Mural Quadrant, by John Bird, London, 1773, at the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford. John Bird provided the foundation instruments of the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, in early 1779, including two 8 ft mural quadrants. One can be seen in the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford. The other is now in the Science Museum, London. The first director, Thomas Hornsby, planned an observatory that would rival Greenwich and Bird was acknowledged as the best maker of astronomical instruments in the world: "There is unquestionabley but one Person living, who is capable of making them," Hornsby told the Radcliffe Trustees. Mounted on a wall aligned with the meridian, this was one of the instruments used to measure the position of the stars in declination.