"The invention of the telescope, the application of the pendulum to clocks, the invention of the micrometer, the combination of the telescope with the divided arc of a circle, invention of the transit circle by Roemer, with many improvements in minor apparatus, distinctly stamp the [17th] century as a remarkable period of preparation for achievements of the next century. From the standpoint of the modern mechanician the instruments at the Greenwich Observatory in Bradley's time were very imperfect in design and construction, and yet on the observations obtained by his skill and perseverance depends the whole structure of modern fundamental astronomy. The use the quadrant reached its highest excellence under Bradley's management. ... Bradley's observations furnish the data for Bessel's "Fundamenta Astronomiae," and many astronomers have since attempted by reductions to obtain improved positions for Bradley's stars. The value of these observations in the development of modern astronomy can hardly be exaggerated. Their importance in the determination of stellar s increases with the lapse of time, and yet the accuracy of the original observations was far inferior to that obtained in ordinary routine work with modern methods and improved instruments."