Edward Troughton
Edward Troughton FRS (October 1753 – 12 June 1835) was a British instrument maker who was notable for making telescopes and other astronomical instruments.[1]
Troughton was born at Corney, Cumberland. In 1779, after serving an apprenticeship with his elder brother John, he became his partner and soon established himself as the top maker of navigational, surveying and astronomical instruments in Britain.
In 1795 he delivered the Troughton Equatorial Telescope to the Armagh Observatory, a 2 inch aperture refractor telescope mounted equatorially, and its first major instrument since its founding in 1790 (It survived into the 21st century also). [2] He created the Groombridge Transit Circle in 1806, which Stephen Groombridge used to compile his star catalogue.[3] He did not merely build instruments, but designed and invented new ones.
Troughton was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1809. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1810.[4]
In 1826, after John's death and in failing health himself, he took on William Simms as a partner and the firm became known as Troughton & Simms.
Troughton was involved in a lawsuit against Sir James South, who was dissatisfied with the quality of an equatorial mounting that Troughton made for him. Troughton sued for payment, and with informal legal counsel provided by Richard Sheepshanks, he prevailed.[5]
Troughton was color blind. On his death he was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.[6]
See also
References
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Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Troughton, Edward. |
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- Equatorial Telescope by Troughton
- MNRAS 3 (1836) 149
- ↑ Biography at The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
- ↑ http://www.arm.ac.uk/history/troughton/frames.html
- ↑ Groombridge Transit Circle, 1820. -- Science and Society Picture Library
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- ↑ The South-Troughton quarrel
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Pages with reference errors
- Use dmy dates from June 2012
- Use British English from June 2012
- Pages with broken file links
- People associated with astronomy
- 1753 births
- 1835 deaths
- Scientific instrument makers
- Recipients of the Copley Medal
- People from Cumberland
- 18th-century English people
- 19th-century English people
- Fellows of the Royal Society
- Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery
