Early Astronomical Instruments at Oxford

Abstract

ALTHOUGH a manuscript of 1697 in the Bodleian Library has provided an inventory of the instruments belonging to the early Savilian professors, it is only quite recently that certain of these instruments were discovered to be still in existence and within the walls of the University Observatory itself. In the Observatory of July, p. 190, Dr. R. T. Gunther describes four instruments which have been reassembled from “certain old metal bars and plates” found behind some cases in the University Observatory and brought to the notice of Dr. Gunther by Prof. H. H. Plaskett. These newly discovered instruments are: (1) a 14-in. astrolabe made by Thomas Gemini in 1559 for Queen Elizabeth ; (2) a mural quadrant of 6 ft. 9 in. radius made in 1637 by Elias Alien ; (3) a 6-ft. iron sextant with brass limb, to be attributed possibly to Elias Alien ; and (4) an equatorial quadrant of 2-ft. radius of which the maker is uncertain. In describing these interesting instruments, Dr. Gunther directs attention to the high excellence of Alien's work as instanced by the mural quadrant of 1637, which he divided to give direct readings to 2’ and, by means of a diagonal scale, to 12". It is suggested that these instruments were installed by Bainbridge, the first Savilian professor, on whose death they passed as his private property to his successor, John Greaves ; in 1659, seven years after the death of John Greaves, the instruments appear to have been given to Oxford by his brother, Nicolas Greaves, in memory of the first two Savilian professors.