Development of Gravity Pendulums in the 19th Century: Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, Papers 34-44 On Science and Technology, Smithsonian Institution, 1966Multhauf, Robert P.
History
Development of Gravity Pendulums in the 19th Century: Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, Papers 34-44 On Science and Technology, Smithsonian Institution, 1966
Multhauf, Robert P.
Pendulum
Peirce used his pendulums in 1883 to establish a station at the
Smithsonian Institution that was to serve as the base station for the
Coast and Geodetic Survey for some years. Pendulum Peirce no. 1 was
swung at Washington in 1881 and was then taken by the party of
Lieutenant Greely, U.S.A., on an expedition to Lady Franklin Bay where
it was swung in 1882 at Fort Conger, Grinnell Land, Canada. Peirce nos.
2 and 3 were swung by Peirce in 1882 at Washington, D.C.; Hoboken, New
Jersey; Montreal, Canada; and Albany, New York. Assistant Preston took
Peirce no. 3 on a U.S. eclipse expedition to the Caroline Islands in
1883. Peirce in 1885 swung pendulums nos. 2 and 3 at Ann Arbor,
Michigan; Madison, Wisconsin; and Ithaca, New York. Assistant Preston in
1887 swung Peirce nos. 3 and 4 at stations in the Hawaiian Islands, and
in 1890 he swung Peirce nos. 3 and 4 at stations on the west coast of
Africa.[79]
The new pattern of pendulum designed by Peirce was also adopted in
France, after some years of experience with a Repsold-Bessel pendulum.
Peirce in 1875 had swung his Repsold-Bessel pendulum at the observatory
in Paris, where Borda and Cassini, and Biot, had made historic
observations and where Sabine also had determined gravity by comparison
with Kater's value at London. During the spring of 1880, Peirce made
studies of the supports for the pendulums of these earlier
determinations and calculated corrections to those results for
hydrodynamic effects, viscosity, and flexure. On June 14, 1880, Peirce
addressed the Academy of Sciences, Paris, on the value of gravity at
Paris, and compared his results with the corrected results of Borda and
Biot and with the transferred value of Kater.[80]
In the same year the French Geographic Service of the Army acquired a
Repsold-Bessel reversible pendulum of the smaller type, and Defforges
conducted experiments with it.[81] He introduced the method of measuring
flexure from the movement of interference fringes during motion of the
pendulum. He found an appreciable difference between dynamical and
statical coefficients of flexure and concluded that the "correction
formula of Peirce and Cellérier is suited perfectly to practice and
represents exactly the variation of period caused by swaying of the
support, on the condition that one uses the statical coefficient."
Defforges developed a theory for the employment of two similar pendulums
of the same weight, but of different length, and hung by the same
knives. This theory eliminated the flexure of the support and the
curvature of the knives from the reduction of observations.
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