Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation

Where's this book been?
by Alan Gurney | History |
ISBN: 0393050734 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 6/25/2016
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, June 25, 2016
I found this good-condition hardcover at a local Goodwill thrift shop, and couldn't resist.

I love "biographies of things", and enjoyed the book Longitude, which also dealt with the technical issues of accurate positioning. This book focuses on the compass, which has a surprisingly long history, with 12th-century writings describing the use of a magnetized needle to find direction. But it took centuries of practical experience, observation, and invention to work out the finer points of magnetism in general and of the ways in which a compass needle could be led astray. Leaving a big chunk of metal too near the compass caused problems - all the more noticeable with the advent of iron-hulled ships! - and then there's the tiny problem that the Earth's magnetic field shifts over time, making "magnetic north" a variable instead of a fixed point. The descriptions of the disasters caused by faulty navigation, the power plays over suggested innovations, and the gradual understanding of how magnets worked all add up to an interesting history of something we tend to take for granted today.

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing at Kittery Historical and Naval Museum in Kittery, Maine USA on Sunday, August 7, 2016

Released 7 yrs ago (8/7/2016 UTC) at Kittery Historical and Naval Museum in Kittery, Maine USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I hope to leave this book on a bench or window ledge at the museum at around 2:30 or so; hope the finder enjoys it!

*** Released as part of the 2016 One Word Title release challenge. ***

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