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From: Jim Thompson (no email)
Date: Mon Jun 14 2004 - 06:21:09 EDT
http://HistoricalAtlas.com/mag
Interesting that:
1. During all of this period China enjoyed very low magnetic variation
0*-10*, and that by popular theory this was the first culture to use
magnetic compasses. Connection?
2. During the 1500's Europe and the Atlantic enjoyed very low variations
(down to zero), when European navigators were taking their first bold
oceanic steps. They needed all the help they could get. given the state of
navigation technnology in those days.
3. During the great European expansion periods of the 1700's and 1800's much
of the USA, southern Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia also had relatively
low variations (0* - 20*), except for a time in the north Atlantic at the
end of the 1700's for several decades when variations were quite high. Must
be a story there. Good thing that by then celestial navigation was
improving. I can only imagine how easy it would have been to get off course
during those decades in the north Atlantic with variation so large and
changing year to year relatively rapidly, but how easy it would have been to
use a compass to travel by land and sea over many other regions where
economy spurred history.
Jim Thompson
www.jimthompson.net
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