06-10-2018, 02:47 PM
I have Bowditch Practical Navigators from 1800s. 1807, '39, '41, '54, 1916, '95, and 2003. They list instruments and nav tools in which I am interested. The Sector and Gunter scale are two math aids that provided skippers with logarithmic and trig scales to facilitate navigation.
If any of you have knowledge or references for these and other old world tools Id be pleased to discuss them. Other tools might be the Gunter Quadrant, back-staff, octant, plane scale, full circle brass protractor and dividers, barometers, speed measuring devices, depth sounders, even their paper charts interest me ... How did they protect them from damage or rot?
Everything used from the 1800s and earlier has my attention (no batteries)... i want to learn to use those old tools. I was interested to find out that they used a depth sounding device made of glass tubing that was painted inside with a material that changed color so that as the water pressure at depth squeezed water further up the tube the depth could be recorded.... soooo cooool ... Ay?
Those 1800s sailors were not as ignorant as I thought... Maybe we dont give them enough credit... I know I didnt until I started reading those old Practical Navigators.
joe
If any of you have knowledge or references for these and other old world tools Id be pleased to discuss them. Other tools might be the Gunter Quadrant, back-staff, octant, plane scale, full circle brass protractor and dividers, barometers, speed measuring devices, depth sounders, even their paper charts interest me ... How did they protect them from damage or rot?
Everything used from the 1800s and earlier has my attention (no batteries)... i want to learn to use those old tools. I was interested to find out that they used a depth sounding device made of glass tubing that was painted inside with a material that changed color so that as the water pressure at depth squeezed water further up the tube the depth could be recorded.... soooo cooool ... Ay?
Those 1800s sailors were not as ignorant as I thought... Maybe we dont give them enough credit... I know I didnt until I started reading those old Practical Navigators.
joe