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Authors: Robert Whitaker
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measurements—given that any bulging or flattening at the equator was not very pronounced—would render their findings meaningless.
These preparations had left Godin buoyed with optimism. Halley had voiced his enthusiasm for the mission, and Graham had been eager to lend his expertise. The willingness of the English to contribute to the expedition was evidence that this scientific excursion truly was, as the French Academy had so often claimed, “of interest to all nations.” Godin expected that he would be gone fromhis wife and two children for three or four years at most, not an unreasonable time for an expedition that involved travel to such a distant place.
Pierre Bouguer.
By Jean-Baptiste Perroneau. Louvre, Paris, France. Bridgeman Art Library .
Unfortunately, Bouguer, thirty-seven years old, was not similarly enthused—or at least he did not want anyone to think he was. He had been quite clear with the academy: Because of his weak health and his hearty“dislike for sea voyages,” he had told them, he had “no intention of taking part in such an enterprise.” But other academy members had begged off, and Bouguer, once he had milked the situation for a dollop of flattery from his peers, had grudgingly agreed to go. And the mission, it was true, was certain to benefit from his scientific acumen. A child prodigy in math, he had been made a royal professor of hydrography at age fifteen. Over the next twenty years, he had written on such diverse topics as the bestmethod for rigging sailing ships, the making of celestial observations at sea, and the use of a barometer to determine altitudes. He was both a perfectionist and a sourpuss, traits not uncommon to brilliant minds, and the academy, partly to convince him to join the expedition, had made him its “resident astronomer.” This was a title that assured Bouguer the trip would be worth his while—if successful, the lion’s share of the scientific credit would probably be his.
La Condamine, thirty-four, was in many ways the antithesis of Bouguer. Although he was not the equal of either Godin or Bouguer as a scientist, he was a fearless adventurer who loved nothing more than finding himself in a difficult spot in a foreign country. He came from a wealthy family with ties to the Bourbon monarchy; his father was a district tax collector. As a youth, he had been an indifferent student, and at age eighteen he had left the academic world in order to join the military, eager to fight in an ongoing campaign against Spain. There, he had become famous for his relentless curiosity. At the siege of Rosas in the Pyrenees, he had climbed a hill and set up a telescope to observe the battle, his scarlet coat making him such a visible target that enemy soldiers immediately blasted away. His fellow French soldiers had to beg him to come down, uncertain whether to applaud his bravery or to chide him for his recklessness.
Although La Condamine escaped that day, the war left him physically marked. Struck by smallpox during the campaign, the“extensive scarification of his face” made him horribly shy around women, observed his academy biographer, Jacques Delille. “It did not occur to him that he might be pleasing to anyone, and he was still naïve enough to think that one could do without being cared for.” For a time after the war, La Condamine devoted all his energies to science, and in 1730 he was admitted to the academy as an assistant chemist. But ever the restless type, he grew bored with laboratory science and turned his attention to geography, a discipline that would give him an opportunity to travel. He sailed with a French naval fleet to the Barbary Coast, a trip that turned into a year-long tour of northern Africa and the Middle East. In Turkey,he was arrested for refusing to pay a bribe solicited by an official in the port of Bassa. He was so enraged that following his release, he traveled to Constantinople to demand an apology. He remained there for five
These preparations had left Godin buoyed with optimism. Halley had voiced his enthusiasm for the mission, and Graham had been eager to lend his expertise. The willingness of the English to contribute to the expedition was evidence that this scientific excursion truly was, as the French Academy had so often claimed, “of interest to all nations.” Godin expected that he would be gone fromhis wife and two children for three or four years at most, not an unreasonable time for an expedition that involved travel to such a distant place.
Pierre Bouguer.
By Jean-Baptiste Perroneau. Louvre, Paris, France. Bridgeman Art Library .
Unfortunately, Bouguer, thirty-seven years old, was not similarly enthused—or at least he did not want anyone to think he was. He had been quite clear with the academy: Because of his weak health and his hearty“dislike for sea voyages,” he had told them, he had “no intention of taking part in such an enterprise.” But other academy members had begged off, and Bouguer, once he had milked the situation for a dollop of flattery from his peers, had grudgingly agreed to go. And the mission, it was true, was certain to benefit from his scientific acumen. A child prodigy in math, he had been made a royal professor of hydrography at age fifteen. Over the next twenty years, he had written on such diverse topics as the bestmethod for rigging sailing ships, the making of celestial observations at sea, and the use of a barometer to determine altitudes. He was both a perfectionist and a sourpuss, traits not uncommon to brilliant minds, and the academy, partly to convince him to join the expedition, had made him its “resident astronomer.” This was a title that assured Bouguer the trip would be worth his while—if successful, the lion’s share of the scientific credit would probably be his.
La Condamine, thirty-four, was in many ways the antithesis of Bouguer. Although he was not the equal of either Godin or Bouguer as a scientist, he was a fearless adventurer who loved nothing more than finding himself in a difficult spot in a foreign country. He came from a wealthy family with ties to the Bourbon monarchy; his father was a district tax collector. As a youth, he had been an indifferent student, and at age eighteen he had left the academic world in order to join the military, eager to fight in an ongoing campaign against Spain. There, he had become famous for his relentless curiosity. At the siege of Rosas in the Pyrenees, he had climbed a hill and set up a telescope to observe the battle, his scarlet coat making him such a visible target that enemy soldiers immediately blasted away. His fellow French soldiers had to beg him to come down, uncertain whether to applaud his bravery or to chide him for his recklessness.
Although La Condamine escaped that day, the war left him physically marked. Struck by smallpox during the campaign, the“extensive scarification of his face” made him horribly shy around women, observed his academy biographer, Jacques Delille. “It did not occur to him that he might be pleasing to anyone, and he was still naïve enough to think that one could do without being cared for.” For a time after the war, La Condamine devoted all his energies to science, and in 1730 he was admitted to the academy as an assistant chemist. But ever the restless type, he grew bored with laboratory science and turned his attention to geography, a discipline that would give him an opportunity to travel. He sailed with a French naval fleet to the Barbary Coast, a trip that turned into a year-long tour of northern Africa and the Middle East. In Turkey,he was arrested for refusing to pay a bribe solicited by an official in the port of Bassa. He was so enraged that following his release, he traveled to Constantinople to demand an apology. He remained there for five
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