Observations for ascertaining the distances across the English Channel

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0117 MS/232
Held at	: Royal Society   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://royalsociety.org/collections/ ›
Full title	: Observations for ascertaining the distances across the English Channel
Date(s)	: [1821-1823]
Level of description	: Sub-fonds
Extent	: 1 volume
Name of creator(s)	: Arago | François Jean Dominique | 1786-1853 | mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician x Arago | Francesc Joan Dominic Colby | Thomas Frederick | 1784–1852 | surveyor and army officer Kater | Henry | 1777-1835 | scientist
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

In 1821–1823 Thomas Colby was deputed by the Royal Society, with Captain Henry Kater, to work with the astronomers Arago and Matthieu of the Académie des Sciences to verify observations made forty years earlier connecting the triangulations of England and France. For cross-channel observations, Fresnel lamps with compound lenses 3 feet in diameter were used, and Colby's description of them influenced Robert Stevenson to adopt them in British lighthouses. ( Source: Oxford DNB).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Observations for ascertaining the distances across the English Channel made by direction of the French and English Governments, bearing the signatures of François Arago, Henry Kater and Thomas Colby.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Open.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to Archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Sources: Oxford DNB. Copied from the Royal Society catalogue by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions:
General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Feb 2009.