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Mistress of Science: The Story of the Remarkable Janet Taylor, Pioneer of Sea Navigation
It is hard to imagine a more male-dominated field in the nineteenth century than sea navigation. This was the high-point of the British Empire and sea navigation drove it. Yet in the midst of this domain Janet Taylor emerged as a young woman able to match the best male minds in the field. She was one of the most remarkable scientists of the period, and yet until now her story has not been told. A gifted mathematician, astronomer, author and instrument maker, she also possessed extraordinary skills as a teacher of navigation and businesswoman.The sixth of eight children, Janet Taylor was born in 1804, in Wolsingham, County Durham. By the age of nine her outstanding intellectual abilities were already apparent and she was awarded a special scholarship by Queen Charlotte. She then continued her education in languages, science and mathematics. In so doing, she overcame her humble beginnings and became one of the most prominent figures in the nautical world. The only woman in over 200 years to patent a nautical instrument, her journey led her to extraordinary heights and earned her the respect and admiration of her contemporaries. She excelled and maintained a position of leadership in her chosen profession for over thirty years, as well as raising a family of eight children and three stepchildren. A woman far ahead of her time, this is the story of Janet Taylor’s modest beginning and her incredible rise to prominence.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published August 15, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 1, 2017
It's quite common these days to read clickbait headlines telling us about the 'Most brilliant woman scientist/mathematician you never heard of' - I doubt if I'm alone in saying quite genuinely I had never heard of Janet Taylor, or her work that John and Rosalind Croucher believe made her deserving of that title 'Mistress of Science.' In the preface to the book we are told that 'Janet Taylor, born Jane Ann Ionn, made her mark as a brilliantly gifted scientist of her era,' - but is this hyperbole or reality?
This is far more a conventional biography than a scientific one, so while Taylor's work is certainly mentioned, we don't get a lot of detail about the science or the maths (a bit odd, given one of the Crouchers is a professor of statistics). As a biography, it's readable, if in a fairly old-fashioned style that spends rather more word count than is necessary on the comings and goings of the royals - though to be fair, the Crouchers give us a vivid picture of some aspects of life in London at the time, such as the thriving docks or the replacement of Old London Bridge. That rather dated style comes across, for example, in describing the visits made by Queen Charlotte to Taylor's Bedfordshire school (sponsored by the Queen) we are told that 'The queen's beautiful blue-grey eyes and genuine warmth always put the girls quickly at ease,' a sentence that seems more fitting for a romantic novel than a biography.
There are some biographical aspects of interest - for example around Taylor's meeting her future husband when he helped her pick up her (English) books after she dropped them in the street in Antwerp (they were eventually married in the Hague) and in the odd tangle of their names. Pre-marriage they were Jane Ann Ionn and George Taylor Jane - so potentially she could have ended up as the amusing Jane Jane - but perhaps to spare this, Taylor dropped his surname for his maternal middle name and 'Jane Ann' became Janet.
So, what were Taylor's scientific achievements? She seems to have been the driving force behind setting up a 'navigational academy' with her husband and writing on navigation - not exactly science, but a practical application of mathematics that was well-established, but that Taylor was able to fine tune in some respects. She was gifted and enjoyed mathematics. She was clearly fascinated from an early age by nautical astronomical navigation and seemed to have spent much of her spare time in early adulthood reading about this and performing her own calculations. A driving force in her work seemed to be to make correction for the non-spherical nature of the Earth - though the planet had been known to be an oblate spheroid since Newton's day, it seems the corrections employed weren't accurate enough for Taylor's level of precision.
From the Crouchers' book it seems very likely that Janet Taylor certainly could have been a significant scientist in an age where this was a practical profession for a woman. It's rather harder to pin down any original scientific or mathematical contribution she was able to make. We are often told about her 'calculations' and 'equations' but not given any detail on what she did mathematically, or how original that mathematics was. She devised a fascinating mechanical navigational calculator - a kind of nineteenth century Antikythera mechanism - which seems to have had a lot of potential, but never went into production. (Once again, the Crouchers don't give us enough technical detail be sure what it could have done, though the Admiralty assessment of the time suggests it would have been impractical to use.)
