Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

Wargentin and others; 16 the “black drop effect” was described and its possible causes assessed
in several reports, 17 and so on. The reports were first published in Swedish in the proceedings
of the Royal Academy of Stockholm, but – thanks to the assiduous correspondence of
Wargentin – summaries soon appeared in French and Latin as well, in prestigious periodicals
abroad. 18 As a matter of routine, the Swedish reports were also translated and reissued in a
German edition of the Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsacademiens Handlingar published in
Hamburg and Leipzig. If we turn to the study of Woolf, we are informed that in 1761, Sweden
organised in total 21 successful observations from twelve stations, eleven of them within the
borders of Finland or Sweden. “Surprisingly enough the Swedes […] displace the British
from the second position which one would have expected them to occupy, for the British
could muster only nineteen successful observations”, Woolf comments, adding that “the
displacement seems to be one of quality”. 19 Thus, with the 1761 transit of Venus Sweden had
placed itself in the heart of the international entreprise, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
As a country, it was beaten only by France, with its 31 successful observations – according to
Woolf – published in the standard literature of contemporary astronomy.
As the 1769 transit approached, Wargentin and his colleagues at the Royal Swedish Academy
decided to apply for extra financial support. They had done the same for the lunar parallax
project of 1751-52, but not for the Venus transit of 1761, when the Academy had found the
necessary funding from its own treasuries. 20 For the project of 1769, however, expectancies
were even greater than for the first. Besides, due to a rise in the cost of paper, the expenses of
the Academy had risen substantially since the beginning of the decade, whilst its income had
not increased. Accordingly, on 14 January 1767, an application for the funding of expeditions
and acquisition of instruments was sent to the King of Sweden. In the application, appeals to
national pride are vividly emphasised. 21 French and British astronomers had already informed
the Academy that they had started to plan expeditions and appoint observers, and as “no place
in the whole of Europe, Asia or Africa is better suited [for observations of the transit] than
Swedish Lapland”, it was a matter of national prestige to have able observers ready at more
16
See Section I.1.1 above.
17
Cf. Nordenmark 1939, pp. 178-181. See also Fig. 7 above.
18
See the summaries of Swedish observations in issues of the Journal des Sçavans (Paris), the Ephemerides
Astronomicae (Vienna; see above, Section II.1.5), and the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
(London) from this period.
19
Woolf 1959, p. 141.
20
Nordenmark 1939, p. 175.
21
A transcription of the entire application is found in Wargentin 1939, pp. 374-376; cf. pp. 183-186.
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