BOUGUER, (PIERRE). - THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION TO SOUTH-AMERICA - NAMING EQUADOR.

Relation abrégée du Voyage fait au Perou par Messieurs de L'Academie Royale des Sciences, pour mesurer les Degrés du Méridien aux environs de l'Équateur, & en conclurre la Figure de la Terre. (2 Parts: 1. relation de notre voyage au Perou, & description de ce pays aux environs de l'Equateur. 2. Récit abrégé des Opérations faites au Pérou pour la Mesure de la Terre).

(Paris, L'Imprimerie Royale, 1748). 4to. Without wrappers. Extracted from "Mémoires de l'Academie des Sciences. Année 1744.". Pp. 249-297 a. 1 folded engraved map (Triangles de la Meridiene de Quito).

First printing of Bouguer's first account of the famous French geodesic Mission to Perou in order to measure the lenght of the meridian arc at 3 degrees at the equator. The expedition set out in 1735. Bouguer, La Condamine, Godin and their colleagues measured arcs of the Earth’s curvature on the Equator from the plains near Quito to the southern city of Cuenca. These measurements enabled the first accurate determination of the size of the Earth, eventually leading to the establishment of the international metric system of measurement. The scientific results of the expedition were unambiguous: the Earth is indeed a spheroid flattened at the poles as was believed by Newton.
It was this Geodesic Mission, led by Bouguer and La Condamine, that gave Ecuador its name when it acheived independence in 1830. The new Quiport airport is being built directly on top of the survey baseline that they laid out in 1736.



The results of the expedition were published formally in 1749 as "La figure de la Terre, déterminée par les observations de Messieurs De la Condamine el Bouguer"

Order-nr.: 45799