Lead weights for sounding the depth of the sea without a line
Date
11 March 1663
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p215
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 350mm
width (page): 230mm
width (page): 230mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Design of lead weights with an iron hook.
In 1662, Robert Moray and William Brouncker had experimented with a wooden ball and lead weights designed by Lawrence Rooke (Cl.P/19/7) to measure the depth of the sea by measuring the time it took for a wooden ball to sink and float back up (the lead weight which made the ball sink slipping off the hook as it touched the ground). In March 1663, Brouncker and Moray, with Alexander Bruce, repeated the trial with differently shaped weights in the channel north of Queenborough. The results were read to the Royal Society on 18 March 1663 and ordered to be registered.
In 1662, Robert Moray and William Brouncker had experimented with a wooden ball and lead weights designed by Lawrence Rooke (Cl.P/19/7) to measure the depth of the sea by measuring the time it took for a wooden ball to sink and float back up (the lead weight which made the ball sink slipping off the hook as it touched the ground). In March 1663, Brouncker and Moray, with Alexander Bruce, repeated the trial with differently shaped weights in the channel north of Queenborough. The results were read to the Royal Society on 18 March 1663 and ordered to be registered.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 18 March 1663, ‘The lord viscount Brouncker, Sir Robert Moray, and Mr. Bruce brought in an account of the observations and experiments, which they had lately made upon the river of Chatham; and his lordship promised to add to them some notes of his own. The paper was ordered to be registered’ (Birch 1:208). The account is printed in Birch 1:208-12.
See similar weights shown in Robert Hooke, 'Directions for observations and experiments to be made by masters of ships, pilots and other fit persons in their sea voyages', Phil. Trans. vol. 2, no. 24 (April 1667), 433-48.
See similar weights shown in Robert Hooke, 'Directions for observations and experiments to be made by masters of ships, pilots and other fit persons in their sea voyages', Phil. Trans. vol. 2, no. 24 (April 1667), 433-48.
Related fellows
William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker of Lyons (1620 - 1684, British) , Mathematician
Robert Moray (1608 - 1673, British) , Natural philosopher
Robert Alexander Bruce (1839, British) , Inventor
Robert Moray (1608 - 1673, British) , Natural philosopher
Robert Alexander Bruce (1839, British) , Inventor
Associated place