MDDM Ch. 78 Longitude Tables

[Dave Monroe]

"Mason will go back to waking day after day in
Sapperton, piecing together odd cash jobs for the
Royal Society, reductions for Maskelyne's Almanack,--"
(M&D, Ch. 76, p. 748)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0209&msg=70658&sort=date

   "His efforts at refining the Longitude tables of
Mayer avoided any risk of looking into the real
Sky,--as if, against his father's wishes having once
studied the Stars, now, too late, he were renouncing
them,--" (M&D, Ch. 78, p. 762)

   "His principal income in those years came from
pen-and-paper Work, laborious, pre-mechanickal, his
only instrument a set of Logarithmick Tables,--
reducing and perfecting Mayer's solar and lunar Data. 
These formed the basis of the Nautical Almanac, which
Maskelyne edited, and in whose Introduction the A.R.
was generous in acknowledging Mason's work.'" (M&D,
Ch. 78, p. 768)


"Mayer's solar and lunar Data"

"Tobias Mayer (1723-62) developed the lunar tables for
navigation. The tables were published in the Nautical
Almanac from 1767-1908."

http://staff.dhi.dk/tkn/images/bol-04.jpg

http://www.pa.msu.edu/people/horvatin/Images/pictures/Mayer_Tobias.jpg

http://54.1911encyclopedia.org/M/MA/MAYER_JOHANN_TOBIAS.htm

http://home.t-online.de/home/m.holl/mayer.htm

http://chronomath.irem.univ-mrs.fr/chronomath/Mayer.html

But see as well ...

http://www.colorsystem.com/projekte/engl/09meye.htm

http://www.rudiviertel.de/mayer.htm


"the Nautical Almanack"

"As a beneficiary of the old boys' network, Maskelyne
always manages to be in the right place at the right
time.  Mason is deeply resentful of his successes and
sees himslef as far more deserving.  He concludes that
Makselyne has abused and exploited him.  Mason is
especially upset about Maskelyne's appointment to AR
....   Their relationship ends with a hateful
exchange. (770-771)  In a great irony, Maskelyne
edited Mason's corrections of Mayer's Lunar Tables in
1787, a year after Mason's death." (Clerc, Mason &
Dixon & Pynchon, Ch. VI, p. 79)

   "Charles Mason continued to work for the
observatory under Maskelyne's direction.  Sponsored by
the Board of Longitude and using the late James
Bradley's observations, he compiled a catalog of 387
stars that was included in the Nautical Almanac for
1773.  He also made further corrections to Mayer's
lunar atbles for the Board of Longitude comparing the
results with his own comparisons from 1,220 of Dr.
Bradley's 'places of the moon.'  These latter were
published in the Almanac for 1774 and continued to be
included many years later.  His last major publication
was in 1778 as 'Lunar Tables in Longitude and Latitude
According to the Newtonian Laws of Gravity.' (Danson,
Drawing the Line, Ch. 21, p. 199)

"He had recieved a paltry 1,317 [pounds] from the
Board of Longitude for his diligent work on the
nautical tables ....  He had grown embittered toward
the scientific community he had served so well and
resentful toward Maskelyne and the Board of Longitude,
which was dominated by learned men of rank and
consequence.  Neither was he honored by the Royal
Society with a fellowship, unlike his friend Dixon."
(idem., p. 201)

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A catalogue of 387 stars, calculated by Mason from
Bradley's observations, was annexed to the Nautical
Almanac for 1773, and he corrected Mayer's 'Lunar
Tables', on behalf of the Board of Longitude
(Maskelyne as serving head), in 1772, 78, and 80.
Results of his comparisons with 1220 of Bradley's
places of the moon were given in the 'Nautical
Almanac' for 1774, and finally revised 'Tables',
printed in London in 1787, continued long to be the
best extant. Payment of 1,000 pounds for the work fell
far short, according to Lalande, of Mason's
expectations.... 

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/extra/mason_bio.html

And see also ...

www.ddl.org/figtree/pub/fig_2002/HS1/HS1_danson.pdf

http://www.mala.bc.ca/~mcneil/somerville/47.pdf

But note as well ...

"Hutchinson protested that 'MASKAYNES [Maskelyne's]
Nautical Almanack' was useless for skilled masters
competent to sail round the world but unable 'to
understand the characters, signs, and terms, &c....
which terms, &c. are in an unknown tongue to one who
is a mere English reader.'" (Fara, Sympathetic
Attractions, Ch. 5, p. 144)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0209&msg=70658&sort=date

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
> 762.13 the Longitude tables of Mayer [...] 768.31
> the Nautical Almanack
> http://www.math.hcmuns.edu.vn/~algebra/history/history/Mathematicians/Mayer_Tobias.html

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