South Southern California

helicopterjim said:
I didn't know there were folk who are bilingual in USA?

Jim
Click to expand...
FYI  I was born in England and grew up in Perth Western Australia. When I first started driving in Australia in 1971 it was all imperial MPH, MPG and all road distance in miles. Although the metric system was officially set in to motion in 1970 it took a while to get ready to implement it. Then suddenly one day in early 1973 you woke up and all the road signs were being changed, for a short time distances and speed limits were posted in both MPH and KPH. l learned to drive on the left now I drive on the right and have no problems switching. Does that make me multilingual? 

Looks like only  Bruce and myself are up for the ride. Cheers Dave.
 
Legs said:
Try nautical measurements: One degree of latitude = one nautical mile, one nautical mile = ten cables, one cable = 200 yards.
One fathom = six feet.
Still used in navigation.
Click to expand...
And subsea work now uses charts in Northings and Eastings.
Nav charts are based on degrees because you are navigating across the surface of a sphere, and the distance measured from parallels of latitude. The fact of making a flat chart from a 3D globe is what has always made it difficult.
USA had to use decimal inches to make any progress.
Imperial always has been a quagmire, Whitworth, BSF, SAE and all that stuff. When we started I got confused that a 10mm bolt wasn't the one I used the 10mm spanner on.
 
Legs said:
Try nautical measurements: One degree of latitude = one nautical mile, one nautical mile = ten cables, one cable = 200 yards.
One fathom = six feet.
Still used in navigation.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you weren't a navigator when you were in the Navy. One degree of Latitude = 60 nautical miles.
 
Legs said:
And yes, I navigated the submarine.
Click to expand...

Not that it would have made any difference. It's a bit hard to shoot a sextant sight from underwater.  :D

Some arsehole broke into my boat on the marina a while back and stole my lovely old brass sextant. It was a proper precision instrument worth at least $1000 (plastic ones are $400). The bugger probably had no idea how to use it. I reckon the prick either wanted to put it on the mantlepiece as nautical d?cor or sell it for a few bucks to buy drugs. I hate thieves.
 
Well maybe an old question will be answered.

When I was a kid, we lived in a central London mews. There was an architects office in the mews and at one time, in the late 60s I imagine, they renovated the office and threw a lot of stuff out. I picked this up and it's followed me across the Channel, through several house moves and a divorce where a lot of my belongings disappeared.

And don't know the exact term for this instrument, obviously what surveyors used but what is the scale on it which is repeated all the way up apparently?

Paul
 

Attachments

  • M1 (Petit).jpg
    M1 (Petit).jpg
    61.3 KB · Views: 94
  • M2 (Petit).jpg
    M2 (Petit).jpg
    34.7 KB · Views: 92
I was always a bit suspicious with the imperial system, but that's probably just a matter of getting used to it.

However, if you deal with different systems, you should at least come to an agreement, otherwise, as example Mars Climate Orbiter shows, there is a risk of a lot of junk.
???

I am glad that Laverdas raise no questions in this regard ...
8)

Cheers
Jo


 
I am not a surveyor, I am a Carpenter and Builder. My role as an apprentice was to hold that gadget, its called a Levelling Staff at set points around the site and refer that back to a datum point set from at some point Sea Level using a Telescopic Gadget that is set so it always sights level off a tripod. As I said earlier if its an Imperial one its feet and tenths of feet. I don't know what those numbers printed on your one refer too.
 
Paul Marx said:
And don't know the exact term for this instrument, obviously what surveyors used but what is the scale on it which is repeated all the way up apparently?

Paul
Click to expand...
It?s a surveyors Rangefinder staff: paired to the theodolite and used to determine distance and elevation from the trig point (theodolite on tripod): the number of smaller grads falling between the upper and lower rangefinder marks in the rangefinder indicate Metres x 10 and the physical numbers the difference in elevation (once the height of the tripod etc is discounted.
 
yeah, but he was camping, anyway you are not a tea leaf but a conservator, I expect you would give it back any time they asked, I have seen it and it fits the d?cor a right royal treat, and I don't mean chocolate covered peanuts.
CLEM
 
CLEMTOG said:
yeah, but he was camping, anyway you are not a tea leaf but a conservator, I expect you would give it back any time they asked, I have seen it and it fits the d?cor a right royal treat, and I don't mean chocolate covered peanuts.
CLEM
Click to expand...

:LOL:

Usual story Clem. Things get thrown out, considered worthless, and suddenly decades later, some fashion conscious, money hungry, middle class yob makes it a must have.
Very much like Laverda motorcycles.

Be assured Clem, that it's staying on the living room wall.

Paul
 
Dellortoman said:
I'm guessing you weren't a navigator when you were in the Navy. One degree of Latitude = 60 nautical miles.
Click to expand...

So, knowing nothing about navigation and lat/long, can i hazard a guess that 1 minute = 1 nautical mile?

Oh, and nice little hijack here Dave!! Enjoy the S Cal bunch ride  :D
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
can i hazard a guess that 1 minute = 1 nautical mile?
Click to expand...

Yes. That's where nautical miles come from. 1 minute of arc in latitude, or 1 minute of longitude at the equator.  Obviously it doesn't work for longitude as you get away from the equator because the meridian lines converge toward the poles.
 
Obviously it doesn't work for longitude as you get away from the equator because the meridian lines converge toward the poles.
Click to expand...
For those who have seen the Robert Redford movie where he gets stranded at see and teaches himself navigation, he measures distance with his dividers along the scale at the bottom of the chart, big mistake!
 
That is the worst movie ever. Totally sailing bullshit from first scene till the last scene.
Unbelievable crap.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top