Philosophical Transactions, Giving Some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenious, in Many Considerable Parts of the World. Vol. LVIII. For the Year 1768
London: Printed for L. Davis and C. Reymers, Printers for the Royal Society, 1769. Folding plates. Paper over boards with leather spine. Octavo. xii, 382, [2] pages.
First publication of Mason and Dixon’s landmark geodetic paper: “Observations for Determining the Length of a Degree of Latitude, in the Provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania, in North America” (pp. 274–328). This is the second and most mathematically rigorous of their published contributions, detailing pendulum experiments, zenith sector readings, and triangulation methods used to calibrate the colonial boundary line—now known as the Mason-Dixon Line.
The present volume includes another paper by Mason and Dixon on astronomical observations for calibration of the Royal Society's astronomical clock used in their survey. Together these papers document the astronomical and geodetic precision underpinning the Mason-Dixon boundary survey—among the earliest applications of Enlightenment science to American territorial mapping. One fold-out map shows the areas of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware involved in the Mason-Dixon survey.
Volume 58 of The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society also includes an important paper on small pox inoculation, experiments in electricity and magnetism, and much more.
Bound in blue patterned paper over boards with leather spine with five raised bands, gilt spine titles and rules. There are a few unobtrusive stamps from the Mercantile Library of Philadelphia, including one to the title page. Mild browning to textblock, some folding plates with repairs, some with short tears at folds.
Item #1956
Price: $1,250