This paper examines the Royal Geographical Society's provision and management of scientific instruments to explorers and expeditions in the century following its foundation in 1830. Assessment of the Society's directives concerning appropriate scientific instruments for the conduct of geography reveals the emergence (slow and uneven) of policies concerning the assignment of instruments. From examination of Council minutes and related manuscript sources, the paper documents the numbers of instruments acquired by the Society, by whom used, for what scientific purpose and in which parts of the world. The paper examines the number and chronology of expeditions supported by the Society's instruments, examines the expenditure upon instruments' repair, and discusses the publications that followed their use in exploration. Correspondence between instrument users and the Society reveals that, on occasion, the use of instruments was adventitious. While geographical knowledge depended upon the use of scientific instruments to measure and to depict the world, geography was not a formally institutionalized survey science as was the case with the Geological Survey or the nation-defining mapping of Ordnance Survey.

中文翻译：

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仪器供应和地理科学：皇家地理学会的工作，1830年至1930年。

本文研究了皇家地理学会（Roge Geographical Society）在1830年成立后的一个世纪中向探险家和探险队提供和管理科学仪器的能力。对学会有关适用于地理学的科学仪器的指令的评估揭示了政策的出现（缓慢和不平衡）关于文书的分配。通过对理事会会议记录和相关手稿来源的审查，该文件记录了协会获得的仪器数量，使用对象，用于何种科学目的以及在世界哪个地区。本文研究了学会仪器支持的远征的数量和时间顺序，研究了仪器维修的支出，并讨论了其用于勘探后的出版物。仪器使用者和学会之间的对应关系表明，有时使用仪器是偶然的。尽管地理知识依赖于使用科学的仪器来测量和描绘世界，但地理学并不是像地质调查或国家定义的军械调查制图那样的形式化制度化调查科学。