_Thomas Wright of Durham_.--In the _Philosophical Magazine_ for April,
1848, I gave an account of the "Original Theory or new Hypothesis of the
Universe" of Thomas Wright, whose anticipations of modern speculation on
the milky way, the central sun, and some other points, make him one of the
most remarkable astronomical thinkers of his day. In the biography in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1793, he is described as struggling for a
livelihood when a young man, and no account is given of the manner in which
he obtained the handsome competence with which he emerges in 1756, or
thereabouts. A few days after my account was published, I was informed (by
Captain James, R.E.) that a large four-foot orrery, constructed by Wright
for the Royal Academy at Portsmouth, was still in that town; and that by
the title of "J. Harrises Use of the Globes" it appears that he (Wright)
kept his shop at the _Orrery_, near Water Lane, Fleet Street (No. 136),
under the title of instrument-maker to his Majesty. In an edition of Harris
(the 8th, 1767), which I lately met with, the above is described as "late
the shop of Thomas Wright," &c. By the advertisements which this work
contains, Wright must have had an extensive business as a philosophical
instrument-maker. The omission in the biography is a strange one. Possibly
some farther information may fall in the way of some of your readers.