Abstract
THE bicentenary of the birth of John Maurice, Count of Briihl, recalls an interesting figure in the history of science in Great Britain in the eighteenth century. Born at Wiederau in Saxony on December 20, 1736, he studied at Leipzig, and at the age of nineteen years entered the Saxon diplomatic service and was sent to Paris. In 1759 he was transferred to Warsaw, and five years later, when but twenty-eight years of age, was appointed ambassador extraordinary to the Court of St. James. From the time of taking up his appointment in 1764, save for one journey abroad in 1785, he continued to live in England for the remainder of his life, and died at his house in Old Burlington Street, W.I, on June 9, 1809. He was devoted to astronomy, and effectively promoted its interests. Through his influence, von Zach, who was a tutor in his family in 1783, became an astronomer and assisted Briihl in determining the latitude and longitude of Brussels, Frankfort, Dresden and Paris. He patronized the chronometer makers Mudge and Emery, wrote on time-keepers, was intimate with Herschel and delighted in transmitting abroad the discoveries made by him and others through the medium of Bode's “Jahrbuch”. ‘ At his villa at Harefield about 1787, he built a small observatory, and a few years later equipped it with one of the first astronomical circles constructed by Ramsden.
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John Maurice, Count of Brühl (1736–1809). Nature 138, 1045 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/1381045a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1381045a0