NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Powder of sympathy
From: Ken Harris
Date: 2022 Apr 23, 21:59 -0700
From: Ken Harris
Date: 2022 Apr 23, 21:59 -0700
I stumbled on this page : https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_of_sympathy , which says :
The powder was also applied to solve the longitude problem in the suggestion of an anonymous pamphlet of 1687 entitled "Curious Enquiries". The pamphlet theorised that a wounded dog could be put aboard a ship, with the knife used to injure the dog left in the trust of a timekeeper on shore, who would then dip said knife into the powder at a predetermined time and cause the creature to yelp, thus giving the captain of the ship an accurate knowledge of the time.
