Research Catalog

Full meridian of glory : perilous adventures in the competition to measure the Earth / Paul Murdin.

Title
Full meridian of glory : perilous adventures in the competition to measure the Earth / Paul Murdin.
Author
Murdin, Paul
Publication
New York ; London : Copernicus Books/Springer, c2009.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextRequest in advance QB280.5 .M87 2009Off-site

Details

Description
xviii, 187 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.); 25 cm.
Summary
"Full Meridian of Glory is the first English language 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, art and literature of history and in our own age."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects
Genre/Form
History
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-171) and index.
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
Contents
Introduction -- Chronology -- The Incroyable Pique-nique and the Méridienne Verte -- The size of France -- Shape of the Earth -- The Meridian and the sun -- The revolution and the meter -- The Paris Meridian in the Napoleonic Wars -- Past its prime -- The Greenwich and Paris Meridians in the space age -- On the trail of The Da Vinci Code -- Walking the line: the Arago Memorial.
ISBN
  • 9780387755335 (hbk.)
  • 0387755330 (hbk.)
LCCN
^^2008939455
OCLC
  • 233934223
  • SCSB-10260444
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library