Struve Geodetic Arch

Number by catalogue:  Yvert: BF 59  

Perforation: Comb   Perforation type: 14 ¼x14

Subject:

5000 rublee. On souvenir sheet corners - map of Europe with Geodetic Arch*, drawings and sketches of objects on its ways, portrait of V.J. Struve**. On the stamp - control points line of an arch in territory of Belarus.

Additional:

*The Struve Geodetic Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through ten countries and over 2,820 km. The chain was established and used by the German-born Russian scientist Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve in the years 1816 to 1855 to establish the exact size and shape of the earth. At that time, the chain passed merely through two countries: Sweden-Norway and the Russian Empire. The Arc's first point is located in Tartu Observatory, where Struve conducted much of his research. In 2005, the chain was inscribed on the World Heritage List.

Measurement of the triangulation chain took place between 1816 and 1855. It comprises 258 main triangles and 265 geodetic vertices. The northernmost point is located near Hammerfest in Norway and the southernmost point near the Black Sea in Ukraine.

**Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve (Russian: Vasily Yakovlevich Struve) (1793-1864) was a Baltic-German astronomer from a famous dynasty of astronomers.

attention to astronomy. From 1813 to 1820 he taught at the university and observed at Dorpat Observatory in Tartu, and in 1820 became a full professor and director of the observatory.

Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve remained at Tartu, occupied with research on double stars and geodesy until 1839, when he founded and became director of the new Pulkovo Observatory near St Petersburg.

He was also interested in geodetic surveying, and in 1831 published Beschreibung der Breitengradmessung in den Ostseeprovinzen Russlands. He initiated the Struve Geodetic Arc, which was a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through ten countries and over 2,820km. The UNESCO has the chain on its List of World Heritage Sites in Europe.

Size (of sheet, booklet) mm: 112x80