Jean-Charles de Borda (1733-1799), navigator and astronomer designed the repetition circle for geodesy and astronomical measurements. This instrument permits to repeat several times the same observation without returning to zero, thus the measuring errors are divided by the number of observations.
This circle was probably been used by the French cartography mission in Peloponnesus during 1829-1831, lead by the Officers of the French Army Peytier, Puillon de Bollaye and ServierCassini, Méchain et Legendre, in Exposé des opérations faites en France en 1787 pour la jonction des Observatoires de Paris et de Greenwich, Paris, imp. De l'Institution des sourds-muets, sd. Pl. II.

Ref: http://www.patrimoine-de-france.org/oeuvres/richesses-89-25744-171416-P1...