Gregory's Pillar

Gregory's Pillar

Mathematics

Around 1670, the Regius Professor of Mathematics at St Andrews, James Gregory, had this pillar erected on a hill about a mile south of the University library. There he had his telescope and a very early example of a pendulum clock. He lined his telescope up with the pillar and in 1674 he cooperated with colleagues in Paris to make simultaneous observations of an eclipse of the moon and was able to work out the longitude for the first time.

For more information, see here.

mathematicalycurious

mm510@st-andrews.ac.uk

Site

327

current,56.31751403955839,-2.7939230203628544;

TEXT

581