Hiflory of AJlrononiy for the Year 1800. 107 



ricd his zeal and munificence fo far as to caiife to be con- 

 llruAedj for Mr. Wiirm^ atelcfcope of 7 feet, that he may be 

 enabled to gratify his tafte and to cxercife his talents for aftro- 

 noniy. The duke of Gotha has obtained alfo from Paris an 

 equatorial inftrument by Ramfden, the circles of which are an 

 inch in diameter, and which is accurate to 30^''. It is that 

 Avhich I caufed to be made for Bergeret, and which was 

 afterwards purchafed by Patu de INIello, who had a fingular 

 though barren tafte for pofTefling fine inftruments and good 

 books. Belides others, he had the obfervations of Hevelius, of 

 which only ninety copies were left, the reH:of the edition having 

 been burnt by the villainy of an infamous wretch in 1679, 

 This volume has been purchafed by C. Labbey, profeflbr of 

 mathematics in the central fchool of the Pantheon, with all 

 the other works of Ilevelius, which he is worthy to poflefs. 



Patu de Mello had two equatorials, excellent achromatic 

 telefcopcs, and beautiful clocks ; but he would never fuflcr 

 any one to ufe them, nor even to fee them. In this rcfpe6l 

 he was very different from the prefident Du Saron, who took 

 a pleafure in lending his moil valuable inftruments ; and 

 from Bcrgeret, who lent us his large mural quadrant for the 

 Military School, where it ftill remains. 



Troughton has already made fifty circles in imitation of 

 ours, with fome changes and ufeful improvements. He did 

 not think that his being an Engliihman ought to prevent 

 him from taking advantage of an invention which principally 

 belongs to France. 



The king of Pruflia has granted 20,000 francs to the ob- 

 fervatory of Berlin, wdiere M. Bode was in want of many 

 important articles. A meridian telefcope of 3 ' feet, by Dol- 

 lond, has been procured ; and a new hall has been prepared 

 above that where I erefted the mural in 1751. A defcrip- 

 tion and figure of this obfervatory may be feen in Bode's 

 Ephemerides for 1804. 



Adjutant-commandant Abancourt is employed, by order 

 ©f the commander in chief, in conIlru6ling a map of Bavaria 

 on the fame fcale as the large map of France ; and he has 

 fcnt us the foundations of his labour. This map will conned 



O i with 



