Finding Longitude: the 2017, Vol
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Measurement of Time
Measurement of Time M.Y. ANAND, B.A. KAGALI* Department of Physics, Bangalore University, Bangalore 560056 *email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Time was historically measured using the periodic motions of the sun and stars. Various types of sun clocks were devised in Egypt, Greece and Europe. Different types of water clocks were assembled with ever greater accuracy. Only in the seventeenth century did the mechanical clock with pendulums and springs appeared. Accurate quartz clocks and atomic clocks were developed in the first half of the twentieth century. Now we have clocks that have better than microsecond accuracy. This article gives a brief account of all these topics. Keywords: Sun clocks, Water clocks, Mechanical clocks, Quartz clocks, Atomic clocks, World Time, Indian Standard time We all know intuitively what time is. It can be civilizations relied upon the apparent motion of roughly equated with change or motions. From these bodies through the sky to determine the very beginning man has been interested in seasons, months, and years. understanding and measuring time. More We know little about the details of recently, he has been looking for ways to limit timekeeping in prehistoric eras, but we find the “damaging” effects of time and going that in every culture, some people were backward in time! preoccupied with measuring and recording the Celestial bodies—the Sun, Moon, planets, passage of time. Ice-age hunters in Europe over and stars—have provided us a reference for 20,000 years ago scratched lines and gouged measuring the passage of time. Ancient holes in sticks and bones, possibly counting the Physics Education • January − March 2007 277 days between phases of the moon. -
QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE Latitude, Longitude and Associated Metadata
QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE Latitude, Longitude and Associated Metadata The Property Profile Form (PPF) requests the property name, address, city, state and zip. From these address fields, ACRES interfaces with Google Maps and extracts the latitude and longitude (lat/long) for the property location. ACRES sets the remaining property geographic information to default values. The data (known collectively as “metadata”) are required by EPA Data Standards. Should an ACRES user need to be update the metadata, the Edit Fields link on the PPF provides the ability to change the information. Before the metadata were populated by ACRES, the data were entered manually. There may still be the need to do so, for example some properties do not have a specific street address (e.g. a rural property located on a state highway) or an ACRES user may have an exact lat/long that is to be used. This Quick Reference Guide covers how to find latitude and longitude, define the metadata, fill out the associated fields in a Property Work Package, and convert latitude and longitude to decimal degree format. This explains how the metadata were determined prior to September 2011 (when the Google Maps interface was added to ACRES). Definitions Below are definitions of the six data elements for latitude and longitude data that are collected in a Property Work Package. The definitions below are based on text from the EPA Data Standard. Latitude: Is the measure of the angular distance on a meridian north or south of the equator. Latitudinal lines run horizontal around the earth in parallel concentric lines from the equator to each of the poles. -
Latitude/Longitude Data Standard
LATITUDE/LONGITUDE DATA STANDARD Standard No.: EX000017.2 January 6, 2006 Approved on January 6, 2006 by the Exchange Network Leadership Council for use on the Environmental Information Exchange Network Approved on January 6, 2006 by the Chief Information Officer of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency for use within U.S. EPA This consensus standard was developed in collaboration by State, Tribal, and U. S. EPA representatives under the guidance of the Exchange Network Leadership Council and its predecessor organization, the Environmental Data Standards Council. Latitude/Longitude Data Standard Std No.:EX000017.2 Foreword The Environmental Data Standards Council (EDSC) identifies, prioritizes, and pursues the creation of data standards for those areas where information exchange standards will provide the most value in achieving environmental results. The Council involves Tribes and Tribal Nations, state and federal agencies in the development of the standards and then provides the draft materials for general review. Business groups, non- governmental organizations, and other interested parties may then provide input and comment for Council consideration and standard finalization. Standards are available at http://www.epa.gov/datastandards. 1.0 INTRODUCTION The Latitude/Longitude Data Standard is a set of data elements that can be used for recording horizontal and vertical coordinates and associated metadata that define a point on the earth. The latitude/longitude data standard establishes the requirements for documenting latitude and longitude coordinates and related method, accuracy, and description data for all places used in data exchange transaction. Places include facilities, sites, monitoring stations, observation points, and other regulated or tracked features. 1.1 Scope The purpose of the standard is to provide a common set of data elements to specify a point by latitude/longitude. -
