Customer Reviews

Latitude Hooks and Azimuth Rings: How to Build and Use 18 Traditional Navigational Instruments

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Good: An excellent overview ancient navigational instruments. In addition to sundials, octants and compasses, Fisher covers such escoteric tools as the traverse board (used to track direction and ship speed), the weatherglass (early barometer), the kamal (arabian navigation tool) and the cross staff (predecessor to the octant).
The Bad: Very crude, hand-drawn illustrations and building plans. No photographs or contemporary illustrations of the actual instruments. Though it is clear that the author has made each of these instrument himself, the book even lacks photos of his own reconstructions. Many illustrations of critical parts are unclear and difficult to understand. The only saving grace is Fisher's excellent descriptions of the parts and the building process.

The Verdict: Though his concept, scope and research are excellent, the failure of the publisher to back Fisher up with quality illustrations, photographs, and professionally-drafted design plans prevents this from being the excellent book it could have been. While it is possible to actually build these tools, the process is more difficult that it should be due to the lack of quality plans.

As a medieval reenactor with a nautical persona, I bought this book to get some information on navigational instruments used in the Middle Ages. This book is a gold mine of information on making and using traditional navigational instruments. Although some of the instruments do not fit into my time of interest (Western Europe 1066-1603), most do, and the instructions on making and using them are good. The historical information is spotty,and some information does not agree with other sources that I consider reliable, but this is not intended as a history book, and the information it DOES provide on construction and use fills in a lot of gaps in other sources. This is a must-have book if you want to know how to make and use medieval navigational instruments.

This well-illustrated volume contains 18 projects for those interested in nevigation and astronomy. They are not excessively difficult, and the instructions are clear. The author demonstrates how very simple devices can be used in navigation; if nothing else, the "ancient astronaut" crowd should read this to learn how our "primative" ancestors could tell their latitude with just a stick and a string!

This is not just a craft/wood working set of plans (and a very good set too) it is a history of the tools of navagation. The tools I built from this book work. They are not the best things to use for finding your way (wood instead of metal). But they work reasonably well.

This has a good selection of projects, but I would have appreciated more detail on how and why the tools work and what is going on. It could use a bit more math and science. This is only useful in conjunction with other books on celestial navigation.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in navigation or history. It shows the often primitive but nevertheless effective methods used for navigation in ancient times. Beside showing how to build those instruments it is also explained how to use the gadgets. If you are adept at metal working you might even make money with this knowledge. The ring dial shown in this book for example I've recently seen made out of brass being advertised for about fifty Dollars. A truely useful book!

I bought this as a gift for my boyfriend. We are both stargazers. This is really a cool book for the hobbiest, stargazer, and nauticalist. These are all working designs, but you DO NEED TOOLS!! Good Farther's Day gift ladies!

This is an interesting book for those who want to know a bit more about the history of navigational tools, by showing you how to build a few of them. Don't expect to build a high-precision instrument directly from the contents, but if you are looking for a book that will start you on the right path, then this is it.

A nice intellectual journey.

Not much practical use unless you are stranded, have a wood shop, and need to navigate real quick like...

MJL