Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1925-09-17

iOuSlluue' L Salu, "Naugnt-naugnt-
naught And that's a better one on you" There
upon we both laughed
we haven't really had 250 years of Greenwich
time, but 1925 is the 300 anniversary of the build
ing of the famous old Royal observatory perched
on a hill in the middle of "a park of 1856 acres
In Greater London. There was garden party the
other day In the park in it's honor attended by
King George and Queen Mary many notables and
the delegates to the International Astronomical
rnion.
Mans increasing appreciation Of the Importance
of time In his affairs has apparently kept pace with
his progress in civilization. All over the world as
soon as man ceased from jungle-traveling and set
tied down by hearthstone he began making sun
dials, waterclocks and hourglasses and tinkering
with calendars to make them correspond to the
movements OF the sun and moon and stars. And
modern life Is in no small degree centered on the
clock and the calendar
And when man had emerged from the jungle
the challenge of the sea hit him full. That chal-
lenge has been accepted since the day of the first
hollowed-log canoe. At first even the most adven-
turous mariner kept close to land so that he might
beach his craft when the storm came When his
vessel got too big to be beached he ran out to the
open sea to avoid being blown ashore. And when
he found himself out of sight Of land with no
sun showing he In danger. Small wonder
that he set himself to the task of inventing ways
of determining the points of the compass, the
location of land and his own location. BY the
Fourth century A. d., the compass came into use
In the Indian ocean An observatory for the study
of the stars was established about 300 B. c. And
of the beginning Of maps and charts man can
say.
After man had made up his mind that the earth
was spherical in shape he made globe and drew
circles around 1t, one set parallelng the equator
and the other set passing through the poles He
called the distance north south Of the equator
latitude (wide) and east and west measurement he
called longitude Cong). In comparatively short
time the navigator learned to approximate his
latitude. But for long time the determination of
MS longitude baffled him. This was serious mat
ter in many ways. If you send man to place
somewhere on Western avenue Chicago" he will
probably have trouble in finding It, for that street
Is one Of the longest in the world But If you say
western avenue and Madison street." it will be
easy. No wonder some Of the early maps are all
askew, with the geographers and photographers
guessing at the longitudel
In these latter days, latitude Is the distance OF
place north or south of the equator measured in
degrees, minutes and seconds, the equator being
represented by O. In a degree of latitude there
are GO minutes each possessing the value Of a sea
mile (60S0 feet). In modern practice the latitude
can be determined at in six different ways. The
most usual is to take an observation of the sun
at meridian or ex-meridian, In cloudy weather. 1t
can be taken from the pole star, from the stars,
from the moon.
Longitude determination nowadays IS simple
For difference of longitude and difference Of time