DEGREE 
Meafure of a ie in Sweden, 
Mr. Swanberg’s acc of the trigonometrical operas 
tions in ner ee for ie cone of determining the value 
£ c of the meridian, is a work that ee at any time 
this degree, and that formerly meafured in 
Maupertuis, Clairault, &c. and from 
its agreement with that which refults from the late operations 
carried on in France and Sp,in. 
The fummer of the year i801 was entirely eee by 
the Swedifh aftronomers in the choice of ftations, and the 
conftruétion of fignals. ‘They then returned to Stockholm, 
to await the arrival of the circle confiruted for them by M. 
Lenoir, and the ftandards of the double metre, and of the 
toife employed in Peru, which the members of the Inftitute 
fent to the academy at Stockholin. 
The meafure of the bafe begua February the 22d, at 
Niemifby, and finithed April 1tth at Poiki rea. Bae 
were then obliged to wait for the fummer 
angles. June, ae nd Auguft we apie ey in "tel 
— - Mallorn ts the moft fouthern, and Pahta 
tion. new arc is 1° 37' 19”.56, that of vege 
57/25" or 30": the difference is to 39' 40". 
The Swedifh aflronomers, in that part of the are which 
coincided with the French, have employed the fame ftations 
for their fignals, except the Finland church at Tornea, 
which they have fubftituted for ‘the church of the = 
The fouthern are of the chain of triangles are in 
iflands of the gulf of Bothnia, and diverge but little fa 
the meridian is Kitt to ieee saad French aftronomers re- 
duced all the fides of al hept 
ing the zenith pails 
n obfi 
clock. 'Thofe to be relied on do n 
the 5th, and terminated the 2 sath. The obfervations of 
the pole- -ftar at Pahtavara commenced the 1oth of oo 
ber, and continued the rith, 18th, 23d, 24th, and 25th; 
the 26th and 27th they obferved the fame ftar below the oe 
which they had not been able to do at Mallorn. azie 
muthal obfervations were made at both extremities of the 
arc; bu wanberg has only calculated thofe of Mallorn, 
becaufe at Pahtavara he had not afcertained the rate of his 
eno for a jarce? in Hie the 
o important an elem e thoug 
obfervations at Mallorn more than fafficient, cate the 
ight effect a fmall error in the eat could produce on 
an arc of the meridian. 
e bafe was meafured with iron rods, or bars, rather more 
than fix metres in length, covered at. each extremity with 
= plates of filver, to a the effe&t which moifture 
ight have on the iron. Two lines were drawn on thefe 
meafurement, fo that thefe lines aba coincided. This 
ntermediate p tele erg computes 
(ee en that ae olisly gale from ‘thie method, and 
age the es to be a polygon inferibed in a logarithmic 
piral ; the correction appears to be too {mall a quantity to 
once notice. 
The eu hers f{upported the i iron rods being elevated 
half a metre the furface of ound, they made ufe 
of a brafs peau furnifhed with a level, to afcertain the 
{pot, where they left off, that they migh m fro 
the fame place, as the winds which blewcontinually would have 
rendered a plumb-ling of little or no ule. When they quitted 
their labours in an evening to return home, they firit made a 
heap of fnow, which they rendered as compaét as pofflible by 
reffure ; and on this placed a deal tablet, which was fur- 
rounded with {now to render it immoveable, and on which 
they marked the point where they quitted their operation. 
The bulb of the thermometer, which indicated the tempera- 
ture of the rods, was in conta& with the iron, and it was by 
no means an extraordinary anes for the mercury to 
defcend 30° below the freezing poi 
anberg imagines that he bea his bafe very age) 
at the (ae fpot with the saya academicians. But 
the opinion of M. Delambre (who is in poffeffion of a wok 
by uthier, containing particulars that M. Swanberg 
was unacquainted ia that the new bale is four feet a ane 
end t e old on no roc 
cohen aeeraitysa and their ieee to find (ome vets 
tiges of the old termination were totally ufelefs; as M. 
Maupertuis has left no indication of this {po 
The abbé Outhier fays, that the French bafe terminated in 
a fignal at the northern extremity ; and that the marks were 
croffes, but made on the bark of four fir trees, two on each 
tree, one at the height of a man, the other near the ground. 
Thefe trees formed a quadrilateral figure, the interfection: o 
the diagonals of which was the centre of the fignal. It is 
poffible that thefe trees*might no longer exift: but ene of 
them was remarkably fituated.; it flood near the cae of 
the abi and touched the inclofure o . 
a field, 
~ 
or 
: ena s bale terminated in in which he 
bales be the fame. It was divided be ween the pea- 
sae of ie villages of Lpahanigh a Rah tola; and as there 
no rock or ftone on which he could cae his boundary, 
te Gonna) at the a clsiure which feparated the poffeffions 
of thefe two villages, concluding that intereft would induce- 
them to repair this boundary, whenever it was $ inj ured. To 
with a 
nt 
ich a crofs was engraved, ey cenite a which corre- 
fponded to that of the tr 
mbre thinks, "dak if this inclofure was the fame 
with hae “deferibed by the abbé Outhier, the new bafe 
would be 10 or 12 toifes fae than that of 1736, fup- 
pofing 11 mean adding the 4 toifes at the other end, we 
fhould have about 12: toifes, that the new bafe would be 
fhorter oa the old one wanberg’s is 7414.5 
toifes, the other only 7406.8 toifes, which is, on the contrary, 
lefs by 8 toifes. 
M. Delambre fufpe@s that the new bafe was not fo 
oblique to the river as the other ; and concludes, after a very 
careful rs aan of the queftion, that neither of the ex- 
raphe ft) anberg’s bafe coincided with that of M. 
Maupertuis. Audit is his opinion ae the diffcrence between 
the degree of 1802 ard that o oes not arife from 
any error in the jae onpmieicel aaa but sar 
ly 
