Williams, Zacharaiah ([1668]-1755)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0117 MS/125
Held at	: Royal Society   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://royalsociety.org/collections/ ›
Full title	: Williams, Zacharaiah ([1668]-1755)
Date(s)	: 1753
Level of description	: Sub-fonds
Extent	: Unknown
Name of creator(s)	: Williams | Zachariah [Zachary] | [1668]-1755 | experimental philosopher
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born 1668 or 1673; educated in medicine, and served as a medical practitioner in south Wales; developed a method for ascertaining longitude using a theoretically derived table of the earth's magnetic variation (declination), in which the angle between geographic north and the direction indicated by a compass needle was calculated for different points of the globe; Williams also invented a device for desalinating sea water to make it drinkable; died, 1755.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers relating to the proposal of Zachariah Williams for the revealing a secret of a machine invented by him, to be used at sea for making salt-water fresh and drinkable, together with the inventor's letter to the Lords of the Admiralty on the subject.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Open

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to Archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Source Copied from the Royal Society catalogue by Sarah Drewery.s: Oxford DNB.

Rules or conventions:
General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Feb 2009.