by Ken Alder
“fit [nest] for moths”: This description of typical French inns of the region and time comes from Young, Travels, 1:40–50. Original quotation reads “nidus” instead of “nest.”
For the men of Paris: On mountain travel in the region in this period, see Serge Biffaud, Naissance d’un paysage: La montagne pyrénéenne à la croisée des regards, XVIe–XIXe siècle (Tarbes: Mauran, 1994).
Ten days later: For Alaric and Tauch, see AOP E2-19, Méchain to Lalande, 1 ventôse IV [1 March 1796].
He told Calon: For the preparations for the Perpignan baseline, see AOP E2-19, Méchain to Lalande, 1 frimaire IV [22 November 1795], 28 prairial IV [16 June 1796]. For permission to have the army engineers build the pyramids, see SHAT 3M4, Calon to Méchain, 26 messidor IV [14 July 1796]; 3M5, Calon to Méchain, 5 thermidor IV [23 July 1796]. Nor would his colleagues let Méchain conduct the pendulum measurements, as he still wished to do; see SHAT 3M4, Calon to Méchain, 28 fructidor III [14 September 1795]. On Tranchot’s use of the chain and his role in setting up the pyramid markers, see AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 9 germinal VI [29 March 1798].
“my strength no longer”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Lalande, 1 ventôse IV [1 March 1796].
“All that remains”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Lalande, 12 floréal IV [1 May 1796].
The extra work: For Méchain’s plea to do extra work, see AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 21 frimaire V [11 December 1796].
But recently Borda: On the intermediate latitudes, see AOP E2-19, Delambre to Méchain, 8 fructidor IV [25 August 1796]; AOP E2-19, Borda to Méchain, 14 messidor IV [2 July 1796].
“I know all too well”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 3 ventôse V [21 February 1797].
“I have good cause”: AOP E2-19, Borda to Méchain, 14 messidor IV [2 July 1796].
“tough luck for them” and “You were not sent”: AOP E2-19, Borda to Méchain, 12 frimaire VI [2 December 1797].
“the best and most certain” and “No matter how much”: AOP E2-19, Delambre to Méchain, 17 floréal V [6 May 1797]. See also AOP E2-19, Delambre to Méchain, 5 nivôse V [25 December 1796].
“Anyone with the least”: AOP E2-19, Delambre to Méchain, 12 frimaire IV [3 December 1795].
“After having withstood” and “Delambre works his way”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Lalande, 12 floréal IV [1 May 1796].
“hammer of the Revolutionaries”: AOP E2-19, Delambre to Méchain, 8 fructidor IV [25 August 1796]. See also AOP E2-6, Delambre, “Registre,” 20. For the tower at Morlac, see Delambre, Base, 1:74; also ADC 1L629, Delambre, “Morlac,” 26 fructidor IV [12 September 1796]; Baudat, “Au citoyen président,” [1796–97]; Delambre to Baudat, 16 vendémiaire VI [7 October 1797]; ADC 1L646, “Renseignements sur les édifices non aliénés servant à l’exercice des cultes,” X [1801–02]; “Cher: Morlac,” in Cahiers de doléances, région Centre (Dijon: Coloradoc, 1995), 3:32–33; BMR Tarbé XXI/137, Delambre, “Etat de dépense pour la mesure de la méridienne,” 1 ventôse V [19 February 1797].
Then at Arpheuille: For Arpheuille, see Delambre, Grandeur, 236.
After a run: For Delambre’s observations at Evaux, see AOP E2-19, Delambre to Borda, 4 pluviôse V [23 January 1797]; AOP MS1033c, Delambre, “Evaux,” V [winter 1796–97]; AOP E2-6, Delambre, “Registre,” 55–98; Delambre, Base, 1:250–51.
He discovered an error: On Cassini III’s error, see DLSI MSS420A, Delambre to [Calon], 27 frimaire V [17 December 1796]. For Delambre’s willingness to share data with Méchain, see AOP E2-19, Delambre to Méchain, 27 ventôse V [17 March 1797].
“No sacrifice is too great”: AOP E2-19, Delambre to Méchain, 27 ventôse V [17 March 1797].
