The Early History of the Gyroscope and Gyro Compass

1970 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-89
Author(s):  
G. B. Lauf

Most of the current literature in the field of gyroscopic theory and in the use of gyroscopic instruments for the determination of azimuth begins the historical account of the subject with the work of Leon Foucault during the period 1850-1852. But little is known of the work in this field by others during the preceding half century. In this paper, the development of the gyroscope and gyro compass is traced back to a date earlier than 1813.

Classics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Smith

The Romans developed an account of their early history which was organized by the reigns of seven kings. By the 1st century bce, they had settled on a standard chronology for these kings, and in the following sequence: Romulus 753–717, Numa Pompilius 716–674, Tullus Hostilius 673–642, Ancus Marcius 641–617, Tarquinius Priscus 616–578, Servius Tullius 578–534, Tarquinius Superbus 534–509. It is clear from archaeological evidence that Rome from the 8th to the 6th century bce was in a period of significant growth and transformation. There are a number of exciting finds which have been related to the historical account. This account however was the product of a long period of development, and the narrative as it developed came to reflect the contemporary concerns of Roman politics. So research on Roman kingship has to take account of both the possibility of genuine history underlying the account, and the literary and artistic motivations which led to the transformations of the story over time. The relationship between these two is the subject of significant methodological discussion, on a spectrum from attempts to directly relate the historical account to archaeological finds, to significantly more skeptical claims that connections are coincidental and that the historical record is wholly unreliable. The third strand of investigation is institutional history and includes the controversy over the so-called leges regiae, the alleged legal precursors to the codification of law in the Twelve Tables from the mid-5th century bce, and the transformation of the Roman constitution into one characterized by shared time-limited office-holding. A quite different approach sees the kings as encoding deep mythological structures, and argues for a reconceptualization of the early history of Rome as a mythical rather than a historical sequence. Although this has been less popular recently, aspects of this scholarly approach have been influential in other fields of study. This is particularly true of social anthropology and the history of religion, where Dumézil’s classification of the Roman kings has been influential but controversial (see section Roman Kings and Indo-European Mythology).


1860 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 39-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. W. Bosanquet
Keyword(s):  

The origin and duration of the empire of the Medes, which occupied 80 important a position in early Asiatic history, has been the subject of attention to many recent writers. The Lectures of Niebuhr on the Medes and Persians are probably familiar to us all. Dr. Leonard Schmitz, the translator of Niebuhr's works, has recently published his matured views on the same subject. Mr. Johannes Von Gumpach in 1852, Professor Brandis in 1853, and Jacob Kruger in 1856, have also expressed their views upon Median history and chronology; and within the last twelve months, the works of Marcus Von Niebuhr on Assyrian and Babylonian history, and the translation of Herodotus by the Rev. George Rawlinson, have appeared, embracing and commenting upon the early history of the Medes.


1859 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 381-457 ◽  

The necessity of discussing so great a subject as the Theory of the Vertebrate Skull in the small space of time allotted by custom to a lecture, has its advantages as well as its drawbacks. As, on the present occasion, I shall suffer greatly from the disadvantages of the limitation, I will, with your permission, avail myself to the uttermost of its benefits. It will be necessary for me to assume much that I would rather demonstrate, to suppose known much that I would rather set forth and explain at length; but on the other hand, I may consider myself excused from entering largely either into the history of the subject, or into lengthy and controversial criticisms upon the views which are, or have been, held by others. The biological science of the last half-century is honourably distinguished from that of preceding epochs, by the constantly increasing prominence of the idea, that a community of plan is discernible amidst the manifold diversities of organic structure. That there is nothing really aberrant in nature; that the most widely different organisms are connected by a hidden bond; that an apparently new and isolated structure will prove, when its characters are thoroughly sifted, to be only a modification of something which existed before,—are propositions which are gradually assuming the position of articles of faith in the mind of the investigators of animated nature, and are directly, or by implication, admitted among the axioms of natural history.


1950 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 416-421
Author(s):  
W. E. May

The publication of the paper Astro-fix by Computation by Oliver C. Collins in the April number of the Journal serves as a reminder that the observation for the determination of the latitude from two altitudes, usually known as the double altitude problem, is one of some celebrity in the history of navigation.The following notes on the subject may be of some interest although they are far from complete, having been compiled from such books as happened to be readily available, and can only be considered as an introduction to the subject.


