Maskelyne

Maskelyne, NEVIL, D.D., F.R.S., astronomer and physicist, inventor of the prismatic micrometer, was born in London, 6th October 1732. From Westminster School he passed to Catharine Hall, and subsequently to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship in 1756. In 1758 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and resolved to devote himself to astronomy. In 1763 he went to Barbadoes for the Board of Longitude to test the newly-invented Harrison chronometers, and after his return was (1765) appointed astronomer-royal. During the forty-six years that he held this office he acquired universal respect by his diligence and the accuracy of his investigations, made several improvements in the arrangements and employment of the instruments, and was the first to mark the time to tenths of a second. In 1774 he visited Schiehallion, Perthshire, to make observations determining the density of the earth in connection with that hill (see EARTH). The first of his very numerous publications was the British Mariner's Guide (1763). In 1767 he commenced the Nautical Almanac. His Tables for computing the Places of the Fixed Stars, &c. were published by the Royal Society in 1774. In 1776 he produced the first volume of the Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, from 1665—an invaluable work still continued. He was rector from 1775 of Shrawardine, Salop, and from 1782 of North Runcton, Norfolk, and died 9th February 1811.