“additional reasons”: AOP E2-19, Delambre to Borda, 4 pluviôse V [23 January 1797].
“Some of the employees”: SHAT 3M5, Calon to Méchain, 14 ventôse V [4 March 1797]. For Delambre’s pleas for funds, see DLSI MSS420A, Delambre to [Calon], 27 frimaire V [17 December 1796]; SHAT 3M5, Calon to Delambre, 19 frimaire, 5 nivôse, 10, 17 pluviôse, 2 ventôse V [9, 25 December 1796, 29 January, 5, 20 February 1797]. Granting military rank to the expedition team had not eased their burden. Officers could only collect army rations when operating near the frontiers, and Delambre had been obliged to admit that he was as far from the frontiers as it was possible to be. AOP E2-19, Delambre to Méchain, 5 nivôse V [25 December 1796]. CUS, Raynal Rouby to Delambre, 25 ventôse V [13 March 1797].
“who they say”: CUS, Lalande to Delambre, 17 March 1797. See also CUS, Lalande to Delambre, 1 March 1797.
“It is best if they think”: AOP E2-19, Delambre to Méchain, 5 nivôse V [25 December 1796]. For Delambre’s use of his own funds, see AOP E2-19, Delambre to Borda, 4 pluviôse V [23 January 1797].
Over ten thousand years: On theories of geology in this period regarding the Auvergne, see Haraldur Sigurdsson, Melting the Earth: The History of Ideas on Volcanic Eruptions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999); Carl Gustaf Bernhard, Through France with Berzelius: Live Scholars and Dead Volcanoes (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1985); G. Poulett Scrope, Memoir on the Geology of Central France (London: Longman, 1827), 120–23.
“The enemies of law”: Johannel (Commissionnaire de pouvoir exécutif du canton d’Herment) to Boutarel, 9 messidor V [27 June 1797], in Philippe Bourdin, Le Puy-de-Dôme sous le Directoire: Vie politique et esprit public (Clermont-Ferrand: Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences et Belles Lettres de Clermont-Ferrand, 1990), 268. On Delambre’s stay in Herment, see Delambre, Base, 1:79; AOP E2-6, Delambre, “Registre,” 115–17; Ambroise Tardieu, Histoire de la ville, du pays et de la baronnie d’Herment (Marseille: Laffitte, [1866]).
“Farewell, old man”: Frances Gostling, Auvergne and Its People (New York: Macmillan, 1911), 112–14. On the debate over Delambre’s signals in Bort, see AOP E2-19, Delambre to CPM, 8 messidor V [26 June 1797]; Delambre, Base, 1:79–80; Bort-les-Orgues, Histoire et tourisme (Bortles-Orgues: OTSI, 1985), 45, 85–97.
“For the ten days”: Delambre to Lalande, [thermidor V; August 1797], in Lalande, Bibliographie astronomique, 780–81.
Today’s red-coated: On farming in the Cantal region in the eighteenth century, see Albert Rigaudière, Etudes d’histoire économique rurale au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1965), 12–14; Jonathan R. Dalby, Les paysans cataliens et la Révolution française, 1789–1794 (Clermont-Ferrand: Université de Clermont-Ferrand, 1989), 74.
They mistook Delambre: On mistaking Delambre for a sorcerer, see Lakanie, “Mémoires,” 22 floréal V [11 May 1797], from Archives Départementales du Cantal, Aurillac, reprinted on the Web site of Gilbert Coudon, http://perso.infonie.fr/gilbert.coudon/delambre.htm. For general views of sorcery in the region, see Gostling, Auvergne, 239–47; Cit. Legrand, Voyage fait en 1787 et 1788 dans la ci-devant haute et basse Auvergne (Paris: Imprimerie des Sciences et Arts, III [1795]), 1:30–36.
“frauds, deceptions”: Legrand, Voyage, 1:100. On the request that Delambre report on provincial views of the metric system, see AN F12* 2103, ATPM to Delambre, 3 fructidor III [20 August 1795]. Delambre could not supply receipts to Calon because the workmen were illiterate; see DLSI MSS420A, Delambre to [Calon], 27 frimaire V [17 December 1796].
