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Captain James Cook invented may have used a navigational instrument called a sextant. The sextant was invented by John Bird, John Hadley or Thomas Godfrey:The first sextant was produced by John Bird in 1759. This is a very early example of his work now in the Nederlands Scheepvaart Museum in Amsterdam. The frame is mahogany with an ivory scale. It is so large and heavy that it needed a support that fitted into a socket on the observers belt.http://www.mat.uc.pt/~helios/Mestre/Novemb00/H61iflan.htm

Around 1730, an English mathematician, John Hadley (1682--1744), and an American inventor, Thomas Godfrey (1704--1749), independently invented the sextant. The sextant provided mariners with a more accurate means of determining the angle between the horizon and the Sun, moon, or stars in order to calculate latitude.

Read more: Navigation at Sea, History of - important, system, marine, human http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Mi-Oc/Navigation-at-Sea-History-of.html#ixzz0hd9Z97Sd

Cook was the first British commander to circumnavigate the earth in a lone ship, he fed citrus fruit and sauerkraut to his crew to prevent scurvy, he obtained measurements necessary to calculate the size of the solar system, was the first European to discover the Hawaiian Islands but did not invent the sextant. It is unclear if CPT Cook invented anything but, he certainly produced exemplary navigational maps and was an unparalleled explorer.

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15y ago

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