The Theory and Practice of Surveying: Containing All the Instructions Requisite for the Skilful Practice of This Art, With a New Set of Accurate Mathematical Tables (Classic Reprint)

Geometry imports no more than to measure the earth, or to measure the land; yet, in a larger and more proper sense, it is applied to all sorts of dimensions. It is generally supposed to have had its rise among theE gyptians, from the river Nile sdestroying and confounding all their landmarks by its annual inundations, which laid them under the necessity of inventing certain methods and measures to enable them to distinguish and adjust the limits of their respective grounds when the waters were withdrawn. And this opinion is not entirely to be rejected, when we consider that Moses is said to have acquired this art when he resided at theE gyptian court. And Achilles Tatius, in the beginning of his introduction to A ratus sP henomena, informs us that theE gyptians were the first who measured the heavens and the earth, and of course the earth first; and that their science in this matter was engraven on columns, and by that means delivered to posterity. It is a matter of some wonder, that though Surveying appears to have been the first, or at least one of the first, of the mathematical sciences, the rest have met with much greater improvements from the pens of the most eminent mathematicians, while this seems to have been neglected; insomuch that I have not been able to meet with one author who has sufficiently explained the whole art in its theory and practice. For the most part, it has been treateo! of in a practical manner only; and the few who have undertaken the theory have in a great measure omitted the practice. These considerations induced me to attempt a methodical, easy, and clear course of Surveying: how far I have succeeded in it must be determined by the impartial reader.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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