The Achievements of Captain George Vancouver on The
THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF CAPTAIN GEORGE VANCOUVER ON THE BRITISH COLUMBIA COAST. by William J. Roper A Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of HISTORY The University of British Columbia October, 1941 THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF CAPTAIN GEORGE VANCOUVER ON THE BRITISH COLUMBIA COAST TABLE Off CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Chapter I. Apprenticeship. Page 1 Chapter II. The Nootka Sound Controversy. Page 7 Chapter III. Passage to the Northwest Coast. Page 15 Chapter IV. Survey—Cape Mendocino to Admiralty Inlet. Page 21 Chapter V. Gulf of Georgia—Johnstone Straits^-Nootka. Page 30 Chapter VI. Quadra and Vancouver at Nootka. Page 47 Chapter VII. Columbia River, Monterey, Second Northward Survey, Sandwich Islands. Page 57 Chapter VIII. Third Northern Survey. Page 70 Chapter IX. Return to England. Page 84 Chapter X. Summary of Vancouver's Ac hi evement s. Page 88 Appendix I. Letter of Vancouver to Evan Nepean. ' Page 105 Appendix II. Controversy between Vancouver and Menzies. Page 110 Appendix III. Comments on.Hewett's Notes. Page 113 Appendix IV. Hydrographic Surveys of the Northwest Coast. Page 115 Bibliography- Page I* INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION I wish to take this opportunity to express my thanks to Dr. W. N. Sage, Head of the Department of History of the University of British Columbia for his helpful suggestions and aid in the preparation of this thesis. CHAPTER I. APPRENTICESHIP THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF CAPTAIN GEORGE VANCOUVER ON THE BRITISH COLUMBIA COAST CHAPTER I. APPRENTICESHIP What were the achievements of Captain Vancouver on the British Columbia coast? How do his achievements compare with those of Captain Cook and the Spanish explorers? Why was an expedition sent to the northwest coast at this time? What qualifications did Vancouver have for the position of commander of the expedition? These and other pertinent questions will receive consideration in this thesis. -
Captain Matthew Flinders (1774~1814)
Captain Matthew Flinders (1774~1814) Captain Matthew Flinders was born 16 March, 1774. He was one of the most successful cartographers and navigators of his time. In a career that only spanned twenty years he circumnavigated Australia, proved Tasmania was an island and was the person responsible for the name “Australia” being adopted. Born in Lincolnshire, England, Matthew Flinders was introduced to the sea through reading the book Robinson Crusoe. Coming from a family of doctors, Flinders was expected to follow the same profession, but at the age of 15 he joined the Royal Navy. By 1790, Flinders had been made a midshipman and worked transporting breadfruit from Tahiti to Jamaica where he developed his navigation skills under the leadership of Captain Bligh. Flinders first trip to Port Jackson, New South Wales was in 1795 as a midshipman. On this voyage he quickly proved himself as a fine navigator and cartographer. He also became friends with the ship’s surgeon George Bass. Not long after arriving in Port Jackson, Bass and Flinders made two small expeditions in small open boats, both named Tom Thumb. Their first journey was to Botany Bay and Georges River; the second south from Port Jackson to Lake Illawarra . These journeys allowed Flinders to upgrade the maps of the New South Wales coast. In 1798 Flinders was given command of the ship, Norfolk and given orders to investigate beyond the Furneaux’s Islands and explore the extent of the strait between the mainland and Van Diemen's Land ( now known as Tasmania). Flinders and Bass journeyed through the strait and circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land, proving that it was a separate island. -
The Meeting of Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin
A Cordial Encounter? 53 A Cordial Encounter? The Meeting of Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin (8-9 April, 1802) Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby1 The famous encounter between Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders in the waters off Australia’s previously uncharted south coast has now entered the nation’s folklore. At a time when their respective countries were locked in conflict at home and competing for strategic advantage on the world stage, the two captains were able to set aside national rivalries and personal disappointments in order to greet one another with courtesy and mutual respect. Their meeting is thus portrayed as symbolic of the triumph of international co-operation over the troubled geopolitics of the day. What united the two expeditions—the quest for knowledge in the spirit of the Enlightenment—proved to be stronger than what divided them. This