Background
William Gascoigne was born in 1612 in Middleton, Leeds, United Kingdom. He was the eldest son of Henry Gascoigne by his first wife, Margaret Cartwright.
Astronomer mathematician scientist
William Gascoigne was born in 1612 in Middleton, Leeds, United Kingdom. He was the eldest son of Henry Gascoigne by his first wife, Margaret Cartwright.
William was educated at the University of Oxford.
From the time of the appearance of the telescope on the scientific scene in 1610, its utility for purely descriptive purposes was taken for granted. Nearly two generations were to pass, however, before its use was extended into the traditional business of positional astronomy. This great advance depended on three quite distinct developments: the conversion of Galileo’s terrestrial telescope to obtain a real image the introduction of cross hairs into the image, plane to enable accurate pointing of the telescope, and the invention of a micrometer to measure small angular distances within the field of view. The first of these was suggested by Johannes Kepler in 1611 and implemented by Christoph Scheiner shortly thereafter. For practical purposes, the remaining two steps had to await the work of Adrien Auzout and Jean Picard in the late 1660’s: in fact, however, they were both taken by Gascoigne in the late 1630s.
By the beginning of 1641, Gascoigne had not only a fully developed account of the optical ideas involved but also a working model of the instrument and a limited number of satisfactory observational results. Unfortunately, Gascoigne’s work essentially died with him. In 1642, civil war broke out in England, and Gascoigne received a commission as Providore for Yorkshire in the army of King Charles I. He died at the Battle of Marston Moor, Yorkshire, on 2 July 1644.
Gascoigne’s invention was later taken up and improved by the scientist and astronomer Richard Towneley who was the nephew of Gascoigne's friend Christopher Towneley. Towneley later brought the instrument to the attention of Robert Hooke, who used it to calculate the size of comets and other celestial bodies. Many of Gascoigne's papers and correspondence were lost during the English Civil War and later in the Great Fire of London, but most of what is known to remain is kept in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.
