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From Eddystone
to the Stars The Astronomy of John Smeaton (1724-92) David Sellers Format: Paperback Size: 220 mm x 150 mm Pages: 48 ISBN: 9780954101329 Published: 9 May 2024 |
Price: £8.99 (post free in UK) |
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About
this book John Smeaton is justly famed for the design and construction
of the third Eddystone Lighthouse. Many of his
great engineering works – mills, harbours, bridges and waterways – are still
in use today. Smeaton was the archetypal civil
engineer. But he had other strings to his bow. It is not so well
known that he was elected to the Royal Society on the strength of his
innovative work as a maker of scientific instruments, long before the
lighthouse commission came along. Aside from his engineering avocations, his
ruling passion in life was astronomy. He had his own observatory at Austhorpe and manufactured telescopes and micrometers for
himself and others. He also designed astronomical observatories for some of
the most distinguished astronomers of his day. This booklet
reveals that, although Smeaton made no notable
discoveries in astronomy, he nevertheless did make valuable and sophisticated
contributions to the development of that science. Despite that, very little
has been written about this side of his life. Remarkably,
through his work and friendships, Smeaton had a
connection with seminal experiments concerning the properties of light and
electricity, analyses of the observational effect of the Moon’s gravity,
expeditions to measure the distance of the Sun, a delicate experiment to
weigh the Earth, and even – maybe – the earliest discussion of black holes! |
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