Ulrich Looks like some kind of transit circle.
Bruce Ulrich Bangert wrote: > Steve, > > >> .....They HAD to adopt common measurement system >> of some kind, and they sure weren't going to use anything that the >> English did! >> > > So it was! However, the idea to make something completely new and not to > follow something existing did not result from political reasoning or from > what countries they had a friendship with or not. > > The basic idea behind creating something new was: The new measures should > make sense to EVERYBODY who was forced by law to make use of them and should > therefore make it easy for everybody to adopt them. This reasoning is well > backed up by other ideas falling into the time of the French revolution. > > For example: Since we all share mother earth it was decided that the meter > should have a definition that is based on the size of earth. So the original > definition of a meter was to be 1/40000 of or earth's circumference. This > lead to a minor problem: Earth's circumference was not well known at that > times. Which in turn lead to the invention of a new class of surveyor > instruments, which in turn enabled the French to measure the distance from > the equator to the north pole (assumed to be 1/4 of the circumference) with > a precision that must be admired even from a today point of view. I do not > know the english term for it but in German these instruments are called > "Repetitionskreis". You can find a pictue of one here: > > http://www.bistumsmuseen-regensburg.de/html/ausstellungen_moenche_repetition > skreis.htm > > A very good literature about this topic is Ken Alders "The measure of all > Things" > > Best regards > Ulrich Bangert > > > > >> -----Ursprungliche Nachricht----- >> Von: [email protected] >> [mailto:[email protected]] Im Auftrag von steve gunsel >> Gesendet: Freitag, 21. August 2009 13:56 >> An: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement >> Betreff: Re: [time-nuts] Measurements >> >> >> At least an acre is acre throughout the US (I think). The real >> problem was in olden France where virtually all measurements varied >> from village to village. So a bushel of wheat in one locality >> differed from a bushel elsewhere. Same with all of the other units. >> Made for nasty trade issues once they expanded beyond dealing with >> the immediate neighbors. They HAD to adopt common measurement system >> of some kind, and they sure weren't going to use anything that the >> English did! >> >> _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
