Roger Long (1680 – 16 December 1770) was an English astronomer, and Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge between 1733 and 1770.
Roger Long | |
---|---|
Born | 1680 |
Died | 16 December 1770 | (aged 90)
Alma mater | University of Cambridge (DD) |
Roger Long was the son of Thomas Long of Croxton, Norfolk. He was educated at Norwich School and later admitted to Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1696 or 1697.[1][2] Graduating with a BA in 1700 or 1701, he became a fellow of Pembroke. He was ordained in 1716, and became Rector of Orton Waterville. He became a Doctor of Divinity in 1728, and Master of Pembroke in 1733. From 1750 until 1770, he was the first holder of the Lowndean Professorship of Astronomy.[2]
One of the great characters of eighteenth-century Cambridge, he built a "water-work" in his garden and paddled round it on a water-cycle. He also constructed a "zodiack", now considered to be the first planetarium, a hollow sphere that could hold thirty people showing the movements of the planets and constellations which remained in the grounds of Pembroke until 1871.
References edit
- ^ Liba Taub, ‘Long, Roger (1680–1770)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 2 Oct 2013
- ^ a b "Long, Roger (LN696R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.