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On 4/11/2010 3:00 AM, David Bradbury wrote:
So the question is- did De Fer, working at about the same time as the
Cassinis, under French royal patronage, and having access to the
Picard data, make use of it to define his League by reference to the
Earth's circumference? Perhaps measurement on the map itself, between
points which are likely to have been positioned with maximum accuracy,
can help provide an answer.
It is unlikely that a variable measure like a one-hour walking distance
would be standardized to the same level as the consistent beat of a
pendulum, although anything is possible. I may be wrong, but do not
think the one-hour walking distance scale appeared on the Cassini maps
of France. I believe the 1:86,400 scale of the 180 sheet map published
between 1798-1812 was still based on the old English fathom (and not yet
the pendulum swing): http://www.informatics.org/france/maps.html .
Joel Kovarsky
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