Mathematical instrument maker, notable for inventing the sextant. He came to London in 1740 where he worked for Jonathan Sisson and George Graham. By 1745, he had his own business in the Strand. Bird was commissioned to make a brass quadrant 8 feet across for the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, where it was mounted on 16 February 1750, and where it is still preserved. Soon after, duplicates were ordered for France, Spain and Russia.
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John Bird
Born as Margaret Macdonald Troup on 26 September 1913 in Pretoria, South Africa, she was the second of the three daughters of Dr James Macdonald Troup (1867-1945) and Alberta Beatrice Caroline Trou...
Person, Craft / Design, Education, Friend / family, South Africa
Watchmaker and inventor. Probably born in Bodmin, Cornwall (his birth year is approximate). After being apprenticed to his clockmaker father, he worked in the Netherlands. He was the first to desig...
In 1985 working with the London Pottery (96 Kingston Road, London Pottery, SW19). And in 2022: MD at The London Pottery Co Ltd, MD at The London Design Studio Co Ltd, (now at the Kingston Road addr...
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