Compass For Navigation Research Articles

항해 나침반의 사용 시점에 관한 동서양 비교 연구

이 논문에서 필자들은 유럽과 중국에서 거의 비슷한 시기에 나침반이 항해에 이용되었음을 역사적 기록과 최근까지의 연구성과들을 검토함으로써 밝히고자 하였다. 그 연구 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 동서양 문명권에서 항해자들이 나침반을 항해에 이용하기까지 비슷한 과정을 거쳤다. 즉 표침, 축침, 콤파스 카드 순으로 항해용 나침반을 개발하여 사용하였다. 둘째, Frode의 사가(saga)를 고려해 볼 때 중국과 유럽에서는 11세기 경에 나침반을 항해에 이용하였다. 결론적으로 중국인들이 세계 최초로 나침반을 항해에 이용했다는 기존 주장과는 달리, 중국인들과 유럽인들은 거의 비슷한 시기에 서로 독자적으로 나침반을 항해에 이용하였다. Up to now it has been widely conceived that mariner's compass was introduced to Europe from China via the Arabic people. But the proofs to support the above orthodox dissertation have not been found yet. In general it has been approved that the Chinese used the compass for navigation in the 11th century and European did in the 12th century. During the above period the communication between the Europe and the China was made only by the mediation of the Arabic people. But it is known that the beginning of Arabic people's compass usage was one century later than that of the European. It may raise a historical question about ‘was mariner's compass introduced to Europe from China via the Arabic people\ulcorner’ In this paper the authors tried to prove the simultaneity of the mariner's compass usage by the European with the Chinese by reviewing historical materials and modern researches. The results are as following; The first, there is a strong similarity in the evolving steps of compass appliance of both civilizations, such as from using magnetized and pivoted needle to fixing card thereto. Second, the Chinese and the European started to use the mariner's compass almost at the same time, and they developed it independently.

Comment on “Survey tracks current position of South Magnetic Pole” and “Recent acceleration of the north magnetic pole linked to magnetic jerks”

In recent months, two articles have appeared in Eos reporting new positions of the north [Newitt et al., 2002] and south [Barton, 2002] magnetic poles from on‐site measurements of locations for vertical magnetic field dip. Readers should be advised that these reported positions are neither magnetic poles nor geophysically important locations. First let us review some facts about our Earth's field.When a magnetic field can be represented by an axially symmetric dipole pattern similar to the electric field from a pair of equal and opposite electric charges, the axis of this magnetic field is called a pole. For the Earth, Gilbert [1958] first called attention to this dipole feature in his 1600 publication De Magnete. With the magnetic dipole center location corresponding to the Earth's geographic center, and the Earth completely spherical, the exit position of the magnetic dipole corresponded to the location of a fully vertical dip of the field. Global maritime exploration that started around the time of the epic 1492 Columbus voyage greatly depended on the ship compass for navigation and on magnetic declination maps for guidance. It was only natural that considerable interest in special expeditions to locate the mysterious Arctic and Antarctic Earth magnetic poles subsequently arose.

Ecotopia, Sustainability, and Vision

The object of this article is to explore whether ecological utopias are capable of providing a useful contribution to our quest for an ecologically responsible future and a sustainable society and, if so, in what specific ways. The author develops a model of ecological utopias as a distant point of orientation, or as a “navigational compass.” In this model, ecotopias may influence the course of concrete decision making in the direction of a future sustainable society. After an analysis of the current social debate in western Europe on sustainable development, it is argued that ecological utopias can help us to “monitor” environmental problems and that they provide “inspiration” for a cleaner society. Ecotopias also allow us to imagine a “virtual reality” of a possible ecologically stable society and are a justifiable means of visionary imagery of a better future.

Short distance phase shifts revisited: tracking clock‐shifted homing pigeons (Rock Dove Columba livia) close to the loft

Clock-shifted homing pigeons (Rock Dove Columba livia) were tracked from familiar release sites using a direction recorder. At relatively short distances from the home loft (< 3.2km), it was discovered that two different mechanisms for homing were present. One involved the sun compass and the other was independent of this. At a further site (9.95 km) none of the birds used the sun compass for navigation. The possibilities for the non-sun compass-based mechanism are discussed.

IL FENG SHUIE LA BUSSOLA GEOMANTICA DELL'ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA DI FIRENZE

Abstracttitle SUMMARY /title The Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza of Florence preserves some ancient Chinese scientific instruments, very interesting for historians. These instruments are: one compass for navigation, one geomantic compass, one compass with agricultural calendar, two sound spheres, two balances. Only the first of them has been studied, the others are not known yet. The present paper begins a close cooperation between the Institute of Florence and the Istituto Universitario Orientale of Naples (Group of Research on History of Sciences and Technologies of Eastern Asia, direct by A. Tamburello); here, I will attend to the second instrument over mentioned, the geomantic compass. The geomantic compasses are very important for the history of sciences because they bear witness to enormous complexity of the Chinese thought and, in the technical and scientific field, they represent the instrument for the ancient studies on feng shui. After a panoramic description of the divining system of feng shui, I give a deep explication of the geomantic compass preserved in Florence that seems particularly important because it presents some characters rarely used in this kind of instruments.

Navigational compass in magnetic bacteria

Magnetotactic bacteria that orient and swim in a preferred direction in the geomagnetic field contain sufficient single domain magnetite to constitute a biomagnetic compass.

本邦近海の磁針偏差について(日本航海学会第24回講演会)

Since 1912, the magnetic survey of the whole Japan and the adjacent areas of Japan was carried out by the Japanese Hydrographic Office. The results of these magnetic surveys were published as the magnetic chart of the adjacent seas of Japan. In construction of the magnetic chart, magnetic variation was calculated from the following empirical formulae on geographical distribution which is expressed by the quadratic function of latitude ψ and longitude λ, δ=δ+aλ+bψ+cλψ+dλ^2+eψ^2. From July 11 to 20, 1960, the 1st magnetic survey at sea was carried out with the magnetic compass for navigation by the survey ship "Takuyo" of the Hydrographic Office around the west coast in Hokkaido and Siriyamisaki. From the magnetic survey, it was found following results. 1) Departure of the observed magnetic variation at sea from the empirical formulae are considered to be less than ± 1°. Therefore, the magnetic chart constructed by Japanese Hydrographic Office is correct for navigation. 2) It has been reported by navigator that there are local magnetic disturbances at several areas in Hokkaido, but it was found that there are no local disturbance more than ± 1°from the results of the magnetic survey for navigation.

The Navigational Compass

The Navigational Compass