306 FHItOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I676, 



latitude between those two cities, a little calculation makes it appear, that one 

 degree of a great circle, measured on the earth, is 367 1 96 of our feet, in round 

 numbers 367200, or 22234 poles, which make 556 furlongs and 14 poles, or 

 6gi English miles and 14 poles, 8 furlongs to a mile, and 40 poles to a fur- 

 long. Which being compared to that measure of a degree, which is delivered 

 in the above-mentioned French discourse, will be found to come very near it, 

 they finding 73 miles nearly, at 5000 feet to an English mile, which make 

 365000 feet; whereas the 6g^ English miles and 14 poles, found by Mr. Nor- 

 wood, amount to 367 200 feet, reckoning 5280 feet to an English mile, as the 

 true measure of it is ; whence the difference between these two measures ap- 

 pears to be no more than 2200 feet, which is not half an English mile by 440 

 feet. 



From hence the whole circumference, as also the diameter and semidiameter 

 of the said terraqueous globe, according to this measure may be easily found, 

 viz. 



The circumference 25056 miles. 



The diameter 7966.* 



Observations made of the late Solar Eclipse on the 1st of June, 1676, 0. S. 



N° 126, p. 637. 



1st. By Francis Smethwich, Esquire, as follows, 



h. m. 

 The beginning of the eclipse at Westminster. ... 7 50 



The end was at 9 54^- 



Therefore the whole duration was 2 44 



The times taken by a pendulum clock, vibrating seconds, and corrected by 

 observations. 



The telescope a good one, of 7-|- feet. 



* This measurement of the earth at so early a date^ by our countryman Norwood, is very ingeni- 

 ously devised, and simply executed, reflecting on him considerable credit as an individual, whose 

 means and convenience for tlie performance were small and humble. The deviation from an accu- 

 rate result is also not so considerable as might be expected firom the rude manner of his measuring 

 with a chain, in all directions along the high road, to the right and left, as well as up and down hill, 

 and sometimes only by pacing or stepping the distances. It seems however he did not make a sufli- 

 cient allowance for those zigzag directions and estimations, as his conclusion gives the mean length of 

 a degree of latitude too much by almost half a mile, viz. 69^ miles to a degree, instead of -69-^, as 

 deduced from many later and more accurate measurements. Of these a ftdl account is given in ray 

 [Dr. Huttoris] Philosophical Dictionary, under the articles degree and earih, where the particulars 

 , relating to them may be seen. 