Author(s):  
Anthony Grafton

This chapter examines the centrality of early modern ecclesiastical history, written by Catholics as well as Protestants, in the refinement of research techniques and practices anticipatory of modern scholarship. To Christians of all varieties, getting the Church's early history right mattered. Eusebius's fourth-century history of the Church opened a royal road into the subject, but he made mistakes, and it was important to be able to ferret them out. Saint Augustine was recognized as a sure-footed guide to the truth about the Church's original and bedrock beliefs, but some of the Saint's writings were spurious, and it was important to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. To distinguish true belief from false, teams of religious scholars gathered documents; the documents in turn were subjected to skeptical scrutiny and philological critique; and sources were compared and cited. The practices of humanistic scholarship, it turns out, came from within the Catholic Church itself as it examined its own past.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Nancy E. Davis

The introduction provides the early history of the American China trade by recounting China trader Captain John O’Donnell’s landing with Chinese seamen in Baltimore in 1785 and a newspaper welcome that asserted: “Commerce binds and unites all Nations of the Globe with a golden chain.” Nearly a half-century later, in 1834, a young Chinese woman, Afong Moy, arrived in America, having been coerced to participate in this golden chain of global commerce. As the first Chinese woman to travel the country, her exotic appearance and bound feet elicited commentary in newspapers, diaries, poems, and letters. Unwittingly, she served as the first cultural bridge in the American public’s perceptions of China through the staged presentation of objects, clothing, and images—and herself.


Archaeologia ◽  
1863 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-188
Author(s):  
Beriah Botfield

The early history of Ludlow has been so well detailed by Mr. Eyton in his Antiquities of Shropshire, and has been so elaborately illustrated by Mr. Wright in his volume specially devoted to the subject, that I need not enlarge on its general history in endeavouring to elucidate the recently discovered remains of the Priory of Austin Friars. I cannot, however, refrain from quoting the graphic description of Churchyarde, who, writing in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, thus describes Ludlow:—The Town doth stand most part upon an hill,Built well and fair, with streets both large and wide,The houses such where strangers lodge at will,As long as there the Council liste abide.Both fine and clean the streets are all throughout,With condits cleere and wholesome water springe,And who that list to walk the Town about,Shall find therein some rare and pleasant thinge;But chiefly here the ayre so sweet you have,As in no place you can no better crave.


1981 ◽  
Vol 76 ◽  
pp. 323-328
Author(s):  
Carlos Arturo Picón

A fruitful combination of excavation, fieldwork, and research has in recent years increased our knowledge of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai. In particular, the sculptured frieze which encircled the interior of the cella has been the subject of numerous studies, the most recent being the monograph by C. Hofkes-Brukker and A. Mallwitz published in 1975. The investigations made at Bassai by N. Yalouris and F. A. Cooper have produced important new evidence. As a result of the excavations conducted by Yalouris since 1959, the early history of the sanctuary and of the structures preceding the classical (‘Iktinian’) temple are reasonably clear. Furthermore, Cooper has shown that the ‘Iktinian’ building, the fourth in a series of temples to Apollo on the site, was not designed to receive pedimental sculpture, and that some, if not all, of this temple's akroteria were floral. The traditional attributions of pedimental and akroterial statues must be discarded, along with the theory that the ‘Iktinian’ building was started as early as the middle of the fifth century B.C.Yet, despite this progress, and the fact that the temple is one of the best-preserved monuments from antiquity, many issues remain controversial. Scholars postulate several building phases for the Classical temple. The chronology of the sculptures is still debated, as is the order of the twenty-three frieze-slabs within the cella.


Archaeologia ◽  
1864 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-308
Author(s):  
G. B. Airy

Having been invited to address to the Society any remarks which might occur to me on the subject of the communication from the Admiralty, I would first observe that the result of this investigation proves the great advantage of the course pursued by the President and Council, namely, that of referring to official authority for the determination of critical points applying to the question at issue. The Society have expressed so fully their sense of the liberality and courtesy of the First Lord and the Board of Admiralty, and the care bestowed on this matter by the Hydrographer, that it is needless for me to speak on that subject. I will therefore proceed to advert lightly to the history of these investigations, and state how the hydrographical inquiry undertaken by the Admiralty bears upon the matter.


2001 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. C. FREND

As in every other branch of learning, the study of the early history of Christianity has undergone massive changes during the last century. This has been due not only to the vast accumulation of knowledge through new discoveries, but to new approaches to the subject, together with the rise of archaeology as a principal factor in providing fresh information. The study of the early Church has as a result moved steadily from dogma to history, from attempts to interpret divine revelation through the development of doctrinal orthodoxy down the ages, to research into the historical development of an earthly institution of great complexity and of great significance in the history of mankind over the past two thousand years.


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