engineering

Jeremiah Sisson

Jeremiah Sisson is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jeremiah Sisson rather than just read about it. In short: Jeremiah Sisson (1720-1783) was an English instrument maker who became one of the leaders of his profession in London. Jeremiah Sisson was the son of Jonathan Sisson, also a respected instrument maker, who trained him in the craft.

Key takeaways

Jeremiah Sisson belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jeremiah Sisson to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jeremiah Sisson from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jeremiah Sisson (1720-1783) was an English instrument maker who became one of the leaders of his profession in London. Jeremiah Sisson was the son of Jonathan Sisson, also a respected instrument maker, who trained him in the craft. Sisson worked at a time when demand from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich and the Ordnance Survey, and assistance from the Royal Society, had brought London instrument makers to a dominant position in supply of the technically demanding work of making instruments for astronomy, survey and navigation. Sisson's father also employed John Bird, another supplier of instruments to the Royal Observatory. Sisson employed Jesse Ramsden in his workshop, later to become a leading instrument maker in his own right. According to Jean Bernoulli, among the London instrument makers in 1769 Sisson ranked after John Bird but ahead of Ramsden in his skill. Jeremiah Sisson supplied sectors and other astronomical instruments to Nevil Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal at the Greenwich Observatory. When Sisson went bankrupt, Maselyne gave him financial support. Sisson was not a good businessman. Lalonde said of him that he began too many projects but completed none. He was declared bankrupt in 1751. He was jailed several times when he failed to pay his employees. He had been forced to pawn some of his instruments to raise cash, and these instruments were later sold by the pawnbroker for much less than they were worth. In 1772 Sisson succeeded George Adams senior as supplier to the Board of Ordnance, but lost this business when he went bankrupt again in 1775. In 1773 Greenwich bought two sectors from Sisson. An equatorial sector made by Sisson in 1774, with two lenses 10 centimetres (3.9 in) across and a long axis aligned to the North celestial pole, was still used in the Brera Astronomical Observatory in Milan (now exhibited at Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci). Giovanni Schiaparelli discovered the asteroid Esperia with this telescope on 26 April 1861. Prince Carl Theodor, Elector Palatine, set up an observatory of the roof of his castle at Schwetzingen in 1764, directed by Christian Mayer (1719-1783). A 12 feet (3.7 m) zenith sector made by Sisson was set up there in 1778. Meyer wanted to buy other instruments in 1782, but Sisson was busy with other work and only agreed to make a 6 feet (1.8 m) transit. On 21 March 1783 Meyer received a contract for the transit, countersigned by Maskelyn and the astronomer Thomas Hornsby of Oxford, to be made and delivered for 145 1⁄2 guineas. Sisson died in 1783.

References Citations

Sources

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jeremiah Sisson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jeremiah Sisson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jeremiah Sisson before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jeremiah Sisson ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jeremiah Sisson

In research: Jeremiah Sisson appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jeremiah Sisson in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jeremiah Sisson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1720 births, 1783 deaths, British scientific instrument makers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jeremiah Sisson outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jeremiah Sisson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jeremiah Sisson means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jeremiah Sisson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jeremiah Sisson in simple terms?

Why does Jeremiah Sisson matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jeremiah Sisson?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jeremiah Sisson.