Unless the instrument, which is now called Gunter's scale, be much
altered from what it originally was, it is difficult to understand on
what grounds Salusbury charges Gunter with plagiarism from Galileo's
Compass. He declares that he has closely compared the two, and can find
no difference between them.[28] There has also been some confusion, by
several writers, between this instrument and what is now commonly called
the Proportional Compass. The latter consists of two slips of metal
pointed at each end, and connected by a pin which, sliding in a groove
through both, can be shifted to different positions. Its use is to find
proportional lines; for it is obvious that the openings measured by each
pair of legs will be in the same proportion in which the slips are
divided by the centre. The divisions usually marked on it are calculated
for finding the submultiples of straight lines, and the chords of
submultiple arcs. Montucla has mentioned this mistake of one instrument
for the other, and charges Voltaire with the more inexcusable error of
confounding Galileo's with the Mariner's Compass. He refers to a
treatise by Hulsius for his authority in attributing the Proportional
Compass to Burgi, a Swiss astronomer of some celebrity. Horcher also has
been styled the inventor; but he did no more than describe its form and
application. In the frontispiece of his book is an engraving of this
compass exactly similar to those which are now used.[29] To the
description which Galileo published of his compass, he added a short
treatise on the method of measuring heights and distances with the
quadrant and plumb line. The treatise, which is printed by itself at the
end of the first volume of the Padua edition of Galileo's works,
contains nothing more than the demonstrations belonging to the same
operations. They are quite elementary, and contain little or nothing
that was new even at that time.
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