Richard De Grijs
Biographic Data
| ID | 8957606 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richard De Grijs |
| GIVEN NAMES | Richard |
| FAMILY NAME | De Grijs |
| SIGNATURE | DE GRIJS R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Macquarie University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7203-5996 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
All roads lead to (New) Rome
During the first few centuries CE, the centre of the known world gradually shifted from Alexandria to Constantinople. Combined with a societal shift from pagan beliefs to Christian doctrines, Antiquity gave way to the Byzantine era. While Western Europe entered an extended period of intellectual decline, Constantinople developed into a rich cultural crossroads between East and West. Yet, Byzantine scholarship in astronomy and geography continued …
The Cosmology of David Bohm
We discuss David Bohm’s dual contributions as a physicist and thinker. First, de Grijs introduces Bohm’s universe, with an emphasis on the physical quest that led Bohm to the elaboration of an original cosmology at the nexus of science and philosophy. Next, Costache takes his cue from de Grijs’ explorations by highlighting the affinity between Bohm’s scientific cosmology and patristic ideas that are central to the Orthodox worldview. It is our ho…
William Dawes
William Dawes
Frustrations and Friction
Early Star Charts of the Dutch East India Company
Astronomical Tent Observatories
Between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, long-haul oceanic voyages of exploration and discovery routinely carried astronomical tent observatories to support land-based longitude determinations using heavy and cumbersome astronomical regulators and transit telescopes. Following James Cook’s deployment of a pilot tent observatory on his first voyage to the Pacific in 1768–1771, the tent design was altered by William Bayly for more c…
The Unexpected Appearance of Dawes' Observatory on the '1808 Sydney Cove Map'
In commemoration of Australia's 1988 Bicentenary celebrations, a public artwork in the form of a large 'terrazzo' and brass map was realised on the site of Sydney's earliest British settlement. The 3.6 metre-diameter map was intended to show the topography of Sydney Cove as of 1808. Surprisingly, the map includes a cluster of buildings that are clearly identifiable as Dawes' Observatory, established by Lieutenant William Dawes in 1788. However, D…
Historical Chinese Efforts to Determine Longitude at Sea
High-level Chinese cartographic developments predate European innovations by several centuries. Whereas European cartographic progress—and in particular the search for a practical solution to the perennial 'longitude problem' at sea—was driven by persistent economic motivations, Chinese mapmaking efforts responded predominantly to administrative, cadastral and topographic needs. Nevertheless, contemporary Chinese scholars and navigators, to some …
Gravitational Conundrum
Voyages of exploration often included astronomers among their crew to aid with maritime navigation. William Dawes, a British Marine who had been trained in practical astronomy, was assigned to the 'First Fleet’, a convoy of eleven ships that left England in May 1787 bound for Botany Bay (Sydney, Australia). Dawes was also expected to take measurements of the local gravitational acceleration, g, at any port of call by measuring the daily rate by w…
European Longitude Prizes. 4
Although governments across Europe had realised the need to incentivise the development of practically viable longitude solutions as early as the late-sixteenth century, the English Government was late to the party. A sense of urgency among the scientific community and maritime navigators led to the establishment of a number of longitude awards by private donors. The first private British award was bequeathed in 1691 by Thomas Axe, parish clerk o…
Sydney's Scientific Beginnings
The voyage of the 'First Fleet' from Britain to the new colony of New South Wales was not only a military enterprise, it also had a distinct scientific purpose. Britain's fifth Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, had selected William Dawes, a promising young Marine with a propensity for astronomical observations, as his protégé. Maskelyne convinced the British Board of Longitude to supply Dawes with a suite of state-of-the-art instruments and allo…
European Longitude Prizes. 2
The late-sixteenth century witnessed a major expansion of Dutch shipping activity from northern European waters to the Indian Ocean and beyond. At a time when the Renaissance had just arrived on the North Sea's shores, scientist-scholars, navigators and merchants alike realised the urgent need for and potential profitability of developing a practical means of longitude determination at sea. Under pressure of early adopters, including Petrus Planc…
A (Not So) Brief History of Lunar Distances
Longitude determination at sea gained increasing commercial importance in the late Middle Ages, spawned by a commensurate increase in long-distance merchant shipping activity. Prior to the successful development of an accurate marine timepiece in the late-eighteenth century, marine navigators relied predominantly on the Moon for their time and longitude determinations. Lunar eclipses had been used for relative position determinations since Antiqu…
Sustained Cartographic Innovations in Nascent French Canada
Jean Deshayes, a teacher of mathematics in his native France, single-handedly put Québec on the map, literally. An accomplished astronomer, he used the lunar eclipse of 10-11 December 1685 to determine the settlement's longitude to unprecedented (although most likely fortuitously high) accuracy for the times. Deshayes contributed invaluable practical insights to the most important contemporary scientific debate—the discussion regarding the shape …
Alexander Bruce, Scotland's Accidental 'Scientific Revolutionary'
The mid-seventeenth century saw unprecedented scientific progress. With the Middle Ages well and truly over, the Scientific Revolution had begun. However, scientific advancement does not always proceed along well-planned trajectories. Chance encounters and sheer luck have important roles to play, although more so in the seventeenth century than today. In this context, the Scottish businessman and erstwhile royalist exile, Alexander Bruce, found h…
European Longitude Prizes. I
Following Columbus' voyages to the Americas, Castilian (Spanish) and Portuguese rulers engaged in heated geopolitical competition, which was eventually reconciled through a number of treaties that divided the world into two unequal hemispheres. However, the early-sixteenth-century papal demarcation line was poorly defined. Expressed in degrees with respect to a vague reference location, determination of longitude at sea became crucial in the nati…
No prominent works on this page.
