Delambre gives 3 the following comparison between the results of Gascoigne's measurements of the sun's semi-diameter and the computed results from modern determinations: Gascoigne.
The measurements are doubtful, but the upward tendency is clear.
But beyond the eastern shores of the Caspian no system of direct geodetic measurements by first-class triangulation has been possible, and the surveys of Asiatic Russia are separated from those of Europe by the width of that inland sea.
Other elements of the problem there are none, except mere numbers and angles, which do not depend upon the fundamental measurements of space, time and mass.
Flamsteed, in the first volume of the Historia coelestis, has inserted a series of measurements made by Gascoigne extending from 1638 to 1643.
