Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.10694
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    Gaunsah Lout Island, near Sumatra

    Date
    ca. 1824
    Creator
    Unknown, Artist
    Object type
    Library reference
    41205
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (painting): 368mm
    width (painting): 236mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > landscape
    Description
    Landscape view of Gaunsah Laut, or ‘Experiment Island’ off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The expedition’s tents and observatory pillar are visible in a treed interior. Two pairs of European figures are located in the foreground on the beach; other uniformed figures by the tents. Inscribed: ‘View of the Island of Gaunsah Lout with the Observatory and Encampment.’

    Figure no.11 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).

    Original painting pasted onto a backing sheet. Not signed. Papers watermarked: ‘C.Wilmot 1817’ and ‘S.Wise & Co. 1822’.

    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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