Introduction To Flamsteed
Some of this material came to the notice of John Flamsteed (who was related to some Kent friends of Gray) the first English Astronomer Royal, who was building the new observatory at Greenwich. Flamsteed was attempting to construct a detailed and accurate star-map of the heavens, in the hope that this would eventually solve the problem of longitude determination for ocean navigators. Gray helped him with many of the observations and calculations (possibly without being paid).
Gray and Flamsteed became constant correspondents and friends, and this seems to have created problems for Gray in being accepted formally into the world of science. Flamsteed was involved in a prolonged dispute (more like a 'heated battle') with Sir Isaac Newton over access to preliminary star-chart data. This boiled over and became a factional war in the Royal Society, which Newton dominated (virtually excluding Flamsteed and his associates) for decades.
Gray worked for a while on the second English observatory being built at Cambridge, but it was badly managed by Newton's friend and associate Roger Cotes, and finally the project collapsed leaving Gray with little option but to return to his dyeing trade in Canterbury. However his health was a problem, and before long he was in London assisting Dr John Desaguliers, one of the Royal Society' demonstrators, who gave lectures around the country (and on the Continent) about new scientific discoveries. Gray was probably not paid, but provided with accommodation only.
Poverty intervened for Gray. In 1720, through the efforts of John Flamsteed and Sir Hans Sloane (later President of the Royal Society) he managed to obtain a pensioned position at the Charterhouse in London (a home for destitute gentlemen who had served their country). During this time he began experimenting again with static electricity, using a glass-tube as a friction generator. Gray was admitted to the Charterhouse as a pensioner in 1720.
Read more about this topic: Stephen Gray (scientist)
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