Smithsonian
  • Navigating
    at Sea
    • Challenges of Sea Navigation
    • Navigating Without a Clock
    • The Longitude Problem
    • The U.S. Goes to Sea
    • Navigate at Sea! Activity
  • Navigating
    in the Air
    • Challenges of Air Navigation
    • Early Air Navigators
    • Navigation at War
    • Navigate the Skies! Activity
  • Navigating
    in Space
    • Challenges of Space Navigation
    • Reaching for the Moon
    • Navigating in Deep Space
    • Navigate in Space! Activity
  • Satellite Navigation
    • Challenges of Satellite Navigation
    • Reliable Global Navigation
    • Global Positioning System (GPS)
    • Who Uses Satellite Navigation
  • Navigation
    for Everyone
    • Meet a Professional Navigator
    • Personal Navigation Stories
  • Timeline of Innovation
  • Artifacts
  • Learning Resources
  • Multimedia Gallery
  • Research
  • Visit the Exhibition

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Time and Navigation Home
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Time and Navigation
The untold story of getting from here to there.
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  • Navigating at Sea
  • Navigating in the Air
  • Navigating in Space
  • Satellite Navigation
  • Navigation for Everyone
  • Timeline of Innovation
  • Artifacts
  • Learning Resources
  • Multimedia Gallery
  • Research Journal
  • Visit the Exhibition
  • Challenges of Sea Navigation
    • Navigation Gone Wrong: A British Fleet is Lost at Sea
    • Navigate at Sea! Activity
  • Navigating Without a Clock
    • Early Voyages
    • Dead Reckoning
    • Celestial Navigation
  • The Longitude Problem
    • Cash for Creativity
    • Early Sea Clock Experiments
    • Innovations in England
    • Innovations in France
    • The Chronometer
    • Observing the Skies
    • Navigation Gone Wrong: Wreck of the Arniston
  • The U.S. Goes to Sea
    • Early Contributions
      • Meet the Clockmaker: William Cranch Bond
      • Meet the Navigator: Eleanor Creesy
    • Wilkes Expedition
      • Meet the Mapmaker: Charles Wilkes
      • Maps and Charts
      • The "Scientifics"
  • Navigate at Sea! Activity

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Dividing Engine »
Octant »
Horary Quadrant »
Heitiki Ornament »
Using a Lead Line »

Early Contributions

America’s earliest contributions to navigation.

Intent upon contributing to the art and science of navigation, civilian and naval innovators worked to lessen the dangers of seafaring by seeking better ways to find time and place.

Major contributions included:

A Navigation Encyclopedia

The New American Practical Navigator has served American sailors since 1802. Popularly known as Bowditch’s for its first compiler, Nathaniel Bowditch, it remains a useful handbook of astronomical tables, meteorological information, and navigational instructions.

America's First Sea-Going Chronomenter

This timekeeper was the first American-made marine timekeeper taken to sea. William Cranch Bond, a 23-year-old Boston clockmaker, crafted it during the War of 1812. It went to sea only once, on a voyage to Sumatra (now in Indonesia) aboard the U.S. Navy vessel Cyrus in 1818. Chronometers would not be common aboard American ships until about 1830.

Bond’s chronometer differed from spring-powered English models. Unable to buy British spring steel in wartime, Bond used a French design powered by a falling weight.

Navigation By Line of Position

While nearing land on his way to Scotland in 1837, Captain Thomas Sumner of Boston had an insight that made an enduring contribution to navigation.

Cloudy weather permitted only one sighting on the Sun. With that limited information, Sumner made three different calculations based on estimates of his latitude. Plotted on a chart, the results lay along a straight line. He realized that any ship seeing the Sun at the same altitude in the sky must be located somewhere on that line. This was confirmed by sailing along that course until a lighthouse was sighted on the coast.

Sumner published his method for determining what was later called a “line of position” in 1843, and it became standard practice.

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The New American Practical Navigator
A useful handbook of astronomical tables, meteorological information, and navigational instructions.
Credit: Smithsonian Institution Libraries

240-241_sumners-line-of-position.jpg

Line of Position Navigation
In 1837, Captain Thomas Sumner of Boston devised what would become "line of position" sailing.
Credit: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

mah-67749.jpg

Dial for Marine Timekeeper made by William Cranch Bond, 1812-1815
Credit: Smithsonian Institution Libraries
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  • Meet the Clockmaker: William Cranch Bond »

    The firm of William Bond & Son became one of America’s best known chronometer dealers.

  • Meet the Navigator: Eleanor Creesy »

    The wife of the Flying Cloud’s master was the ship’s navigator.

  • Navigating at Sea
    • Challenges of Sea Navigation
    • Navigating Without a Clock
    • The Longitude Problem
    • The U.S. Goes to Sea
      • Early Contributions
        • Meet the Clockmaker: William Cranch Bond
        • Meet the Navigator: Eleanor Creesy
      • Wilkes Expedition
    • Navigate at Sea! Activity
  • Navigating in the Air
    • Challenges of Air Navigation
    • Early Air Navigators
    • Navigation at War
    • Navigate the Skies! Activity
  • Navigating in Space
    • Challenges of Space Navigation
    • Reaching for the Moon
    • Navigating in Deep Space
    • Navigate in Space! Activity
  • Satellite Navigation
    • Challenges of Satellite Navigation
    • Reliable Global Navigation
    • Global Positioning System (GPS)
    • Who Uses Satellite Navigation
  • Navigation for Everyone
    • Meet a Professional Navigator
    • Personal Navigation Stories
  • Timeline of Innovation
  • Artifacts
  • Learning Resources
  • Multimedia Gallery
  • Research
  • Visit the Exhibition
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  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Sponsors
  • Press
  • Donate
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