Re: [HM] Stereographic projection
Phill Schultz (schultz@maths.uwa.edu.au)
Mon, 9 Aug 1999 11:20:14 +0800 (WST)
> Date: Sat, 07 Aug 1999 17:46:00 -0400
> From: "John W. Dawson, jr." <jwd7@psu.edu>
> Subject: Re: [HM] Stereographic projection
>
> At 06:13 PM 8/7/99 +0100, David Fowler wrote:
>
> > Can anyone tell me, on behalf of a colleague, how to find out the
> > history of stereographic projection, and perhaps also some other
> > projections. For example, just when was stereo projection introduced,
> > and by whom.
>
> See John P. Snyder's book <i>Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of
> Map Projections.</i> Stereographic projection is discussed there on pp.
> 20-29. (He attributes the name 'stereographic projection' to d'Aguillon
> in 1613 and the first published proof of the conformality of stereographic
> projection to Edmund Halley in 1695/96.)
>
> Dr. John W. Dawson, Jr.
> Professor of Mathematics
> Penn State York
> 1031 Edgecomb Avenue
> York, PA 17403 U.S.A.
>
> Tel.: 717-771-4131 (work)
> 717-846-1225 (home)
> FAX: 717-771-8404
Halley's is no doubt the first published proof but Harriot (1560 (or
59)-1621) established conformality in "A treatise on the Rhumbs" which
after his death (from smoking-induced cancer) was collected and stored with
several other papers on navigation by his friend and executor Nathaniel
Torporley, and published by Jon V. Pepper in AHES,4 (1968), 359-413.
______________________________________________________________________
Associate Professor Phill Schultz
Director of Postgraduate Studies,
Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
The University of Western Australia,
Nedlands, 6907, Australia
Phone:(08)9380-3381 Fax:(08)9380-1028
e-mail schultz@maths.uwa.edu.au