Next message: Bruce Stark: "Re: Re: Sextant Scope Parallelism (was Re : SNO-T Sextant)"
Frank,
You wrote: "I also have wondered what might compel a New England author
c.1800 like Bowditch to omit the name of "Jose de Mendoza y Rios" from his work."
I believe Bowdich mentions Rios several times. How about this, from his
chapter on Lunar Observations?
"These preparations are necessary in every method of working a lunar
observation. The most noted methods are those of Dunthorne, Borda, Maskelyne, Rios,
Witchell, Lyons, &c., and improvements thereon by various authors.
"Dunthorne's and similar methods have one great advantage in not being liable
to a variety of cases: but these methods are tedious, when tables of
logarithms to minutes only are used, by reason of the great exactness required in
proportioning the logarithms to seconds. This is obviated in the excellent methods
published by Rios and Stansbury: but they require large and expensive tables,
and on that account are not in very general use. Witchell's and Lyons's
methods do not labor under the inconvenience of requiring large tables, nor do they
require any particular notice of the seconds . . ."
As I recall, he refers favorably to "Captain Rios" somewhere else.
Bruce
