James Short, F. R. S., and his contribution to the construction of reflecting telescopes

Abstract

JAMES SHORT (1710-1768, F. R. S. 1737), the Scottish telescope-maker who achieved such eminence that he was at one time a favoured candidate for the office o f Astronomer Royal, was born in Edinburgh on 10 June 1710. In the entry of his baptism in the Edinburgh Parish Register the parents are described as ‘William Short, Wright, Burgess and Margaret Grierson, his spouse’. In 1720, James, now an orphan, was sent to Heriot’s Hospital, a school for the education of the sons of burgesses. Two years later, he went to the High School, and in 1726 to the University of Edinburgh. His academic record was so excellent that his friends, and particularly his grandmother, wished him to become a minister of the Church of Scotland, and he attended classes at the Divinity Hall.