Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/620

598 5U8 EARTH members of their body undertook the measurement of two meridian arcs one in the neighbourhood of the equator, the other in a high latitude ; and so arose the celebrated expe ditions of the French Academicians. In May 1735, MM. Godin, Bouguer, and De la Condamine, under the auspices of Louis XV., proceeded to Peru, where, assisted by two Spanish officers, after ten years of laborious exertion they measured an arc of 3 7 intersected by the equator. The second party consisted of Maupertuis, Clairaut, Camus, Lemonnier, and Outhier, who reached the Gulf of Bothnia in July 1736 ; they were in some respects more fortunate than the first party, inasmuch as they completed the measurement of an arc near the polar circle of 57 amplitude and returned to Europe within sixteen months from the date of their departure. The measurement of Bouguer and De la Condamine was executed with great care, and on account of the locality, as well as the manner in which all the details were conducted, it has always been regarded as a most valuable determina tion. The southern limit was at a place called Tarqui, the northern at Cotchesqui. A base of 6272 toises was measured in the vicinity of Quito, near the northern extremity of the arc, and a second base of 5260 toises near the southern extremity. The mountainous nature of the country made the work very laborious, in some instances the difference of heights of two neighbouring stations exceeding a mile. The difficulties with which the observers had to contend were increased by the opposition of the more ignorant of the inhabitants, and they were at times in danger of losing their lives. They had also much trouble with their instruments, those with which they were to determine the latitudes proving untrustworthy. But their energy and ingenuity were equal to the occasion, and they succeeded by simultaneous observations of the same star at the two extremities of the arc in obtaining very fair results. The whole length of the arc amounted to 176,945 toises, while the difference of latitudes was 3 7 3&quot;. In consequence of a misunderstanding that arose between De la Condamine and Bouguer, their operations were con ducted separately, and each wrote a full and interesting account of the operation. Bouguer s book was published in 1749 ; that of De la Condamine in 1751. The toise used in this measure was ever after regarded as the standard toise, and is always referred to as the Toise of Peru, The party of Maupertuis, though their work was quickly despatched, had also to contend with great difficulties. They were disappointed in not being able to make use of the small islands in the Gulf of Bothnia for the trigonometrical stations, and were forced to penetrate into the forests of Lapland. They commenced operations at Tornea, a city situated on the mainland near the extremity of the gulf. From this, the southern extremity of their arc, they carried a chain of triangles northward to the mountain Kittis, which they selected as the northern terminus. In the prosecution of this work they suffered greatly from cold and the bites of flies and gnats. The latitudes were determined by observations with a sector (made by Graham) of the zenith distance of a and 8 Draconis. The base line was measured on the frozen surface of the river Tornea about the middle of the arc ; two parties measured it separately, and they differed by about 4 inches. The result of the whole was that the difference of latitudes of the terminal stations was 57 29&quot; - 6, and the length of the arc 55,023 toises. In this expedition, as well as in that to Peru, observations were made with a pendulum to determine the force of gravity ; and these observations coincided with the geodetical results in proving that the earth was an oblate and not prolate spheroid. In 1740 was published in the Paris Memoires an account, by Cassini de Thury, of a remeasurement by himself and Lacaille of the meridian of Paris. With a view to deter mine more accurately the variation of the degree along the meridian, they divided the distance from Dunkirk to Collioure into four partial arcs of about two degrees each, by observing the latitude at five stations. The anomalous results previously obtained by J. and D. Cassini were not confirmed, but on the contrary the length of the degree derived from these partial arcs showed on the whole an increase with increasing latitude. In continuation of their labours, Cassini and Lacaille further measured an arc of parallel across the mouth of the Rhone. The difference of time of the extremities was determined by the observers at either end noting the instant of a signal given by flashing gunpowder at a point near the middle of the arc. While at the Cape of Good Hope in 1752, engaged in various astronomical observations, Lacaille measured an arc of meridian of 1 13 17&quot;, which gave him for the length of the degree 57,037 toises an unexpected result, which has led to the modern remeasurement of the arc by Sit Thomas Maclear. Passing over the measurements made between Rome and Rimini and on the plains of Piedmont by the Jesuits Boscovich and Beccaria, and also the arc measured with deal rods in North America by Messrs Mason and Dixon, we come to the commencement of the English triangulation. In 1783, in consequence of a representation from Cassini de Thury on the advantages that would accrue to science from the geodetic connection of Paris and Greenwich, General Roy was with the king s approval appointed by the Royal Society to conduct the operations on the part of this country, Count Cassini, Mechain, and Delambre being appointed on the French side. And now a precision previously unknown was brought into geodesy by the use of Ramsden s splendid theodolite, which was the first to make the spherical excess of triangles measurable. The wooden rods with which the first base was measured were speedily replaced by glass rods, which again were rejected for the steel chain of Ramsden. The details of this operation are fully given in the Account of the Trigono metrical Survey of England and Wales. Shortly after this, the National Convention of France, having agreed to remodel their system of weights and measures, chose, as applicable to all countries, for their unit of length the ten- millionth part of the meridian quadrant. In order to ob tain this length precisely, the remeasurement of the French meridian was resolved on, and deputed to Delambre and Mechain. The details of this great operation will be found in the Base du Hysteme Metrique Decimale. The arc vas subsequently extended by MM. Biot and Arago to tlio island of Iviza. The appearance in 1838 of Bessel s classical work entitled Gradmessnng in Ostpreussen marks an era in the science of geodesy. Here we find the method of least squares, a branch of the theory of probabilities, applied to the calculation of a network of triangles and the reduction of the observations generally. This work has been looked on as a model ever since, and probably it will not soon be superseded as such. The systematic manner in which all the observations were taken with the view of securing final results of extreme accuracy is admirable. The triangula tion, which is a small one, extends about a degree and a half along the shores of the Baltic in a N.N.E. direction. The compound bars with which he measured his base line may be understood by the following brief description. On the surface of an iron bar two toisea in length is laid a zinc bar, both being very perfectly planed and in free contact the zinc bar being slightly shorter than the iron bar. They are united at one end only, and as the temperature varies the difference of length of the bars as seen at the other end varies; this difference of length is a thermometncal indica-