‘A Brief History of the Method of Fixing by Horizontal Angles’

Abstract

Readers of Captain Cotter's very interesting article ‘A Brief History of the Method of Fixing by Horizontal Angles’, may be interested to know that the possible use of the resection or three-point problem was appreciated by English mathematical practitioners of the seventeenth century.Explanations have been given by John Collins, F.R.S. (1625–83), and Edmond Halley, F.R.S., Master and Commander, later Captain, Royal Navy and Astronomer Royal. It seems probable that Halley actually made some use of the principle when he charted the English Channel.Dr. Angus Armitage and Dr. A. H. W. Robinson have explained Halley's method.