John Bird | |
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 Engraving of Bird byValentine Green. Shows a beam compass used for engraving instruments. | |
| Born | John Bird c..1709 Bishop Auckland, England |
| Died | 31 March 1776(1776-03-31) (aged 66–67) Strand, London, United Kingdom |
| Occupations | Inventor, Astronomer |
| Known for | Maker of astronomical instruments |
John Bird (1709– 31 March 1776) was a Britishmathematical instrument maker with an interest in astronomy who was notable for making high qualitymural quadrants, octants, andsextants.Nevil Maskelyne used sextants made by Bird that had telescopes specially made byJohn Dollond and his son Peter.[1]
Bird was born inBishop Auckland, County Durham and initially worked as a weaver. He became interested in the marking of divisions on clock dials and began to experiment on it and developed the skills. He became a friend of the mathematicianWilliam Emerson and he was able to recommendJeremiah Dixon as a choice for theWoolwich Academy to send to St. Helena to study the transit of Venus. He came to London in 1740 where he worked forJonathan Sisson (and his son Jeremiah) and laterGeorge Graham.[2] By 1745, he had his own business was at the sign of Sea Quadrant, Court Garden, in the Strand. Bird was commissioned to make a brassquadrant 8feet across for theRoyal Observatory at Greenwich, where it was mounted on 16 February 1750, and where it is still preserved. Soon after, duplicates were ordered for France, Spain and Russia.[3][4] The quadrant was considered to be of great quality as three years later it was off by just 0.5 minutes of the degree despite the temperature effects on metals.[5] In 1764 Bliss and Bird made measurements of the diameter of the moon using a 2-foot reflecting telescope.[6] Thomas Hornsby hired Bird to make instruments for theRadcliffe Observatory, Oxford, and his Equatorial Sector is one of the few that still exists.[7] Along with CaptainJohn Campbell, he designed portable sextants for use at sea.[8]
Bird supplied the astronomerJames Bradley with further instruments of such quality that the commissioners of longitude paid him£500 (a huge sum) on condition that he take on an apprentice for 7 years and produce in writing upon oath, a full account of his working methods. This was the origin of Bird's two treatisesThe Method of Dividing Mathematical Instruments (1767) andThe Method of Constructing Mural Quadrants (1768). Both had a foreword from the astronomer-royalNevil Maskelyne.[6] When the Houses of Parliamentburned down in 1834, the standardyards of 1758 and 1760, both constructed by Bird, were destroyed.[9][10]
Bird, with his fellowCounty Durham savantWilliam Emerson, makes an appearance inMason & Dixon, the acclaimed novel byThomas Pynchon.
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