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Richard Towneley (10 October 1629 – 22 January 1707) was an English mathematician, natural philosopher and
astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either obse ...
, resident at
Towneley Hall Towneley Park is owned and managed by Burnley Borough Council and is the largest and most popular park in Burnley, Lancashire, England. The main entrance to the park is within a mile of the town centre and the park extends to the south east, co ...
, near
Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...
in Lancashire. His uncle was the antiquarian and mathematician Christopher Towneley (1604–1674). Towneley's Catholicism isolated him from some of the key scientific networks of the period, such as the Royal Society, but his individual collaborations were significant and impactful. One of these was with Robert Boyle, helping formulate
Boyle's Law Boyle's law, also referred to as the Boyle–Mariotte law, or Mariotte's law (especially in France), is an experimental gas law that describes the relationship between pressure and volume of a confined gas. Boyle's law has been stated as: The a ...
, or as Boyle named it, "Mr. Towneley's hypothesis". He also introduced John Flamsteed to the
micrometer Micrometer can mean: * Micrometer (device), used for accurate measurements by means of a calibrated screw * American spelling of micrometre The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; ...
and invented the
deadbeat escapement In horology, the anchor escapement is a type of escapement used in pendulum clocks. The escapement is a mechanism in a mechanical clock that maintains the swing of the pendulum by giving it a small push each swing, and allows the clock's wheels ...
, which became the standard escapement used in precision
pendulum clock A pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, a swinging weight, as its timekeeping element. The advantage of a pendulum for timekeeping is that it is a harmonic oscillator: It swings back and forth in a precise time interval dependent on i ...
s and is the main escapement used in pendulum clocks today.


Life

Richard Towneley was born at
Nocton Hall Nocton Hall is a historic Grade II listed building in the village of Nocton, in Lincolnshire, England. The plaque on the north face of the Hall (see below) indicates that the original building dates back to about 1530 but since then there have b ...
, in Lincolnshire, on 10 October 1629, eldest son of Charles Towneley (1600–1644) and Mary Trappes (1599–1690). The Towneleys were prominent members of the Roman Catholic minority in Lancashire and long-time Stuart loyalists. Their main home,
Towneley Hall Towneley Park is owned and managed by Burnley Borough Council and is the largest and most popular park in Burnley, Lancashire, England. The main entrance to the park is within a mile of the town centre and the park extends to the south east, co ...
, was occupied by
Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
forces during the First English Civil War; Charles Towneley raised a Royalist infantry regiment and was killed at
Marston Moor The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1639 – 1653. The combined forces of the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester and the Scottish Covenanters und ...
in 1644. In 1653, Richard married Mary Paston (1631–1672), a fellow Catholic from an influential Norfolk family, best known for the Paston Letters, a key primary historical source for the period 1460 to 1510. Before her death in 1672, they had eleven children, including Clement (1654–1666), Charles (1658–1712), Mary Ann (1660–1712) and Frances (1663–1728).


Career

Towneley is thought to have attended college in the Low Countries, almost certainly the French
University of Douai The University of Douai (french: Université de Douai) ( nl, Universiteit van Dowaai) is a former university in Douai, France. With a medieval heritage of scholarly activities in Douai, the university was established in 1559 and lectures started ...
, where his brothers were educated. Confiscated in 1652, the family estates were returned after the
1660 Restoration The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to ...
, although they had to sell Nocton Hall. This allowed Towneley to devote himself to the study of mathematics and natural philosophy, leaving his younger brother Charles (1631–1712) to manage his estates.


