BABBAGE, Charles (1791-1871) – SHEEPSHANKS, Rev. Richard (1794-1855). A Letter to the Board of

BABBAGE, Charles (1791-1871) – SHEEPSHANKS, Rev. Richard (1794-1855). A Letter to the Board of Visitors of the Greenwich Royal Observatory in reply to the calumnies of Mr. Babbage at their meeting in June 1853 and in his book entitled The Exposition of 1851. London: G. Barclay, 1854. – A Letter to the Board of Visitors of the Greenwich Royal Observatory in reply to the calumnies of Mr. Babbage. London: G. Barclay, 1860. – Correspondence respecting the Liverpool Observatory. London: G. Barclay, 1845. – A Reply to Mr Babbage's Letter to "The Times," "On the planet Neptune and the Royal Astronomical Society's Medal." London: G. Barclay, 1847 – 'A Memoir of the late Rev. Richard Sheepshanks, M.A.' Offprint from: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. XVI, No.4. London: G. Barclay, 1856. Together 5 works in one volume, 8° (210 x 136mm), including the 28pp. supplement to the correspondence respecting the Liverpool Observatory. (Occasional light browning and spotting.) Contemporary morocco, gilt spine, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt (rubbed, front hinge detached and some gatherings starting).

RARE PAMPHLETS ILLUSTRATING 19TH-CENTURY CLASS CONFLICT BETWEEN AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL SCIENTISTS. Sheepshanks was born into a large family of Yorkshire cloth manufacturers. He went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1812, before receiving a large inheritance that allowed him to pursue his vocation in science. In 1829 he was elected secretary of the Astronomical Society, and quickly became embroiled in a feud with its president, James South. South had commissioned a telescope mount from the instrument maker Edward Troughton, but being dissatisfied with it, refused to pay. Troughton, with the strong backing of Sheepshanks, sued, and after four years South was forced to pay. Although Sheepshanks himself was a man of means, he seems to have considered it his duty to attack injustices meted out by fellow wealthy amateurs such as South against professionals like Troughton. Later, South allied himself with Charles Babbage, and sought their revenge by exposing Sheepshanks' evasion of import duty on a French instrument. This triggered the pamphlets in the present lot, 'with which [Sheepshanks] enlivened the scientific scene around the mid-century' (ODNB). ONLY ONE SET OF THESE PAMPHLETS CAN BE TRACED AS SELLING AT AUCTION (Sotheby's 23 March 1971, lot 14).

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