Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.14920

    Modification to a pocket-sized level

    Date
    19 June 1686
    Creator
    Unknown, Artist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    LBC
    Manuscript page number
    vol10 p417
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 307mm
    width (page): 179mm
    Subject
    Content object
    Description
    On 27 May 1686, Edmond Halley had written to William Molyneux explaining a modification to Robert Hooke's design of a pocket-size level with a small figure (see LBO/30/339) showing how a wire should be fastened to a pin in the centre by a small thread (so as not to touch the pin). Here, in his reply to Halley dated 19 June 1686, Molyneux reproduces the figure to say that he does not understand Halley's instruction. The letter was read at the meeting of the Royal Society on 30 June 1686.

    This figure was copied from LBO/10/319.
    Transcription
    ...I must first thank you for the many Curious Communications therein: And must desire you to explain to Me a Little further the Contrivance of the Wire and pin in Mr Hook's Levell, for I must needs Confess, I doe not apprehend it, by what you tell me in the Last letter, you say, that the wire on which the weight is fixt, is to be fastened to the pin in the center (as you may see in the Margent) and not to touch the said Pin at any time.
    Transcribed by the Making Visible project
    Object history
    At the meeting of the Royal Society on 30 June 1686, ‘A letter of Mr. William Molyneux to Mr. Halley, dated at Dublin, June 19, 1686, was read, containing some remarks on Mr. Hooke’s level and barometer’ (Birch 4:492).
    Related fellows
    William Molyneux (1656 - 1698, British) , Science writer
    Edmond Halley (1656 - 1742, British) , Astronomer
    Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Ireland
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