NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2013 Nov 7, 14:32 -0500
Hello Francis
I've never held a Fuller but I am interested in more details about this as it concerns celestial navigation.
What trigonometric scales does it have? To what resolution can you obtain, say, the sin(45)? That is, how many decimal digits are obtained?
Since you obviously have a Fuller, would you mind reducing an observation, showing the intermediate steps for the enjoyment of the crowd? This will give a sense of the instrument in use.
Thanks in advance!
Brad
I've been following this fascinating string with interest. Cannot add much to the wisdom already shared, but Lu also asked about slide rules? I find the cylindrical Bygrave and Fuller, with very long spiral scales are usually accurate to 1-2' for sight reduction. the Bygrave is very quick, the Fuller,using the sine/cos formula takes twice as long, so I tend to use the Bygrave.The Fuller dates from early 1900s but I've never found evidence of use in navigation.Chichester famously used a Bygrave in his 1931 solo flight across the Tasman sea.Interestingly, he taught astronav to the RAF during the war and used the Air Almanac, never mentioning the Bygrave, which was clearly never standard RAF issue.However,the top "Pathfinder" navigator AVM Bennett apparently used one until the end of the war in preference to the Air Almanac. I find it much quicker and more fun than tables.I use the Fuller to clear my lunars, great fun!(but I generally check on Frank's site later.)
I notice Frank briefly mentioned Martelli's tables? I had never heard of them, but by amazing coincidence have just been reading the book by one of my heroes Frank Pidgeon, Islander 1922 circumnavigation. On page 12 he recommends the Martelli tables as his favoured method to reduce his time sights. However, by page 17, he says that going below to do the maths made him sea sick, so from then on, stayed on deck and guessed a rough LAN time for longitude from his noon meridean sight! and so on , round the world!
Can send details of slide rules on request. Best wishes, Francis Upchurch
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