A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume 1 (of 2)Beckmann, Johann
History
A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume 1 (of 2)
Beckmann, Johann
Inventions -- History
In the same collection is an odometer which Augustus, elector of
Saxony, who reigned between the years 1553 and 1586, employed in
measuring his territories. This instrument is mentioned by Beutel[19],
without naming the inventor; but I think it very probable that it
was made by Martin Feyhel, who was born at Naumburg, and resided at
Augsburg; as Von Stetten[20] relates, in his History of the Arts at
Augsburg, that Feyhel made a way-measurer (probably odometer) for the
elector of Saxony, and that he himself called it a new instrument never
before heard of. This artist was an intimate friend of the celebrated
Christopher Schissler, also of Augsburg, who in 1579 constructed a
quadrant, still to be found at Oxford; and in 1606 an armillary sphere,
still preserved at Augsburg.
The emperor Rudolphus II., who reigned from 1576 to 1612, and who was
fond of, and acquainted with, the mechanical arts, possessed two very
curious odometers, which not only pointed out distances, but also
marked them down on paper by the way. The description and use of one
of these is given by De Boot[21], who was that prince’s librarian; and
what he says has been copied by Kircher[22], and illustrated with a
coarse figure. It is not improbable that the before-mentioned Schissler
was the maker of this instrument, as we are informed by Stetten that
he constructed a great many machines and automata for the emperor
Rudolphus II. The other odometer, which was much more curious, appears
to have been constructed by that emperor himself[23].
About the end of the 17th century, an artist in England, named
Butterfield, invented an odometer which met with great approbation. In
the first volume of the Philosophical Transactions there are two papers
written by this ingenious man; but of his odometer I have not yet been
able to find a description.
In the beginning of the last century, Adam Frederick Zurner, to whom
we are indebted for good maps of the electorate of Saxony, invented
also an odometer, or geometrical carriage, a description and figure of
which, taken from Schramm’s Saxonia Monumentis Viarum illustrata, is
given by Nicolai. This instrument is not now to be found in the Dresden
collection.
In Bion’s Treatise on the construction of mathematical instruments,
improved by Doppelmayer, there is a description of a pedometer, and the
author praises a new invention by one Sauveur.
In the year 1724 Meynier laid before the Royal Academy of Sciences
at Paris an odometer, a short account of which, without a figure, is
given in the history of the Academy for that year. This machine was
afterwards improved by Outhier; and a description of the improvements,
but without any figure, is to be found in the history of the Academy
for 1742. A full description, together with a figure, may however
be seen in a work, entitled Machines et Inventions approuvées par
l’Académie, t. vii.
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