NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Navigational instruments at the Naval Museum in Lisbon
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2010 Feb 23, 19:17 -0500
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2010 Feb 23, 19:17 -0500
That is indeed rich! The same slaughter of transliterated phrases occurs when I travel in the far east. Always a laugh! Nice detective work George Best Regards Brad -----Original Message----- From: navlist-bounce@fer3.com [mailto:navlist-bounce@fer3.com] On Behalf Of George Huxtable Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 6:32 PM To: NavList@fer3.com Subject: [NavList] Re: Navigational instruments at the Naval Museum in Lisbon Back on Feb 15th, I responded to a posting from Gary Lapook, in which he showed several interesting exhibits from Lisbon. One was- 5. http://www.fer3.com/arc/imgx/IMGP5956.JPG . About which I commented- "The instrument itself, a Borda repeating circle,. isn't visible here, but Gary has chosen to show us the label, which states- "The reflecting circle (18th century). Also called the "Gunwale circle", it was used to find the longitude by measuring the horizontal angle between the Moon and the stars of the zodiac". That angle, of course, is seldom horizontal. I know no Portuguese, but let me hazard a guess that perhaps their word for gunwale may be "borda", to explain the misattribution. ================== I've since checked with Google Translate, and the Portuguese equivalent to the English word "gunwale" is indeed, in Portuguese, "borda de navio". So that explains how a circular instrument, invented by Jean-Charles de Borda, has been labelled in Lisbon as the "Gunwale circle". George. "Confidentiality and Privilege Notice The information transmitted by this electronic mail (and any attachments) is being sent by or on behalf of Tactronics; it is intended for the exclusive use of the addressee named above and may constitute information that is privileged or confidential or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the addressee or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to same, you are not authorized to retain, read, copy or disseminate this electronic mail (or any attachments) or any part thereof. If you have received this electronic mail (and any attachments) in error, please call us immediately and send written confirmation that same has been deleted from your system. Thank you."