I think it's best to think of Taylor as the navigational equivalent of an engineer. She didn't come up with original maths or science, but was highly successful in her application of existing knowledge. This is not to undermine her achievements - especially given the bias against female participation of the time - but is a far more accurate description than to call her a 'brilliantly gifted scientist.' (Part of the problem is the rather loose use of the term 'science' before the mid-nineteenth century.) Despite the repeated use of the 's' word, this is not in any sense a scientific biography, but interesting nonetheless: it remains well worth reading as a life story.
This is far more a conventional biography than a scientific one, so while Taylor's work is certainly mentioned, we don't get a lot of detail about the science or the maths (a bit odd, given one of the Crouchers is a professor of statistics). As a biography, it's readable, if in a fairly old-fashioned style that spends rather more word count than is necessary on the comings and goings of the royals - though to be fair, the Crouchers give us a vivid picture of some aspects of life in London at the time, such as the thriving docks or the replacement of Old London Bridge. That rather dated style comes across, for example, in describing the visits made by Queen Charlotte to Taylor's Bedfordshire school (sponsored by the Queen) we are told that 'The queen's beautiful blue-grey eyes and genuine warmth always put the girls quickly at ease,' a sentence that seems more fitting for a romantic novel than a biography.
There are some biographical aspects of interest - for example around Taylor's meeting her future husband when he helped her pick up her (English) books after she dropped them in the street in Antwerp (they were eventually married in the Hague) and in the odd tangle of their names. Pre-marriage they were Jane Ann Ionn and George Taylor Jane - so potentially she could have ended up as the amusing Jane Jane - but perhaps to spare this, Taylor dropped his surname for his maternal middle name and 'Jane Ann' became Janet.
So, what were Taylor's scientific achievements? She seems to have been the driving force behind setting up a 'navigational academy' with her husband and writing on navigation - not exactly science, but a practical application of mathematics that was well-established, but that Taylor was able to fine tune in some respects. She was gifted and enjoyed mathematics. She was clearly fascinated from an early age by nautical astronomical navigation and seemed to have spent much of her spare time in early adulthood reading about this and performing her own calculations. A driving force in her work seemed to be to make correction for the non-spherical nature of the Earth - though the planet had been known to be an oblate spheroid since Newton's day, it seems the corrections employed weren't accurate enough for Taylor's level of precision.
From the Crouchers' book it seems very likely that Janet Taylor certainly could have been a significant scientist in an age where this was a practical profession for a woman. It's rather harder to pin down any original scientific or mathematical contribution she was able to make. We are often told about her 'calculations' and 'equations' but not given any detail on what she did mathematically, or how original that mathematics was. She devised a fascinating mechanical navigational calculator - a kind of nineteenth century Antikythera mechanism - which seems to have had a lot of potential, but never went into production. (Once again, the Crouchers don't give us enough technical detail be sure what it could have done, though the Admiralty assessment of the time suggests it would have been impractical to use.)
I think it's best to think of Taylor as the navigational equivalent of an engineer. She didn't come up with original maths or science, but was highly successful in her application of existing knowledge. This is not to undermine her achievements - especially given the bias against female participation of the time - but is a far more accurate description than to call her a 'brilliantly gifted scientist.' (Part of the problem is the rather loose use of the term 'science' before the mid-nineteenth century.) Despite the repeated use of the 's' word, this is not in any sense a scientific biography, but interesting nonetheless: it remains well worth reading as a life story.
November 27, 2018
I have really enjoyed reading this book about a gifted and able woman. It is well written; many of the chapters are short enough to finish while having a cup of tea or coffee, but the story is so interesting that one tends to make another cup and continue with the next chapter.
It is an easy read, but cannot have been easy to write. Little survives in print about Mrs Janet Taylor. The authors, husband and wife, are both distinguished Australian academics and he is a distant descendant of her family. Gathering the material for the book, from surviving family notes, correspondence and indirect sources was a twentyone-year labour of love. The authors have put together a fascinating biography, some of which must include an element of deductive conjecture, placed in an overall picture of late Georgian and Victorian England, with interesting details about royalty, civil unrest, disease, pollution and the London sewerage!
Born in 1804 in a village in northern England, she was christened Jane Ann Ionn. She had luck on her side: her father was a good schoolmaster with studious inclinations of his own and he recognised and encouraged his daughter's great talent for mathematics and astronomy, and a lifelong interest in avoiding the tragedies of shipwreck by working to improve the knowledge and means of accurate navigation of ships at sea. She had the luck to be selected for a good education, and the luck to marry a man who was prepared, in the days before the Married Women's Property Act, to forgo his right to possess the modest inheritance which she later used to fund her work. On marriage she changed her first name to Janet and both she and her husband adopted the surname of Taylor.