Collaboration with Robert Boyle

Henry Power Henry Power (1623–1668) was an English physician and experimenter, one of the first elected fellows of the Royal Society. Life Power matriculated as a pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1641 and graduated a Bachelor of Arts in 1644. ...
, of Halifax, was both the Towneley family's physician and a friend who shared Towneley's enthusiasm for experimentation. On 27 April 1661, they used a
barometer A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis ...
, of the type invented by Evangelista Torricelli in 1643, to measure the pressure of air at different altitudes on Pendle Hill in Lancashire. As a result, they recognised a relationship between the density of air and its pressure. Power eventually published the results in his book ''Experimental Philosophy'' in 1663, but an early draft was seen by Robert Boyle in 1661, and it seems Towneley also discussed the experiments with Boyle when he visited London in the winter of 1661–62. Later in 1662, Boyle was able to publish what is now known as
Boyle's Law Boyle's law, also referred to as the Boyle–Mariotte law, or Mariotte's law (especially in France), is an experimental gas law that describes the relationship between pressure and volume of a confined gas. Boyle's law has been stated as: The a ...
, but what he referred to as "Mr Towneley's hypothesis".


Gascoigne's micrometer

Towneley published little of his own work but in May 1667 he sent a letter to the Royal Society "touching the invention of dividing a foot into many thousand parts for mathematical purposes".
Adrien Auzout Adrien Auzout ronounced in French somewhat like o-zoo(28 January 1622 – 23 May 1691) was a French astronomer. He was born in Rouen, France, the eldest child of a clerk in the court of Rouen. His educational background is unknown, although ...
had claimed a French first in inventing the
micrometer Micrometer can mean: * Micrometer (device), used for accurate measurements by means of a calibrated screw * American spelling of micrometre The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; ...
. Towneley wrote to point out that Auzout was not the first person to have developed such a device as the English astronomer
William Gascoigne Sir William Gascoigne (c. 135017 December 1419) was Chief Justice of England during the reign of King Henry IV. Life and work Gascoigne (alternatively spelled Gascoyne) was a descendant of an ancient Yorkshire family. He was born in Gawthor ...
had developed one before the Civil War. Towneley had produced an improved version of that micrometer and was using it in Lancashire. The Royal Society showed great interest in Towneley's micrometer and he sent them one made in Lancashire by one of his tenants. Robert Hooke reported on it in November of the same year as "A description of an instrument for dividing a foot into many thousand parts, and thereby measuring the diameter of planets to a great exactness", with an illustration reproduced here. During the winter of 1664–65, the skies of the northern hemisphere were dominated by a brilliant
comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are ...
, which was the most conspicuous since that of 1618. When Hooke made his first observations of the comet of 1664, he devised his own method of computing the angular diameter of the nucleus by comparing it with the apparent diameter of a weather vane support on distant building and measuring the distance between the telescope and the weather vane. Accurate angular measurements were of great importance to the astronomers of the time and Hooke realised he needed a precise instrument for this purpose. His problem was solved in 1667, when he saw Richard Towneley's micrometer, which was based on a prototype of 1640 invented by William Gascoigne. This instrument used a pair of fine-pitched screws to move two pointers in the focal plane of a Keplerian telescope. By enclosing the object to be measured between the pointers, its angular diameter could be computed to within a few
arc second A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The n ...
s, providing the observer knew the exact focal length of the telescope and the pitch of the screw which moved the pointers. Hooke published an engraving of the instrument to accompany Towneley's description in 1667. Its principle was to lie at the heart of astronomical measurement down to the twentieth century.


