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Magnetism and chronometers: the research of the Reverend George Fisher

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2008

G. W. Roberts
G. W. Roberts
Affiliation:
Selwyn College, Cambridge, CB3 9DQ, UK. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Although largely remembered as an astronomer, the Reverend George Fisher (1794–1873) played a significant part in studying the performance and possible improvement of marine chronometers in the mid-nineteenth century. Appointed astronomer to the Royal Navy's Arctic expedition of 1818, while on the voyage Fisher carried out research into the effects of magnetism on the accurate running of chronometers on board ship. By this time, chronometers were standard equipment on many ships and their reliability was a matter of importance to all mariners. Fisher's published findings from this research led to considerable contemporary debate, and also influenced the work of others in the field. Moreover, as papers held at the National Maritime Museum show, he carried on his chronometer research in later life, making further contributions to the subject that have remained somewhat neglected.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 57 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 British Society for the History of Science

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References

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77 The school had been founded by William and Mary under the 1694 charter for the Greenwich Hospital, with premises finally built in about 1716. Boys at the school were taught writing, arithmetic and navigation. See Macleod, N., ‘History of the Royal Hospital School’, Mariner's Mirror (1949), 35, 182–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar; H. D. Turner, The Cradle of the Navy: The Story of the Royal Hospital School at Greenwich and at Holbrook, 1694–1988, York, 1990.

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81 Fisher to Airy, 25 January 1849, CUL, GRO 6/142.

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84 Anon., op. cit. (2), 143.