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Re: Longitude of Japan in 20K

From: BGYKrauth <BGYKrauth~at~t-online.de>
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 11:34:35 +0200
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Mike,

everything at this Position is wrong. I think it is discussed several times somewhere else, but anyhow I am going to reply.

The original text talks of only 37 degrees (not 137) 15 min. longitude of Paris and 30 degrees 7 minutes north.
 (I didn't found any french text giving 137, but I have seen english and dutch textes corrected to it but "West"; a modern german edition also is writting 137° West, the old ones from Hartleben have it like the french text. My chineese edition is indicating also 137 degrees, but as I am not able to read anything then the numbers I don't know if West or East, in my Japaneese and Korean édition I am not able to find the spot, probably they wrote it as in the french book in words and not in numbers.)
Paris is 2 degrees 20 min east of Greenwich, so for a modern atlas we have to add it westerly and substract easterly. So corrected to Greenwich it will be 39°35' west approx. Looking in the chart we will be here in the center of the Atlantic, Southwesterly of the Azores some 650 miles...

Corrected to the East we will be somewhere on the Costline of Israel, visiting Zvi Har'El on the cimetary...

So consequently this position is wrong and the one or other translator should haved tried to correct it. You are totaly right that it must be an Easterly Position, as some 135° West is still close to half the way from North America to Hawaii...

So fixing the position to 137° 15' EAST and correct the Meridian by 2°20' resulting in rounded 135° longitude EAST we will be (at this latitude uncorrected) some 400 nautical miles South of Osaka in Japan. So if in modern editions the startposition should be corrected by Longitude and direction it have to be 137°15' EAST of Paris.

Brgds

Bernhard
 
 

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Bernhard Krauth
 
have a look at:

www.jules-verne.eu

www.jules-verne-club.de
 
www.bernhard-krauth.de
 
www.bremerhavenpilot.de

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Michael F. Duke
  To: Jules%20Verne%20Forum
  Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 10:37 AM
  Subject: Longitude of Japan in 20K


  I have a really dumb question, which shows my ignorance of navigation, but
  here goes:

  In every version of 20K I've looked at, the position of the "Nautilus"
  some 300 miles off the coast of Japan at the start of her epic voyage is
  given as 137 degrees, 15 minutes *West* of Paris. (See pp. 91-92 of the
  Miller/Walter Naval Institute Press edition of 20K; page 90 of Bill
  Butcher's translation [Oxford World's Classics]; and the French & Dutch
  hypertexts in the jvf virtual library.) Shouldn't those longitudes be East
  of Paris? Or am I mis-reading something?

  Mike

  --
  Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/
Received on Mon 07 Apr 2008 - 12:35:24 IDT

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