HALF CENTURY OF NAVIGATION 1900-1950

Captains P. V. H. Weems

Peer Reviewed

Abstract: The Science of Navigation, along with other sciences, have experienced spectacular progress in the first half of this century. Our discussion of the subject is restricted to approximately the period of my personal observation, with the ope that what I say will be more positive than if compiled from other sources. The status of navigation at the turn of the century was relatively simple and fairly well standardized. While radio was in use, its greatest effects had not been felt. Errors in longitude of many places, due to errors in finding time by chronometers, had not been made. The usual method of checking the ship chronometers, usually three, was by means of land telegraph, and by dropping "time balls" at selecte places. Air navigation had not entered the picture. Electronic methods of navigation had not been developed. The gyro compass was a decade away.
Published in: NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 4, Number 5
Pages: 187 - 189
Cite this article: Weems, Captains P. V. H., "HALF CENTURY OF NAVIGATION 1900-1950", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 4, No. 5, 1955, pp. 187-189.
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