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In June 1792, the erudite and cosmopolitan Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre and the cautious and scrupulous Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain set out from Paris -- one north to Dunkirk, the other south to Barcelona to calculate the length of the meter. In the face of death threats from village revolutionary councils, superstitious peasants, and civil war, they had only their wits and their letters to each other for support. Their findings would be used to create what we now know as the metric system. Despite their painstaking and Herculean efforts, Mechain made a mistake in his calculations that he covered up. The guilty knowledge of his error drove him to the brink of madness, and in the end, he died in an attempt to correct himself. Only then was his mistake discovered. Delambre decided to seal all evidence of the error in a vault at the Paris Observatory. Two hundred year later, historian Ken Alder discovered the truth. With scintillating prose and wry wit, Alder uses these previously overlooked letters, diaries, and journals to bring to life a remarkable time when everything was open to question and the light of reason made every dream seem possible.… (altro)
This is the true story of two French scientists who triangulated their way up and down the meridian crossing France - during the French Revolution, no less - in order to determine a precise length for the meter. The author, in researching all of this, discovered that not only was there an error in their measurements - rather than being a set one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole, the first meter was about 200 micrometers too short to meet that definition - but that they had known about it and covered it up. This should be a fascinating book, but to be honest, it was dry almost to the point of being unreadable. I kept having to go back and reread paragraphs over and over again. Finally, a few chapters in, I gave up.
Ce professeur d'histoire américain a écrit ici une oeuvre magistrale. Il s'est permis de refaire le trajet à vélo des deux astronomes, Delambre et Méchain. De Paris, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre quittait vers le nord et Pierre-François-André Méchain prenait le chemin du sud. Leur objectif mesurer le monde ou, tout du moins, une partie du méridien terrestre de Dunkerque à Barcelone en passant par Paris. Cela donne un ouvrage historique plein d'humanisme où on comprend mieux l'attachement que les communautés avaient aux mesures «variables» de l'Ancien Régime, où on sent le désespoir d'un homme face à l'erreur, où les savants deviennent des scientifiques, où la mesure de la Terre devient mesure des hommes. Cette incursion dans l'histoire du mètre et de la Révolution qui l'a vu naître était une aventure palpitante. [http://rivesderives.blogspot.ca/2016/04/mesurer-le-monde-lincroyable-histoire.html] ( )
The Measure of All Things is one of the finest narrative histories I have ever read. It is beautifully written throughout, endlessly informative and meticulously documented. . . The result of this diligence, and Alder's brilliance as a writer, is a book which thrills at every level. It is at once a historical detective story, a marvellous demonstration of how science and its social context animate one another, a human drama of the highest order and a parable which proves that - as Protagoras put it 25 centuries ago - 'man is the measure of all things'.
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Fabrice showed them his passport indicating he was a barometer salesman travelling with his wares. "This goes too far!" - Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma
Dedica
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For Bronwyn and Madeline
It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Incipit
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En juin 1792, alors que la monarchie française vivait ses derniers jours et que la Terre commençait à tourner autour du nouvel axe de l'égalité révolutionnaire, deux astronomes partaient dans des directions opposées, dans une quête extraordinaire.
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In June 1792, the erudite and cosmopolitan Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre and the cautious and scrupulous Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain set out from Paris -- one north to Dunkirk, the other south to Barcelona to calculate the length of the meter. In the face of death threats from village revolutionary councils, superstitious peasants, and civil war, they had only their wits and their letters to each other for support. Their findings would be used to create what we now know as the metric system. Despite their painstaking and Herculean efforts, Mechain made a mistake in his calculations that he covered up. The guilty knowledge of his error drove him to the brink of madness, and in the end, he died in an attempt to correct himself. Only then was his mistake discovered. Delambre decided to seal all evidence of the error in a vault at the Paris Observatory. Two hundred year later, historian Ken Alder discovered the truth. With scintillating prose and wry wit, Alder uses these previously overlooked letters, diaries, and journals to bring to life a remarkable time when everything was open to question and the light of reason made every dream seem possible.
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Other than the herculean effort it took to try and "measure" a portion of a meridian, it was the story of Méchain's struggles that helped me get a better understanding of the origin of the scientific concept of "precision". He couldn't understand why repeat measurements would yield different results and died thinking he had committed a serious scientific error that he was ashamed to reveal. (