NavList:

   

Reply

I know that the French made a very substantial contribution
to the development of chronometer. This is rarely discussed
in books and papers in English, Bill Morris's book is a nice exception.
I read some interesting French accounts of the story of longitude,
but it was mostly concentrated on chronmeters.

However I suspect that the French contribution to Lunar distances
was not less. So they must have had their own analog of Maskelyne.
They published their own almanac (Conaissance des temps, published
continuusly since 1679, that is almost a century before the
Nautical almanac!),
and Bougenvile tested the Lunar method on his Pacific voyage
a decade before Cook.

From time to time I see references indicating that some really
great French mathematicians contributed to "Conaissance des temps"
(There was simply no mathematicians of this caliber in England in
the second half XVIII century).

Can someone suggest any literature on the French Lunar distance story ?
Did they have their own quadrant/sextant inventor?
Did they use their reflecting circles in sea observations?

(I can read French).
Did any other nation contribute to the solution of the Longitude
problem? Spain, Holland?

Alex.

   

Reply