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Subject: Re: Classification of the methods for clearing the LunarDistances
From: Herbert Prinz (hprinz@XXX.XXX)
Date: Thu Apr 10 2003 - 23:21:38 EDT
Hello George,
A so called "New edition" appeared already in 1874 in London at Lockwood & co.
( x, 282 p. 1 illus., diagrs.). Chances are, you have a reprint of this. If
there were truly another new edition in 1903, it should give the name of the
editor, as John Radford Young died in 1885.
Cotter refers to a book from 1856 titled "Practical Astronomy, Navigation and
Nautical Astronomy". I cannot locate it in any catalog. This might be the first
edition or the base of the above. If so, the publishers did not try to cheat:
Instead of updating the contents, they changed the title, indicating that the
text was not practical anymore.
Best regards
Herbert Prinz
George Huxtable wrote:
>
> I have recently acquired a copy of "Navigation and Nautical Astronomy", by
> J R Young ("formerly professor of mathematics in Belfast College"). This
> copy was published as one of "Weale's Scientific and Technical series",
> "New Edition 1903".
[...]
>
> The surprise was in the date for these examples and extracts,
> which was 1858, 45 years earlier. It became clear that the 1903 "new
> edition" was based on an earlier edition of the 1850s, in which the
> examples had not been updated.
>
> Delving into the contents provided further surprises. There was no mention
> of position lines, or Sumner, or St Hilaire's "New Navigation", which dates
> from 1875. Finding a ship's position was described entirely in terms of
> obtaining the latitude and then, separately, the longitude: the techniques
> of a generation of navigators, long before that "new edition" of 1903. It
> appears that little or nothing had been updated for that "new edition".
>
> It seems to me something of a scandal that such a text should have been
> peddled at that date, presumably to aspiring navigators who wished to learn
> their craft from it. It's relevance in 1903 was largely historical. No
> wonder the poor fellows got confused.
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