NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Manufacture new Bygraves?
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2009 Jul 09, 20:32 +0100
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2009 Jul 09, 20:32 +0100
Brad Morris wrote (NavList 9047) >I would dearly loved to have extended the resolution and scale >lengths, added in those second scales alluded to in the Bygrave >patent and etcetera, but I believe the consensus now to be 'copies >of the MHR-1'. Note that this is NOT a copy of Bygraves original >manufacture. That device suffers from the in-ability to lock the >reference of the tubes to each other. Why promulgate that design, >when the subsequent MHR-1 was clearly superior in manipulation. Geoffrey responds: As Gary says, if there is sufficient friction between the tubes there is no need for a device to lock the tubes. That being the case, I am not so sure that having such a locking device is "clearly" superior - but what it does do is complicate the design hugely. It is a typically German over-engineered response to a rather trivial problem. Lest this be taken the wrong way, I am not trying to denigrate the Germans or German engineering here. Far from it, I have great admiration for the quality and inventiveness of German engineering. But there is a tendency in German engineering culture toward engineering for the sake of engineering rather than to solve problems as easily and efficiently as possible. In this case, adding a bit of friction between the tubes is clearly easier than incorporating a locking device. There is one aspect of the MHR-1 which is clearly (there is that word again) superior to the Bygrave, and that is the use of a tube with a cursor window instead of that rather delicate little spike which decorates the Bygrave. Geoffrey Kolbe --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NavList message boards: www.fer3.com/arc Or post by email to: NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---