The Measure of All Things. The Seven-Year Odyssey that Transformed the World
Alder, Ken.
Little, Brown, London / New York, 2002
ISBN: 0316859893
€ 8,00
22.5 x 14 cm, hardcover, xii, (2) 466 pages, portraits, some ill. Text in English, no dust jacket, paper browned, very good condition, see picture.
Historical account of the French scientists Jean-Baptiste Delambre and Pierre Méchain, who undertook the late 18th-century expedition to measure the meridian arc between Dunkirk and Barcelona, leading to the creation of the metric system. A detailed narrative of science, politics, and revolution.