The American Prime Meridian

The methods of computation migrated to North America with the navigators who guided the ships across the North Atlantic and the surveyors who delineated the European claims upon the continent. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Greenwich Observatory and the British Nautical Alma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inWhen Computers Were Human pp. 55 - 71
Main Author Grier, David Alan
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published Princeton Princeton University Press 24.10.2013
Subjects
Almanacs
Applied sciences
Armed forces
Astronomical instrumentation
Astronomical objects
Astronomy
Celestial coordinate systems
Engineering
Engines
Horizon coordinate system
Information resources
Information science
Machinery
Mechanical engineering
Meridian
Military operations
Military science
Nautical almanacs
Navies
Observational astronomy
Observatories
Physical sciences
Planet detection
Planets
Political science
Spherical astronomy
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Summary:The methods of computation migrated to North America with the navigators who guided the ships across the North Atlantic and the surveyors who delineated the European claims upon the continent. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Greenwich Observatory and the British Nautical Almanac served as sources of computational techniques for those traveling west. The observatory had employed Charles Mason before he departed with Jeremiah Dixon to survey the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland.¹ One of the almanac computers, Joshua Moore, emigrated to the United States and corresponded with President Thomas Jefferson on subjects mathematical.² The British Nautical Almanac itself
ISBN:9780691133829
0691133824
DOI:10.1515/9781400849369.55