Turning an Exact Replica of Matthew Flinder's Chess Set

摘要

I've lived a third of my life in England and two thirds in Australia. The chess set pictured in Photo.1 is therefore of particular interest to me because it belonged to Matthew Flinders, shown in Photo. 2, the Englishman who commanded the first circumnavigation of Australia.The November/December 2004 #118 issue of The Australian Woodworker included my article on making a reasonable copy of Flinders' chess set. Recently the State Library of New South Wales kindly allowed me to measure his set accurately. I'm therefore able to produce this article which includes the more correct gauges for the pieces of the Flinders' set. But before discussing his chess set, I'll give an outline of Flinders' life.