It continued in use as an effective surveying tool. Adapted to surveying, the dioptra is similar to the theodolite, or surveyor's transit, which dates to the sixteenth century. It is a more accurate version of the groma.
The dioptra may have been sophisticated enough, for example, to construct a tunnel through two opposite points in a mountain. There is some speculation that it may have been used to build the Eupalinian aqueduct, "one of the greatest engineering achievements of ancient times," a tunnel 1,036 meters (4,000 ft) long, excavated through Mount Kastro on the Greek island of Samos, in the 6th century BCE. Scholars disagree whether the dioptra was available that early.
An entire book about the construction and surveying usage of the dioptra is credited to Hero of Alexandria (also known as Heron; a brief description of the book is available online; see Lahanas link, below). Hero was "one of history’s most ingenious engineers and applied mathematicians."
The dioptra was used extensively on aqueduct building projects. Screw turns on several different parts of the instrument made it easy to calibrate for very precise measurements
The dioptra was replaced as a surveying instrument by the theodolite.
Category:Ancient Greek astronomy Category:Astrometry Category:Astronomical instruments Category:Historical scientific instruments Category:Measuring instruments Category:Surveying
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| Coordinates | 53°11′21″N23°5′45″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Lajos Kossuth |
| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Order | Governor-President of Hungary |
| Term start | 14 April 1849 |
| Term end | 11 August 1849 |
| Predecessor | position established |
| Successor | Artúr Görgey (as acting civil and military authority) |
| Birth date | September 19, 1802 |
| Birth place | Monok, Hungary |
| Death date | March 20, 1894 |
| Death place | Turin, Italy |
| Restingplace | Kerepesi Cemetery |
Lajos Kossuth was born in Monok, Hungary, a small town in the county of Zemplén, as the oldest of four children in a Protestant noble family. His father belonged to the lower nobility, had a small estate and was a lawyer by profession. The ancestors of the Kossuth family had lived in the county of Turóc (now , northwest Slovakia) in the north of Hungary since the 13th century.
In 1890, a delegation of Hungarian pilgrims in Turin recorded a short patriotic speech delivered by the elderly Lajos Kossuth. The original recording on two wax cylinders for the Edison phonograph survives to this day, although barely audible due to excess playback and unsuccessful early restoration attempts. Lajos Kossuth is the earliest born person in the world who has his voice preserved.
He died in Turin on 20 March 1894; his body was taken to Budapest, where he was buried amid the mourning of the whole nation, Mór Jókai delivering the funeral oration. A bronze statue was erected, by public subscription, in the Kerepesi Cemetery. Many regard Kossuth as Hungary's purest patriot and greatest orator. Others saw him as, unwittingly, the author of Hungary's subjugation rather than its independence.
His complete works were published in Hungarian at Budapest in 1880-1895. The fullest account of the Revolution is given in Helfert, Geschichte Oesterreichs (Leipzig, 1869, &c.;), representing the Austrian view, which may be compared with that of C Gracza, History of the Hungarian War of Independence, 1848-1849 (in Hungarian) (Budapest, 1894). See also E. O. S., Hungary and its Revolutions, with a Memoir of Louis Kossuth (Bohn, 1854); Horvath, 25 Jahre aus der Geschichte Ungarns, 1823-1848 (Leipzig, 1867) H Maurice, Revolutions of 1848-1849. Stiles, Austria in 1848-1849 (New York, 1852); Szemere, Politische Charakterskizzen: III. Kossuth (Hamburg, 1853); Louis Kossuth, Memoirs of my Exile (London, 1880); Ferenc Pulszky, Meine Zeit, mein Leben (Pressburg, 1880); A Somogyi, Ludwig Kossuth (Berlin, 1894).
Béla Bartók also wrote a symphonic poem named Kossuth, the funeral march which was transcribed for piano and published in Bartok's lifetime.
In Serbia there are two statues of Kossuth in Stara Moravica and Novi Itebej. Memorials in Ukraine are situated in Berehove and Tiachiv. The house where Kossuth lived in exile in Shumen, Bulgaria, has been turned into the Lajos Kossuth Memorial House, exhibiting documents and items related to Kossuth's work and the Hungarian Revolution. A street in the centre of the Bulgarian capital Sofia also bears his name.
There is a letter of support from Kossuth on display at the Wallace Monument, near Stirling, Scotland. The building of the monument, dedicated to Scottish patriot William Wallace coincided with Kossuth's visit to Scotland.
A bust of Lajos Kossuth is housed in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., which also boasts a Hungarian-American cultural center called Kossuth House (owned and operated by the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America). A statue of Kossuth stands in New York City near the Columbia University campus. An American county, Kossuth County, Iowa, was named in Kossuth's honor. A statue of the freedom fighter stands in front of the county Court House in Algona, Iowa, the county seat). The small USA towns of Kossuth, Ohio and Kossuth, Mississippi are named in honor of Lajos Kossuth. Other statues of Kossuth remain sprinkled throughout the U.S., including in University Circle in Cleveland, Ohio. There is a Kossuth Park at the intersection of East 121st Street and East Shaker Boulevard, just west of Shaker Square, in Cleveland. In Bronx, New York, Brooklyn, New York, Utica, New York, Bohemia, New York, Newark, New Jersey, and Lafayette, Indiana there are streets named in honor of Lajos Kossuth.
Kossuth Road in Cambridge, Ontario Canada was named in Kossuth`s honor.
Category:1802 births Category:1894 deaths Category:People from Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Category:19th-century Hungarian people Category:People of the Revolutions of 1848 Category:Hungarian lawyers Category:Hungarian politicians Lajos Category:Hungarian nobility Category:Hungarian Lutherans Category:Hungarian people of Slovak descent Category:Hungarian people of German descent Category:History of Hungary Category:Hungarian Revolution of 1848 Category:Finance ministers of Hungary
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
