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Re: Troughton and Simms
From: Bruce J. Pennino
Date: 2013 Jan 12, 16:58 -0500

When I first started teaching surveying about 30 years ago , American surveyors were just starting to use European theodolites in place of the American transit with single and normally double vernier scales. I just checked an old text book and a common transit of the 1900s had a vernier scale that could read directly to 30 seconds of arc. For fine work, there were techniques for measuring twice or 4 times the angle and then dividing the answer with a more precise/accurate outcome. Every surveyor in America would have a small magnifying glass in their pocket and instrument case. I just checked a surveyor's supply store and could not find a compact magnifier, but I found one in my drawer. I recommend using a magnifying glass because verniers are very easy to misread. Geologists also use a compact magnifying glass, and these are available at supply stores. I like my Astra . No vernier scales for me, eyes are getting older. On cloudy days and in reduced light, reading them correctly can be tough.

But, it is very interesting to read about this very fine Troughton and Simms.

Bruce

----- Original Message -----

From: Frank Reed

To: bpennino.ce@charter.net

Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2013 3:43 PM

Subject: [NavList 21902] Re: Troughton and Simms

Norm, you wrote: "I just realized how TRULY wonderful the sextant vernier is. 10 seconds is a very small angle..." Yes, the instrument takes great advantage of the capabilities of the human eye and human visual perception (which is not entirely contained within that biological camera). You had mentioned in another post how small this angle is. But don't forget that you're observing it through a telescope. We cannot otherwise perceive an angle that small. The human eye had a normal resolution of just about 1 minute of arc (a bit better for people with great eyes under excellent observing conditions). In fact, if you haven't heard of this, it may interest you to know that the "20:20" standard for effectively "perfect" vision is defined as a visual resolution of exactly one minute of arc. Of course, if you have a sextant with a 7x telescope on it, then you can see angles (as measured without the telescope) that are seven times finer. You can readily resolve an angle of just about 8.5 seconds through a telescope magnifying by a factor of 7. So that's no miracle. We SHOULD be able to measure angles that small if the instrument is otherwise well-made and properly adjusted. On the vernier, this still seems like an extraordinary thing. How can we read those fine lines? And in fact, it is. Beyond the "normal" camera-like vision of the human eye, bound by the rules of optics, there is a capability of human vision that goes beyond the standard resolution limits by a factor of five or ten. It's called "hyper-acuity" and indeed a synonym for it is "vernier acuity". Our vision processing system (somewhere behind the eyeball) is capable of detecting very small defects in the alignment of straight lines. In these specific "hyper-acuity" tasks, somehow we can resolve better than the laws of optics would appear to require. Without this remarkable capability, reading a vernier would be much less successful. -FER ---------------------------------------------------------------- NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList Members may optionally receive posts by email. To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com ----------------------------------------------------------------

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