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Jesse Ramsden
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Sextant, brass, by Jesse Ramsden, c. 1770. In the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, Chicago. 37 × 38.5 × 10 cm, with a radius of 31 cm.
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Jesse Ramsden

British tool maker
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Quick Facts
Born:
Oct. 6, 1735, Halifax, Yorkshire, Eng.
Died:
Nov. 5, 1800, Brighton, Sussex
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Jesse Ramsden (born Oct. 6, 1735, Halifax, Yorkshire, Eng.—died Nov. 5, 1800, Brighton, Sussex) was a British pioneer in the design of precision tools.

Sextant, brass, by Jesse Ramsden, c. 1770. In the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, Chicago. 37 × 38.5 × 10 cm, with a radius of 31 cm.
Sextant, brass, by Jesse Ramsden, c. 1770. In the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, Chicago. 37 × 38.5 × 10 cm, with a radius of 31 cm.

Ramsden was apprenticed as a boy to a cloth worker, but in 1758 he apprenticed himself to a mathematical instrument maker. He went into business for himself in London in 1762. He designed dividing engines of great accuracy for both circles and straight lines and produced highly accurate sextants, theodolites, and vertical circles for astronomical observatories. He also built barometers, manometers, assay balances, and other instruments. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1786 and awarded the Copley Medal in 1795.

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