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Alex wrote:

> P.S. 1828 Norie is especially interesting to me, not only because of
> navigation, but also from the point of view of my main profession:
> mathematical education. It tells me a lot about the general state
> of mathematical education in England in the beginning of XIX century...

I suspect that it gives a very misleading impression of education there
at that time.

Unlike New England, where some successful merchants seem to have sent
their sons to sea to learn one end of the business, the masters and
mates of British merchant ships pre-1850 were not drawn from the middle
class (captains of East Indiamen excepted) and of course not from the
upper class. Meanwhile, until the 1870s (or was that the 1860s?), there
was no general expectation that working-class boys would receive any
formal education at all. Norie had to write for readers whose only
exposure to mathematics, beyond basic arithmetic, was as part of their
instruction in navigation. (Some of his readers will have known more but
he had to provide for those who did not.)

The more frightening thing would be to examine the sad state of
mathematical education in England's public schools (which any other
nation would regard as private schools) at the time. It is no accident
that Germany rapidly surpassed Britain in most technical matters during
the 19th century and much of the cause lies in the refusal of England's
public schools to provide early education in math or the sciences.

It might be interesting to look at the textbooks that young Royal Navy
officers used when studying navigation. They were products of the middle
and upper classes, who should have had the benefits of public school
educations when they were not taught at home by private tutors. Then
again, they were sent to sea at an age when few modern school children
would yet have much comprehension of trigonometry or even logarithms.


Trevor Kenchington



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Trevor J. Kenchington PhD                         Gadus@iStar.ca
Gadus Associates,                                 Office(902) 889-9250
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