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9780801871320 Add to Cart Academic Inspection Copy

Earth's Magnetism in the Age of Sail (POD)

  • ISBN-13: 9780801871320
  • Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
    Imprint: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
  • By A. R. T. Jonkers
  • Price: AUD $124.00
  • Stock: 0 in stock
  • Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
  • Local release date: 14/07/2003
  • Format: Hardback 320 pages Weight: 0g
  • Categories: History of science [PDX]
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From about 1600 to 1800 scientists and mariners made increasingly sophisticated attempts to understand the earth's magnetic field and use it in navigation. Europeans had long understood the difference between magnetic and true north, but why did it vary as one traversed the sea? Could this variation be used to pinpoint longitude? Drawing on a wealth of unpublished sources–including manuals, treatises, sailing directions, and logbooks in a half-dozen languages–A. R. T. Jonkers explores these early efforts both for what they reveal about the history of science and navigation and as a unique record of the actual changes in the earth's magnetic field. The result, a masterful combination of science and history, will appeal to a broad audience of specialists as well as general readers.


Contents:List of Figures and Tables

Acknowledgments

Note on Spelling and Other Conventions

List of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Merging Geomagnetism and HistoryPART I: Earth's Magnetism

1 The Earth's Magnetic Field

2 The Age of Diversity: Geomagnetism before 1600

3 The Age of Discord: Geomagnetism in the Seventeenth Century

4 The Age of Data: Geomagnetism in the Eighteenth CenturyPART II: In the Age of Sail

5 Traversing the Trackless Oceans

6 Following in Iron Arrow

7 Plotting the Third CoordinateConclusion: Quantifying Geomagnetic NavigationAppendix

Chronology of Geomagnetic Hypotheses

Notes

Essay on Sources

Index

""In this ambitious work, the author sets out to rescue from obscurity the thousands of measurements of magnetic declination made by European sailors in the early modern period... The monumental contribution of information and insight brought by this study... will bear fruit well into the future.""

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