NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Digitized history of navigation resources
From: Gordon Talge
Date: 2004 Sep 14, 16:08 -0700
From: Gordon Talge
Date: 2004 Sep 14, 16:08 -0700
Frank Reed wrote: > > George H wrote: > "Gordon Talge has told us he likes to consult the original manuals, > but few > of us have easy access to that sort of library. " I got my original manuals from www.abe.com "The Advanced Book Exchange" off the internet. Just do a search for navigation and set it to search for the most expensive books first. You'll come up with stuff they want $5,000 or more, but eventually they will work their way down to around $150 to $200, not much more than a couple of college text books. > Ah, but we do all have easy access to at least one example of the > original manuals! I know you personally are aware of it, but since > people come and go on lists like these on a regular basis, I'll point > out again that the COMPLETE text of Norie's Epitome of Navigation from > 1828 is available on the Mystic Seaport Blunt White Library web site > (go to mysticseaport.org and follow the links to the library's digital > collection). In addition there is a complete copy of the Nautical > Almanac from 1804 and numerous log books from the era many of which > include actual navigational calculations. > Great! I wish more historical stuff was on the net. BTW, I know a lot of talk has been given to "Lunar Distance" methods, and it is fun to see how they did them, but it does not seem to me to be a very practical methods. There are at least three simultaneous observations that have to be done and tons of calculations, and then it may not be right. I can see why they "dumped" these methods as soon as they got decent chronometers. They were usually right on with the latitude, the longitude required time and that may be a little fuzzy. I remember reading about some ship finding an island and noting the position. A few years latter another ship spending days trying to find the island without success. Then another ship finding the same island again without any problems! I think Pitcarin Island was remote and mischarted and that is why the British ( or any ship for that matter ) didn't sight island for years leaving the mutineers to their own devices. -- Gordon -- ,,, (. .) +-------------------------ooO-(_)-Ooo------------------------+ | Gordon Talge WB6YKK e-mail: gtalge AT pe DOT net | | Department of Mathematics http://www.nlmusd.k12.ca.us | | Norwalk High School Norwalk, CA | | (o- Debian / GNU / Linux | | //\ The Choice of the GNU Generation | | v_/_ .oooO | | - E Aho Laula - ( ) Oooo. - Wider is Better - | +-------------------------\ (---( )-------------------------+ \_) ) / (_/