Flamsteed's correspondence

As late as 1965, the historian Charles Webster was able to describe Towneley as "this mysterious figure of seventeenth-century science" due to the fact that information about him was scattered through many works. Only one complete piece of work by Towneley survives, titled "Short Considerations uppon Mr. Hookes Attempt for the Explication of Waters Ascent into small Glasse Canes with praeliminarie Discourse", and dated Ap. 20, 1667. This autograph manuscript was lot 128 in a sale of the Towneley family's manuscripts sold in 1883. According to Webster it is now in Yale University Library. Hooke's first publication, in 1661, was a pamphlet on
capillary action Capillary action (sometimes called capillarity, capillary motion, capillary rise, capillary effect, or wicking) is the process of a liquid flowing in a narrow space without the assistance of, or even in opposition to, any external forces li ...
. In 1970, Derek Howse brought to more general attention a collection of some seventy letters written between 1673 and 1688 by the first
Astronomer Royal Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834. The post ...
, John Flamsteed, to Towneley. This collection of letters was acquired by the Royal Society in 1891. Professor Eric G. Forbes (1933–1984) recognised that a large amount of Flamsteed's correspondence had survived and began to collect and collate copies. This important work was continued after his death and was published from 1995. The Flamsteed correspondence explains how Towneley and Flamsteed began a correspondence that provides a unique insight into the early years of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Flamsteed's first regular correspondent was John Collins, who corresponded extensively with many mathematicians including Towneley. From their correspondence it appears Flamsteed visited London in June 1670, when Jonas Moore gave him the micrometer illustrated by Hooke in 1667. Both Collins and Moore advised Flamsteed to contact Towneley to make best use of the micrometer, and Flamsteed first wrote to Towneley on 24 January 1671. Flamsteed first visited Towneley Hall in 1671 to use the library there. Much later, when writing to
William Molyneux William Molyneux FRS (; 17 April 1656 – 11 October 1698) was an Irish writer on science, politics and natural philosophy. He is noted as a close friend of fellow philosopher John Locke, and for proposing Molyneux's Problem, a thought exp ...
, Flamsteed recorded how Christopher Towneley and Moore had collected the papers of Gascoigne, along with some of Horrocks and Crabtree. These eventually went into the library at Towneley. Flamsteed claimed that reading Gascoigne's papers in less than two hours provided him with the foundations for his understanding of optics. He returned for a longer stay in September 1672 to make measurements, together with Towneley, of the conjunction of the planet Mars with fixed stars with the intention of estimating the size of the solar system. Due to adverse weather conditions, Flamsteed only achieved his objective when he returned to Derbyshire later the same week.


Astronomy at Towneley Hall

Richard's uncle Christopher Towneley had befriended a number of the northern astronomers, including
Jeremiah Horrocks Jeremiah Horrocks (16183 January 1641), sometimes given as Jeremiah Horrox (the Latinised version that he used on the Emmanuel College register and in his Latin manuscripts), – See footnote 1 was an English astronomer. He was the first person ...
,
William Crabtree William Crabtree (1610–1644) was an astronomer, mathematician, and merchant from Broughton, then in the Hundred of Salford, Lancashire, England. He was one of only two people to observe and record the first predicted transit of Venus in 1 ...
, William Gascoigne and John Stephenson, and collected their papers. As an astronomer Towneley carried on the tradition of observation, that had been established in the north of England by Horrocks, Crabtree and Gascoigne based on the work of Johannes Kepler. Towneley's main astronomical work was measuring eclipses of the moons of Jupiter, and Flamsteed made copies of Towneley's results taken between 9 September 1665 and 21 September 1672. Flamsteed's first task as Astronomer Royal was to continue Towneley's work on the moons of Jupiter. The same work was also underway at the
Observatoire de Paris The Paris Observatory (french: Observatoire de Paris ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centers in the world. Its histo ...
and, in 1683, Flamsteed recorded a catalogue of eclipses of Jupiter's satellites for the following year based on communication from, amongst others, Mr Towneley. This was at the time, the best method of determining longitude and, although unsuited for use at sea, was successful in determining the true longitude of remote coasts for the correction of charts. A regular topic of the Flamsteed letters was the weather and how clouds had prevented measurement; on two occasions, Towneley was able to help. The new Observatory at Greenwich was nearing completion and a solar eclipse on 1 June 1676 was selected for the inaugural observations. The day turned out to be cloudy at Greenwich but Flamsteed was still able to report the event using data recorded by Towneley. The second event was a transit of Mercury on 28 October 1677, which Towneley was able to observe through "flying clouds" during the last part of the event, and thus time Mercury's exit. The only other European report of its exit came from
Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label= Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the commune ha ...
, although
Edmund Halley Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720. From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Hal ...
much further south on St Helena was able to record the entire event.


