Sextants at Greenwich: A Catalogue ... by W.F.J. Mörzer Bruyns, Richard Dunn

By W.F.J. Mörzer Bruyns, Richard Dunn

A list of the Mariner's Quadrants, Mariner's Astrolabes Cross-staffs, Backstaffs, Octants, Sextants, Quintants, Reflecting Circles and synthetic Horizons within the nationwide Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Sextants at Greenwich includes major sections: The introductory chapters and of navigating tools of the nationwide Maritime Museum.

the 1st part offers a common evaluation of the heritage of celestial navigation with an emphasis at the tools that have been built and used for that function, among approximately 1450 and the Nineteen Seventies. The tools within the catalogue shape the most thread in those chapters.

contains 347 entries of tools for celestial navigation, the octants, sextants and comparable tools preserved within the nationwide Maritime Museum. each one access comprises where of the object's beginning, its maker, the object's date, inscriptions (by the maker and/or in terms of an owner), the graduated scale, the instrument's dimensions and a common description that comes with information resembling used fabrics and indifferent components. eventually the object's provenance (previous proprietors and/or clients) and references to literature on its heritage and dealing with are given.

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Extra resources for Sextants at Greenwich: A Catalogue ...

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Octants followed this practice after about 1780. The main scale of a vernier instrument was extended beyond the actual angle limit of the instrument, to allow for complete overlap of the vernier. 14 An octant’s vernier with the zero at the centre (cat. no. 065). 15 An octant’s vernier with the zero at the right (cat. no. 070). 54 The second edition of A Description of a New Instrument appeared in 1738 and listed the names of the instrument makers from whom octants could be obtained. Besides Jonathan Sisson, these were Thomas Wright, Joseph Jackson, John Gilbert, John Fowler, Edmond Culpepper, Charles Digby, and William Coleman.

1 (above) The ‘crossbow’ of Edmund Gunter depicted on the lower left of the title page of his The Description and use of the Sector, London, 1624. National Maritime Museum; PBE5165. National Maritime Museum; PBE1327. 3 (right) Observing the Sun’s altitude with a backstaff, or Davis quadrant. From Practical Navigation by John Seller, London, 1672. National Maritime Museum; PBE1327. as a Davis quadrant, simply a ‘quadrant’, or an ‘English’ quadrant. Besides a shadow and a sight vane it also had a horizon vane, with a slit parallel to the horizon, and it was used as follows38 (see Plate 3).

This was incorrect, but as Halley was the only person who knew about Newton’s quadrant, Hadley’s originality was not challenged. Hadley published his two designs in the Philosophical Transactions, including illustrations, and here used the word ‘octant’ to indicate that the frame was one-eighth of a circle. ) Hadley states no size for the frame, but on the basis of surviving early examples the radius may have been about two feet. 3 John Hadley’s first octant design. From Philosophical Transactions volume 37, 1731/1732, no.

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