveyinginstrum0
0abra#page/19/mode/1up/). London: C. F.Casella & Co. p. 19.
11. Anita, McConnell (2013). "Jesse Ramsden: the Craftsman who Believed that Big was
Beautiful". The Antiquarian Astronomer. 7: 41–53. Bibcode:2013AntAs...7...41M (https://ui.a
dsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AntAs...7...41M).
12. Hingley, Peter D. (2013). "The Shuckburghs of Shuckburgh, Isaac Fletcher, and the History
of the English Mounting". The Antiquarian Astronomer. 7: 17–40.
Bibcode:2013AntAs...7...17H (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AntAs...7...17H).
13. Chinnici, Ileana (2009). "The Relationship Between the Ramsden Circles at Palermo and
Dunsink". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 40 (3): 321–333.
Bibcode:2009JHA....40..321C (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009JHA....40..321C).
doi:10.1177/002182860904000304 (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F002182860904000304).
S2CID 120879418 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:120879418).
14. "News" (https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news?order=publish_date+desc&per_page=50&page
=0&search=&fs=&fc=&ft=dawn&category=). NASA Solar System Exploration.

Bibliography
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh,
ed. (1911). "Ramsden, Jesse". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge
University Press. p. 880.
Clerke, Agnes Mary (1896). "Ramsden, Jesse" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of
_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Ramsden,_Jesse). Dictionary of National Biography.
Vol. 47. pp. 265–267.
Dunn, Richard (2008). "An infuriating genius. A review of the book by Anita McConnell:
Jesse Ramsden (1735–1800): London's leading scientific instrument maker" (https://doi.org/
10.1098%2Frsnr.2008.0016). Notes and Records of the Royal Society. 62 (3): 331–334.
doi:10.1098/rsnr.2008.0016 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsnr.2008.0016).
Insley, Jane (2008). The Tale of the Great Theodolites (http://www.fig.net/pub/fig2008/paper
s/hs03/hs03_01_insley_2838.pdf) (PDF). FIG - International Federation of Surveyors
Working Week on Integrating the Generations. Sweden.
Kern, Ralf (2010), Wissenschaftliche Instrumente in ihrer Zeit. Vom 15. – 19. Jahrhundert.
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, ISBN 978-3-86560-772-0
McConnell, Anita (2007), Jesse Ramsden (1735–1800): London's leading scientific
instrument maker, Aldershot, England Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, ISBN 978-0-754661368
Piazzi (1803). "Account of the life and labours of the late Mr. Ramsden. Letter of Professor
Giuseppe Piazzi (of Palermo) to M. de Lalande" (https://books.google.com/books?id=eSmC
sbzF25gC&q=ramsden&pg=RA1-PA253). Philosophical Magazine: 253–262.
"Ramsden the optician" (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9919). The Mirror of Literature,
Amusement and Instruction. 10 (266): 80. 1827 – via Project Gutenberg.
Roy, William (1787). "An Account of the Mode Proposed to be Followed in Determining the
Relative Situation of the Royal Observatories of Greenwich and Paris. Plates follow text" (htt
ps://archive.org/details/philtrans08537735). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
of London. 77: 188–226. doi:10.1098/rstl.1787.0019 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frstl.1787.00
19). S2CID 186214773 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:186214773).
Roy, William (1790). "An Account of the Trigonometrical Operation, Whereby the Distance
between the Meridians of the Royal Observatories of Greenwich and Paris Has Been
Determined" (https://archive.org/stream/philtrans00940584/00940584#page/n0/mode/2up).
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 80: 111–254.
doi:10.1098/rstl.1790.0015 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frstl.1790.0015). S2CID 186211548
(https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:186211548).

External links
Media related to Jesse Ramsden at Wikimedia Commons
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Jesse Ramsden" (https://mathshistory.st-andrew
s.ac.uk/Biographies/Ramsden.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of
St Andrews

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jesse_Ramsden&oldid=1258453388"

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