Delambre was caught: On Delambre in the rainstorm, see Delambre, Base, 1:86. On the roads of Auvergne, see Franck Imberdis, Le réseau routier de l’Auvergne au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1967).
Lizards, some a foot long: On lizards in the region, see Young, Travels, 1:28.
On August 23: On Delambre’s sighting of “Méchain’s” signal, see Delambre, Base, 1:82. Delambre wrote that he had not heard from Méchain since spring; see AOP E2-19, Delambre to CPM, 8 messidor V [26 June 1797]. For Méchain’s instructions to Tranchot, see AOP E2-19, Méchain to Tranchot, 21 messidor V [9 July 1797].
“Hic labor”: AOP E2-6, Delambre, “Registre,” 157, quoting from Virgil, Aeneid, 3:714.
Then he, Bellet: On the tower of Rodez, see Louis Bousquet, “Contribution à l’histoire du c
locher de la cathédrale de Rodez,” Procès-verbaux de la Société des Lettres, Sciences et Arts de l’Aveyron 29 (1924): 146–50; Jacques Bousquet, “La cathédrale de Rodez sous la Révolution: Philosophie du vandalisme,” Revue du Rouergue (1989): 177–205.
They completed the sightings: On Delambre’s departure for Paris, see BL, “Procès-verbaux,” 4 jour comp. V, 9 vendémiaire VI [20, 30 September 1797]. Tranchot left Rodez for Paris one day after Delambre.
EIGHT: TRIANGULATION
“Tis the same”: Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Graham Petrie, ed. (London: Penguin, [1759], 1987), 161.
She had been offered: For the history of Madame Méchain’s move into the Observatory apartments, see Méchain to Jeaurat, 17 floréal VIII [7 May 1800], in Bigourdan, “Bureau des Longitudes,” (1930); A86–88, A96–97. See also BL, “Procès-verbaux,” 27 messidor III [15 July 1795], 17 nivôse IV [7 January 1796], 2 floréal IV [6 April 1796].
Thérèse Méchain expressed: For Madame Méchain’s surprise that her husband had not written to his colleagues, see AOP E2-19, Mme. Méchain to Delambre, 20 thermidor V [7 August 1797].
“It has caused me”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 25 germinal V [14 April 1797].
“In this situation”: AOP E2-19, Méchain (Pradelles) to Delambre, 20 brumaire IV [10 November 1797].
“moral state” and “I don’t like it”: AOP E2-19, Delambre to Borda, 4 frimaire VI [24 November 1797].
Amateur astronomers: On the amateur astronomers of Carcassonne, see ADAu 3K3, Anon., “Eloge pour Fabre,” Mémorial du département de l’Aude 58 (1810): 37–45; [Isadore] Dougados, Le dernier Juge-Mage . . . de Carcassonne: Raymond de Rolland (Carcassonne: Pomiés, 1856); Gilbert Larguier et al., Cahiers de doléances audois (Carcassonne: Association des Amis des Archives de l’Aude, [1989]). On the Saint-Vincent church, see Juliette Costeplane, “L’église Saint-Vincent de Carcassonne au XVIIIe siècle,” Bulletin de la Société d’Etudes Scientifiques de l’Aude 81 (1981): 95–102. Swindburne, Travels, 2:367–72.
Méchain considered: For Méchain’s mixed recollection of this period of his life, see Méchain to Rolland, 9 nivôse X [30 December 1801], in [Isadore] Dougados, “Lettres de l’astronome Méchain à M. Rolland,” Mémoires de la Société des Arts et des Sciences de Carcassonne 2 (1856): 74–130, especially 123. Méchain lodged with “Cit. Comelerand, traiteur, près la Comédie ou la porte des Cazernes”; see AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 13 vendémiaire VII [4 October 1798].
He made a final plea: For Méchain’s request to extend his portion, see AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 27 ventôse V [17 March 1797].
“oppressed him”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 25 germinal V [14 April 1797].
