Saturday, January 28, 2012

ARABIAN KAMAL

Introduction:              
                       A kamal is a celestial navigation device that determines latitude. The invention of the kamal allowed for the earliest known latitude sailing and was thus the earliest step towards the use of quantitative methods in navigation. It originated with Arab navigators of the late 9th century and was employed 
in the indian ocean ffrom 10th century. 




Description:
                      It consists of a small board with a knotted piece of twine through the center. The observer holds one of the knots in his mouth and extends the board away so that the edges make a constant angle with his eyes. 



Reference:
                  1. wikipedia.org
                  2. google images 

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