Iceland Spar

[Markekohut]

One once could navigate by the crystal that is Iceland Spar. 

Centuries later, the Crystal Palace monument to "overcoming" nature--technologizing the World--came crashing down. 

Follow the patterns, you betcha! 

Sent from my iPad

On Mar 6, 2013, at 5:20 PM, Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Some of us like "overheated" .Smile. Old sunstone is the new Iceland Spar. Vkings!  "we've gone to look for America." ---Simon & G.
> 
> What a symbol-finder is TRP. 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On Mar 6, 2013, at 2:33 PM, "Monte Davis" <montedavis at verizon.net> wrote:
> 
>> That first paragraph is a little overheated: what is actually new, I think, is the first discovery of Iceland spar (1) *in a navigational context* (“next to a pair of dividers” on a sunken ship), and (2) in connection with Tudor English sailors, even after magnetic compasses came in. Both of which are indeed cool.
>>  
>> But Newton and Huyghens were studying calcite’s double refraction in the 17th century; Arago showed in 1809 that sunlight is polarized, allowing the sun’s location to be narrowed down through overcast or over the horizon; and in 1967 “Danish archaeologist Thorkild Ramskou posited that the [Viking] sunstone could have been one of the minerals (cordierite or Iceland spar) that polarize light and by which the azimuth of the sun can be determined.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunstone_%28medieval%29) That’s been widely cited since by historians. So this is more of an incremental, all-but-clinching step than a sudden emergence from a cloud of medieval woo.  
>>  
>> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf Of James Kyllo
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2013 2:00 PM
>> To: p-list
>> Subject: Iceland Spar
>>  
>>  
>> "...the French-led team have concluded that shards of Icelandic spar can act as a remarkably precise navigational aid..."
>> 
>> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/not-just-the-stuff-of-legend-famed-viking-sunstone-did-exist-believe-scientists-8521522.html
>>  
>> Fascinating stuff
>>  
>> -- 
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