IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB001202239

“A thorn in the side of European geodesy”: Measuring Paris-Greenwich Longitude by Electric Telegraph (2014)

Kershaw, Michael (Author)

British Journal for the History of Science
Volume: 47
Pages: 637-660

DOI: 10.1017/S0007087413000988

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Geodesy Longitude and latitude Telegraph, wireless Electricity; magnetism Navigation Time measurement Astronomy Exactness; precision; accuracy 19th century 20th century, early Paris (France) Greenwich (England)

The difference in longitude between the observatories of Paris and Greenwich was long of fundamental importance to geodesy, navigation and timekeeping. Measured many times and by many different means since the seventeenth century, the preferred method of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries made use of the electric telegraph. I describe here for the first time the four Paris-Greenwich telegraphic longitude determinations made between 1854 and 1902. Despite contemporary faith in the new technique, the first was soon found to be inaccurate; the second was a failure, ending in Anglo-French dispute over whose result was to be trusted; the third failed in exactly the same way; and when eventually the fourth was presented as a success, the evidence for that success was far from clear-cut. I use this as a case study in precision measurement, showing how mutual grounding between different measurement techniques, in the search for agreement between them, was an important force for change and improvement. I also show that better precision had more to do with the gradually improving methods of astronomical time determination than with the singular innovation of the telegraph, thus emphasizing the importance of what have been described as 'observatory techniques' to nineteenth-century practices of precision measurement.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001202239/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Book Jullien, Vincent; (2002)
Le calcul des longitudes: Un enjeu pour les mathématiques, l'astronomie, la mesure du temps et la navigation (/isis/citation/CBB000400013/)

Article Michael Kershaw; (2019)
Twentieth-Century Longitude: When Greenwich Moved (/isis/citation/CBB114685268/)

Article Guy Boistel; (2014)
Un "brévaire" pour les astronomes et les marins : la Connaisance des temps et les calculateurs de Bureau des longitudes, de Lalande à Loewy (1772-1907) (/isis/citation/CBB499642987/)

Book McConnell, Anita; Martin, Jean-Pierre; Débarbat, Suzanne; (2013)
Méridien, méridienne: textes, enjeux, débats et passions autour des méridiens de Paris et de Greenwich (1783--2000) (/isis/citation/CBB001214469/)

Book Carter, Bill; Carter, Merri Sue; (2002)
Latitude: How American Astronomers Solved the Mystery of Variation (/isis/citation/CBB000301868/)

Book Schiavon Martina; Le Lay Colette; (2022)
Le Bureau des longitudes en société (1795-1932) (/isis/citation/CBB767291681/)

Chapter Carlson, W. B.; (2007)
Harnessing the Earth: Nikola Tesla and the Idea of Broadcasting Electric Power, 1890--1905 (/isis/citation/CBB001034019/)

Article Richard De Grijs; (2023)
Astronomical tent observatories: Relics of a bygone era (/isis/citation/CBB744892047/)

Book David Aubin; (2020)
Femmes, Vulgarisation Et Pratique Des Sciences Au Siecle Des Lumieres: Les Dialogues Sur l'Astronomie Et La Lettre Sur La Figure de la Terre de Cesar-Francois Cassini de Thury (/isis/citation/CBB331309498/)

Chapter Chareix, Fabien; (2002)
Vaincre la houle: les horloges marines de Christiaan Huygens (/isis/citation/CBB000470750/)

Article Magda Stavinschi; (2015)
Boscovich on the Romanian Territories (/isis/citation/CBB436533257/)

Article José Chabás; Bernard R. Goldstein; (2019)
The Master and the Disciple: The Almanac of John of Lignères and the Ephemerides of John of Saxony (/isis/citation/CBB920401331/)

Chapter Maria de Lourdes Bacha; (2015)
Charles Sanders Peirce and Experimental Science (/isis/citation/CBB922405276/)

Article Amīn, Majdī Yùsef; (2001)
Limitations of Longitude and Latitude Circles Between Al-Byruni and Modern Science (/isis/citation/CBB000751059/)

Article Boistel, Guy; (2006)
De quelle précision a-t-on réellement besoin en mer ? Quelques aspects de la diffusion des méthodes de détermination astronomique et chronométrique des longitudes en mer en France, de Lacaille à Mouchez (1750--1880) (/isis/citation/CBB000931360/)

Article Schiavon, Martina; (2006)
Les officiers géodésiens du Service géographique de l'armée et la mesure de l'arc de méridien de Quito (1901--1906) (/isis/citation/CBB000931358/)

Article Kershaw, Michael; (2012)
The “nec plus ultra” of Precision Measurement: Geodesy and the Forgotten Purpose of the Metre Convention (/isis/citation/CBB001211297/)

Article Miguel Ohnesorge; (2021)
How incoherent measurement succeeds: Coordination and success in the measurement of the earth's polar flattening (/isis/citation/CBB755982843/)

Article Evans, Rand; (2002)
Morse's Register and the American Method (/isis/citation/CBB000650111/)

Book Martin, Jean-Pierre; (2000)
Une histoire de la Méridienne: Textes, enjeux, débats et passions autour du Méridien de Paris, 1666-1827 (/isis/citation/CBB000110946/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}