International Institution for
the History of Surveying and Measurement
A Permanent Institution within the International
Federation of Surveyors (FIG)
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Personalities
in History
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Matthew Flinders, a British Hydrographer.
Lincoln Cathedral, United Kingdom. Courtesy of Grahame Lindsay. |
Efforts are being made to maintain brief
details of those individuals over the centuries who have made a contribution
to the development of surveying and mapping. Outline biographies
concentrating on those aspects that are pertinent together with brief
details of birth, family, death etc are being accumulated as information
becomes available. The listing at present contains some 1500 names with
entries varying from a line or two to several pages. The names cover
surveyors, mathematicians, astronomers etc who in some way or other have
contributed to the progress of theory, practise, instrument manufacture and
the like relating to surveying particularly in the field of geodesy.
Together with the potted biographies, summaries are being compiled of the
individual's contribution whether it be a publication or details of notable
field work eg the measurement of a meridian arc, inter-comparision of
measurement standards, pendulum observations, development of a theory,
calculation of a figure for the earth etc.
Anyone wishing to offer material for
inclusion in this compilation should contact
jim@smith1780.freeserve.co.uk
Among useful reference works are:
Dictionary
of Land Surveyors and Local Mapmakers of Great Britain and Ireland 1530-1850.
2 vol. Sarah Bendall 1997 The British library. ISBN 0 7123 4509 4
The
History of the theories of attraction and the Figure of the Earth. 2
vol. I Todhunter. 1873. Macmillan and Co.
With
Compass and Chain. Early American Surveyors and Their Instruments. S
Bedini. 2001. Professional Surveyors Publishing Company Inc. 774 pages. ISBN
0-9665120-0-6
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