This opinion did indeed gain ground for a time; but, fortunately for astronomy, long after these observations were made, published, and rewarded, Captain Kater, having borrowed the same instrument, discovered that the divisions of its level, which Capain Sabine had considered to be equal to one second each, were, in fact, more nearly equal to eleven seconds, each one being 10″.9. This circumstance rendered necessary a re-calculation of all the observations made with that instrument:[1] a re-calculation which I am not aware Captain Sabine has ever thought it necessary to publish.
This is the more to be regretted, as it bears upon a point of considerable importance to navigation; and if it should have caused any alteration in his opinion as to the comparative merits of great and small instruments, it might have been expected from a gentleman, who was expressly directed by the Board of Longitude, to
- ↑ Above two hundred sets of observations with this instrument are given in the work alluded to. It can never be esteemed satisfactory merely to state the mean results of the corrections arising from this error: for the confidence to be attached to that mean will depend on the nature of the deviations from it.
