Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Meridians (Geodesy) --- Premier méridien

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

W. H. B. Webster (1793-1875) studied medicine and surgery in London, and in 1815 signed up to serve in the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon. Because it was peacetime, however, he did not secure a position until 1828, when he was posted as ship's surgeon on the South Atlantic scientific mission of HMS Chanticleer under Captain Henry Foster (1796-1831), a Fellow of the Royal Society with extensive experience of surveying expeditions. Published in 1834, this is Webster's two-volume account of the Chanticleer voyage, the objectives of which included work on longitudes, and carrying out gravity pendulum experiments at various latitudes to attempt more accurate calculation of the shape of the earth. Volume 2 describes Central America and Panama, where, after successfully completing longitude measurements using rockets, Captain Foster tragically drowned. The second half of the volume summarises the scientific observations made during the voyage, and contains the cumulative index.

Voyages and travels. --- Longitude --- Hydrography --- Chanticleer (Sloop) --- Aquatic sciences --- Navigation --- Hydrology --- Degrees of longitude --- Distances --- Geodetic astronomy --- Geographical positions --- Meridians (Geodesy) --- Journeys --- Travel books --- Travels --- Trips --- Voyages and travels --- Geography --- Adventure and adventurers --- Travel --- Travelers

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The Paris Meridian is the name of the line running north-south through the astronomical observatory in Paris. One of the original intentions behind the founding of the Paris Observatory was to determine and measure this line. To that end, the French government financed the Paris Academy of Sciences to do so in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries employing both astronomers – people who study and measure the stars – and geodesists – people who study and measure the Earth. This book is about what they did and why. Full Meridian of Glory is the first English language presentation of this historical material in its entirety. It is an attractively written story of the scientists who created the Paris Meridian. They collaborated and worked together in alliances, like scientists everywhere; they also split into warring factions. They transcended national and political disputes, as scientists do now, their eyes fixed on ideals of accuracy, truth and objectivity. Yet also when their work served national interests they were sometimes less than neutral, and if their work was questioned they sometimes blindly descended into petty politics. This book tells the story of the adventures in France, in Spain, in Lapland and in Ecuador of the scientists who worked through revolution, war, rebellion, piracy, fire, shipwreck, blockade, snow, tropical heat, kidnapping, murder and turbulent love affairs to pursue a problem of map making. They turned that practical problem into a crucial scientific test of one of the most important intellectual problems of their time – Newton’s theory of universal gravitation. Their work changed their own lives, affected the course of science and politics, and left its mark on the landscape, the art and the literature of history and in our own age.

Geodesy -- France -- History. --- Longitude -- France -- Paris. --- Meridians (Geodesy) -- France. --- Meridians (Geodesy) --- Geodesy --- Longitude --- Astronomy & Astrophysics --- Physical Sciences & Mathematics --- Astrophysics --- Practical & Spherical Astronomy --- Astronomy - General --- History --- History. --- Observatoire de Paris --- Degrees of latitude and longitude --- Geodetics --- Degrees of longitude --- Lines, Meridian --- Meridian lines --- France. --- Observatoire impérial de Paris --- Observatoire royal de Paris --- Observatoire national de Paris --- Paris. --- Physics. --- Geophysics. --- Astronomy. --- Astrophysics. --- Cosmology. --- Popular works. --- Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology. --- Popular Science in Astronomy. --- History of Science. --- Geophysics/Geodesy. --- Popular Science, general. --- Observatoire de Paris-Meudon --- Geophysics --- Geomatics --- Mathematical geography --- Surveying --- Distances --- Geodetic astronomy --- Geographical positions --- Physical geography. --- Science (General). --- Geography --- Annals --- Auxiliary sciences of history --- Geological physics --- Terrestrial physics --- Earth sciences --- Physics --- Astronomical physics --- Astronomy --- Cosmic physics