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On 23 March I wrote, casting suspicion on a possible transcription error in
a previous posting by Frank Reed-

"But first, there seems to be an error on Dunbar's part, or a transcription
error since, that makes Dunbar's proposal seem more impractical than it
really was.

Dunbar is quoted as saying- "there are two portions of each lunation when
the  moon's change of declination is very rapid, exceeding 6 in 24 hours,
that is 5"  of a degree in one minute of time." No doubt that "6 in 24
hours" refers to 6 degrees in 24 hours, a rate of change of declination
which the Moon can achieve under certain extreme circumstances. But that
would give rise to a change of 15", not 5" as stated, in a minute of time.
The resulting motion of the Moon in dec. would then be just half the speed,
not one-sixth of the speed, of the change in lunar distance. Where has the
erroneous 5" figure come from?"

Frank responded as follows-

"There are certainly transcription errors, especially on numerical matters,
but the original scans are available on the web site so you can check for
yourself."

Well, I've tried doing as he suggested, and called up the website he
referred to at-

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/

which ends up with a page entitled something like "American memory".
However, to my old and inadequate computer system, this appears as nothing
but an empty page. No complaints about that, it's more than time I did
something to upgrade. But there's no way that I can check for that
suspected transcription error.

So I suggest that the onus falls back on to Frank Reed to check his own
posting, as to whether it contains such an error.

George.

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