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Fred Hebard wrote:

> To add to what George said, the need for scientific navigation,
> including surveying, was a strong spur to the development of science
> itself, it being the main objective of the French Academy of Science
> during its first hundred years, and a main objective of the English
> Royal Society.  I remember in thermodynamics being introduced to
> Hamiltonians, which originated for the calculation of celestial orbits.
>  Laplace, Gauss, Newton, Kelvin and others all were strongly involved
> in navigation, broadly taken.  The central role of these practical
> endeavors (navigation and surveying) in the development of physics and
> mathematics is not usually mentioned in the history of the subjects.  I
> think it would be good to weave it back into the story, rather than
> presenting the subjects solely as abstract pursuits.


And let us not forget that, though Napier did not invent logarithms
specifically as an aid to navigators, Wright and Briggs undertook the
translation of Napier's Latin into English as "a booke of more than
ordinary worth, especially for Sea-men".

For those who want it, my source is p. 404 of Waters' "The Art of
Navigation in England in Elizabethan and Early Stuart Times".


Trevor Kenchington


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