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"A repeater by Graham whicli the hour reveals, 

 Almost over-balanced with knick-knacks and seals." 



It was not in horology only that Graham was pre-eminent, 

 but as a maker of astronomical instruments, especially of those 

 where accurate graduation is essential, he had no rival in his day. 

 Mr. Sheepshanks in the "Penny Cyclopaedia," says : — "The art of 

 dividing assumed a new form under the celebrated Graham, the 

 father of all good clock, watch, and instrument making in this 

 country, and the worthy associate of Bradley." He constructed a 

 large iron quadrant for the Greenwich Observatory, which remained 

 in constant use until the year 1811, when it was superseded by a 

 six foot mural circle made by Troughton, who, singularly enough, 

 was also a Cumberland man, and, like Graham, the foremost 

 instrument maker of his day. It is still carefully preserved, and 

 Sir George Airy informs me that in 1829, when he made a tour 

 among the European Observatories, he was struck with seeing how 

 many quadrants were still retained as instruments of the highest 

 class, which were copies of the Greenwich quadrant. He also 

 made an instrument called a Zenith Sector, which, in the hands of 

 Bradley, who became Astronomer-Royal on the death of JIalley 

 in 1742, led to the two memorable discoveries of the aberration of 

 light, and the nutation of the earth's axis. But not only did he 

 devise and make the instruments with which these discoveries were 

 made, he was largely engaged with Bradley in making the actual 

 observations which resulted in those discoveries. It is worthy of 

 remark that these observations were undertaken for the purpose of 

 endeavouring to find the parallax of the fixed stars ; but the results 

 which flowed from them were hardly less important. In short, it 

 is not too much to say that Graham himself, besides furnishing the 

 instrumental means, contributed largely by his personal labours as 

 an observer, to the store of facts which led to the discoveries with 

 which Bradley's name will be for ever associated. Bradley himself 

 says, in a communication to the Royal Society : — " A mind intent 

 upon the pursuit of any kind of knowledge, will always be agreeably 

 entertained with what can supply the most proper means of attaining 

 it. Such to the practical astronomer are exact and well contrived 



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