The boom in whaling occurred due to the rising demand for spermaceti oil in America. Spermaceti oil was prized and worshiped for its efficiency. A candle crafted from spermaceti oil was one that could burn for days, leaving no smoke trail. With the mass production of spermaceti candles, Americans no longer had to worry about opening the windows in their homes when they lit a candle. In addition to this, whale oil was used in different applications as a wax. However, it is the composition of spermaceti oil that makes it so rare. NASA uses spermaceti oil in a multitude of projects up to date. This is an interesting conspiracy since whaling was officially banned in 1986. Rumor has it that NASA stored thousands of gallons of spermaceti oil somewhere for their own use explicitly. This, of course, revokes any rumors stating that NASA still hunts whales today. But why would NASA depend on such a rudimentary product in their missions? The answer lies in the composition of the whale oil itself. Spermaceti oil in particular doesn't freeze in subzero temperatures. This makes spermaceti oil extremely useful when it comes to lubricating a new space shuttle. Unfortunately for NASA, scientists have still been unable to synthesize spermaceti oil, making what's left in their reserves all that they've got.
Sources
Treehugger.com. N.p., 13 Oct. 2008. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
<http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/
whale-oil-as-space-lubricant-better-than-anything-we-can-create.html>.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
The Island of "Bonapete"
On "Friday February 21th 1902", the Charles W. Morgan visited the island of "Bonapete". Nevertheless, if you try to research the island, you will quickly discover that this island does not exist (at least by the name given). Usually when islands are given in this logbook, the ship simply spotted the landmass on their voyage out upon the horizon. The non existent Island of "Bonapete", on the contrary, was actually visited by the Morgan. In mid afternoon, the Morgan "stoods Breast of Middle harbors", signifying this island was some sort of port. The Morgan was then greeted from the "one canoe [that] came of to us latter part [of the day]". The map below shows the approximate path of the Morgan around the time they visited "Bonapete". Point A was the location of the ship four days before, point B their location three days after, and point C the island of Saipan spotted by the vessel a week after their visit to "Bonapete". I hypothesize that the Morgan visited what is now known as the Federated States of Micronesia during their voyage. "Bonapete" might have been the local's name for the Island.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Determining Latitude and Longitude
One of the questions that I wondered while transcribing was how did they determine the Latitude and Longitude. They used a sextant to determine latitude and a chronometer to find the longitude. The sextant was invented in 1731. Using a sextant is pretty complicated. To use it you need to do some calculating, refer to tables, and you ned have some knowledge of the sky and earth. To find the latitude, you need to measure the angle between the horizon and the sun at its highest point, usually about noon. Then you refer to the table, and it will tell you what latitude the sun should be over that day.
Every hour the earth rotates 15 degrees. Therefore using a chronometer, greek roots chronos which means time and met which means measure, you can find your longitude. After referring to your tables, you could do some simple math and determine what your longitude is at that time of day. Then using the rate at which the earth is spinning and the rate at which you are travelling it is not terribly difficult to figure out what longitude you are at.
Check out this link for some more information on ancient navigation and sailing techniques.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/secrets-of-ancient-navigators.html
Check out this one for more information on finding latitude and longitude.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/navigate/escapenav.html
Now it makes sense that they seem to skip so many Latitudes and Longitudes in the Logbook. If they do not use the sextant at noon then they cannot get an accurate reading and also it is a lot of work for Thomas Scullen Master so if he had other things to do that day then he might not have been able to get around to it.
Every hour the earth rotates 15 degrees. Therefore using a chronometer, greek roots chronos which means time and met which means measure, you can find your longitude. After referring to your tables, you could do some simple math and determine what your longitude is at that time of day. Then using the rate at which the earth is spinning and the rate at which you are travelling it is not terribly difficult to figure out what longitude you are at.
Check out this link for some more information on ancient navigation and sailing techniques.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/secrets-of-ancient-navigators.html
Check out this one for more information on finding latitude and longitude.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/navigate/escapenav.html
Now it makes sense that they seem to skip so many Latitudes and Longitudes in the Logbook. If they do not use the sextant at noon then they cannot get an accurate reading and also it is a lot of work for Thomas Scullen Master so if he had other things to do that day then he might not have been able to get around to it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)