No Tech Magazine

Competing with Computers

Magnetic deviation, lightning calculators, nomograms and more "lost arts in the mathematical sciences" at Dead Reckonings. Related: Satellite navigation in the 18th century.

Polynesian Stick Charts

"The Polynesians, scattered as they were over 1,000 islands across the central and southern Pacific Ocean, were master navigators who tracked their way over huge expanses of ocean without any of the complex mechanical aids we associate with sea fairing. They didn’t have the astrolabe or the sextant, the compass or the chronometer. They did however have aids of a sort, which though seemingly humble, were in fact the repositories of an extremely complex kind of knowledge. Called Rebbelibs, Medos. and Mattangs, today we call them simply Stick Charts." Via Tecob. Related: Satellite navigation in the 18th century.