Monthly Archives: April 2016

Thinking Things v. Making Things

Posted on April 30, 2016 by karenrann

Thomas Bewick: “…various jobs… fell exclusively to my lot to execute… [including] the Mathematical Figures for Charles Hutton. This frequently drew him into the Room, in which I worked, to inspect what I was doing – he was always very … Continue reading →

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Levelling

Posted on April 26, 2016 by karenrann

“The bottles are partially filled with coloured water through a small opening at the top of the tube frame; a cap fits over the opening. The bottles are connected above and below with hollow tubes.” Before me is a ‘recipe’ … Continue reading →

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Chas. Hutton – The Man

Posted on April 22, 2016 by karenrann

Charles Hutton was born in Newcastle in 1737; I wonder what he himself would have cited as his greatest achievement? He had much to be proud of: good at maths, his first teaching post was in Jesmond, for how many … Continue reading →

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Altitude

Posted on April 19, 2016 by karenrann

A moment of idle curiosity led to downloading a phone app for altitudes. It uses two systems: GPS and ASTER (a digital elevation model) and now, as I write, note I am sitting at either 402 or 396 feet above … Continue reading →

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Gaining Perspective

Posted on April 15, 2016 by karenrann

I stare at the YHA building undecided, memory has tricked me; I thought the start of the path up was to the right of the building, now I see it was always to the left. I remember that it was … Continue reading →

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Place Names

Posted on April 12, 2016 by karenrann

It’s Charles Hutton I imagine scrabbling over Schiehallion with, although highly unlikely that he ever visited; his traversing occurred on paper. I should rather think of Charles Mason who made the initial survey on its suitability for the experiment, or … Continue reading →

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Great Lines (triangles, skeletons & spots)

Posted on April 5, 2016 by karenrann

My original sources of enlightenment regarding Charles Hutton’s invention of contour lines were firstly Countryfile on TV (watched with my mum), second Wikipedia, third Edwin Danson’s book ‘Weighing the World’.  Hutton was a computing wizard (long a verb before a … Continue reading →

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What does water look like?

Posted on April 1, 2016 by karenrann

I’ve chosen the right-hand side of the train for potential glimpses of the Merwede River, Gorinchem is the end station but they seem never to mention it. There are regular announcements for ‘Horkem’ though, which I can’t find on the … Continue reading →

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