first edition
1805 · S [Stockholm]:
by SVANBERG, JOns [SWANBERG] (1771-1851).
S [Stockholm]:: S J.P. Lindh, 1805., 1805. 8vo. [2, iv], xiii-xvi, [v]-xii, xxxi, [1], 196 pp. 3 folding engraved plates, errata; lightly foxed. Modern dusty-rose paste-paper over boards. The first section is misfoliated, but complete. Untrimmed. RARE. First Edition, arranged in four parts, appendix. The 1801-3 scientific results of measuring the arc of meridian in Lapland, Finland. The expedition was undertaken with the direction of Daniel Melanderhjelm (1726-1810), secretary to the Swedish Academy of Sciences, for the purpose of verifying or correcting previous measurements by Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698-1759), taken in 1736. The text refers to J.-B.-J. Delambre, Methodes Analytiques pour la determination d'un arc du meridien, 1799, Pierre Bouguer, Charles Marie de La Condamine, Nevil Maskelyne, Holmquist, Palander, Mechan, Daniel Melanderhjelm (1726-1810), Franz de Paula Triesnecker (1745-1817), Aristotle, Huygens and Isaac Newton (p. 11). "The re-measurement of a degree in Lapland, as a correction of the previous French operations [by Maupertuis], was carried on during the years 1801, 1802, and 1803, by Messrs. Ofverboom, Svanberg ["Swanberg"], Holmquist [Holinquist [sic]] and Palander, Swedish mathematicians: and from the account of their operations, published by M. Sw[v]anberg, the length of a meridional degree, north latitude 66° 20' 10" (the centre of the arc) is 69° 2698 English miles. From a comparison of this result with those from the measurements taken in Peru, the East Indies, and France, M. Swanberg deduces a mean of 1/323° 065 for the ellipticity, and 3963° 26 miles for the equatorial radius of the earth." -- Peter Barlow, A New Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary: Comprising an Explanation . . .
(Inventory #: SS13440)