NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
German Sextants
From: Nicol�s de Hilster
Date: 2006 Nov 23, 12:37 +0100
From: Nicol�s de Hilster
Date: 2006 Nov 23, 12:37 +0100
Dear group, The former curator of the Netherlands Maritime Museum in Amsterdam Willem M�rzer Bruyns (currently holding the National Maritime Museum's 2005-07 Sackler Research Fellowship in the History of Astronomy and Navigational Sciences) posted the following question on the Rete group, which he would like to have cross-posted here and on the Yahoo Sextants group as well (the latter is already done). If anyone has an answer I can pass it through to the Rete group. many thanks, Nicol�s de Hilster www.dehilster.info >Dear Group, > >The Hamburg firm of C. Plath produced bubble and gyroscopic sextants. >The first type was made after 1939, the latter after 1943. Both types >are described as SOLD-sextants. I have seen contemporary German manuals >and instruction booklets, and the two books on the history of the Plath >firm. They all use the word SOLD for this type of Plath sextant, but in >none an explanation is given for the word SOLD. I presume it is an >abbreviation. >Does anyone have the answer? > >Between 1875 and 1902 the Deutsche Seewarte in Hamburg tested a large >number of (in this order:) octants, sextants, 'halbsextanten', and >pocket sextants. Does anyone know what is meant by a 'halbsextant' >(half sextant), of which they tested no less than 570 examples. Could >it be a quintant? > > >With many thanks, > >Willem M�rzer Bruyns > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---