Michael Rand Hoare - The quest for the true figure of the Earth : ideas and expeditions in four centuries of geodesy

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THE QUEST FOR THE TRUE FIGURE OF THE EARTH

In the 1730s two expeditions set out from Paris on extraordinary journeys; the first was destined for the equatorial region of Peru, the second headed north towards the Arctic Circle. Although the eighteenth century witnessed numerous such adventures, these expeditions were different. Rather than seeking new lands to conquer or mineral wealth to exploit, their primary objectives were scientific: to determine the Earths precise shape by measuring the variation of a degree of latitude at points separated as nearly as possible by a whole quadrant of the globe between Equator and North Pole.

Although such information had consequences for navigation and cartography, the motivation was not simply utilitarian. Rather it was one theme among many in an intellectual revolution in which advances in mathematics paralleled philosophical strife, and reputations of the living and the dead stood to be elevated or destroyed. In particular the two expeditions hoped to prove the correctness of Isaac Newtons prediction that the Earth is not a perfect sphere, but flattened at the poles.

In this study, the Figure of the Earth controversy is for the first time comprehensively explored in all its several dimensions. It shows how a largely neglected episode of European science that produced no spectacular process or artefact beyond a relatively minor improvement in maps nevertheless represents an almost unique combination of theoretical prediction and empirical method. It also details the suffering of the two teams of scientists in very different extremes of climate, whose sacrifices for the sake of knowledge rather than colonial gain, caught the imagination of the literary world of the time.

About the Author

Michael Rand Hoare is Emeritus Reader at the University of London, UK.

Science, Technology and Culture,
17001945

Series Editors

David M. Knight
University of Durham

and

Trevor Levere
University of Toronto

Science, Technology and Culture, 17001945 focuses on the social, cultural, industrial and economic contexts of science and technology from the scientific revolution up to the Second World War. It explores the agricultural and industrial revolutions of the eighteenth century, the coffee-house culture of the Enlightenment, the spread of museums, botanic gardens and expositions in the nineteenth century, to the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, seen as a victory for German science. It also addresses the dependence of society on science and technology in the twentieth century.

Science, Technology and Culture, 17001945 addresses issues of the interaction of science, technology and culture in the period from 1700 to 1945, at the same time as including new research within the field of the history of science.

Also in this series

John Phillips and the Business of Victorian Science
Jack Morrell

John Herschel s Cape Voyage
Private Science, Public Imagination and the Ambitions of Empire
Steven Ruskin

Science and Beliefs
From Natural Philosophy to Natural Science, 17001900
Edited by David M. Knight and Matthew D. Eddy

Dedicated to the memory of
Jim Mantle
Geodesist extraordinary

The Quest for the True Figure of
the Earth

Ideas and Expeditions in Four Centuries
of Geodesy

MICHAEL RAND HOARE

Reader Emeritus in Theoretical Physics
University of London

First published 2005 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2017 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright Michael Rand Hoare, 2005

Michael Rand Hoare has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Hoare, Michael Rand

The Quest for the True Figure of the Earth: Ideas and Expeditions in Four
Centuries of Geodesy. (Science, Technology and Culture, 17001945)
1. Geodesy History. I. Title.
526.1

US Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hoare, Michael Rand, 1933

The Quest for the True Figure of the Earth: Ideas and Expeditions in Four Centuries of Geodesy / Michael Rand Hoare.
p. cm. (Science, Technology and Culture, 17001945)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Geodesy History. I. Title. II. Series.
QB281.H53 2004
526.1 09dc22
2004026903

ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-5020-1 (hbk)

Contents

Figures

Table

The purpose of this book is to explore the rich history of that branch of the art and science of land-surveying which for more than three centuries has been devoted to determining the precise shape of our terraqueous planet. This speciality, that of determining the Figure of the Earth (Figure de la Terre) as it early became known, gave rise to the subject of geodesy, or geodetics, and with it a step-change in the accuracy previously required in the more quotidian process of map-making. At the same time it embraced the related activity of gravimetry, which is to say the measurement of the force of gravity and its subtle variation on, and eventually even above and below, the surface of the Earth. In striving for ever increasing precision through improvements in instrument design and measurement practices, geodesy aspired to the exactness of astronomy, which until the late seventeenth century had been the lone cynosure of quantitative science.

If the content of this narrative were simply a recital of technical innovation and occasional virtuosity, it would be of lesser import and more marginally related to the broader history of science and ideas which has remained my principal interest throughout. In fact the Figure of the Earth controversy brought to focus an extraordinary contest of philosophies and led to ongoing strife within the academies in which the names and reputations of the greatest of their age, Descartes, Newton, Voltaire and Maupertuis among many others, were put to test along with, one can almost say, the very honour of nations.

The second aspect that sets the Figure of the Earth problem apart from better known scientific achievements is the remarkable investment of human courage and ingenuity that it demanded of its devotees. That this courage was in large part physical as well as intellectual is underlined by the prominent part played by the expeditions that at intervals set out for some of the most inhospitable parts of the Earth and which entailed suffering and fortitude on a scale previously only associated with conquests by land and sea, the latter as likely of a mercenary nature as driven by geographical curiosity. This element of sacrifice in the name of science rather than domination and wealth was not lost on the literary world, particularly at the height of the French Enlightenment, and can be seen as a rapprochement of Science and Letters that has rarely since proved as intimate.

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