The physicist’s peregrinations

• Main Author: Gratzer, Walter
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 2002
• Subjects: North Pole
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192804037.003.0167; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52577682/isbn-9780192804037-book-part-167.pdf

Abstract If the French revolutionaries cut off Antoine Lavoisier’s head, declaring that the Revolution had no need for scholars [90], the Republic nevertheless upheld the primacy of reason and encouraged the growth of science and technology. One of its monuments is the metric system of measurement, which succeeded in all spheres except that of time. The standard of length laid down, the metre, was to be one ten-millionth of the separation of the North Pole from the Equator along the Paris meridian. The Bureau des Longitudes was charged in 1806 with determining this length with the greatest possible precision. Some preliminary measurements based on the distance from Dunkirk to Barcelona were made and a provisional metre bar already reposed in Paris, but greater certainty was demanded: the measurements were to be extended to the Balearic Islands, through which the meridian also ran, passing south from Barcelona. Dominique François Jean Arago (1786-1853) and Jean-Baptiste Biot (1774-1862) were chosen for the task; Arago was then 20, Biot 12 years older.