Towneley, Richard

1. Dates

Born: Towneley Hall, near Burnley, Lancashire, 1629

Died: York, 22 Jan. 1707

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 78

2. Father

Occupation: Gentry

Charles Towneley, of a celebrated Catholic family.

Obviously wealthy.

3. Nationality

Birth: English

Career: English

Death: English

4. Education

Schooling: Unknown

Probably at one of the English colleges in the Low countries. His younger brothers both studied at Douai. I assume a B.A.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic

The family was one of those which stoutly refused to conform to the established Protestant church.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Natural Philosophy, Physics, Astronomy

Subordinate: Meteorology, Instrumentation

In addition to his general interest in Cartesian philosophy, of which he was a thoroughgoing follower, his role in Boyle's law (an investigation carried out with Henry Power), and his astronomical observations, Towneley carried out extended meteorological measurements and improved the micrometer (for use in astronomical observations). He introduced Flamsteed to the micrometer. As an astronomer he perpetuated the tradition of observation established in that region earlier by Horrocks, Crabtree, and Gascoigne. He also investigated capillary phenomena and the use of the barometer to measure altitudes.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Per Inherited Wealth--The Family Estate.

8. Patronage

Type: None

He was himself a patron. As a Catholic he was excluded from any public preferment, and he had no need of other patronage.

9. Technological Involvement

Types: Instruments, Mechanical Devices

Towneley constructed a carriage that passed smoothly over rough roads.

He improved on Gascoigne's crude micrometer.

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Informal connections: Influenced and encouraged by his uncle, Christopher Towneley, and like his uncle earlier, he gathered a circle around him which included Henry Power and his brothers. Close friendship with René Francoise Sluse. He corresponded with the Royal Society, and with Boyle and Flamsteed.

The Towneley scientific group.

Sources

1. Not in DNB.
2. A. Wolf, History of Science and Technology in the 16th and 17th centuries, (London, 1935).
3. C. Webster:"Richard Towneley and Boyle's Law," Nature, 197 (1963), 226-8.
4. C. Webster, "Henry Power's Experimental philosophy," Ambix, 14 (1967), 150-78, esp. 158.
5. C. Webster, "Richard Towneley, the Towneley Group, and Seventeenth Century Science," Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 118 (1966), 51-76. This is easily the best source that I found.
6. C. Webster, "The Discovery of Boyle's Law, and the Concept of the Elasticity of Air in the Seventeenth Century," Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 2 (1965), 441-502.
7. Robert McKeon, "Les débuts de l'astronomie de precision," Physis, 13 (1971), 225-88; 14 (1972), 221-42; especially 13, 256-69.

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

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