Part 27

Mr. Rittenhouse continued a bachelor until the 20th of February, 1766, when he married Eleanor Colston, daughter of Bernard Colston, a reputable farmer in the neighbourhood. This person belonged to the religious society called Quakers; Mr. Rittenhouse was not himself a member of any particular church: but the marriage was solemnized at Norriton, by the Rev. Mr. Barton, who went thither for the purpose at his brother-in-law’s request.

Some time prior to this event, old Mr. Rittenhouse, having previously made his son David the proprietor of the Norriton farm, removed with his family to the house he had built on his place in Worcester township, already mentioned; while the son’s family occupied the old place of residence: and here our Astronomer remained about four years after his marriage. It was during this period, that his reputation as an astronomer became eminently conspicuous; his name acquired a celebrity even in the old world, of which his early but now much increased fame, in his native country, was a sure presage.

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Footnote 103:

This was about the year 1764.

Footnote 104:

In the earlier part of this interval of time, and before he became more seriously engaged in those great works and researches, the construction of his Orrery, and the Observation of the Transit of Venus with the operations preparatory to it, which about that time engrossed his attention, he occasionally amused himself with matters rather speculative than practical: though he very seldom devoted any considerable portion of his time to things which he did not consider as being in some degree useful.

The following is one of those instances in which his active mind was diverted from severer studies, to some objects of a more playful nature.

In the year 1767, some ingenious country-gentleman published in Messrs. Hall and Sellers’s paper, under the signature of T.T. the result of calculations he had made on Archimedes’s famous vaunting assertion, Δος που στω, και την γην κινησω. Mr. Rittenhouse published, some short time after, calculations (or rather the result of calculations) of his own, on the same problem. This appeared in a piece under the signature of “A Mechanic,” dated the 8th of October, 1767: and a reply to it, by T. T. dated October the 29th, appeared in the same paper. These little speculations will be found in the Appendix. It is not improbable that Mr. Rittenhouse, under the disguise of “A Mechanic,” appeared in print on this occasion, for the purpose of drawing the attention of ingenious men to subjects of this nature.

Footnote 105:

It was between the years 1766 and 1770—the interval of time above mentioned,—that the two important circumstances occurred, which gave great celebrity to the reputation of Mr. Rittenhouse, as an astronomer: these were the Construction of the Orrery invented by him, and the admirable result of his observations of the Transit of Venus, as published in the Philosophical Society’s Transactions.

Amidst those objects of importance in which he was principally occupied, he occasionally amused himself with matters of minor consequence. Among other things, he contrived and made, in the beginning of the year 1767, an ingeniously contrived thermometer, constructed on the principle of the expansion and contraction of metals, by heat and cold, respectively. This instrument had, under glass, a face upon which was a graduated semi-circle: the degrees of heat and cold corresponded with those of Fahrenheit’s thermometer; and these were also correspondently designated, by an index, moving on the centre of the arch. Its square (or rather parallelogramical) form, its flatness and thinness, and its small size—together with its not being liable to the least sensible injury or irregularity, from any position in which it might be placed,—rendered it safely portable; insomuch, that it could be conveniently carried in the pocket.

He presented one of these metaline Thermometers to Dr. Peters, in June 1767: Another, which he made for himself, was a considerable time in the hands of Mr. Barton, at Lancaster. They were found to agree very well with Fahrenheit’s. In a letter to Mr. Barton, dated the 26th of July 1769, he said—“You will oblige me by sending the metaline thermometer by..., and let me know the greatest height you have seen it, this season, Fahrenheit’s thermometer, in my Observatory, not exposed to the sunshine but very open to the air, was 94½° on the 5th of this month, at 3 in the afternoon; which is the highest I have ever seen it.”

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About the time that he projected his Orrery (which shall be duly noticed in its place), it appears he had been speculating on the doctrine of the compressibility of water. For in a letter to Mr. Barton, dated from Philadelphia the 27th of March, 1767, he mentions,—that he had not then met with any person, who had seen Mr. Kinnersley’s experiment on that theory; but that he understood it was made with the air-pump, and conjectured it to have been similar to the one made by a member of the Royal Society, related in Martin’s Magazine: which is thus quoted in Mr. Rittenhouse’s letter:

“I took a glass ball of about an inch and 6/10 in diameter, which was joined to a cylindrical tube of 4 inches and 2/10 in length, and in diameter 1/100 of an inch; and by weighing the quantity of mercury that exactly filled the ball, and also the quantity that filled the tube, I found that the mercury in 23/100 of an inch of the tube was the 10000th part of that contained in the ball; and with the edge of a file, I divided the tube accordingly. This having been done, I filled the ball and part of the tube with water exhausted of air: Now, by placing this ball and tube under the receiver of an air-pump, I could see the degree of expansion of the water, answering to any degree of rarefaction of the air; and by putting it into a glass receiver of a condensing engine, I could see the degree of compression of the water, answering to any degree of condensation of the air, &c.”—Then adds. Mr. Rittenhouse—“Indeed I do not doubt the compressibility of water, although the above experiment does not much please me. If the particles of water were in actual contact, it would be difficult to conceive how any body could much exceed it in specific gravity; yet we find that gold does, more than eighteen times.”

