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000801936 010__ $$a  2016040039
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000801936 05000 $$aQB224$$b.W58 2017
000801936 08200 $$a527/.2$$223
000801936 1001_ $$aWithers, Charles W. J.,$$eauthor.
000801936 24510 $$aZero degrees :$$bgeographies of the Prime Meridian /$$cCharles W.J. Withers.
000801936 264_1 $$aCambridge, Massachusetts :$$bHarvard University Press,$$c2017.
000801936 300__ $$ax, 321 pages :$$billustrations ;$$c25 cm
000801936 336__ $$atext$$btxt$$2rdacontent
000801936 337__ $$aunmediated$$bn$$2rdamedia
000801936 338__ $$avolume$$bnc$$2rdacarrier
000801936 504__ $$aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 275-308) and index.
000801936 5050_ $$aIntroduction: one line to rule the world -- Geographical confusion -- Absurd vanity : the world's prime meridians before c.1790 -- Declarations of independence: prime meridians in America, c.1784-1884 -- Global unity? -- International standards?: metrology and the regulation of space and time, 1787-1884 -- Globalizing space and time: getting to Greenwich, c.1870-1883 -- Greenwich ascendant: Washington 1884 and the politics of science -- Geographical afterlives -- Washington's afterlife: the prime meridian and universal time, 1884-1925 -- Conclusion: ruling space, fixing time.
000801936 520__ $$aSpace and time on earth are regulated by the Prime Meridian, 0°, which is, by convention, based at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. But the meridian's location in southeast London is not a simple legacy of Britain's imperial past. Before the nineteenth century, more than twenty-five different prime meridians were in use around the world, including Paris, Beijing, Greenwich, Washington, and the location traditional in Europe since Ptolemy, the Canary Islands. Charles Withers explains how the choice of Greenwich to mark 0° longitude solved complex problems of global measurement that had engaged geographers, astronomers, and mariners since ancient times. Withers guides readers through the navigation and astronomy associated with diverse meridians and explains the problems that these cartographic lines both solved and created. He shows that as science and commerce became more global and as railway and telegraph networks tied the world closer together, the multiplicity of prime meridians led to ever greater confusion in the coordination of time and the geographical division of space. After a series of international scientific meetings, notably the 1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, Greenwich emerged as the most pragmatic choice for a global prime meridian, though not unanimously or without acrimony. Even after 1884, other prime meridians remained in use for decades. As Zero Degrees shows, geographies of the prime meridian are a testament to the power of maps, the challenges of accurate measurement on a global scale, and the role of scientific authority in creating the modern world.--$$cProvided by publisher.
000801936 650_0 $$aMeridians (Geodesy)$$xHistory.
000801936 650_0 $$aGeographical positions$$xHistory.
000801936 651_0 $$aPrime Meridian$$xHistory.
000801936 85200 $$bgen$$hQB224$$i.W58$$i2017
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000801936 980__ $$aBIB
000801936 980__ $$aBOOK