Thomas Godfrey (inventor)

Thomas Godfrey was a glazier and self-taught mathematician and astronomer in the Pennsylvania Colony, born on 10 January 1704 on the family farm in Bristol Township, Philadelphia County, and dead in December 1749. In 1730 he invented the octant; a similar instrument was independently invented at about the same time by John Hadley in London, and Hadley received the greater share of the credit for its development. Godfrey published almanacs and contributed essays on mathematics, astronomy and general topics to the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal. He assisted the Welsh surveyor Lewis Evans in astronomical observations to correct the longitude of Philadelphia on the maps Evans published. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and a founding member of the Junto club, the precursor of the American Philosophical Society, served as a director of the Library Company of Philadelphia and was a member of the Society with the title mathematician.