William Wales (astronomer)
William Wales ( * ca 1734, † December 29, 1798 in London) was a British mathematician and astronomer.
Life
William Wales was born about 1734, the son of John and Sarah Wales and baptized in warm Field near Wakefield ( West Yorkshire ). He had another brother, John ( born 1736) and a sister, Sarah ( born 1739 ). According to John Cawte Beaglehole ( historian ) Wales traveled as a teenager with a Mr. Holroyd to the south, which is. Than installer in the wake of King George III let set. The mid- 1760s wrote Wales contributions to The Ladies ' Diary, a journal of the 18th century, comparable to the New Scientist the present time. On September 5, 1765, he married Mary Green, sister of astronomer Charles Green. Together they had two children, Sarah ( born 1767) and William ( born 1768). In the same year William Wales from the Astronomer Royal ( Royal Astronomer ) Nevil Maskelyne as a calculator has been set. His task was the calculation of ephemerides, which should be used for Maskelyne's nautical year book for the determination of ship positions. After returning from his travels, he was hired as Master of the Royal Mathematical School in the mathematical department of the Christ's Hospital as a teacher and was added in 1776 as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Under Wales ' pupils were Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Charles Lamb. It is believed that Wales ' records of his travels may have influenced the written Coleridge poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Travels
Transit of Venus 1769
Wales observed in the Hudson Bay in Canada, the transit of Venus from 1769th to observe as part of plans by the Royal Society the transit of Venus to as closely as possible to define the astronomical unit ( distance between the Sun and Earth ), Wales was a wizard, Joseph Dymond, sent to Canada. As a reward was two participants provided upon successful completion of the expedition, the amount of 200 pounds in prospect. Other expeditions of the Royal Society in connection with the transit of 1769 were Cook's journey from 1768 to 1771, with the observation of the same event was taken from Tahiti, as well as the journey of Jeremiah Dixon and William Bayly to Norway. Since a cruise through the sea ice in the winter has not been possible, they had back in the summer of last year to start their journey. On June 23, 1768 they set sail and reached their destination, Prince of Wales Fort, in August of the same year. Interestingly, Wales, when he volunteered for the expedition as a volunteer, so requests to be sent to a friendly target. Lacking the chosen location of all structural material, the group not only had to bring the astronomical instruments, but also material for the construction of their property. They were about a month with the construction of transportable, designed by engineer John Smeaton observation device and their dwelling occupied. Then they prepared themselves for a long winter. On the day of transit, they were lucky with the weather, which allowed an observation at noon. To their surprise, they found the very first contact (entrance of the disk of Venus in the sun ) set a time difference of eleven seconds. This prompted Wales after his return his report with the findings arrived up in March 1770 to hold back. Ultimately, was the report, which also contained climatic and botanical observations, but approved by the Royal Society, to which he was invited by James Cook, to accompany him on the next expedition. According to the observations they remained for another three months in Canada before they set out on their return journey. They were thus the first scientists who were stationed one winter on Hudson Bay.
Cook's second voyage around the world
So he accompanied James Cook on his second expedition from 1772 to 1775 on the resolution on which he replaced the astronomers ( and brother ) Charles Green. Green had died during the return of Cook's first expedition to fever. The main task of Wales was to check the new navigation chronograph Larcum Kendall K1, which was an exact copy of Harrison's H4. Up to this point, the determination of longitude was carried out on boat trips on the clock by John Harrison. However, the accuracy of the watch and therefore the method of determining longitude by timing at that time was very questioned, because they had no confidence in the structures of the modern ( transportable ) pocket watches. It should be noted that this " pocket watches " a diameter of 13 cm and a weight of about 1.5 kg were. The result, which Cook presented in his report on his return, was so outstanding, that hereby the precision of the watch - and their construction - as well as the method of navigation by the Board of Longitude were confirmed ( the client ).
Recognitions
During the voyage of George Vancouver in the years 1791-1795 named this a cape at the entrance of Portland Inlet on the coast of British Columbia in honor of his tutor, William Wales after him (Wales Point). Vancouver was at Cook's second voyage cadet aboard the same ship as Wales and was introduce by this in the astronomy and the method of determining longitude by timing. The logbook of Vancouver, he mentioned his gratitude and obligation Wales over for his " information which enabled me to pass through these lonely regions and record ". Later, a nearby island called Iceland Wales. On the occasion of the discovery of the archipelago of the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) 200 years ago, in 1974 a stamp with Wales ' portrait was issued. The discovered in 1998 Asteroid 15045 ( Walesdymond ) was named after William Wales and Joseph Dymond.