William Bourne (c. 1535–1582) was an
English
English usually refers to:
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Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
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mathematician, innkeeper and former
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
gunner who presented the first design for a navigable
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
and wrote important navigational manuals. He is often called William Bourne of
Gravesend
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...
.
In 1574, he produced a popular version of the
Martín Cortés de Albacar
Martín Cortés de Albacar (1510–1582) was a Spanish cosmographer.p131 Antonio Barrera-Osorio ''Experiencing nature: the Spanish American empire and the early scientific revolution;'' University of Texas Press, 2006 In 1551 he published the st ...
's ''
Arte de Navegar,'' entitled ''A Regiment for the Sea.'' Bourne was critical of some aspects of the original and produced a manual of more practical use to the seaman. He described how to make observations of the sun and stars, using a
cross-staff
The term Jacob's staff is used to refer to several things, also known as cross-staff, a ballastella, a fore-staff, a ballestilla, or a balestilha. In its most basic form, a Jacob's staff is a stick or pole with length markings; most staffs ar ...
, and how to plot coastal features from the ship by taking bearings using triangulation.
[G. L'E. Turner, ‘Bourne, William (c.1535–1582)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. ]
Life in Gravesend
Before publishing his submarine design, William Bourne was a
jurat
The ''jurats'' () are lay people in Guernsey and Jersey who act as judges of fact rather than law, though they preside over land conveyances and liquor licensing. In Alderney, however, the jurats are judges of both fact and law (assisted by thei ...
in Gravesend, England. His name first appears in the first charter of incorporation of Gravesend from June 5, 1562. His name appears once again as a jurat in the second charter of Gravesend, June 5, 1568. During the time of the second charter, the only records of regulations for trading in Gravesend are written in Bourne's handwriting. This would imply that he held an office such as clerk of the market. He also worked as an innkeeper during this time, one of fourteen in the town of Gravesend.
Submarine Design
![William Bourne Inventions or devices 1578](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/William_Bourne_Inventions_or_devices_1578.jpg)
His design, detailed in his book ''Inventions or Devises'' published in 1578, was one of the first recorded plans for an underwater navigation vehicle. He designed an enclosed craft capable of submerging by decreasing the overall volume (rather than flooding chambers as in modern submarines), and being rowed underwater. Bourne described a ship with a wooden frame covered in waterproofed leather, but the description was a general principle rather than a detailed plan. However, the concept of an underwater rowing boat was eventually put into action by the Dutchman
Cornelius Drebbel
Cornelis Jacobszoon Drebbel ( ) (1572 – 7 November 1633) was a Dutch engineer and inventor. He was the builder of the first operational submarine in 1620 and an innovator who contributed to the development of measurement and control systems, op ...
in 1620, and Nathaniel Symons demonstrated a 'sinking boat' in 1729 using the expanding and contracting volume of the boat to submerge.
The submarine was the subject of a modern-day recreation on season 3 of "
The Re-Inventors" TV show, episode "Bourne Submarine". The recreation had limited functionality before it sank when water pressure ruptured some membranes on a test descent.
Inventions or Devises
![First page of William Bourne's](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/First_page_of_William_Bourne%27s_%22Inventions_or_Devises%22.gif)
''Inventions or Devises'', published in 1578, is one of William Bourne's more important works. This book gives many guides and instructional tools for sailors, mostly concerning interactions with other ships. The 21st device listed is the earliest known description of a ship's
log and line, which he attributes to
Humprey Cole, an officer of the
Tower Mint.
[ The 75th device on the list is a description of a night signal or early ]semaphore
Semaphore (; ) is the use of an apparatus to create a visual signal transmitted over distance. A semaphore can be performed with devices including: fire, lights, flags, sunlight, and moving arms. Semaphores can be used for telegraphy when arra ...
system to be used between people on distant ships who had previously decided on a code consisting of a series of lights and fashion of standing.
The 110th entry is what seems to be a type of telescope
A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...
. The device was said to have been employed by mathematician and surveyor Leonard Digges and Bourne was asked to investigate it by Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
's chief advisor Lord Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598) was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from 1 ...
. Bourne's is the best description of it, and from his writing it seemed to consist of peering into a large curved mirror that reflected the image produced by a large lens (Bourne noted in his report that the device worked but had a very narrow field of view, making impractical in military applications).[Patrick Moore, Eyes on the Universe: The Story of the Telescope, Springer Science & Business Media - 2012, page 9] This "backwards" reflecting telescope
A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternati ...
predates the earliest known working telescope by 30 years but its unwieldy nature seems to have kept it from being developed.[Fred Watson, (2007), ]
Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope
', page 40. Allen & Unwin
Partial list of publications
* ''An Almanac and Prognostication for Three Years'', 1571
* ''William Bourns booke of artillery'', 1572 (draft manuscript)
* ''Treasure for Travellers'', 1572/3
* ''Art of Shooting in Great Ordnance'', 1572/3
* ''A Regiment for the Sea
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...
'', 1574 (11 English editions from 1574 to 1631, at least 3 Dutch editions starting in 1594)
* ''A Booke called the Treasure for Traueilers'', 1578 (republished in 1641 as ''A Mate for Mariners'')
* ''Inventions or Devises. Very Necessary for all Generalles and Captaines, as wel by Sea as by Land'', 1578
* ''The Arte of Shooting in Great Ordinance
{{unreferenced, date=April 2022
:''The phrase "Great Ordinance" was also an early term for artillery, more usually spelt "Great Ordnance".''
In French political history, a great ordinance or grand ordinance (French – Grande ordonnance) was an im ...
'', 1578, 1587, 1643
* ''"On Optical Glasses,"'' transcribed manuscript published in Halliwell's ''Rara Mathematica''.
References
External links
Bourne's bibliography, Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford webpages
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourne, William
16th-century English mathematicians
1530s births
1582 deaths
People from Gravesend, Kent