Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Delambre completed the publication of the three-volume account of the work to
re-measure the Paris Meridian and established the natural standard of the meter in
1810 twenty years after the project was started (Méchain and Delambre 1806-10).
Delambre himself presented a copy to Napoleon, and in the margin of his own copy
of the topic Delambre noted the Emperor's response: “Conquests pass and such
works remain.” This wry remark both prophesied Napoleon's own eventual defeat
and memorialized the enduring legacy of the science of the meridian project.
