Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c8.7

c8.7

The use of the instrument, *Figure I, D*, I was at a loss to account for. It consists of two circular walls; the outer of which is about forty feet diameter, and eight feet high; the wall within about half that height, and appears intended for a place to stand on to observe the divisions on the upper circle of the outer wall, rather than for any other purpose; and yet both circles are divided into 360 degrees, each degree being sub-divided into twenty lesser divisions, the same as the quadrants. There is a doorway to pass into the inner circle, and a pillar in the center, of the same height with the lower circle, having a hole in it, being the center of both circles, and seems to be a socket for an iron rod to be placed perpendicular into it. The divisions on these, as well as all the other instruments, will bear a nice examination with a pair of compass.