Research Catalog

Full meridian of glory : perilous adventures in the competition to measure the Earth / Paul Murdin.

Title: Full meridian of glory : perilous adventures in the competition to measure the Earth / Paul Murdin.
Author: Murdin, Paul
Publication: New York ; London : Copernicus Books/Springer, c2009.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Book/Text	Request in advance	QB280.5 .M87 2009	Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xviii, 187 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.); 25 cm.

Summary

"Full Meridian of Glory is the first English language story of the scientists who created the Paris Meridian. They collaborated and worked together in alliances like scientists everywhere; they also split into warring factions. They transcended national and political disputes, as scientists do now, their eyes fixed on ideals of accuracy, truth and objectivity. Yet also when their work served national interests they were sometimes less than neutral, and if their work was questioned they sometimes blindly descended into petty politics." "This book tells the story of the adventures in France, in Spain, in Lapland, and in Ecuador of the scientists who worked through revolution, war, rebellion, piracy, fire, shipwreck, blockade, snow, tropical heat, kidnapping, murder, and turbulent love affairs to pursue a problem of map making. They turned that practical problem into a crucial scientific test of one of the most important intellectual problems of their time - Newton's theory of universal gravitation. Their work changed their own lives, affected the course of science and politics, and left its mark on the landscape, art and literature of history and in our own age."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-171) and index.

Processing Action (note)

committed to retain

Contents

Introduction -- Chronology -- The Incroyable Pique-nique and the Méridienne Verte -- The size of France -- Shape of the Earth -- The Meridian and the sun -- The revolution and the meter -- The Paris Meridian in the Napoleonic Wars -- Past its prime -- The Greenwich and Paris Meridians in the space age -- On the trail of The Da Vinci Code -- Walking the line: the Arago Memorial.

ISBN

9780387755335 (hbk.)
0387755330 (hbk.)

LCCN

^^2008939455

OCLC

233934223
SCSB-10260444

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library