Richard Towneley
[2] Towneley's Catholicism isolated him from some of the key scientific networks of the period, such as the Royal Society, but his individual collaborations were significant and impactful.
This allowed Towneley to devote himself to the study of mathematics and natural philosophy, leaving his younger brother Charles (1631–1712) to manage his estates.
On 27 April 1661, they used a barometer, of the type invented by Evangelista Torricelli in 1643, to measure the pressure of air at different altitudes on Pendle Hill in Lancashire.
[7] Towneley published little of his own work but in May 1667 he sent a letter to the Royal Society "touching the invention of dividing a foot into many thousand parts for mathematical purposes".
Robert Hooke reported on it in November of the same year as "A description of an instrument for dividing a foot into many thousand parts, and thereby measuring the diameter of planets to a great exactness", with an illustration reproduced here.
Accurate angular measurements were of great importance to the astronomers of the time and Hooke realised he needed a precise instrument for this purpose.
[10][11] As late as 1965, the historian Charles Webster was able to describe Towneley as "this mysterious figure of seventeenth-century science" due to the fact that information about him was scattered through many works.
[12] Only one complete piece of work by Towneley survives, titled "Short Considerations uppon Mr. Hookes Attempt for the Explication of Waters Ascent into small Glasse Canes with praeliminarie Discourse", and dated Ap.
[15] In 1970, Derek Howse brought to more general attention a collection of some seventy letters written between 1673 and 1688 by the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, to Towneley.
[16] Professor Eric G. Forbes (1933–1984) recognised that a large amount of Flamsteed's correspondence had survived and began to collect and collate copies.
Much later, when writing to William Molyneux, Flamsteed recorded how Christopher Towneley and Moore had collected the papers of Gascoigne, along with some of Horrocks and Crabtree.
[20] He returned for a longer stay in September 1672 to make measurements, together with Towneley, of the conjunction of the planet Mars with fixed stars with the intention of estimating the size of the solar system.
[22] As an astronomer Towneley carried on the tradition of observation, that had been established in the north of England by Horrocks, Crabtree and Gascoigne based on the work of Johannes Kepler.
[24] The same work was also underway at the Observatoire de Paris and, in 1683, Flamsteed recorded a catalogue of eclipses of Jupiter's satellites for the following year based on communication from, amongst others, Mr Towneley.
Towneley had recognised that the second hand of pendulum clocks, using an anchor escapement, jerked backward due to recoil, causing inaccuracy.
[29] Although Towneley and Tompion could be considered the first people to attempt to make a deadbeat escapement, it was only in about 1715 that George Graham created one that was truly successful.
In the report, Towneley described the measurements in great detail "to show you how little trouble there is to this task; which therefore I hope some of your ingenious friends may be persuaded to undertake".
Periods of anti-Catholic agitation before and after the 1688 Glorious Revolution, saw Towneley fined, culminating in accusations of involvement in the 1694 Lancashire Plot, an alleged attempt to restore the exiled James II.
