MUDGE, WILLIAM. - FIRST MEASUREMENT OF AN ARC OF THE MERIDIAN IN ENGLAND.

An Account of the Measurement of an Arc of the Meridian, extending from Dunnose, in the Isle of Wright, Latitude ....,to Clifton in Yorkshire, Latitude.., in the coursee of the Opertions carried on foor the Trigonometrical Survey of England, in the years 1800, 1801, and 1802. Read June 23, 1803.

(London, W. Bulmer and Co., 1803). 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" 1803 - Part II. Pp. 383-508 and 8 engraved plates (3 folio size and folded, 1 map), depicting the apparatus for measuring. 4 plates with some marginal brownspots.

First appearance of an importent paper, which contributed to the discussion of the dimension of the earth.

William Mudge was appointed in 1791 to the ordnance trigonometrical survey, and became superintendent of the survey in 1798 and in that same year was also elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Shortly afterwards, he completed the first ever measurement of an arc of meridian stretching from Dunnose on the Isle of Wight to Clifton in Yorkshire. This was regarded as a very considerable advance in the scientific work of what had by then become the Ordnance Survey and contributed significantly to the international debate about the precise figure of the earth.

Order-nr.: 45886