scholarly journals XXII. An improved solution of a problem in physical astronomy; by which, swiftly converging series are obtained, which are useful in computing the perturbations of the motions of the Earth, Mars, and Venus, by their mutual attraction. To which is added an appendix, containing an easy method of obtaining the sums of many slowly converging series which arise in taking the fluents of binominal surds, &c. In a letter to the Rev. Nevil Maskelyne, D. D. F. R. S. and Astronomer Royal

1798 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 527-566
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Easy Method ◽  
Strong Argument ◽  
Mutual Attraction ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many ◽  
Nevil Maskelyne

Reverend Sir, Such is the subject of the inclosed paper, and such the repu­tation for skill and industry, which the many valuable papers you have communicated to the Royal Society, and your other learned works, have justly procured to you, that it could not with more propriety be submitted to the judgment of any other person than yourself, even if the writer of it were a stranger to you. But there are circumstances which render my presenting it to you, in some measure, a duty. I had the advantage of being, for some years, your Assistant in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich; during which time, you made the important observations on the mountain Schehallien , in Scotland, which afford an ocular demonstration of the attraction of that mountain, and a strong argument for the general attraction of matter, a subject nearly connected with that of the following pages; and it was from you that I received the problem of which you will here find an improved solution.

Nevil Maskelyne, the Nautical Almanac, and G.M.T.

1985 ◽  
Vol 38 (02) ◽  
pp. 159-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Howse
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Standard Work ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Nevil Maskelyne ◽  
Nautical Almanac

Early in 1967, a few months before the restored Meridian Building of the Old Royal Observatory was opened to the public by Sir Richard Woolley, the Astronomer Royal, I received a visitor in my office then in the Meridian Building — later, I was to move to the west summer house of Flamsteed House. My visitor was Colonel Humphrey Quill, Royal Marines, Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers that same year and author of the hookJohn Harrison, the Man who Found Longitude, which has become a standard work. He brought with him some manuscripts written by the subject of this lecture — Nevil Maskelyne, fifth Astronomer Royal, who lived in Flamsteed House for 46 years from 1765, making most of his important astronomical observations in the very building in which Col. Quill and I were sitting.

Royal fossils: The Royal Society and progress in palaeontology

2001 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-67
Author(s):  
G. E. Budd
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Earth Science ◽  
Evolutionary Morphology ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
Past Life ◽  
Evolutionary Radiations ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Science Interests ◽  
The 19Th Century

The study of the remains of past life is a relatively young discipline, and one that has been defined partly by conflicting demands placed on it by both the life and Earth sciences. Fellows of The Royal Society have made critical contributions both to the growth of material knowledge of the subject and to the expansion of its theoretical basis, especially in the formative decades at the beginning of the 19th century. In particular, British palaeontologists and stratigraphers were pre-eminent in the shift away from viewing the Earth as a young creation conforming to the account in Genesis and towards the modern view of it as an ancient and dynamic system with a distinct history. Despite these early Earth science interests, palaeobiological subjects were also soon a topic of research, ranging from the reconstruction of ancient ecologies to the description of extinct organisms such as the dinosaurs. Nevertheless, palaeontology has notoriously failed to make signal contributions to evolutionary theory and the recent development of areas where palaeontology does have a unique imput to make, such as the global patterns of biodiversity through time and the controversy over mass extinction, has largely been a North American concern. British palaeontologists have, however, made fundamental contributions to the study of major evolutionary radiations, and this tradition is well represented in the current research interests of extant Fellows. Palaeontology remains a poorly defined discipline with little sense of an overarching paradigm, but one important future prospect probably lies with the revival of evolutionary morphology and development as neontological subjects.

XXIX. On the tides of Bombay and Kurrachee

1868 ◽  
Vol 158 ◽  
pp. 685-696 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Diurnal Tide ◽  
Semidiurnal Tide ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Engineering Survey ◽  
Continuous Curves ◽  
Made In

The tides on the coasts of India present a marked difference from those on our own coasts in the large amount of diurnal inequality to which they are subject. My attention was first directed to the subject in the course of an engineering survey of the Harbour of Kurrachee which I made in 1857-58, when I obtained between three and four months’ continuous observations, a copy of which is deposited with the Royal Society. Subsequently I obtained from the Admiralty, through the kindness of Captain Burdwood, R. N., the loan of the records of three years’ observations taken at Bombay in 1846, 1847, and 1848. Of these I plotted in a series of continuous curves the records for 1846, and deposited them, at the Astronomer Royal’s request, at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. These records, however, are not perfect. They were made by a self-acting machine, the adjustment of which does not appear to have been always accurately pre­served; and I hope that they will be superseded as data for investigation by a better record 'for the year 1868. Taking them as they were, however, I discussed them to obtain the semimonthly curves of semidiurnal tide, and also formulæ for the approxi­mate determination of diurnal tide.

scholarly journals III. Photochemical researches.—Part V. On the measurement of the chemical action of direct and diffuse sunlight

1863 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 306-312 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Chemical Action ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Methods Of Measurement

In one of the four communications which the authors have already had the honour of presenting to the Royal Society on the subject of the measurement of the chemical action of light, the attempt was made to determine experimentally the laws regulating the distribution of the chemical action of the sunlight and diffuse daylight on the surface of the earth when the sky is perfectly unclouded and the atmosphere clear. The methods of measurement there employed do not, unfortunately, apply to the much more usually occurring case of cloudy skies and hazy atmosphere.

