Lead weights for sounding the depth of the sea without a line or cord
Date
12 March 1662
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p94
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 354mm
width (page): 237mm
width (page): 237mm
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 in March 1663. The results were read to the Royal Society on 18 March 1663 and ordered to be registered.
This manuscript is a copy of Register Book no. 2 (RBO/2i) and some letters to the Royal Society, all from between 1662 and 1664.
This image can be found in the Register Book at RBO/2i/215. Another copy can be found at MS/776/409.
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 in March 1663. The results were read to the Royal Society on 18 March 1663 and ordered to be registered.
This manuscript is a copy of Register Book no. 2 (RBO/2i) and some letters to the Royal Society, all from between 1662 and 1664.
This image can be found in the Register Book at RBO/2i/215. Another copy can be found at MS/776/409.
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
Robert Moray (1608 - 1673, British) , Natural philosopher
William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker of Lyons (1620 - 1684, British) , Mathematician
William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker of Lyons (1620 - 1684, British) , Mathematician
Associated place