Matthew Raper facts for kids
Matthew Raper (1705–1778) was a very smart British person who studied many different things. He was an astronomer, which means he studied stars and planets. He was also a mathematician, good with numbers and shapes. Besides that, he was a scholar who learned about many other subjects.
Who Was Matthew Raper?
Matthew Raper was born in 1705 and lived until 1778. He was known for his wide range of interests. He wrote many papers about different topics. For example, he studied old coins from ancient Greece and ancient Rome. He also looked into how people measured things in those ancient times. He learned all this by reading old Greek and Latin books.
His Important Work and Awards
Raper became a member of the Royal Society on May 30, 1754. The Royal Society is a very old and famous group of scientists in Britain. Being chosen to join was a big honor.
In 1771, he won a special award called the Copley Medal. This medal is one of the oldest and most important science awards in the world. He received it for a paper he wrote. This paper was called "Inquiry into the Value of the ancient Greek and Roman Money." It showed how much ancient coins were worth.
Matthew Raper also translated books from other languages. He translated a book called Dissertation on the Gipseys from German. The original book was written by Heinrich Grellman.
He wrote other interesting papers too. One was called "An Enquiry into the Measure of the Roman Foot" (1760). This paper looked at how long a "foot" was in ancient Roman times. He also wrote about space! He published "Observations on the Moon's Eclipse, March 17., and the Sun's Eclipse, April 1, 1764." This paper shared what he saw during these two eclipses.
His Home and Observatory
Matthew Raper's father was also named Matthew. When his father passed away in 1748, Matthew Raper inherited a large estate. This estate was called the Manor of Thorley, Hertfordshire. It was a big house and land in a place called Thorley.
Matthew Raper was so interested in astronomy that he had his own observatory. This was a special room or building with a telescope. His observatory was built right on the roof of his manor house! This allowed him to easily look at the stars and planets from his home.
When Matthew Raper died in 1778, the ownership of the manor house and land went to his brother, John Raper.
