Astronomy: A History of Man's Investigation of the Universe 1962 Rathbone books, London And it's chapter 2, and you're marooned on a desert island with a stick, not string. The Amazon pages are actually a pretty good summary of the nature of the book: it's a backwards looking review of the emergence of astronomy and fascinating as a history of science and introduction to astronomy but it's dated regarding modern cosmology.
Could you please tell me what the title of the book is ? Despite checking Hoyle's bibliography, I am not able to determine which one it is.