The Tompion Clocks at Greenwich and the deadbeat escapement

Once at Greenwich, Flamsteed asked Towneley to help him prove that the Earth rotated at a constant speed. Towneley designed a novel clock escapement for this purpose and two astronomical clocks were commissioned to his design from the clockmaker
Thomas Tompion Thomas Tompion, FRS (1639–1713) was an English clockmaker, watchmaker and mechanician who is still regarded to this day as the "Father of English Clockmaking". Tompion's work includes some of the most historic and important clocks and watc ...
and installed at the
Greenwich Observatory The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in G ...
. The clocks were paid for by Sir Jonas Moore, Surveyor General of the King's Ordnance and a friend of Towneley. Towneley had recognised that the second hand of pendulum clocks, using an
anchor escapement In horology, the anchor escapement is a type of escapement used in pendulum clocks. The escapement is a mechanism in a mechanical clock that maintains the swing of the pendulum by giving it a small push each swing, and allows the clock's wheels ...
, jerked backward due to recoil, causing inaccuracy. Towneley's design eliminated the recoil and was the first of a kind that came to be known as a
deadbeat escapement In horology, the anchor escapement is a type of escapement used in pendulum clocks. The escapement is a mechanism in a mechanical clock that maintains the swing of the pendulum by giving it a small push each swing, and allows the clock's wheels ...
. The clocks were installed on 7 July 1676. The deadbeat escapement, widely introduced by clockmaker, George Graham, around 1715, was significantly more accurate than the anchor and in the 19th century became the standard escapement used in quality pendulum clocks. Flamsteed wrote often to Towneley about the clocks, which were made to run for a year between windings. It proved difficult to keep both clocks running for a whole year and, in January 1678, Tompion replaced the original escapement with one of his own design. The clocks eventually went for four years without stopping and Flamsteed was able to prove to his own satisfaction that the Earth rotated at a constant speed. Although Towneley and Tompion could be considered the first people to attempt to make a deadbeat escapement, it was only in about 1715 that George Graham created one that was truly successful.


Systematic rainfall measurement

In 1977, British meteorologists celebrated the tercentenary of the start of systematic rainfall recording in the British Isles by Richard Towneley. Towneley began making regular measurements of rainfall in January 1677 and published records of monthly rainfall for 15 years from that time in the '' Philosophical Transactions'' of the Royal Society in 1694. In the report, Towneley described the measurements in great detail "to show you how little trouble there is to this task; which therefore I hope some of your ingenious friends may be persuaded to undertake". He wrote that at Towneley in Lancashire there was twice the quantity of rain that fell in Paris. He further claimed that the eastern parts of Lancashire were subject to more rain than Yorkshire due to clouds driven by south-west winds falling as rain on the high ground that divides the two counties. Towneley called for more measurements elsewhere to test the claim that his area had more rain than in other parts of the country. Only William Derham appears to have taken up Towneley's challenge and they jointly published the rainfall measurements for Towneley and Upminster in Essex for the years 1697 to 1704. A local historian has suggested that Towneley was possibly prompted to maintain rainfall records in support of lime hushing activities on his land, however there is no hard evidence to support this conjecture. Rather there is evidence that Towneley had already expressed interest in measuring rainfall across different parts of England before 1677. In July 1676, Flamsteed promised Towneley he would take note of rainfall at Greenwich, and expressed his opinion that "beyond he RiverTrent it is much more rainy than here". Flamsteed went as far as placing a rain gauge on an outhouse of the Observatory in 1677, but he never reported any measurements.


Other activities

Towneley had a close friendship with the Belgian mathematician, François Walther de Sluze. He also designed and built a carriage that passed smoothly over rough roads. A collection of his remaining scientific papers are now in the
Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second ...
in Oxford. Retrieved 17 February 2008


Later life

When James II became king in 1685, the Catholics were again allowed to take part in public life, and Towneley became a Justice of the Peace. Periods of anti-Catholic agitation before and after the 1688 Glorious Revolution, saw Towneley fined, culminating in accusations of involvement in the 1694 Lancashire Plot, an alleged attempt to restore the exiled James II. Richard Towneley died at York on 22 January 1707, and was buried at St Peter's, Burnley.


References


Sources

* * * * *


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Towneley, Richard 1629 births 1707 deaths English College, Douai alumni 17th-century English astronomers 17th-century English inventors English Roman Catholics People from Burnley