enduring—and endearing—image of the encounter between Baudin and Flinders is certainly well supported by the facts as we know them. The two captains did indeed conduct themselves on that occasion in an exemplary manner, readily exchanging information about their respective discoveries and advising one another about the navigational hazards they should avoid or about safe anchorages where water and other supplies could be obtained. Furthermore, the civility of their meeting points to a strong degree of mutual respect, and perhaps also to a recognition of their shared experience as navigators whom fate had thrown together on the lonely and treacherous shores of the “unknown coast” of Australia. And yet, as appealing as it may be, this increasingly idealized image of the encounter runs the risk of masking some of its subtleties and complexities. -
'Classification' of the Late Eighteenth Century Pacific
Empirical Power, Imperial Science: Science, Empire, and the ‘Classification’ of the Late Eighteenth Century Pacific A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts in History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Justin Wyatt Voogel Ó Copyright Justin Wyatt Voogel, September 2017 All Rights Reserved Permission to Use In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis/dissertation in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Requests for permission to copy or to make other uses of materials in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of History Arts and Science Admin Commons Room 522, Arts Building University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 Canada i Abstract The Pacific of the mid eighteenth century was far removed from what it would become by the first decade of the nineteenth. -
Matthew Flinders' Mauritius Writings. Gillian Dooley My Work in Special
Dooley: Uses of Adversity The Uses of Adversity: Matthew Flinders’ Mauritius Writings. Gillian Dooley My work in Special Collections at the Flinders University Library has brought me into close contact with many aspects of our namesake Matthew Flinders, especially recently. Over the years my predecessors have assiduously collected every scrap of information or memorabilia on Flinders that came their way, and my current project is cataloguing this material, providing subject access via our library catalogue.1 We have a few treasures, but the real value of the collection lies in its collocation of many bits and pieces from two centuries of academic and journalistic interest in Flinders. And inevitably this work has led me to follow other trails, reading some of the many excellent biographies, and his own work as well, ranging from his journals, now available in facsimile and transcript on the State Library of NSW web site,2 to his monumental Voyage to Terra Australis, in Tim Flannery’s timely abridged version3 — light enough to carry on the bus — and his memoir of his devoted ship’s cat Trim. And I have discovered that Matthew Flinders was a writer of considerable ability — which is to say, I have ‘discovered’ the fact in the same way 1 URL <voyager.flinders.edu.au> 2 The Private Journal is also about to be published by Crawford House in an edition by Anthony J. Brown. 1 Dooley: Uses of Adversity that Flinders ‘discovered’ Port Lincoln and Kangaroo Island. Others have been there before me: T.M. Perry wrote a short appreciation in the issue of Overland in which ‘Trim’ first appeared,4 K. -
National Association of Watch and CLOCK Collectors VOL
VOL 34 ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 2010 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WATCH AND CLOCK COLLECTORS earlier watch by Earnshaw as his form of detent escapement came to be the accepted form and is still manufactured today. I took this watch with me on a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as I had a letter of introduction to Jonathan Betts; the curator of Horology there. After showing him the watch, he took Nancy and I down to the student room where they do all the cataloging and restoration of their valuable pieces. He further told us some of the history of Earnshaw and the interesting fact that they had pieces numbered close to my watch, which is #3484. A sister watch of the Museum and ours was one of Two favourites belonging to Colin born in the Kirklington District of four carried by Bligh on his second & Nancy Hill. Cumberland, (1673 and died 1750). voyage wheh he sailed in the ship In the 1970’s, I joined the He was one of the most eminent THE PROVIDENCE in 1791. Bligh NAWCC and so began our visits to English horologists employing verge was testing the accuracy of these the NAWCC regionals in the United escapements to 1726, then his highly timepieces for their use in the Royal States, during which time Nancy sophisticated improvements to the Navy’s navigation prowess, pieces and I made many friends in the cylinder escapement, his invention carried were by Earnshaw; #1503 horological collecting fraternity, of the dead-beat escapement and the and a second timepiecepiece #1508. -
Revisiting Inscriptions on the Investigator Tree on Sweers Island, Gulf of Carpentaria
