French Geodesic Mission to the Equator
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (May 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (November 2011) |
The French Geodesic Mission to the Equator (French: Expédition géodésique française en Équateur), also called the French Geodesic Mission to Peru and the Spanish-French Geodesic Mission, was an 18th-century expedition to what is now Ecuador carried out for the purpose of performing an arc measurement, measuring the length of a degree of latitude near the Equator, by which the Earth's radius can be inferred. The mission was one of the first geodesic (or geodetic) missions carried out under modern scientific principles, and the first major international scientific expedition.
Background
In the 18th century, there was significant debate in the scientific community, specifically in the
Expedition
The equatorial mission was led by French astronomers Charles Marie de La Condamine, Pierre Bouguer, Louis Godin and Spanish geographers Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa. They were accompanied by several assistants, including the naturalist Joseph de Jussieu and Louis's cousin Jean Godin. La Condamine was joined in his journey down the Amazon by Ecuadoran geographer and topographer Pedro Maldonado. (Maldonado later traveled to Europe to continue his scientific work.)
The Ecuadoran expedition[N 1] left France in May 1735. They landed on the Caribbean coast in Colombia, sailed to Panama where they traveled overland to the Pacific, and continued by sail to Ecuador, then called the Territory of Quito by Spain. In Ecuador, they split into two groups, traveling overland through rain forests, arriving in Quito in June 1736.
Bouguer, La Condamine, Godin and their colleagues measured arcs of the Earth's curvature on the Equator from the plains near Quito to the southern city of
They completed their survey measurements by 1739, measuring the length of a
Bouguer returned first from the expedition, going overland to the
La Condamine tried in vain to promote the length of the seconds pendulum measured at the Equator as a universal measure of length. He was more successful with his proposal to adopt the geodetic standard used in Peru as the official standard of the toise of Paris. The toise of Peru became the royal standard of the toise in 1766 under the name Toise de l'Académie.[5][6]
Observations during the mission
- Ulloa and Juan visited the architectural Inca complex in San Agustin de Callo and subsequently wrote a descriptive document of what they observed at the ruins. Ulloa made a drawing of the ruins.[7]
- The scientists witnessed two eruptions of the Cotopaxi volcano in 1743 and 1744.[7]
- Expedition members, through talking to local inhabitants, became the first Europeans to discover and scientifically document (an important anti-malarial agent).
- Charles Marie de La Condamine developed the concept of the metre as a universal unit of measure based on the dimensions of the Earth (rather than local standards that differed and hindered trade).
Subsequent mission
In the late 19th century, the Academy of Sciences sent another mission to Ecuador at the behest of the International Association of Geodesy to confirm the results of the First Geodesic Mission and commemorate the relationship between the two republics. This second mission was led by Captain E. Maurain and several other military personnel during its tenure in Ecuador from 1901 to 1906. The only two members of the French mission to spend the entire time in Ecuador were Lieutenant (later General) Georges Perrier and medical officer Paul Rivet, later an important anthropologist and founder of the Musée de l'Homme in Paris.
Monument
A reproduction of the pyramids that marked the baseline for measurement at Yaruqui (which was destroyed by Quito authorities in the 1740s) was erected in 1836, the centennial of the expedition, by the Rocafuerte administration of the nascent republic of Ecuador. This monument fell into disrepair over the next century but was rebuilt in 1936, minus its original French inscription, for the bicentennial of the first geodesic expedition, along with a second pyramid at San Antonio de Pichincha on the Equator. These monuments still exist today. The new
In 1936, the French American Committee of Ecuador sponsored the idea of the Ecuadoran geographer Dr. Luis Tufiño and raised a monument commemorating the bicentennial of the arrival of the First Geodesic Mission. They raised a 10-meter-high monument at Ciudad Mitad del Mundo in San Antonio de Pichincha, in Pichincha Province of Ecuador. However, there is no record that the Mission ever visited the area.
There was a project to build a new pyramid exactly on the Equator, to be designed by the famed architect Rafael Viñoly (d. 2023).
Publications
- Relación histórica del viaje a la América meridional, Jorge Juan and Ulloa, 1748
- Figure de la terre determine, Bouguer, 1749
- Mesure des trois premiers degrés du méridien dans l'hémisphère austral, La Condamine, 1751
- Journal du voyage, La Condamine, 1751
- Le procès des étoiles, 1735–1771, ISBN 978-2-232-11862-3
See also
- French Geodesic Mission to Lapland
- Geodesy
- History of geodesy
- History of the metre
- Seconds pendulum
- De Lacaille's arc measurement
- Charles Marie de La Condamine#In South America
Footnotes
- ^ In the 18th century, the nation of Ecuador did not yet exist. The area was under Spanish control and was called the Territory of Quito after the city of Quito. The fame brought to the region by the French Geodesic Mission influenced the adoption of the name Republic of Ecuador when the country gained independence in 1830. This national name refers to the Earth's equator passing very close to the city of Quito, and which crosses the country from east to west. The first reference of the country on the equator was registered in Noticias Secretas de América, which referred to the lands of Ecuador as the jurisdiction of the Real Audiencia de Quito. Delegates from Guayaquil and Cuenca in the First Constituent Assembly suggested the name "Republic of Quito" which was initially scrapped, although the Spanish colony throughout the territory was known simply as Quito.
References
- ^ a b Levallois, Jean-Jacques (1986). "La Vie des sciences". Gallica. pp. 277–284, 288. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
- ^ Charles-Marie de La Condamine, Journal du Voyage fait par Ordre du Roi à l’Équateur, Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1751, pp.162-163 ; and idem, “Nouveau Projet d’une Mesure invariable propre à servir de mesure commun à toutes les Nations”, Mémoires de l’Academie Royale des Sciences, 1747, pp.489-514.
- ^ "Visitas". Observatorio Astronómico de Quito.
- ^ Ramani, Madhvi. "How France created the metric system". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
- OCLC 1009550865.
- ^ "Histoire du mètre". Direction Générale des Entreprises (DGE) (in French). Retrieved 2019-06-03.
- ^ a b "The San Agustin Story". San Agustín de Callo. 2011. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
Further reading
- "Figure of the Earth". Voyages of Discovery. Episode 4. July–August 2008. BBC.
- "Mitad del Mundo Half of the World". Ecuadorsbest.com. Archived from the original on 20 May 2012. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
- Ferreiro, Larrie D. (2011). Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition that Reshaped Our World. New York: Basic Books. OCLC 657595545. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
- Crane, Nicholas (2021). Latitude: The True Story of the World's Very First International Scientific Expedition. Michael Joseph. ISBN 978-0-241-47834-9. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
- "Historical Brief Description of the Middle of the World and Its Monument". Mitad del Mundo. c. 2002. Archived from the original on 23 January 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
- Mockler, Terry (February 2005). "Historic Cultural and Scientific Expeditions to Equator and Ecuador". Retrieved 18 November 2011.(registration required)
- Neill, David A. "Geography". Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Ecuador. Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
- O'Connor, J. J.; Robertson, E. F. (April 2003). "Jacques Cassini". Scotland: School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews. Retrieved 18 November 2011.