The Rhetoric of Accuracy
The Paris-Greenwich triangulation increased the efficiency and reliability of surveying. At the same time the praises and promises of accuracy that surrounded it served as rhetorical devices, upholding the close relationship between scientific and technological applications of precision measurement. William Roy's accomplishment depended on his command of both the rhetorical and technological resources of accuracy.
The eminent metrologist Jean André Deluc had stated: "We are obliged to take up with probability in Nature in so many respects, that it is perhaps of more importance to us to investigate the physical rules of probability than to attend to its mathematical rules upon hypotheses." Deluc advocated that research be directed toward precision measurement rather than mathematical analysis of error, and he predicted that "we shall be led to seek for exactness in every thing."[49] Roy, who knew Deluc's work well, acted on this metrological precept. He treated every measurement with extreme care, but as an isolated event, and he did not take the accumulation of possible errors into account even when estimates of the precision of individual measurements might have been made. Like his contemporaries, Roy did not think in terms of significant figures; for example, he might add figures with five and two decimals, and give the sum to four.[50]
In fact, he loved decimals, which abound in his writings far beyond practical, but perhaps within rhetorical, efficacy.[51]
In Britain the rhetoric of accuracy extended to the prestige of the instrument-maker. Unlike their French colleagues, British instrument-makers could be highly respected members of the scientific community. Jesse Ramsden became a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1786 and won the Copley medal in 1795. Ramsden's name was synonymous with accurate measurement, and his instruments assured the quality of the British triangulation.[52] The implicit reasoning went like this: because Ramsden was such an "ingenious artist" (although "dilatory"), his instruments were "rendered extremely perfect," hence the measurements showed a "wonderful degree of accuracy."[53] Most of the devices manufactured for Roy existed in one copy only; not even specialist readers were likely to get their hands on a Ramsden theodolite, but had to be convinced of its excellence verbally. Besides the theodolite, Ramsden constructed a surveying chain "which would measure distances much more accurately than anything of that kind had ever done before," a pyrometer "of such accurate construction that it seems not easy to improve it," and other smaller instruments. Furthermore, Ramsden himself sometimes took part in especially important measurements; he was called upon for advice during the Paris-Greenwich triangulation and later in the Ordnance Survey.[54]
The commendation of Ramsden's achievements, like the long rows of decimals and the frequent references in the work of Maskelyne,
Cassini, and Roy to measurements made to "the last exactness" or to "mathematical exactness," may be considered the rhetoric of exact science.[55] This rhetoric papered over a serious rift between Roy and Ramsden, which is worth uncovering for its illumination of underlying social realities. Roy criticized Ramsden severely for his dilatoriness in the draft of the last report on the project. Most of the complaints did not reach print because Ramsden filed countercomplaints with the Royal Society and Roy's death allowed some freedom with his text. Ramsden's complaint gives an unusual glimpse of the working relationship between a scientist and an instrument-maker during the late 18th century. He claimed the credit for the high precision achieved in the triangulation, and was sorry that Roy—a gentleman —treated him with such disrespect: it was not "consistent with common sense, that a Tradesman or Mechanic, should suffer his professional character in particular to be publicly traduced in so respectable a place as at [a] meeting of the Royal Society."[56] Ramsden could get no satisfaction from Banks (who threatened to defend Roy's position "with every drop of my blood") and therefore appealed directly to the Council.[57]
Ramsden asserted that Roy was not a competent judge of the technological aspect of the work; that he, Ramsden, had decided what kind of instrument should be made for the triangulation; that he, Ramsden, had written the description of the theodolite for the Philosophical transactions ; that he had constructed every single piece of apparatus used in the measurements; and that Roy had not given him full credit. He claimed further that Banks and Roy had granted him a free hand to construct a theodolite that was "superior in point of accuracy to any thing of whatever radius yet made,"[58] and
complained when the innovations took time to perfect. These complaints showed that Roy did not understand the character of precision technology.
If we credit any of this, Roy's dependence on Ramsden's abilities was even closer than the official reports suggested. It does seem clear that Roy controlled the successful achievement of his goal—to make a measurement and create a technology of unprecedented accuracy—not so much by mastery of the necessary technique or technology, but rather by command of the social situation through his influence in the Royal Society and in the Ordnance. Roy could purchase Ramsden's and Dalby's know-how and employ them to write the difficult technological and mathematical passages in his reports. Like Ramsden, Dalby complained that Roy could not judge his work competently, and he had to append a long list of corrections to Roy's final paper in 1790.[59]
The rhetoric of accuracy that helped to cover up those disputes was meant to inspire faith in a vast and costly undertaking like a national survey.[60] When Roy invited the citizens of London to confirm the accuracy of his measurements by stepping out on their rooftops and sighting the angles between buildings that had been used as triangulation stations, the cartographic entrepreneur was speaking.[61] When the state or the public supported the geodetic and cartographic sciences, they were offered accuracy in return for their money. When they were promised "absolute" or "mathematical" accuracy, they no doubt expected new and superior technology.