by VASILE DRAGOMIR, MARIAN ROTARU
Direction topographique militaire, Bucarest
In the history of technical sciences on the Romanian territory, the science
of geodesy was recognized as an important field, whose achievements permanently
confirmed the creative thought and aptitudes of the Romanian specialists which
were always at the high level of other European schools.
Owing to the unfavorable geographical position of our country, some historical
sources ignore and sometimes willingly take to notice of the scientific and
practical contribution of the native specialized people, fastening, the most
important works of foreign specialists names.
The authors attempt a review over a long period, starting in the epoch of BUREBISTA
and DECEBAL until the beginning of the 20th century, pointing out the remarkable
contribution yielded to the science of geodesy by the high steward Constantin
Cantacuzino, Dimitrie Cantemir, Gheorghe Asachi, Gheorghe Lazar and others.
It is mentioned, among other things, the founding, in 1868, of the first national
geodetic institute called "Depostiul scientific de resbel" (The war
scientific Depot), legislated by "The law for the organization of armed
power in Romania", as an important event. The Romanian geodesy succeeded
in carrying out, in the period surveyed in the paper, of a lot of works, noticed
at international exhibitions and contributions (in extensor, in the paper)
by outstanding foreign scientific as work at the higher European level.
The epoch between 1750 – 1916 may be considered as the period of affirmation
of the independence of Romanian geodetic thought, the source of all subsequent
achievements.