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Re: Slocum's lunars
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2003 Dec 14, 21:57 -0500
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2003 Dec 14, 21:57 -0500
George, Where is the evidence that Slocum ever took a sight of the sun or a star to find his latitude? Fred On Dec 14, 2003, at 4:56 PM, George Huxtable wrote: > Jan Kalivoda said- > >> George, sorry, but I cannot understand you: >> >>> In those days, tables for printing were set by hand, and there was >>> much >>> scope for things to go wrong. I have read of other cases of printed >>> errors, >>> and we can't reject the possibility of a whole column of them. >> >> If I can imagine the process of preparing the book by hand, the >> digits of >> table values were set one by one. Accordingly, I can understand a >> casual >> printing error in one digit of one logarithm, but what mental process >> could >> cause the error in a whole vertical column, while adjacent columns >> should be >> correct? > > Response from George. > > Perhaps it's unlikely, as Jan says. It might be a misunderstanding, by > the > printer, of the columns in the manuscript sheet that had been given to > him. > But now that Jan raises the question, I am less confident about it. > >> And two following paragraphs seem to be contradictory: >> >> >>> Nor can we reject the possibility that Slocum did something wrong, >>> got a >>> silly answer, and then found a way to "fiddle" things to get a >>> better one >>> by altering a set of numbers in a table. But Slocum would be asking >>> for >>> trouble in doing that, because it would be so easy to check it >>> retrospectively. Publishing it in a book, which would be widely read >>> by his >>> seagoing contemporaries, he was surely aware that the first question >>> another mariner would ask him would be "What was the table that was >>> wrong, >>> and what were those errors?", so that they could correct their own >>> copies. >> >> Therefore it would have been dangerous for Slocum to lay false claim >> for >> correcting a table value? >> >> >>> I agree with Herbert that his claim to have detected, and then >>> corrected, >>> an error in a table was a remarkable feat: so remarkable as to make >>> it hard >>> to accept. >> >> Or not? > > > Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. > > There are two arguments being presented here, that pull in contrary > directions. I am unable to choose between them with any confidence. > It's an > interesting puzzle. > > George. > > ================================================================ > contact George Huxtable by email at george@huxtable.u-net.com, by > phone at > 01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy > Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. > ================================================================ >