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Subject: Maskelyne et al
From: George Huxtable (george@XXX.XXX)
Date: Wed Jun 11 2003 - 14:42:53 EDT
To my statement about the lunar-distance method having been chosen by
Maskelyne, Fred Hebard quibbled-
>Just to quibble that Mayer was also instrumental in instituting lunars.
> It wasn't only Maskelyne.
It's a fair quibble, Fred. Maskelyne put lunar distances into a form which
could be used in practice by mariners at sea. It wasn't an easy process,
but it involved precomputed tables, which made it far easier than what had
to be done before. That was Maskelyne's achievement, but it depended on an
accurate theoretical basis for the position of the Moon. Mayer provided
that, and showed how Maskelyne's human-computers could work out future Moon
positions. Without Mayer's work, Maskelyne's method would not have been
accurate enough for mariners to use at sea. Mayer's contribution was vital,
and should be recognised.
But Meyer's theory itself was based on many years of Moon observations,
many from Halley. And Mayer's theory was a development from Euler, a Swiss,
and his went back to Newton and Leibnitz. And their data came from Kepler
and Tycho.
As for lunars, we should remember the French, who were the first to offer
predicted lunar distances (though not very usefully, being at 12-hour
intervals) in their "Connaissance des Temps": the first voyage to try out
lunars was made by LaCaille as early as 1751, without benefit of any
precomputed tables.
The man who knows most about the period on this list is Steven Wepster, who
has written a dissertation on Mayer, and I hope he will correct anything I
have got wrong.
Each of these workers built on foundations provided by his predecessors,
and helped by his contemporaries. This was a period when European nations
were fighting colonial wars, mainly in North America, though Western Europe
itself was relatively placid, apart from some Anglo-Dutch squabbles. Still,
civilised communication prevailed between the 'savants' of the time; it's a
lesson to us all.
George.
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contact George Huxtable by email at george@XXX.XXX by phone at
01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy
Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
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