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1 Ramsden, Jesse
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering[br]b. 6 October 1735 (?) Halifax, Yorkshire, Englandd. 5 November 1800 Brighton, Sussex, England[br]English instrument-maker who developed machines for accurately measuring angular and linear scales.[br]Jesse Ramsden was the son of an innkeeper but received a good general education: after attending the free school at Halifax, he was sent at the age of 12 to his uncle for further study, particularly in mathematics. At the age of 16 he was apprenticed to a cloth-worker in Halifax and on completion of the apprenticeship in 1755 he moved to London to work as a clerk in a cloth warehouse. In 1758 he became an apprentice in the workshop of a London mathematical instrument-maker named Burton. He quickly gained the skill, particularly in engraving, and by 1762 he was able to set up on his own account. He married in 1765 or 1766 the youngest daughter of the optician John Dollond FRS (1706– 61) and received a share of Dollond's patent for making achromatic lenses.Ramsden's experience and reputation increased rapidly and he was generally regarded as the leading instrument-maker of his time. He opened a shop in the Haymarket and transferred to Piccadilly in 1775. His staff increased to about sixty workers and apprentices, and by 1789 he had constructed nearly 1,000 sextants as well as theodolites, micrometers, balances, barometers, quadrants and other instruments.One of Ramsden's most important contributions to precision measurement was his development of machines for obtaining accurate division of angular and linear scales. For this work he received a premium from the Commissioners of the Board of Longitude, who published his descriptions of the machines. For the trigonometrical survey of Great Britain, initiated by General William Roy FRS (1726–90) and continued by the Board of Ordnance, Ramsden supplied a 3 ft (91 cm) theodolite and steel measuring chains, and was also engaged to check the glass tubes used to measure the fundamental base line.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1786; Royal Society Copley Medal 1795. Member, Imperial Academy of St Petersburg 1794. Member, Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers 1793.Bibliography1774, Description of a New Universal Equatorial Instrument, London; repub. 1791. 1777, Description of an Engine for Dividing Mathematical Instruments, London. 1779, Description of an Engine for Dividing Straight Lines on MathematicalInstruments, London.1779, "Description of two new micrometers", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 69:419–31.1782, "A new construction of eyeglasses for such telescopes as may be applied to mathematical instruments", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 73:94–99.Further ReadingR.S.Woodbury, 1961, History of the Lathe to 1850, Cleveland, Ohio; W.Steeds, 1969, A History of Machine Tools 1700–1910, Oxford (both provide a brief description of Ramsden's dividing machines).RTS
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