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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Unpublished letter, regarding the decimal compass card from James Share to W H [William Henry] Smyth

Reference number: AP/37/20

Date: 18 February 1855

Description

Share describes his invention, the decimal compass card, 'an attempt to innovate on an old custom', and suggests the substitution of a compass card containing 36 points of ten degrees each, with every degree being one-tenth of a point.

Includes two pages of illustrations and a print advertisement for the decimal compass card.

Subject: Navigation / Marine engineering

Received 23 April 1855. Communicated by Smyth.

Written by Share in Corfu [Greece].

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 7 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On a decimal compass card'.

Reference number
AP/37/20
Earliest possible date
18 February 1855
Physical description
Ink on paper
Page extent
7 pages
Format
Manuscript
Drawing
Printed

Creator name

James Masters Share

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Citation

James Masters Share, Unpublished letter, regarding the decimal compass card from James Share to W H [William Henry] Smyth, 18 February 1855, AP/37/20, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_37_20/unpublished-letter-regarding-the-decimal-compass-card-from-james-share-to-w-h-william-henry-smyth, accessed on 20 September 2024

Link to this record

https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_37_20/unpublished-letter-regarding-the-decimal-compass-card-from-james-share-to-w-h-william-henry-smyth

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is comprised of original manuscript scientific papers and letters submitted to the Royal Society which remained unpublished or were abstracted in the journal 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' published from 1830 onwards.

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