View source for Edward Troughton

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2012}}

{{Infobox person
|honorific_suffix={{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS|FRSE}}
|image = Edward Troughton.jpeg
|birth_date=October 1753
|birth_place=[[Corney]]
|death_date=12 June 1835
|awards=[[Copley Medal]]
|occupation=astronomical instrument maker}}

'''Edward Troughton''' (October 1753 – 12 June 1835) was a British instrument maker who was notable for making [[telescope]]s and other astronomical instruments.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Troughton.html|title=Troughton biography|publisher=MacTutor History of Mathematics archive}}</ref>

==Life==
Troughton was born at [[Corney]], [[Cumberland]], the youngest of six children to Francis Troughton, a husbandman on a farm, and his wife, Mary Stable. Originally raised to tend animals, Edward went to London in 1773.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Troughton.html|title=Edward Troughton – Biography}}</ref> He then served an apprenticeship with his uncle, John Troughton (b.c.1716), alongside his elder brother, also John Troughton, and in 1779 he became his{{whose|date=August 2025}} business partner.  Troughton soon established himself as the top maker of [[navigation]]al, [[surveying]] and astronomical instruments in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Skempton|first1=A. W.|last2=Brown|first2=Joyce|date=1973|title=John and Edward Troughton, Mathematical Instrument Makers|jstor=531000|journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London|volume=27|issue=2|pages=233–249|doi=10.1098/rsnr.1973.0018|s2cid=144338746|doi-access=free}}</ref> They were based at 136 [[Fleet Street]] in central London. Their shop was called the "Sign of the [[Orrery]]".

In 1795 Troughton delivered what is now known as the Troughton [[equatorial telescope]] to the [[Armagh Observatory]], a 2-inch aperture [[refractor telescope]] [[Equatorial mount|mounted equatorially]], and its first major instrument since its founding in 1790.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arm.ac.uk/history/troughton/frames.html|title=Armagh Observatory}}</ref> He created the [[Groombridge Transit Circle]] in 1806, which [[Stephen Groombridge]] used to compile his [[star catalogue]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ssplprints.com/image.php?id=106902&idx=7|title=Groombridge Transit Circle, 1820.}}</ref> He did not merely build instruments, but designed and invented new ones.

Troughton was awarded the [[Copley Medal]] of the [[Royal Society]] in 1809. He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in March 1810,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://royalsociety.org/uploadedFiles/Royal_Society_Content/about-us/fellowship/Fellows1660-2007.pdf|title=Lists of Royal Society Fellows 1660-2007|publisher=[[The Royal Society]]|access-date=18 July 2010|location=London}}</ref> a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1817,<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1817&year-max=1817&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-02|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> and a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] in 1822.

In 1826, after John's death and in failing health himself, he took on [[William Simms (instrument maker)|William Simms]] as a partner, and the firm became known as [[Troughton & Simms]].

Troughton was involved in a [[lawsuit]] against Sir [[James South]], who was dissatisfied with the quality of an equatorial mounting that Troughton made for him.  Troughton sued for payment, and with informal legal counsel provided by [[Richard Sheepshanks]], he prevailed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Extras/South-Troughton.html|title=The South-Troughton quarrel|publisher=MacTutor History of Mathematics archive}}</ref>

Troughton was [[color blindness|colour blind]].

He died in London on 12 June 1835<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Troughton.html|title=Edward Troughton – Biography}}</ref> and was buried in [[Kensal Green Cemetery]] in south [[London]].<ref name=Paths>{{cite book|title=Paths of Glory|date=1997|publisher=Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery|page=100}}</ref> He was unmarried and had no children.

{{Gallery
|File:Groombridge transit circle.jpg|Groombridge transit circle
|File:Cercle de Mendoça IMG 8791-black.jpg|[[Josef de Mendoza y Ríos|Mendoza]] [[repeating circle]], made circa 1810 by Edward Troughton, London. On display at the [[Musée national de la Marine]], Paris.
}}

==Legacy==
[[Troughton Rocks]] in [[Antarctica]] are named after Edward Troughton. Troughton Road near to the location of the Charlton Troughton & Simms Mathematical Instrument Works was also named after Edward Troughton.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://consultations.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/UploadedFiles/Local%20Heritage%20List%20-%20Public%20Nominations%20updated.pdf |title=Royal Greenwich Local Heritage List – Community Group/Individual nomination submissions |date=28 September 2018 |website=Royal Borough of Greenwich |access-date=13 February 2022 |archive-date=13 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220213093916/https://consultations.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/UploadedFiles/Local%20Heritage%20List%20-%20Public%20Nominations%20updated.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of astronomical instrument makers]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Edward Troughton}}
{{Wikisource1911Enc|Troughton, Edward}}
* {{MacTutor Biography|id=Troughton}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060824020414/http://star.arm.ac.uk/history/troughton/frames.html Equatorial Telescope by Troughton]
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0003//0000149.000.html MNRAS '''3''' (1836) 149]

{{Copley Medallists 1801-1850}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Troughton, Edward}}
[[Category:People associated with astronomy]]
[[Category:1753 births]]
[[Category:1835 deaths]]
[[Category:British scientific instrument makers]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal]]
[[Category:People from Cumberland]]
[[Category:18th-century English people]]
[[Category:19th-century English people]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery]]
[[Category:International members of the American Philosophical Society]]