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From: Gordon Talge (no email)
Date: Fri Sep 10 2004 - 21:37:36 EDT
There is a copy of Cotter's History of Navigation in the
Los Angeles public library in Norwalk.
I have read and have tried to work my way through Cotter
and have found quite a few errors.
What I have found is to get a copy of say, "A Complete Epitome
of Practical Navigation" by J.W. Norie 1840 or so or "The
Complete Navigator" by Andrew Mackay ( mine is an 1807 American
rip-off of a British Edition ) Or maybe something by John
Hamilton Moore's "Practical Navigation" ( mine is 1798 although
it has several errors and one procedure that is simply wrong ).
My books, although old, are not in pristine condition and really
did not cost that much, but are very much still readable.
Of these books I like Norie's the best. During this period, the
18th to the 20th century, Britain ruled the waves and the
British Navy was not just good it was damn good. It follows
that when it came to navigation they knew what they were
doing and were experts at it. The British books were the
best. Most of the American stuff were just British rip-offs.
Norie's is very clear, but practical. It does not give you
formulas for things, but gives you directions in words. So
instead of sin(x) = sin(y)+ cos(z), it would say "take y
and z go to table VII or something and extract the sine and
cosine of x and y. Add the two quantities together and then
return to table VII and extract the inverse that gives the ..."
To get the formula you have to piece it together from the
directions.
The trig is done in an entirely different, but equivalent way
that is kind of neat. Norie also has a section on "Longitude by
Observation" (Lunar Distance) along with a couple of different
methods and several examples.
So my idea is get the "who did what when, and what book they wrote
or what method they used" from Cotter, but get the nitty gritty
pencil and paper methods from some books like Norie or Mackay, the
books that the people that actually navigated during that
period used.
Just my $.02
-- Gordon
--
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| Gordon Talge WB6YKK e-mail: gtalge AT pe DOT net |
| Department of Mathematics http://www.nlmusd.k12.ca.us |
| Norwalk High School Norwalk, CA |
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