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32.—Some Ocean Tide Measurements of the Eighteenth Century, and their Relevance Today

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

D. E. Cartwright
D. E. Cartwright
Affiliation:
National Institute of Oceanography, Wormley, Surrey
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Synopsis

After an introductory survey of seventeenth-century approaches to the subject, two important examples of tide-measuring activity in the eighteenth-century are described. The five years’ continuous observations at Brest, 1711–16, involved great perseverence in effort and accuracy. The treatment of the records by Cassini and their later retrieval by Lalande affords an interesting lesson in the publication of scientific data. The observations made at St Helena in 1761 are remarkable for having been made with high precision by leading astronomers in difficult swell conditions. Finally, a method is described of using these data to search for small differences in the oceanic tides between the eighteenth-century and the present, with a brief discussion of the results.

Type
Ocean Circulation
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , 1972 , pp. 331 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1972

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References

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