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Description

Rankine states that, assuming that when a ship is swung completely round, so that her head bears exactly as it did at first, the magnetism of the ship, and that of the compass-needle return to their original condition, the following theorem is necessarily true: the mechanical power developed by the mutual action of the ship and of the compass-needle during a complete revolution of the ship is equal to zero.

Annotations in pencil throughout.

Subject: Physics / Marine engineering

Received 5 April 1853. Communicated by Col [Edward] Sabine.

Written by Rankine in Glasgow [Scotland].

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 6 of Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London [later Proceedings of the Royal Society] as 'On the application of the law of the conservation of energy to the determination of the magnetic meridian on board ship, when out of reach or out of sight of land'.

Reference number
AP/34/19
Earliest possible date
02 April 1853
Physical description
Ink and graphite pencil on paper
Page extent
12 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

William John Macquorn Rankine

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Citation

William John Macquorn Rankine, Unpublished paper, 'On the application of the law of the conservation of energy to the determination of the magnetic meridian on board ship; when out of reach or out of sight of land' by William John Macquorn Rankine, 02 April 1853, AP/34/19, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_34_19/unpublished-paper-on-the-application-of-the-law-of-the-conservation-of-energy-to-the-determination-of-the-magnetic-meridian-on-board-ship-when-out-of-reach-or-out-of-sight-of-land-by-william-john-macquorn-rankine, accessed on 13 December 2024

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  • Archived Papers

    Dates: 1768-1989

    The 'Archived Papers' collection is comprised of original manuscript scientific papers and letters submitted to the Royal Society which remained unpublished or were abstracted in the journal 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' published from 1830 onwards.

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