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Footnote 106:

The Rev. Ebenezer Kinnersley, A. M. Professor of English and Oratory in the college of Philadelphia. This venerable and worthy man, who was a clergyman of the Baptist church, was a very eminent Electrician. In this branch of philosophy, he was an able lecturer and ingenious experimentalist: and perhaps to no person—at least in America,—were his cotemporaries more indebted, than to him, for the light which he shed, at a very early day, on this interesting and pleasing science.

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The first academic honour conferred upon our philosopher, was on the 17th of November, 1767; when the College of Philadelphia, then in its meridian splendour, bestowed on him an honorary degree of Master of Arts. Mr. Rittenhouse being present at the commencement then held, the provost, in conferring this degree, thus addressed him,—in terms of a just and well merited compliment:

“Sir,—The trustees of this College (the faculty of professors cheerfully concurring), being ever desirous to distinguish real merit, especially in the natives of this province,—and well-assured of the extraordinary progress and improvement which you have made, by a felicity of natural genius, in mechanics, mathematics, astronomy, and other liberal arts and sciences, all which you have adorned by singular modesty and irreproachable morals,—have authorized and required me to admit you to the honorary degree of Master of Arts, in this seminary: I de therefore, by virtue of this authority, most cheerfully admit, &c.”

Mr. Rittenhouse’s great abilities, as an astronomer and mathematician, being now every where known, he was employed in the year 1769, in settling the limits between the provinces of New-York and New-Jersey. The original grant of all the territory, called by the Dutch New-Netherlands (sometimes Nova-Belgia), was made by King Charles II. to James Duke of York, on the 12th of March, 1663-4; and on the 24th of June following, the Duke granted that part of it, now called New-Jersey, to the Lord Berkeley of Stratton and Sir George Carteret, jointly. The Dutch reduced the country, in the year 1672; but it was restored by the peace of Westminster, February the 9th, 1673-4. On the 29th of June, in the same year, a new patent was issued to the Duke of York, for the lands comprised within the limits described in the former patent. On the 28th of the succeeding July, the colony of New-Jersey was divided into East and West-Jersey (hence, generally called the Jersies); and the former was then granted, by the Duke of York, to Sir George Carteret. In 1675, West-Jersey, being Lord Berkeley’s moiety of the province, was sold to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Bylinge; who assigned his interest therein to William Penn and others, in trust, for the use of his creditors. This partition was confirmed in the year 1719, by the general assembly of the Jersies. But prior to this confirmation, viz. the 10th of October, 1678, a new grant of West-Jersey was made by the Duke of York, to the assigns of Lord Berkeley; and on the 1st of February, 1681-2, East-Jersey was sold and conveyed, in pursuance of Sir George Carteret’s will, to twelve persons; who, by separate deeds, conveyed one-half of their several interests in the same to twelve other persons: and, on the 14th of the next month, the Duke of York made a new grant of East-Jersey to those twenty-four proprietors, thereby confirming the same to them. The proprietors of both the Jersies afterwards became very numerous, by purchase as well as by descent. This being attended with great inconveniencies, they finally surrendered the government to the crown, on the 17th of April, 1702: and from that time, the province of New-Jersey continued to be a royal government, until the American revolution.

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Footnote 107:

According to the American historian, Marshall, Lord Berkeley assigned his interest in the Jersies to Penn and his three associates, in the year 1674; and they, soon perceiving the inconvenience of a joint property, divided the province, in 1676, with Carteret, who still retained his interest: to him they released East-Jersey; and received from him, in return, a conveyance for the western part of the province. The Duke of York resigned the government of East Jersey to the proprietor, retaining that of West-Jersey as an appendage to New-York, until August 1680; when, on a reference to Sir William Jones, the title was decided against the Duke: after which, he formally released all claim upon East-Jersey. Soon after this, Carteret transferred his rights to Penn, and eleven other persons of the same religious persuasion, who immediately conveyed one half of their interest to James Drummond, Earl of Perth, and eleven others; and these, in March 1683, obtained a conveyance from the Duke of York directly to themselves.—During these transactions, continual efforts were made to re-annex the Jerseys to the province of New-York. [See Marshall’s Introduction to the Life of Washington, ch. vi.]

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The division-line, between East and West-Jersey, was to run from the south-east point of Little Egg-Harbour, on Barnegate Creek—being about midway between Cape-May and Sandy-Hook, to a creek, a little below Ancocus-Creek, on the river Delaware; thence, about thirty-five miles in a straight course, along the Delaware, up to 44° 40´ of north latitude.