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Al-time-ter.

An instrument for taking altitudes geometrically, or for measuring vertical angles, as the quadrant, sextant, etc., or the vertical limb of the theodolite.

One of the first references to means for measuring height is in connection with the most worthy artificial object in the world, then or now. Thales is said, by Plutarch, to have been in Egypt in the reign of Amasis, and to have taught the Egyptians how to measure the height of the pyramid by its shadow. This is interesting from its association of names and places, but is absurd in itself. Thales went to Egypt to learn, not to teach. During the reign of the same king, Egypt was visited by Pythagoras and Anacreon, the friends of Polycrates of Samos; Pythagoras, among other things, learned to abominate beans, the peculiar aversion of the Egyptian priests. Egypt was also visited about this time by Solon (Herodotus, I. 30), who came as a student, and afterwards introduced some of the Egyptian laws into his Athenian code.

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Thales (2)
Pythagoras (2)
Solon (1)
Polycrates (1)
Herodotus (1)
Anacreon (1)
Amasis (1)
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