Hentschel, Klaus (Author)
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Volume: 64
Pages: 41--75
The growing need for standardized units of measure led to major metrological reforms in the mid-nineteenth century. This paper focusses on their implementation in the Kingdom of Hanover and the involvement of C.F. Gauss. His papers reveal how much the success of his precision measurements hinged on the skill of his mechanic M. Meyerstein. A discussion of the regional weights and measures and the standardization procedure is followed by a description of various precision balances and the weighing methods employed as well as a review of the problems posed by reliable length calibration. The success of the enterprise rested not only on intellectual prestige and ministerial clout but also on the hands-on skill of the mechanical practitioner.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
José Ferreirós;
(2020)
Gauss and the Mathematical Background to Standardisation
(/isis/citation/CBB127439302/)
Article
Schrimpf, Andreas;
(2014)
The First Measurement of the Deflection of the Vertical in Longitude
(/isis/citation/CBB001451855/)
Article
Terry Quinn;
(2019)
Wilhelm Foerster's Role in the Metre Convention of 1875 and in the Early Years of the International Committee for Weights and Measures
(/isis/citation/CBB401364988/)
Article
Enebakk, Vidar;
(2014)
Hansteen's Magnetometer and the Origin of the Magnetic Crusade
(/isis/citation/CBB001202237/)
Article
Kershaw, Michael;
(2013)
Twentieth-Century Length: The Origins, Use, and Formalization of Electromagnetic Standards
(/isis/citation/CBB001212581/)
Book
Guan, Zengjian;
(2005)
Zhongguo jin xian dai ji liang shi gao
(/isis/citation/CBB000953182/)
Book
John Leslie Dowe;
(2019)
Wendland's Palms: Hermann Wendland (1825-1903) of Herrenhausen Gardens, Hannover
(/isis/citation/CBB837250192/)
Book
Hoskin, Michael A.;
(2007)
The Herschels of Hanover
(/isis/citation/CBB000930169/)
Article
K. A. Manley;
(2016)
Infidel Books and “Factories of the Enlightenment”: Censorship and Surveillance in Subscription and Circulating Libraries in an Age of Revolutions, 1790–1850
(/isis/citation/CBB180370174/)
Article
Oswald, Nicola M. R.;
Steuding, Jörn J.;
(2014)
Complex Continued Fractions: Early Work of the Brothers Adolf and Julius Hurwitz
(/isis/citation/CBB001202204/)
Article
Bigg, Charlotte;
(2003)
Spectroscopic Metrologies
(/isis/citation/CBB000770278/)
Chapter
Michele Gasparetto;
Sergio Sartori;
(2014)
Il contributo delle misure
(/isis/citation/CBB771468546/)
Book
Sergio Sartori;
(2014)
Storia delle misure nella società dal 1875
(/isis/citation/CBB319376938/)
Article
Tann, Jennifer;
(2015)
Borrowing Brilliance: Technology Transfer across Sectors in the Early Industrial Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB001550623/)
Article
Barany, Michael J.;
(2010)
Great Pyramid Metrology and the Material Politics of Basalt
(/isis/citation/CBB001023790/)
Article
Ishibashi, Yuto;
(2014)
In Pursuit of Accurate Timekeeping: Liverpool and Victorian Electrical Horology
(/isis/citation/CBB001451566/)
Book
Hartmut Petzold;
(2019)
Eine Berliner Waage im Münchner Deutschen Museum: Geschichte, Hintergründe und Aktualität eines Museumsobjekts. Deutsches Museum Studies Band 3
(/isis/citation/CBB191548884/)
Article
Kaminskis, Janis;
Kletnieks, Janis;
(2015)
Astronomer and Metrologist Fricis Blumbahs (1864--1949)
(/isis/citation/CBB001551788/)
Article
Dörries, Matthias;
(2001)
Purity and Objectivity in Nineteenth-Century Metrology and Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB000101056/)
Article
Staley, Richard;
(2003)
The Interferometer and the Spectroscope: Michelson's Standards and the Spectroscopic Community
(/isis/citation/CBB000770279/)
Be the first to comment!