XVI. The Bakerian Lecture.— On the radiation of heat from the moon, the law of its absorption by our atmosphere, and of its variation in amount with her phases

1873 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 587-627 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Short Series ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Law

In the years 1869 and 1870 I communicated to the Royal Society the results of a series of experiments made with the view of determining, if possible, the amount of radiant heat coming to the earth from the moon in various conditions of phase, and the nature of that heat as regards the average refrangibility of the rays. Though more successful than I had at first been led to expect, the imperfect accordance between many of the observations still left much to be desired, and the novelty and importance of the subject appeared sufficient to render it advisable to pursue the investigation with greater care and closer attention to details than had hitherto been deemed necessary. Since the conclusion of the series of observations which form the subject of the second paper above referred to, nothing (with the exception of a short series of observations in August and October 1870, of which mention is made towards the end of this paper) was done towards pursuing the subject till the spring of the following year (1871), when the series of observations which form the subject of the present paper were commenced, the same apparatus (only slightly modified) being used and the same method of observation adopted; but, with the view of obtaining an approximate value of the absorption of the moon’s heat in its passage through our atmosphere, and of rendering possible the satisfactory comparison of observations made at different zenith-distances of the moon, the observations were in many cases carried on at intervals at all possible zenith- distances on the same night, and the most favourable opportunities for observing the moon at very different zenith-distances in various conditions of the atmosphere were not lost.

scholarly journals XI. Note on an extension of the comparison of magnetic disturbances with magnetic effects inferred from observed terrestrial galvanic currents; and discussion of the magnetic effects inferred from galvanic currents on days of tranquil magnetism

1870 ◽  
Vol 160 ◽  
pp. 215-226 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Principal Part ◽  
The Self ◽  
Magnetic Disturbance ◽  
Magnetic Effects ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
Magnetic Disturbances

In a communication to the Royal Society, which was honoured by publication in the Philosophical Transactions for 1868, I described the methods and gave the results of comparing the Magnetic Disturbances which might be expected as consequent on the Terrestrial Galvanic Currents recorded by the self-registering galvanometers of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, with the Magnetic Disturbances actually registered by the self-registering magnetometers. The comparison was limited to seventeen days (1865, October 5 and 31; 1866, October 4; 1867, April 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, May 4, 14, 28, 31, June 1, 2, 7, 24), various days having been omitted in consequence of a doubt on the uniformity of the clock-movement of the registering-barrel, which afterwards proved to be unfounded. The results of the comparison were exhibited in curves, engraved copies of which are given in the volume of publication. I expressed my opinion that it was impossible to doubt the general causal connexion of the Galvanic Currents with the Magnetic Disturbances, but that some points yet remained to be cleared up. As soon as circumstances permitted, I undertook the examination of the whole of the Earth-currents recorded during the establishment of the Croydon and Dartford Wires (namely from 1865 April 1 to 1867 December 31), as far as they should appear to bear upon this and similar questions. For this purpose the days of observation were divided by Mr. Glaisher into three groups. Group No. 1 contained days of considerable mag­netic disturbance (or days of considerable galvanic disturbance, which are always the same), including, besides the seventeen days above-mentioned, the thirty-six days of the following list :—1865, April 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, May 14, 17, July 7,15, August 14,19, 26, September 8, 16, 28, October 4, 6, 10, 12, 14, November 1; 1866, August 11, 23, September 8, 9,12,13,17,18, 25, October 6, 7,10, 30, November 26 ; 1867, February 8; making in all fifty-three days of considerable magnetic disturbance. Group No. 2 consisted of days of moderate magnetic disturbance, and of these no further notice was taken. Group No. 3 contained the days of tranquil magnetism, and the discussion of these will form the principal part of the present Memoir.

‘But where shall my soul repose?’: Nonconformity, Science and the Geography of the Afterlife, c. 1660–1720

2009 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 268-279
Author(s):  
Andrew Cambers
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Religious Cultures ◽  
Henry More

Life, the afterlife, and life beyond the Earth are matters of scientific inquiry as well as religious belief. As we might expect, in the wake of the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, the afterlife was subjected to new scrutiny. Such scrutiny, notably the demonology of Joseph Glanvill and Henry More, both fellows of the Royal Society, was undoubtedly scientific and serious, even if it has rarely been treated as such by scholars preferring to treat belief in witchcraft as a hangover from an earlier age. Far from being opposed, or necessarily pulling in opposite directions, the conjunction of science and religion in this era breathed new life into old problems and opened up new questions for debate. One such area, with a long history as a philosophical conundrum, was the possibility of life beyond Earth. It is this question, its place within religious cultures, and its relation to traditional ideas about the afterlife, that is the subject of this essay.