A (Not So) Brief History of Lunar Distances
Longitude determination at sea gained increasing commercial importance in the late Middle Ages, spawned by a commensurate increase in long-distance merchant shipping activity. Prior to the successful development of an accurate marine timepiece in the late-eighteenth century, marine navigators relied predominantly on the Moon for their time and longitude determinations. Lunar eclipses had been used for relative position determinations since Antiqu…
Sustained Cartographic Innovations in Nascent French Canada
Jean Deshayes, a teacher of mathematics in his native France, single-handedly put Québec on the map, literally. An accomplished astronomer, he used the lunar eclipse of 10-11 December 1685 to determine the settlement's longitude to unprecedented (although most likely fortuitously high) accuracy for the times. Deshayes contributed invaluable practical insights to the most important contemporary scientific debate—the discussion regarding the shape …
Alexander Bruce, Scotland's Accidental 'Scientific Revolutionary'
The mid-seventeenth century saw unprecedented scientific progress. With the Middle Ages well and truly over, the Scientific Revolution had begun. However, scientific advancement does not always proceed along well-planned trajectories. Chance encounters and sheer luck have important roles to play, although more so in the seventeenth century than today. In this context, the Scottish businessman and erstwhile royalist exile, Alexander Bruce, found h…
European Longitude Prizes. I
Following Columbus' voyages to the Americas, Castilian (Spanish) and Portuguese rulers engaged in heated geopolitical competition, which was eventually reconciled through a number of treaties that divided the world into two unequal hemispheres. However, the early-sixteenth-century papal demarcation line was poorly defined. Expressed in degrees with respect to a vague reference location, determination of longitude at sea became crucial in the nati…
European Longitude Prizes. 4
Although governments across Europe had realised the need to incentivise the development of practically viable longitude solutions as early as the late-sixteenth century, the English Government was late to the party. A sense of urgency among the scientific community and maritime navigators led to the establishment of a number of longitude awards by private donors. The first private British award was bequeathed in 1691 by Thomas Axe, parish clerk o…
Sydney's Scientific Beginnings
The voyage of the 'First Fleet' from Britain to the new colony of New South Wales was not only a military enterprise, it also had a distinct scientific purpose. Britain's fifth Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, had selected William Dawes, a promising young Marine with a propensity for astronomical observations, as his protégé. Maskelyne convinced the British Board of Longitude to supply Dawes with a suite of state-of-the-art instruments and allo…
European Longitude Prizes. 2
The late-sixteenth century witnessed a major expansion of Dutch shipping activity from northern European waters to the Indian Ocean and beyond. At a time when the Renaissance had just arrived on the North Sea's shores, scientist-scholars, navigators and merchants alike realised the urgent need for and potential profitability of developing a practical means of longitude determination at sea. Under pressure of early adopters, including Petrus Planc…
The Unexpected Appearance of Dawes' Observatory on the '1808 Sydney Cove Map'
In commemoration of Australia's 1988 Bicentenary celebrations, a public artwork in the form of a large 'terrazzo' and brass map was realised on the site of Sydney's earliest British settlement. The 3.6 metre-diameter map was intended to show the topography of Sydney Cove as of 1808. Surprisingly, the map includes a cluster of buildings that are clearly identifiable as Dawes' Observatory, established by Lieutenant William Dawes in 1788. However, D…
Historical Chinese Efforts to Determine Longitude at Sea
High-level Chinese cartographic developments predate European innovations by several centuries. Whereas European cartographic progress—and in particular the search for a practical solution to the perennial 'longitude problem' at sea—was driven by persistent economic motivations, Chinese mapmaking efforts responded predominantly to administrative, cadastral and topographic needs. Nevertheless, contemporary Chinese scholars and navigators, to some …
Gravitational Conundrum
Voyages of exploration often included astronomers among their crew to aid with maritime navigation. William Dawes, a British Marine who had been trained in practical astronomy, was assigned to the 'First Fleet’, a convoy of eleven ships that left England in May 1787 bound for Botany Bay (Sydney, Australia). Dawes was also expected to take measurements of the local gravitational acceleration, g, at any port of call by measuring the daily rate by w…
William Dawes
William Dawes
Frustrations and Friction
Early Star Charts of the Dutch East India Company
Astronomical Tent Observatories
Between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, long-haul oceanic voyages of exploration and discovery routinely carried astronomical tent observatories to support land-based longitude determinations using heavy and cumbersome astronomical regulators and transit telescopes. Following James Cook’s deployment of a pilot tent observatory on his first voyage to the Pacific in 1768–1771, the tent design was altered by William Bayly for more c…
All roads lead to (New) Rome
During the first few centuries CE, the centre of the known world gradually shifted from Alexandria to Constantinople. Combined with a societal shift from pagan beliefs to Christian doctrines, Antiquity gave way to the Byzantine era. While Western Europe entered an extended period of intellectual decline, Constantinople developed into a rich cultural crossroads between East and West. Yet, Byzantine scholarship in astronomy and geography continued …
The Cosmology of David Bohm
We discuss David Bohm’s dual contributions as a physicist and thinker. First, de Grijs introduces Bohm’s universe, with an emphasis on the physical quest that led Bohm to the elaboration of an original cosmology at the nexus of science and philosophy. Next, Costache takes his cue from de Grijs’ explorations by highlighting the affinity between Bohm’s scientific cosmology and patristic ideas that are central to the Orthodox worldview. It is our ho…
History (13 works) · Geography (10 works) · Physics (9 works) · Astronomy (8 works) · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies (7 works) · Geodesy (6 works) · Longitude (6 works) · Archaeology (5 works) · Australian Indigenous Culture and History (5 works) · Historical Geography and Cartography (5 works)