$277
Sumner, Captain Thomas Hubbard (1807-1876) A New and Accurate Method of Finding a Ship's Position at Sea. Boston: Thomas Groom, 1843. First edition, octavo, folding chart frontispiece, plates numbered I-IX all present (some printed two to a sheet, some folding), contemporary blind-stamped brown ribbed cloth with a large handsome gold stamped pictorially tooled title on the front board showing a mariner reckoning his position at sea; contemporary illustrated engraved label of Frederic W. Lincoln Jr., mathematical instrument maker and nautical stationer of Boston pasted inside front board; some water stains, front board slightly reflexed, generally good, 9 3/4 x 6 in. On a voyage in 1837, Sumner discovered "that a single observation of the altitude of a celestial body determines the position of a line somewhere on which the observer is located. [He] published his findings in 1843. The method was instantly recognized as important and a copy of the pamphlet describing [it] was supplied to every ship in the United States Navy." (Wikipedia)
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2017-05-23