notes to pages 141–146 185
- The disappointed Le Gentil decided to stay in the region and await the 1769
transit, only to be confronted with a cloudy day denying him any contribution to
transit observations. On his return to France, he discovered that during his ab-
sence he was presumed dead and had lost his job and property (Chapman 1998 ). - Swedish and Danish observations were especially important because of
their proximity to the North Pole. - The society received additional funding for the expedition from Joseph
Banks ( 1743 – 1820 ), a wealthy amateur naturalist, who joined Endeavour’s journey.
Banks is estimated to have paid £ 10 , 000 for this journey (Woolf 1959 , 168 ). - After successfully observing the transit from Point Venus, Tahiti, Cook’s
famous three- year- long voyage took the Endeavour along the shores of New Zea-
land and Australia back to Britain. - The California expedition was one of the most ill- fated efforts throughout
the TOV saga. The observers were affected by an epidemic that claimed the lives
of 75 percent of the region’s population. They quickly succumbed to the disease.
Only one expedition member survived (Woolf 1959 , 157 – 61 ). - By the 1860 s it took eight days to cross the Atlantic compared with seventy-
seven days spent at sea by a 1769 expedition. Nevertheless, sea travel was still a
demanding affair: in 1874 it took the USS Swatara ninety- one days to get from New
York to the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean (Sheehan and Westfall
2004 , 207 ). - French preparations were again affected by a war, this time the Franco-
Prussian War of 1870 – 71. - According to Measuringworth.com, in 2011 terms, the relative value of
£ 15 , 500 from 1871 ranges from £ 1 , 184 , 000 to £ 20 , 320 , 000 , depending on the calcu-
lation method (real price vs. economic power index). - In addition to British state- sponsored expeditions, Lord Lindsay ( 1847 –
1913 ) organized a private expedition to Mauritius. It was the most extensive pri-
vate effort to observe the TOV. - The TOV appropriations are the only act of Congress concerning an as-
tronomical event. According to Measuringworth.com, the value $ 177 , 000 in 1872
ranges from $ 3 , 030 , 000 to $ 331 , 000 , 000 depending on the calculation method. The
cost of navy ships needs to be added to this sum in order to properly assess the
American investment in the 1874 T O V. - Simon Newcomb ( 1835 – 1909 ), a prominent American astronomer and a mem-
ber of the American transit commission, concluded that transit expeditions were not
worthwhile: “It did not take long for the astronomers to find that the result was
disappointing.... This important element could be better measured by determining
the velocity of light and the time which it took to reach us from the sun than it could
by any transit of Venus” (Newcomb [ 1885 ], quoted in Dick 2003 , 263 ). - Argentina, Austria- Hungary, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany,
Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Bel-
gium, Greece, Mexico, and the United States.