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Conference unifix::sailing

Title:SAILING
Notice:Please read Note 2.* before participating in this conference
Moderator:UNIFIX::BERENS
Created:Wed Jul 01 1992
Last Modified:Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2299
Total number of notes:20724

1534.0. "Ball-recording sextant" by AKOV13::DOUGAN () Thu Jun 14 1990 17:31

    Purely for interest - some weeks ago in a surplus store in Newport I
    saw a sextant for sale.  It was quite unlike anything I've seen before
    - no moving mirrors but an arrangement where a series of ball bearings
    ran down a tube in the handle.  There was a vernier scale at the bottom
    of the handle so clearly it was meant to be accurate to a fraction of a
    degree.
    
    The marking was US Navy 1943, Mergenthaler Linotype, Ball-recording
    sextant.
    
    As I had no idea if it would work I didn't buy it.
    
    Anyone know how this type of sextant works and if they are still in
    use?
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