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Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse, LLD. F.R.S., late president of the American Philosophical Society, &c. : $b interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men : with an appendix, containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been publishedBarton, William

History

Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse, LLD. F.R.S., late president of the American Philosophical Society, &c. : $b interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men : with an appendix, containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been published

Name: Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse, LLD. F.R.S., late president of the American Philosophical Society, &c. : $b interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men : with an appendix, containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been published
Author: Barton, William

Barton, William

Astronomers -- Pennsylvania -- Biography; Rittenhouse, David, 1732-1796

But, to return more immediately to the doctrine of gravitation: Some
  experiments had been made by M. Boguer and M. de la Condamine, so long
  since as the year 1738, upon the Chimboraso in South-America, in order
  to test the Newtonian theory of gravity, by examining the attraction
  of mountains; and the result accorded with that theory. With a view,
  however, to establish the principle more completely, the experiments
  of Messrs. Boguer and Condamine having been made under so many
  disadvantages, as rendered the result not sufficiently accurate to be
  entirely depended on, similar experiments were made upon the Mountain
  Schehallien in Scotland, by Dr. Maskelyne, at the request of the Royal
  Society, and under the patronage of his sovereign, the present king,
  who liberally undertook to defray the expenses. From observations of
  ten stars near the zenith, he found the difference of latitudes of the
  two stations on the opposite sides of the mountain to be 54″, 6; and
  by a measurement of triangles, he ascertained the distance of the
  parallels to be 4364, 4 feet, corresponding, in that latitude, to an
  arc of the meridian of 42″, 94, which is 11″, 6 less than by
  observation: its half therefore, 5″, 8, is the effect of the
  attraction of the mountain; and from its magnitude, compared with the
  bulk of the whole earth, Dr. Maskelyne computed the mean density of
  the latter to be about double that of the mountain. “Thus,” to use the
  words of Mr. Vince, “the doctrine of _Universal Gravitation_ is firmly
  established.” The reader will find Dr. Maskelyne’s deductions from
  this experiment, in Vince’s _Complete System of Astronomy_, vol. ii.
  p. 100 and seq.

Footnote 180a:

  This extraordinary man, who was the first Plumian professor of
  astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge, was born July 10,
  1682, and died prematurely June 5, 1716.

Footnote 180b:

  The Rev. Mr. Vince, A. M. F. R. S. Plumian Professor of Astronomy and
  Experimental Philosophy, in the University of Cambridge. See his
  _Complete System of Astronomy_, vol. ii. p. 291.

Footnote 181:

  The essay signed M. W. is dated from that place.

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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse, LLD. F.R.S., late president of the American Philosophical Society, &c. : $b interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men : with an appendix, containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been published

Barton, William

Astronomers -- Pennsylvania -- Biography; Rittenhouse, David, 1732-1796

But, to return more immediately to the doctrine of gravitation: Some
  experiments had been made by M. Boguer and M. de la Condamine, so long
  since as the year 1738, upon the Chimboraso in South-America, in order
  to test the Newtonian theory of gravity, by examining the attraction
  of mountains; and the result accorded with that theory. With a view,
  however, to establish the principle more completely, the experiments
  of Messrs. Boguer and Condamine having been made under so many
  disadvantages, as rendered the result not sufficiently accurate to be
  entirely depended on, similar experiments were made upon the Mountain
  Schehallien in Scotland, by Dr. Maskelyne, at the request of the Royal
  Society, and under the patronage of his sovereign, the present king,
  who liberally undertook to defray the expenses. From observations of
  ten stars near the zenith, he found the difference of latitudes of the
  two stations on the opposite sides of the mountain to be 54″, 6; and
  by a measurement of triangles, he ascertained the distance of the
  parallels to be 4364, 4 feet, corresponding, in that latitude, to an
  arc of the meridian of 42″, 94, which is 11″, 6 less than by
  observation: its half therefore, 5″, 8, is the effect of the
  attraction of the mountain; and from its magnitude, compared with the
  bulk of the whole earth, Dr. Maskelyne computed the mean density of
  the latter to be about double that of the mountain. “Thus,” to use the
  words of Mr. Vince, “the doctrine of _Universal Gravitation_ is firmly
  established.” The reader will find Dr. Maskelyne’s deductions from
  this experiment, in Vince’s _Complete System of Astronomy_, vol. ii.
  p. 100 and seq.

Footnote 180a:

  This extraordinary man, who was the first Plumian professor of
  astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge, was born July 10,
  1682, and died prematurely June 5, 1716.

Footnote 180b:

  The Rev. Mr. Vince, A. M. F. R. S. Plumian Professor of Astronomy and
  Experimental Philosophy, in the University of Cambridge. See his
  _Complete System of Astronomy_, vol. ii. p. 291.

Footnote 181:

  The essay signed M. W. is dated from that place.

-----

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse, LLD. F.R.S., late president of the American Philosophical Society, &c. : $b interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men : with an appendix, containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been published

Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse, LLD. F.R.S., late president of the American Philosophical Society, &c. : $b interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men : with an appendix, containing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been published

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