Finding how far a ship is north or south of the equator (latitude) is relatively easy by measuring the angle between the noonday sun and the horizon. Seamen have been doing this for centuries. Measuring how far east or west one is from some fixed place (longitude) is much harder, as shown in Dava Sobell's book: "Longitude". Janet Taylor's gift for mathematics led her to develop tables and instructions which simplified the complex calculations needed when trying to locate the longitude of a ship at sea by using astronomical readings, usually taken with a sextant. For instance, the rotation of the moon about the earth provides one with a form of clock: one that has a cycle of about 27.3 days instead of a clock's 12 or 24 hour cycle. By measuring the position of the moon, relative to fixed stars, one can calculate the time at some fixed place, e.g: at the Greenwich meridian where the tables were calculated by the Astronomer Royal. The difference between the local ship's time, determined by watching the ascent of the morning sun to its peak at noon, and the time at Greenwich will give the ship's longitude. Until reliable chronometers were in common use, this method was the best available. However, the calculations are complex and tedious and few ship's captains or mates could do them properly. Captain James Cook was one of the early experts. He regularly used lunar measurements to check the accuracy of the chronometers in his ships. By simplifying the calculations, Janet Taylor made it easier for navigators to find their position with some accuracy - essential if shipwreck and its tragic losses were to be avoided. One of the authors is a professional mathematician, able to appreciate Janet Taylor's gifts. Most of us recoil from a page of equations in differential and integral calculus, so he wisely avoided going into the details of the spherical trigonometry behind her work.
In London, Janet Taylor successfully developed a business that combined the sale of her books, sale of charts for navigators, the teaching of navigation to seamen at different levels, and later the manufacture of accurate navigational instruments such as sextants, compasses and an artificial horizon. During her lifetime Britain's huge merchant navy saw the emergence of iron in the construction of large ships, and her business became one of the best in finding ways of correcting the compasses for the magnetic field of the iron.
Her dedication to accuracy and attention to detail must have made her a difficult employer at times. Towards the end two of her most able men left her company to set up in rivalry. She achieved success by extreme hard work and determination, all the while being a mother to an ever-increasing family: she bore 8 children during her 23 years of marriage. In England she faced traditional misogyny from a government where social status still ranked higher than ability, and an Admiralty steeped in tradition and reluctance to accept new ideas. However, she earned the respect and friendship of important men, such as Captain Beaufort, the Admiralty Hydrographer, and George Airy the Astronomer Royal. She was given several awards, including gold medals from the Kings of Prussia and of the Netherlands.
The book includes many colour plates (a few of which are not quite of professional standard) as well as black & white figures. There are several appendices, including a good glossary, source notes and bibliography. The index has a few frustrating omissions. Overall, hers is an inspiring story and well written. I recommend that you read it!
It is an easy read, but cannot have been easy to write. Little survives in print about Mrs Janet Taylor. The authors, husband and wife, are both distinguished Australian academics and he is a distant descendant of her family. Gathering the material for the book, from surviving family notes, correspondence and indirect sources was a twentyone-year labour of love. The authors have put together a fascinating biography, some of which must include an element of deductive conjecture, placed in an overall picture of late Georgian and Victorian England, with interesting details about royalty, civil unrest, disease, pollution and the London sewerage!
Born in 1804 in a village in northern England, she was christened Jane Ann Ionn. She had luck on her side: her father was a good schoolmaster with studious inclinations of his own and he recognised and encouraged his daughter's great talent for mathematics and astronomy, and a lifelong interest in avoiding the tragedies of shipwreck by working to improve the knowledge and means of accurate navigation of ships at sea. She had the luck to be selected for a good education, and the luck to marry a man who was prepared, in the days before the Married Women's Property Act, to forgo his right to possess the modest inheritance which she later used to fund her work. On marriage she changed her first name to Janet and both she and her husband adopted the surname of Taylor.
