John Flamsteed was born into a wealthy family in Derby England in the year 1646. An especially intelligent child, Flamsteed was also quite sickly, and as a result was unable to attend a University when he came of age, unlike most people of his intelligence. This may have actually worked out for the better for Flamsteed however, as in his free time at home he began focusing on his hobby, astronomy. Soon Flamsteed was submitting his observations of astronomical objects to the Royal Society, possibly the most prestigious organization of scientists in the world at the time. Soon Flamsteed’s work was noticed by Sir Jonas Moore, whose interest in science helped to launch Flamsteed’s career in the Royal Society. In 1675 John Flamsteed was appointed by the King of England to an observatory with a payment of 100 pounds a year to publish as much scientific research on the sky as possible. Flamsteed put and incredible amount of effort into scientific research at the observatory. After only two months of working there, Flamsteed began a three thousand star catalogue of the heavens. This process would become his lifelong achievement, as he focused a majority of his funds and time cataloguing each and every star visible to him. One object of which he identified was Uranus, which he had inaccurately identified as a star. This is the first known recording of the planet Uranus, which is not visible to the naked eye.
Flamsteed’s work at the Royal Society coincided with many other astronomers and their massive discoveries in that field. Newton, Halley, and many other reputable astronomers all happened to work at the same time as Flamsteed, and they all looked over each others work, correcting errors and checking facts. This means that not only were such greats as Newton and Halley were looking over Flamsteed’s work, but Flamsteed was also looking over their published works as they all collaborated (for the most part) for scientific discovery. However, Flamsteed did have some extreme difficulties with his social skills, and ended up making enemies with many members of the Royal Society, especially Halley. In 1712, under a lot of pressure from the Royal Society (Newton was president at the time), Flamsteed refused to publish some of his works that the King had given him the money to research. Newton and Halley took matters into their own hands, and published Flamsteed’s work, without giving him credit. The reason for Flamsteed’s refusal seemed to be his extreme value of accuracy, and he insisted that he be certain of every single calculation he made. The Royal Society, headed by Newton, determined that this would take too long, and made the move to publish it. Flamsteed ended up buying a large quantity of the books, and burnt them in front of the Royal Observatory, to demonstrate his bitterness towards Newton and Halley.
Flamsteed is primarily known for his focus on observational work, as opposed to the theoretical aspect of astronomy pioneered by Kepler and Newton. Flamsteed spent vast quantities of his life creating a record of the stars and the universe, and had the technological breakthrough of the telescope to make the first observation of Uranus and many other stars the previously could not be seen. Flamsteed died in 1719, however his final work was published by his wife in 1725, called Historia Coelestis Britannica. The completed work (unlike the work Newton published) contained a catalogue of nearly three thousand stars, with the most accurate locations of each star than any other previous work. This book would go down as Flamsteed’s greatest achievement, which paved the way for future astronomical discoveries.
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