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Re: Translation of latin?
From: John Huth
Date: 2010 Jun 4, 12:21 -0400
From: John Huth
Date: 2010 Jun 4, 12:21 -0400
George -
I don't know if you can read the attachment, but here's a blow up in black and white of the text next to the islands. (attached).
If you can send me the extracted information from Jonker's book, I'd be grateful.
I've been digging around a bit, and the idea of a lodestone mountain that created the Earth's magnetic field was around for quite some time. I think that roughly around 1600, the idea of a magnetic mountain began to be supplanted by the idea of a dipole inside the Earth. I agree that it's a bit surprising that it would appear on this map, but on the other hand, the map describes pygmies in the arctic.
Best,
John H.
On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 12:02 PM, George Huxtable <george@hux.me.uk> wrote:
I've read, with some interest, John Huth's posting about Mercator's arctic
mapping, and looked up the Wikipedia entry about that map at-
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Mercator_Septentrionalium_Terrarum_descriptio.jpg
However, I can't read that in sufficient detail to check against John's
quoted text, though I can see the magnetic islands. Where has John found
his better image, please? The date of the map is given as 1623, long after
Mercator's death in 1594. And several years before the change with time of
the Earth's magnetic field was pointed out by the London astronomer
Gellibrand in 1635. It may well be that the fact of such changes was known,
or suspected, sumewhat before that date, but it seems a bit unlikely that
in 1623, geographical features were being invented to explain it..
And a description has been quoted, in translation from the Russian. Could a
reference be supplied for this source, please?
A R T Jonkers, in "Earth's Magnetism in the days of Sail" (2003), assesses
Mercator's explanation, made much earlier in 1547, of an attractive
magnetic pole on the Earth's surface in a Northerly latitude. If anyone
asks, I'll copy an extract.
George.
contact George Huxtable, at george@hux.me.uk
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
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