Finding how far a ship is north or south of the equator (latitude) is relatively easy by measuring the angle between the noonday sun and the horizon. Seamen have been doing this for centuries. Measuring how far east or west one is from some fixed place (longitude) is much harder, as shown in Dava Sobell's book: "Longitude". Janet Taylor's gift for mathematics led her to develop tables and instructions which simplified the complex calculations needed when trying to locate the longitude of a ship at sea by using astronomical readings, usually taken with a sextant. For instance, the rotation of the moon about the earth provides one with a form of clock: one that has a cycle of about 27.3 days instead of a clock's 12 or 24 hour cycle. By measuring the position of the moon, relative to fixed stars, one can calculate the time at some fixed place, e.g: at the Greenwich meridian where the tables were calculated by the Astronomer Royal. The difference between the local ship's time, determined by watching the ascent of the morning sun to its peak at noon, and the time at Greenwich will give the ship's longitude. Until reliable chronometers were in common use, this method was the best available. However, the calculations are complex and tedious and few ship's captains or mates could do them properly. Captain James Cook was one of the early experts. He regularly used lunar measurements to check the accuracy of the chronometers in his ships. By simplifying the calculations, Janet Taylor made it easier for navigators to find their position with some accuracy - essential if shipwreck and its tragic losses were to be avoided. One of the authors is a professional mathematician, able to appreciate Janet Taylor's gifts. Most of us recoil from a page of equations in differential and integral calculus, so he wisely avoided going into the details of the spherical trigonometry behind her work.
In London, Janet Taylor successfully developed a business that combined the sale of her books, sale of charts for navigators, the teaching of navigation to seamen at different levels, and later the manufacture of accurate navigational instruments such as sextants, compasses and an artificial horizon. During her lifetime Britain's huge merchant navy saw the emergence of iron in the construction of large ships, and her business became one of the best in finding ways of correcting the compasses for the magnetic field of the iron.
Her dedication to accuracy and attention to detail must have made her a difficult employer at times. Towards the end two of her most able men left her company to set up in rivalry. She achieved success by extreme hard work and determination, all the while being a mother to an ever-increasing family: she bore 8 children during her 23 years of marriage. In England she faced traditional misogyny from a government where social status still ranked higher than ability, and an Admiralty steeped in tradition and reluctance to accept new ideas. However, she earned the respect and friendship of important men, such as Captain Beaufort, the Admiralty Hydrographer, and George Airy the Astronomer Royal. She was given several awards, including gold medals from the Kings of Prussia and of the Netherlands.
The book includes many colour plates (a few of which are not quite of professional standard) as well as black & white figures. There are several appendices, including a good glossary, source notes and bibliography. The index has a few frustrating omissions. Overall, hers is an inspiring story and well written. I recommend that you read it!
February 27, 2019
Janet Taylor was born in 1804. Her dad recognized her intelligence and nautical interest early on. She was able to get real schooling in science and math. Her mathematical calculations and understanding of astronomy enabled her to advance nautical safety immensely. For example, because the earth is a sphere, but really is a bit squatty (a word?) at the poles, her formulas took this into account and therefore enabled sailors to have a better understanding of exactly where they were on the planet. Janet invented instruments (with patents), ran a nautical school with scientific instructions for sailors, published many books & charts, and constantly fought for the update of maps and charts quickly for the safety of people sailing around the world. In the beginning, she was not taken seriously (imagine that), but through perseverance and sheer will, she slowly received the respect and acknowledged support she deserved. She did this while being stern, but polite throughout her career (even though she was pissed out of her mind at how she was being treated). And by the way, she also had eight children by the time she turned forty.
May 17, 2024
Accidentally came across this book in the boats section at the library but it should be in the feminist section or at the very least, biography section. It’s more about a brilliant and determined woman in a man’s world than it is about boats. Inspiring and fulfilling read.
Non-fiction, written as though with guidance from her journals but she apparently didn’t keep any— rather the book is “pieced together with …letters and notes in her publications”. So that we follow Janet Taylor’s emotional and personal life along with her work and career pursuits. I really enjoyed this book and will buy my own copy for a re-read. I don’t give it a full five because there were some pretty dry sections like the religious parts of her life which I skimmed through.
Non-fiction, written as though with guidance from her journals but she apparently didn’t keep any— rather the book is “pieced together with …letters and notes in her publications”. So that we follow Janet Taylor’s emotional and personal life along with her work and career pursuits. I really enjoyed this book and will buy my own copy for a re-read. I don’t give it a full five because there were some pretty dry sections like the religious parts of her life which I skimmed through.
April 6, 2021
Great book. Very well written narrative
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October 18, 2025Okay who wanna hear me talk abt her?
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews