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RAMSDEN, JESSE (1735-1800)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 880 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RAMSDEN, See also:JESSE (1735-1800) , See also:English astronomical See also:instrument maker, was See also:born at Salterhebble near See also:Halifax, See also:Yorkshire, on the 6th of See also:October 1735. After serving his See also:apprenticeship with a See also:cloth-worker in Halifax, he went in 1755 to See also:London, where in 1758 he was apprenticed to a mathematical instrument maker. About four years afterwards he started business on his own See also:account and secured a See also:great reputation with his products. He died at See also:Brighton on the 5th of See also:November 1800. Ramsden's speciality was divided circles, which began to supersede the quadrants in observatories towards the end of the 18th See also:century. His most celebrated See also:work was a 5-feet See also:vertical circle, which was finished in -1789 and was used by G. Piazzi at See also:Palermo in constructing his well-known See also:catalogue of stars. He was the first to carry out in practice a method of See also:reading off angles (first suggested in 1768 by the See also:duke of Chaulnes) by measuring the distance of the See also:index from the nearest See also:division See also:line by means of a micro-See also:meter See also:screw which moves one or two See also:fine threads placed in the focu's of a See also:microscope. Ramsden's transit See also:instruments were the first which were illuminated through the hollow See also:axis; the See also:idea was suggested to him by Prof. See also:Henry Ussher in See also:Dublin. He published a Description of an See also:Engine for dividing Mathematical Instruments in 1777.

End of Article: RAMSDEN, JESSE (1735-1800)

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