In Philadelphia, Isaac Briggs—a friend of Thomas Jefferson and fellow member of the American Philosophical Society—meets Meriwether Lewis. Briggs has been working with Jefferson to calculate longitude without the need for a chronometer.
Sextant
© 2010 by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Sharon, 17th. of the 5th. Month 1803
My Dear Friend
I saw Captain M. Lewis, in Philadelphia, on the 10th. & 11th. instants.
Permit me to repeat assurances of my esteem and respect, and that I am Thy friend,
Isaac Briggs[1]Isaac Briggs to Thomas Jefferson, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0290 accessed 12 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, … Continue reading
Isaac Briggs (1763–1825) had recently been appointed Surveyor General of the Mississippi Territory. Just days after Robert Fulton plied his new steamboat on the Hudson, Briggs and William Longstreet powered a five-mile stint on the Savannah River powered by their recently patented steam engine. Throughout his life, he was a devout Quaker and active abolitionist.[2]“Isaac Briggs,” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Briggs accessed 2 June 2022.
Not only had Briggs been working with Jefferson to develop the technology to calculate longitude without the need for a chronometer (see March 1, 1803), he was the secretary of the American Board of Agriculture of which Lewis was also a member (see also March 2, 1803).
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Notes
| ↑1 | Isaac Briggs to Thomas Jefferson, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0290 accessed 12 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 40, 4 March–10 July 1803, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, p. 383.] |
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| ↑2 | “Isaac Briggs,” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Briggs accessed 2 June 2022. |
