EXPEDITIONS OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 1735

Seymour L. Chapin

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	In the year 1735 an order, aimed at resolving the controversy over the shape of the Earth, was dispatched from the Court of Louis XV to the French Academy of Sciences. Its authors, the Count de Maurepas and the Cardinal de Fleury, felt that the interests of both navigation and the Academy were concerned in the undertaking. Navigation, being to a large extent dependent upon accurate maps, could not advance beyond the inaccurate foundation of the cartography of the period. This difficulty was further accentuated by the fact that navigation in this period was reliant solely upon the observation of latitude, the determination of longitude at sea still being the subject of research.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 3, Number 4
Pages:	120 - 122
Cite this article:	Chapin, Seymour L., "EXPEDITIONS OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 1735", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1952-1953, pp. 120-122.
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