THE 34001 MEASURE OF THE CIRCLE. PERFECTED IN JANUARY, 1845, BY JOHN DAVIS. PROVIDENCE: PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR. 1854. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by SABIN SMITH, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. ALSO, Copyrights secured for England, France, and Belgium, with the right of translation. THE MEASURE OF THE CIRCLE. THE USE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE MEASURE, THE globe is divided into 360 degrees; each degree into 69 miles; how can it be known what the 360th part is? A degree is a 360th part; a mile is a 69 part of a degree; a yard is a 1760th part of a mile; a foot is a third part of a yard; an inch is a twelfth part of a foot; a barleycorn is a third part of an inch. Now, these are parts which are all unknown, and have been since the world began, as may be supposed. I therefore say that all measures are imperfect, and, without a perfect quadrature of the circle, must remain so. I find the table of long measure is all imperfect, and so it is with all measurements, of all descriptions. There is nothing in shape to represent the noble works of Supremacy, known to man, that can be mathematically measured: such as land, if in a circular form; casks containing liquids; steamboat boilers ; a grindstone. These cannot, by mathematics, be correctly measured. Being encouraged to make this discovery by the large offers and appropriations by all governments, I devoted my best endeavors to effect a perfect quadrature; and have, as I believe, to the satisfaction of all who may examine my work, and to my own, beyond all possible doubt. As I have learned, this measure has been the strife and anxiety of all the most learned men that have lived since the world began; and, in defiance (3) |