NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Sextant Terms
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2007 Oct 23, 20:43 -0400
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2007 Oct 23, 20:43 -0400
Nicol�s de Hilster, you wrote: "the spiegelboog (mirror-staff in English). This instrument was capable of measuring backward in a range from 10 - 90 degrees using a single mirror." This unusual Ducth word reminds me of a question I've been meaning to ask: In this thread we've been discussing the convergence of all terms for angle measuring instruments in English. Pretty much everything is called a "sextant" today regardless of its function or angular range. Many other navigation cultures take their lead from English. But is the same true in other cultures with a long history of navigation science? At least in German, it seems that the word "oktant" is still used when the range is limited to 90 degrees. I've seen a couple of German oktants, for sale on ebay. These were instruments from the 20th century when the term octant was mostly out-of-favor in English. -FER http://www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---