NEVIL MASKELYNE, D.D., F.R.S.
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, ETC.
Born October 6, 1732. Died February 9, 1811.
This most accurate and industrious astronomer was born in London, and was the son of Mr. Edmund Maskelyne, a gentleman of respectable family in Wiltshire. At the age of nine Maskelyne was sent to Westminster school, where he early began to distinguish himself, and to display a decided taste for the study of optics and astronomy.
The great solar eclipse, which occurred in 1748 was, however, the immediate cause of his directing his attention to these sciences, and from that period he devoted himself with ardour to the study of mathematics as subservient to that of astronomy. It is a curious fact that the same eclipse is said to have produced a similar effect upon the French astronomer Lalande, who was only three months older than his English contemporary.
Soon after this Maskelyne entered the University of Cambridge as a member of Catherine Hall, removing afterwards to Trinity, where he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts with great credit in 1754, and proceeded regularly through the succeeding stages of academical rank in divinity. In 1755 he was ordained to a curacy at Barnet, and in the following year obtained a fellowship at Trinity. In the year 1758 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, previous to which event he had become acquainted with Dr. Bradley, and had determined to make astronomy the principal pursuit of his life, feeling that it was perfectly compatible with an enlightened devotion to the duties of his own profession.
1761 marks the period when Maskelyne commenced his public career as an astronomer. During that year he was chosen by the Royal Society to undertake a voyage to the island of St. Helena, for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus; and in order to make the voyage as useful as possible, Maskelyne undertook to make observations upon the parallax of Sirius. He remained ten months at St. Helena, but the weather hindered his observing the transit to advantage, while the inaccuracy of his quadrant, which was of the same construction as was then usually employed, prevented his observations on the stars from being as conclusive as he had expected. His voyage was, however, of great service to navigation, by promoting the introduction of lunar observations for ascertaining the longitude; and he taught the officers of the ship in which he was in, the proper use of the instruments as well as the mode of making the computations.
On his return to England, Maskelyne published, in 1763, his'British Mariner's Guide,' the earliest of his separate publications, in which he proposes the adoption of a Nautical Almanac according to the plan indicated by Lacaille, after his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. In the same year he performed a second voyage to the island of Barbadoes, in order to determine the rates of Harrison's chronometers. In his report on the results of this voyage Maskelyne, while doing justice to the works of this eminent mechanician, decided in favour of the employment of lunar observations for determining the longitude, strongly supporting the cause of Professor Mayer, who had computed lunar tables for this purpose. The liberality of the British Government, however, bestowed on Harrison the whole reward that he claimed,[22]while Maskelyne, having been appointed to the situation of Astronomer Royal which likewise made him a member of the Board of Longitude, was instrumental in procuring a reward of 5,000l.for the family of Professor Mayer, and a compliment of 300l.for Euler, whose theorems had been employed in the investigation.
When the merits of Mayer's tables had been fully established, the Board of Longitude was induced to promote their application to practical purposes by the annual publication of the Nautical Almanac, which, during the remainder of his life, was arranged and conducted entirely under Maskelyne's direction.
Maskelyne held the situation of Astronomer Royal for forty-seven years, during which period he acquired the respect of all Europe, by the diligence and accuracy of his observations, which he always, if possible, conducted in person, requiring the aid of only one assistant.
Up to Maskelyne's time the observations of the Astronomers Royal had been considered as private property; Flamsted publishing his own, while Bradley's were very liberally bought of his family, and afterwards printed by the University of Oxford. Dr. Maskelyne, on the contrary, obtained leave from the British Government to have his observations printed at the public expense under the direction of the Royal Society, who are the legal visitors of the observatory, appointed by the royal sign manual; and by thus causing the observations of the Astronomer Royal to be recorded publicly, he supplied a great want which had hitherto existed both in the English and French establishments. He also made several improvements in the arrangement and employment of the instruments used in the observatory, particularly, by enlarging the slits through which the light was admitted; by making the eyeglass of his transit telescope moveable to the place of each of the wires of the micrometer; and above all, by marking the time to tenths of a second, a refinement which had never been attempted before.
Maskelyne received his doctor's degree in the year 1777, he also obtained the rare distinction of being made one of the eight foreign associates of the French Academy of Science. In consequence of an unsuccessful attempt made by Bouguer to measure the local attraction of a mountain in South America, Maskelyne determined, in 1772, to ascertain that of Schehallien in Scotland; and this latter undertaking, together with the determination of the lunar orbit from observation, and its application to navigation, may be considered as his most important contributions to the cause of science.
In character Dr. Maskelyne was modest and somewhat timid in receiving the visits of strangers, but his ordinary conversation was cheerful and often playful, with a fondness for point and classical allusion. He inherited a good paternal property, and obtained considerable preferment from his college; somewhat late in life he married the sister and co-heiress of Lady Booth of Northamptonshire; his sister was the wife of Robert Lord Clive, and the mother of the Earl of Powis. Dr. Maskelyne died on the ninth of February, 1811, in his seventy-ninth year, leaving a widow and an only daughter.—Notice sur la vie et les travaux de M. Maskelyne par Delambre.London, 1813.—Memoir by Dr. T. Young, Encyclopædia Britannica.