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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Gyro sextant
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2019 Jan 25, 20:11 +0000
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2019 Jan 25, 20:11 +0000
I want to mention two papers related to gyro-sextants. 1. Mary R. Hunt, The German gyro-sextant, Inst of Navigation, June 1947, vol. 1, N 6 p. 138-141. The paper reports the results of testing in the US (two months after the VE day) of these sextants found in German submarines. I cite the conclusions: "It appears to this writer, on the basis of these early tests, that the instrument might have some usefulness as a supplement to the Endless Tangent Screw Sextant although it could not be recommended to replace that instrument. One intriquing inference can be drawn from the existence of the gyro-sextant, namely that the Germans must also have had difficulty in using the bubble sextant for marine navigation! 2. In 18th century (long before the invention of gyroscope!) some artificial horizon called "marine top" was tested by John Serson on board of HMS Victory. https://web.archive.org/web/20070713225257/http://www.profsurv.com/archive.php?issue=37&article=531 A complete description of this device was published in the Transactions of Royal Society: An Account of an Horizontal Top, Invented by Mr. Serson, by Mr. James Short, F. R. S. Authors: Mr. Serson and James Short Source: Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775), Vol. 47 (1751 - 1752), pp. 352-353. Apparently available free on JSTOR. I have not read it yet. This Serson died when HMS Victory sank in 1744 (Wikipedia has entries on Serson and HMS Victory). Alex.
