Invention Timeline - Aristagoras, Tyrant of Myletus; Made a Map of the Eastern Part of the Mediterranean Sea
b. ? and d. 497 B. C. (about)
The tyrant of Myletus. Flourished about 500 B. C. He made a map of the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, with the contiguous districts of Europe and Asia. His object was to show the route between Sparta and Susa (the Persian capital), hoping to induce Cleomenes, King of Sparta, to attack the Persian capital. The map was considered a good specimen of the constructions employed in those times.
There take thy stand, my spirit;-spread
The world of shadows at thy feet;
And mark how calmly, overhead,
The stars like saints in glory meet;
While hid in solitude sublime,
Methinks I muse on Nature’s tomb,
And hear the passing foot of Time
Step through the gloom.
—James Montgomery
The patient sage, who, by his lamp’s faint light,
O’er chart and map spent the long silent night.
—William Wallace: Joanna Baille
1678—Odometers, or road-measurers, were improved by Butterfield.
1756—James Watt was the maker of mathematical instruments for the University of Glasgow. 1760—He invented the shot-tower.
1783—General Roy began the trigonometrical survey of the coast.