He was not ready: For Calon’s promise not to show the data to anyone else, see SHAT 3M4, Calon to Méchain, 28 thermidor III [15 August 1795]. For Méchain’s plea for more time to work on his data, see AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 3 ventôse V[21 February 1797].
“Can I always”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 3 ventôse V [21 February 1797].
“I throw myself” and “If you treat me”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 27 ventôse V [17 March 1797].
“If you still have”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 3 ventôse V [21 February 1797].
“individual and civil liberty”: Larguier, Cahiers audois, 185–89. Jean-Louis Bonnet, “Le Cabardes: Population et ressources aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles,” Bulletin de la Société d’Etudes Scientifiques de l’Aude 79 (1979): 89–96; André David, Les Montagnes Noires (Carcassonne: Bonnafous, 1924).
“The unhappy Pic”: Méchain to Rolland, 2 brumaire VI [23 October 1797], in Dougados, “Lettres de Méchain,” 74.
“I will cede the terrain”: Méchain to Rolland, 4 frimaire VI [24 November 1797], in Dougados, “Lettres de Méchain,” 78. On the storm, see Claude-Joseph Trouvé, Description générale et statistique du Département de l’Aude (Paris: Didot, 1818): 148.
“aches and nervous afflictions”: Dr. Astruc in Claude Ignace Barante, Essai sur le département de l’Aude (Carcassonne: Gareng, brumaire XI [October–November 1802]), 100–102.
Delambre hurried: For the preparations for the northern baseline, see AN F17 1135, CIP, 23 thermidor III [10 August 1795]; CIP to Commission des Travaux Publiques, 10 vendémiaire IV [2 October 1795]. Also ENPC MS724, ATPM to Prony, 27 thermidor III [14 August 1795]; CUS, Lalande to [CPM], 4 fructidor III [21 August 1795]. For the tree-pruning, see Delambre, Base, 1:84–85; AOP E2-6, Delambre, “Registre,” 2:168–92. For Delambre’s final measurements, see AOP E2-6, Delambre, “Registre,” 2:168–92; E2-19, Delambre to Buache, 29 pluviôse VI [17 February 1798]. See the write-up of the baseline measurement in Décade philosophique 27 (30 prairial VI [18 June 1798]).
Each of their four rulers: For the new rulers, see Borda, “Expériences sur les règles qui ont servi à la mesure des bases,” in Delambre, Base, 3:313–36. For the various logbooks of the baseline measurement, see AOP E2-3, Tranchot, “Base de Melun,” floréal–prairial VI [May–June 1798]; AOP E2-2, Pommard, “Base de Melun,” floréal–prairial VI [May–June 1798]; Anon., “Method Employed Between Melun and Lieusaint in France,” Philosophical Magazine 1 (1798): 269–74.
“To complete such a task”: Humboldt to Zach, 3 June 1798, in E.-T. Hamy, ed., Lettres américaines d’Alexandre de Humboldt, 1798–1807 (Paris: Guilmoto, [1905]), 2–4.
“After all that has happened”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 9 germinal VI [29 March 1798].
Madame Méchain agreed: For Madame Méchain’s promise to Delambre, see AOP E2-19, Mme. Méchain to Delambre, 12 floréal VI [1 May 1798].
“Monsieur, You ask me”: AOP E2-19, Mme. Méchain to Delambre, 11 prairial VI [30 May 1798].
“intemperately”: Note appended by Delambre to AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 7 brumaire VII [28 October 1798]. Delambre confessed that he never understood the enmity Méchain had for Tranchot, although he noted that Tranchot had admitted to once having uttered a few “vivacités” to Méchain.
Now that inflation: For Delambre’s claim that the Méchain family finances had improved with the Revolution, see Delambre, Notice historique sur M. Méchain, 31.
“the millions of people”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 19 fructidor VI [5 September 1798].
“Citizen, Having completely”: AOP E2-19, Mme. Méchain to Delambre, 15 fructidor VI [1 September 1798].
