Solving that old, ‘Where Am I?’ question. The reefs of the world are strewn with the bones of sailors who thought they knew where they were only to drown hundreds even thousands of miles off course. By the 18th Century, those changes in latitude could be figured, but longitude was only guessed at.
In 1714, the British Parliament offered a huge reward to anyone who could invent a system that would accurately calculate a ship’s position east and west on the globe. Author, Dava Sobel tells the true tale of how a fastidious, country clockmaker outwits the greatest astronomers of the day during a “It’s-a-Mad-Mad-Mad-World kind of race to the prize. The proffered solutions of some of the lesser minds of the day, particularly the Powder of Sympathy are hilarious and keep the pages turning:
“Send aboard a wounded dog as a ship sets sail. Leave ashore a trusted individual to dip the dog’s [old] bandage into the Sympathy Solution every day at noon. The dog would perforce yelp in reaction, and thereby provide the captain with a time clue,” that is, London time. This, plus the ship’s speed equals distance, Voila! Poor dog.
Questions:
What would be an equivalent scientific challenge these days?
What are its Powder of Sympathy solutions?
No GPS!
The depth of commitment this man had to finding the answer to the problem of his time for accurate navigation shows that there is always a way to overcome a problem no matter what the establishment may say.
Posted by 2010-02-26 14:58:47.