Richard Towneley (10 October 1629 – 22 January 1707) was an English mathematician and astronomer from Towneley near Burnley, Lancashire. He was one of a group of seventeenth century astronomers in the north of England, which included Jeremiah Horrocks, William Crabtree and William Gascoigne, the pioneer astronomers who laid the groundwork for research astronomy in the UK. An investigation carried out with the physician Henry Power, followed by correspondence with Robert Boyle, showed the relationship between the pressure and volume of gas in a closed system and led to the formulation of Boyle's Law, or as Boyle named it, Mr. Towneley's hypothesis. He introduced John Flamsteed to the micrometer and invented the movement for the precision clocks in the Greenwich Observatory, called the deadbeat escapement, which is used in all modern pendulum clocks.
Read more about Richard Towneley: Early Life, Boyle's Law, Gascoigne's Micrometer, Flamsteed's Correspondence, Astronomy At Towneley Hall, The Tompion Clocks At Greenwich and The Deadbeat Escapement, Systematic Rainfall Measurement, Other Activities, Later Life and Achievements
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