Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.10685
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    Chart of Western Sumatra

    Date
    ca. 1824
    Creator
    Unknown, Artist
    Object type
    Library reference
    41205
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (painting): 230mm
    width (painting): 368mm
    Subject
    Content object
    map
    Description
    Map of the coastline of western Sumatra, Indonesia, showing inlets, settlements and Mount Ophir, with three islands off the coast. Inscribed ‘Sketch of part of the West Coast of Sumatra and adjacent island near the Equator as given in some of the charts’.

    Figure no.1 from Report of the length of the pendulum at the equator...made on an expedition...from the observatory at Madras..., by John Goldingham (Madras, 1824).
    Scale 3 ½ inches: 40 miles.

    Original painting pasted onto a backing sheet. Not signed. Paper watermarked but not dated.

    This expedition to make gravity measurements by pendulum was led by John Goldingham of the Madras Observatory: “In order to compare and combine the Observations for the Length of the Pendulum taken in different Latitudes...it would be most desirable to have accurate Observations taken at the Equator...a part of the Island of Sumatra, which is under the influence of the Honorable [East India] Company’s Government, is crossed by the Equator, and offers a most eligible Station...”

    John Goldingham (c.1766-1849) British astronomer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1808.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Asia
          > Indonesia
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