News of her impending: Méchain did not leave Carcassonne for Rodez until early messidor [mid-June], well after he would have heard of his wife’s plans to come and fetch him; see AOP E2-19, Fabre to Delambre, 3 thermidor VI [21 July 1798]. Madame Méchain met her husband in Rodez on 7 July, and left him on 18 August in Rieupeyroux, during which interval he conducted his observations at those two stations. Méchain was also accompanied by Agoustenc for these stations. See Méchain’s logbook in AOP E2-10.
“the authority and supervision”: Méchain to Rolland, 5 jour comp. VI [21 September 1798], in Dougados, “Lettres de Méchain,” 85.
For his part: For Delambre’s promise to bring Méchain back to Paris, see Delambre, “Méchain,” Astronomie au dix-huitième, 761.
“malevolent persons”: Méchain to Rolland, 19 fructidor VI [5 September 1798], in Dougados, “Lettres de Méchain,” 82.
he feared the “fanaticism”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 19 fructidor VI [5 September 1798]. On the mistaking of a signal for a guillotine, see AOP E2-19, Fabre to Delambre, 15 frimaire VI [1 September 1798]. For the suspicions of local administrators about the signals, see AN F17 1135, Commissaire de Directoire de Lacaune to Admin. du dépt. du Tarn, 2 fructidor V [19 August 1797]; Commissaire de Directoire de Montredon to Admin. du dépt. du Tarn, 5 fructidor V [22 August 1797]. Méchain in Delambre, Base, 1:306–7.
“a sorcerer who had come”: Jeanne Bardou (p.18), in Remy Cazals, Autour de la Montagne Noire au temps de la Révolution, 1774–1799 (Carcassonne: CLEF, 1989), 11–20. Bardou was recounting what her two servants
had told her about the surveyor Pierre de Lalande (no known relation to Jérôme Lalande).
“I renounce it all”: Méchain to Rolland, 5 jour comp. VI [21 September 1798], in Dougados, “Lettres de Méchain,” 87. On the militia to guard at the Montalet site, see ADT L210, Commissaire de Lacaune, 29 thermidor VI [16 August 1798]; L266, idem, 11, 14, 17, fructidor, 2 jour comp. VI [28, 31 August, 3, 18 September 1798].
“I have spent all my time”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 19 fructidor VI [5 September 1798].
The Grande Route: On the Perpignan road, see ADPO L1105, Saussine, “Dépt. de Pyrénées-Orientales, Ponts et Chaussées,” 18 nivôse VI [7 January 1798]; see also Jacques Freixe, “Tracé de la voie Domitienne de Narbonne à Gerona,” Revue d’histoire et d’archéologie du Roussillon 2 (1901): 387–405; 3 (1902): 202–16, 285–317; Pierre Ponsich, “Les voies antiques du Roussillon et de la Cerdagne,” in Les routes du sud de la France: De l’antiquité à l’époque contemporaine, Colloque Montpellier, 1985 (Paris: CTHS, 1985), 91–105.
“the most barren”: Swindburne, Travels, 1:2.
While his assistants: For the Perpignan baseline, see AOP E2-6, Delambre, “Registre,” 255–318; AOP E2-4, Pommard, “Base de Perpignan,” thermidor–fructidor VI [August–September 1798]; AOP E2-5, Tranchot, “Base de Perpignan,” thermidor–fructidor VI [August–September 1798]. For the results, see ASPV 21 (21 brumaire VII [11 November 1798]): 492. The match of the two measurements was mostly due to compensating errors; see Levallois, Mesurer la terre, 64.
“Only one obstacle”: ENPC MS724, Delambre to Prony, 4 jour comp. VI [20 September 1798].
“Our poor Méchain” and “You keep telling me”: CUS, Lalande (Gotha) to Delambre, 19 August 1798.
“The truth is”: AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 19 fructidor VI [5 September 1798].
The signal at Saint-Pons: For the mountain road to Saint-Pons, described as “extremely difficult” in the eighteenth century, see J. Sahuc, Saint-Pons: Dictionnaire topographique et historique (Paris: Res Universis, 1993), 12–13. But Méchain admitted he was located only a three-hour ride up from town; see AOP E2-19, Méchain to Delambre, 29 fructidor VI [15 September 1798].