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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

Dividing the Circle examines the history of angular measuring instruments, and their central role in astronomy from 1500-1850. During this period the principal intellectual interests in astronomy focused upon the ability of astronomers to measure angles with increasing precision in the course of particular research investigations such as the Earth's motion in space, its oblate shape and the Newtonian laws of gravitation.

In his book, the author emphasises the important link that existed between astronomical theory and the need to develop progressively improved technologies whereby the theory could be tested and validated. He describes the detailed development of workshop techniques in the graduation and manufacture of precision scientific instruments, and the close relationship existing between academic astronomers and the craftsmen who advanced the parameters of accuracy.

(Extracted from the back cover).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Preface.

-Acknowledgements.

-List of Plates.

-1- Instruments and History.

-2- The Tychonic School and Its Approach to Instrumentation.

-3- John Flamsteed and the Astronomy of the "Great Catalogue".

-4- Dividing as a High Art.

-5- The Techniques of Eighteen-Century Positional Astronomy.

-6- The Achievements of Eighteen-Century Positional Astronomy.

-7- The Precision Graduation of Full Circles.

-8- Dividing the Circle.

-9- The London Scientific Instrument-Making Trade.

-10- The Technical Frontier; Astronomical Instruments and the Cosmological Framework.

-11- The Archaelogy of the Graduated Scale.

-Appendix 1: The Practical Operation of the Dividing Engine.

-Appendix 2: A Victorian "Garret Master's" Dividing Machine?

-Appendix 3: The Radcliffe Equatorial Sector of 1775: John Bird's Last Instrument.

-Notes and References.

-Select Bibliography.

-Index.

OUR REVIEW

This is the second edition of a very interesting book about some of the instruments that caused a revolution in positional astronomy for almost four centuries. With respect to its former publication in 1990, this one adds new illustrations, an updated bibliography and two appendixes.

Allan Chapman, the autor, obtained his B.A. in History at the University of Lancaster in 1972, and his D. Ph. in History of Science at University of Oxford in 1983. With this background Chapman is fully prepared to show us the fascinating history of the development of some of the measurement systems that would settle the basis of our current knowledge of the universe. The work is aimed at those readers interested in the history of science, engineering and technology, both the prefessional and the amateur ones.

As nearly always in the early years of astronomy, the greatest advances in this science were due to the individual effort of several geniuses to whom Humanity owes a lot. With respect to instrumentation and measurement, Chapman shows us this was precisely the case, and tells us in a concise way the work of some of these men.