I. On the determination of the rate of vibration of tuning-forks

1880 ◽  
Vol 171 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Tuning Fork ◽  
Good Time ◽  
Battery Power ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
Tuning Forks ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Standard Clock ◽  
The One

In a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1877, xxvi., 162, when describing a new method for determining the speed of machines, we pointed out that by the employment of a graduated drum rotating with a known velocity the true vibration number of a tuning-fork could be accurately determined. The following is an account of the apparatus employed, and subjoined are records of some experiments which have been made on tuning-forks with it, which, in view of the attention now being given to the subject, may prove of interest. One essential instrument proved to be a good time-measurer. It will be seen in the sequel that an electric current is required once a minute, and in the earlier experiments a two-day marine chronometer was employed, a key being depressed by hand at the end of each minute. So many difficulties, however, arose from its use that it was soon rejected and a clock substituted. Near the pendulum two springs were placed which, being pressed together at the end of each vibration, made a contact at every alternate second. About the 59 th second of each minute, a key was depressed by hand and held down until the clock completed the circuit. This, though a great improvement, was not entirely satisfactory, and endeavours had to be made to eliminate entirely all contacts made by hand. This was done by means of a compensated pendulum worked by electricity and connected with an electric clock The method of compensation was copied from that of a pendulum exhibited in the Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus, as a model of the one belonging to the standard clock of the Royal Observatory a t Greenwich. Originally, the impulse was given by an electromagnet placed under the bob, the contact being made by a small trailing piece of steel, which, catching in a notch in a piece of steel below, depressed a spring at every alternate second. This method, which is frequently employed in small clocks, is generally arranged to give a powerful impulse to the pendulum, and this so much increases the arc of vibration that the trailing piece passes over the notch without again engaging in it until the arc has sufficiently diminished. Although such clocks are accurate enough for ordinary purposes, it is obvious that the method would be inadmissible in cases where the period of all vibrations must be the same. To ensure uniformity in this respect the battery power was diminished until the contact was made at each vibration, but after many trials the method was abandoned, for it was found that the friction between the steel trailing piece and the notched piece below was not constant, and, besides, the pendulum was often found to be swinging in an elliptic arc.

scholarly journals XXXIII. On the figure of the earth

1826 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 548-578 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Present State ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Mathematical Theory ◽  
Second Order ◽  
The Earth ◽  
First Approximation ◽  
Figure Of The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference

The ellipticity of the earth, deduced by Captain Sabine from a series of pendulum experiments the most extensive, and apparently the most deserving of confidence, that has ever been made, differs considerably from that which, as is generally believed, is indicated by geodetic measures. The difference can only be explained by errors of observation, by peculiarities of local circumstances, or by some defect in the theory which connects the figure of the earth with the variation of gravity on its surface: under the last head may be placed defects in the mathematical part of the theory, and errors in the assumptions of the original constitution and present state of the earth. It was with a view to ascertain the sufficiency of the mathematical theory, that I undertook the investigations contained in this paper. The celebrated proposition called Clairaut's theorem, by which the earth's ellipticity is inferred from the variation of gravity on its surface, is obtained only by the rejection of the squares and higher powers of the ellipticity. It is by the same rejection that the figure of the earth, supposed a heterogeneous fluid, is proved to be an elliptic spheroid. It appeared therefore probable, that a more accurate theory might introduce some modification into Clairaut's theorem, and might also show he figure of the earth to differ from an ellipsoid ; and there was no reason to think that the first approximation to that figure was more accurate, than the first approximation to the motion of the moon’s perigee. The result of my investigation does not at all serve to reconcile the pendulum observations made by Captain Sabine with the measures of degrees : and with respect to one object, which I hoped to obtain, I am therefore completely unsuccessful. The theory shows, however, that the earth’s figure, on the usual suppositions as to its constitution, is not an elliptic spheroid; and the formulæ which I have obtained will give the means of determining very exactly the figure of the earth, when the experiments on the variation of gravity, or the measures of arcs on the earth’s surface, shall be thought sufficiently accurate. As the subject is one whose interest is not confined to the present time, I have ventured to offer my investigations to the Royal Society. The first part of the following sheets contains the theory of the heterogeneous earth, pushed so far as to include all the terms of the second order: it is succeeded by a comparison of this theory with Captain Sabine’s results, and with the best arcs of the meridian that have been measured and in the conclusion, I have offered some suggestions on the propriety of repeating some of these measures.

scholarly journals II. On the mathematical theory of the stability of earth-work and masonry

1857 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 60-61 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Stress ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Mathematical Theory ◽  
Natural Slope ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Stability

In the preparation of my course of lectures, I have found it necessary to re-investigate much of the above-named branch of mechanics, and I have now a paper in preparation on the subject, which I propose to offer to the Royal Society when it is ready. In the meanwhile, it appears to me that the two fundamental principles on which my researches are based are of such a nature, that they may very properly be communicated to the Royal Society at once. They are as follows:― I. Principle o f the Stability of Earth . At each point in a mass of earth the directions of greatest and least compressive stress are at right angles to each other; and the condition of stability is, that at each point the ratio of the difference of those stresses to their sum shall not exceed the sine of the angle of natural slope of the earth.

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