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678 NOTES TO VOLUME I.
the weights and measures which had been adopted in Sweden, and
to discover a more reliable standard of measure. He took water as
his fundamental unit, and in comparison with its weight determined
the weight and measure of all other substances, constructing thus
his Linea Carolina on physical grounds. His standard was approved
by the government and adopted throughout the whole country; and
it continued to be used until 1737, when experience showed a flaw
in his theory, he having assumed that all water is of the same density.
(See Documents 69 and 70.)
NOTE 75.
BIRGER VASSENIUS.
Birger Vassenius, who is mentioned in Documents 74, 75, 80,
and 101, and in whom Ericus Benzelius and Emanuel Swedenborg
took great interest, was born in 1687. He was the son of a peasant
at Vassända, near Wenersborg, from which he took the name of
Vassenius. He went to school at Skara, where he became acquainted
with Bishop Swedberg, and in 1712 he left for the University of
Upsal. There he soon became favourably known to Prof. Elfvius
(see Note 54), on account of the interest he took in astronomy.
In 1717 he wrote a disputation on the “Planet Venus," which he
dedicated to Polhem and Emanuel Swedenborg. Vassenius remained
at Upsal till 1726, in the hope of receiving an appointment as professor,
and meanwhile eked out a living by selling barometers and acting
as private tutor to some of the students. After Benzelius became
Bishop of Gottenburg he invited Vassenius to that town, where he
soon received an appointment as professor of mathematics in the
gymnasium , and where he greatly interested the students in astronomy
and mathematics ; from 1731 to 1738, he was rector of the gymnasium .
In the year 1724, he published an almanac at Skara, which continued
to appear annually till 1750. In 1751, he resigned his professorship
at Gottenburg, and retired to the country, where he lived on his
paternal estate at Vassända for the rest of his life. Vassenius was
the first to notice the rose- coloured protuberances of the sun during
its total eclipse in 1733. He communicated his observations to the
Royal Society of London, who inserted it in their "Philosophical
Transactions,” Vol. XXXVII . These observations were confirmed
during the total eclipses of 1842, and 1851. Vassenius was born
one year before Swedenborg, in 1687, and he died one year before
him, in 1771.
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