REVISITING INSCRIPTIONS ON THE INVESTIGATOR TREE ON SWEERS ISLAND, GULF OF CARPENTARIA COLLINS, S. J.1, MATE, G.2,1 & ULM, S.1,3 The Investigator Tree, so named after Matthew Flinders’ ship HMS Investigator, is an inscribed tree currently on display in the Queensland Museum. Before being accessioned into the Queensland Museum’s collection in 1889, the Investigator Tree grew on the western shore of Sweers Island in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria. The tree’s “Investigator” inscription, attributed to Flinders (1802), provided the catalyst for future and varied forms of European inscription making on Sweers Island, including a contentious additional “Investigator” inscription on the Investigator Tree carved by Thomas Baines in 1856. Previous researchers have speculated that Baines’ second “Investigator” inscription has caused the faded original “Investigator” inscription to be misinterpreted as either a Chinese or Dutch inscription predating Flinders’ visit to Sweers Island. For the first time, this study undertakes a physical examination of all markings on the Investigator Tree, including a second portion of the tree located at the Queensland Museum since 2009. In com bination with a review of the archival and historical record, findings provide alternative interpretations regarding the (28) inscriptions to address outstanding questions. Archival documents demonstrate that there were at least three inscribed trees on Sweers Island. This paper also revisits the possibility of there once being preFlinders inscriptions on the Investigator -
GMT and Longitude by Lunar Distance: Two Methods Compared from a Practitioner’S Point of View
THE JOURNAL OF NAVIGATION (2019), 72, 1660–1664. c The Royal Institute of Navigation 2019 doi:10.1017/S0373463319000341 FORUM GMT and Longitude by Lunar Distance: Two Methods Compared From a Practitioner’s Point of View Eric Romelczyk (E-mail: [email protected]) This article discusses the technique of observing lunar distance - that is, angular distance between the moon and another celestial body - to establish universal time and longitude, from a practitioner’s point of view. The article presents a brief overview of the principles underlying the lunar distance observation and its use in celestial navigation. A discussion follows of two different methods for finding universal time by observing lunar distance, Dr. Wendel Brunner’s calculator-based method and the specialised inspection tables created by Bruce Stark. The article compares the two methods against each other for ease of use and accuracy. The author concludes that either method will provide satisfactory results, but that the technique of observing lunar dis- tance is unlikely to regain relevance in the modern-day practice of navigation and is primarily useful as a skill-building exercise in making sextant observations. KEYWORDS 1. Navigation. 2. History. 3. Nautical. 4. Time. Submitted: 8 August 2018. Accepted: 14 April 2019. First published online: 2 May 2019. 1. INTRODUCTION. 1.1. History of the lunar distance method. For centuries of seafaring history, a method for accurately measuring time to the degree of precision necessary to establish the navigator’s longitude was out of reach for practical purposes. It had been understood since the mid-16th century that the navigator’s longitude could be established either by reference to the moon’s angular distance from other celestial bodies - the “lunar distance”, measured by careful sextant observations - or by reference to a timepiece of sufficient accuracy. -
ARCTIC Exploration the SEARCH for FRANKLIN
CATALOGUE THREE HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT ARCTIC EXPLORATION & THE SeaRCH FOR FRANKLIN WILLIAM REESE COMPANY 409 Temple Street New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 789-8081 A Note This catalogue is devoted to Arctic exploration, the search for the Northwest Passage, and the later search for Sir John Franklin. It features many volumes from a distinguished private collection recently purchased by us, and only a few of the items here have appeared in previous catalogues. Notable works are the famous Drage account of 1749, many of the works of naturalist/explorer Sir John Richardson, many of the accounts of Franklin search expeditions from the 1850s, a lovely set of Parry’s voyages, a large number of the Admiralty “Blue Books” related to the search for Franklin, and many other classic narratives. This is one of 75 copies of this catalogue specially printed in color. Available on request or via our website are our recent catalogues: 320 Manuscripts & Archives, 322 Forty Years a Bookseller, 323 For Readers of All Ages: Recent Acquisitions in Americana, 324 American Military History, 326 Travellers & the American Scene, and 327 World Travel & Voyages; Bulletins 36 American Views & Cartography, 37 Flat: Single Sig- nificant Sheets, 38 Images of the American West, and 39 Manuscripts; e-lists (only available on our website) The Annex Flat Files: An Illustrated Americana Miscellany, Here a Map, There a Map, Everywhere a Map..., and Original Works of Art, and many more topical lists. Some of our catalogues, as well as some recent topical lists, are now posted on the internet at www.reeseco.com.