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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Can someone identify this
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2008 Nov 11, 17:44 -0500
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2008 Nov 11, 17:44 -0500
What a lovely work of art! This model has a US Navy Stock No., so it was government property. A Museum of Complication! Fred On Nov 11, 2008, at 5:29 PM, George Huxtable wrote: > Bruce Hamilton asked- > > "Anyone need something for their collection? What exactly is it? > http://cgi.ebay.ca/ASTRONOMIC-CALCULATOR-SEXTANT- > theodolite_W0QQitemZ190265697439QQcmdZViewItem? > hash=item190265697439&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1215%7C66% > 3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318"|==================It's a > Zerbee "Fix Finder". Perhaps it's THE Zerbee Fix Finder. described > inthe US patent 2519532 , attached. It could be the prototype, > perhaps theone-and-only, because it's labelled serial number 1; the > invention of LouisB Zerbee, patent granted 1950. You can dial up > the details in GooglePatents.I've never seen one or even heard of > it before. It claims to be able tosolve one OR MORE spherical > triangles, simultaneously, so could presumablyresult in a fix from > a pair of star altitudes. I admit to not having studiedthe details > of the patent in any detail. These things are written in aspecial > arcane language that seems intended to obscure more than it > reveals.It seems to be a development of the armillary sphere, an > analoguerepresentation of the Earth and sky, allowing spherical > triangles to besolved. Such armillary spheres first appeared in > China in the first-centuryBC. The nearest thing to this device I've > seen (in print) is the Mariner'sCalculator, in Janet Taylor's > "Navigation simplified" of 1849, but thatcould solve only one > spherical triangle at a time.But this one is FAR more > sophisticated. Just look at the profusion of arcscales, each fitted > with its own micrometer readout. No expense has beenspared in its > construction; which may be why it wasn't developed further. Itwould > be interesting to discover what accuracy was achievable.It's the > sort of instrument I would love to own. You could play with it > forhours. I expect it will fetch a lot more than the present bid, > and shouldreally find a home in a museum. Perhaps a Museum of > Complication, if such aspeciality exists.George.contact George > Huxtable, now at george@hux.me.ukor at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, > 01865 820222)or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 > 5HX, UK. > > >--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To unsubscribe, email NavList-unsubscribe@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---