Fw: Historical locations and longitudes

[John Davis]

Dr J R Davis Flowton, UK 52.08N, 1.043E email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: John Davis To: Mailinglist Sundial Sent: 19 July 2001 15:09 Subject: Historical locations and longitudes Hi colleagues,   I have recently had the opportunity to inspect a superb bronze horizontal dial made by George Adams (the elder) in the second quarter of the 18th century.    Amongst other exiting details of the engraving, it carries the names of 32 cities or locations worldwide in the chapter ring.  The names are evenly distributed with two between each pair of hour numerals, but small arrows identify the time of noon at these locations (compared to that of the dial, located at around 1 degree East) to the nearest minute.   Many of the cities still have the same names: Dublin, Lisbon, Boston etc.  Some are easy to guess: Dantzick = Gdansk; Constanstinople = Istanbul; Berbadoes = Barbados etc.  However, some have me baffled and hence I'm posting this looking for help, please.  Can anyone identify the following locations, with very approximate longitudes calculated from the dial.  I say approximate because some of the known cities have large inaccuracies compared to modern values, eg although Lisbon is right to half a degree, "Pekin in China" is 16 degrees off the value my atlas gives for Bejing!   Name on dial                   Longitude   Fort St George                86d E  (perhaps Madras?) Cape Comorm                79d E Isphan                            56d E Cainiec                           27d E St Mich. Isle                    28d W Ca. Spir Sancto               41d W Ca Fare Freezld               50d W Port Concepn                110d E Compostetta                   117d W   Note that the engraving makes some characters difficult to read and the above list might have mis-identified in for m, f for the long s etc.   Here's hoping the list includes some historical cartographers!   John ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr J R Davis Flowton, UK 52.08N, 1.043E email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]