Planisphere

“ THERE have been many Planispheres invented and published, at different periods, within a century or two past, for different uses; some for Geography, some for Astronomy and Chronology, and some applicable to a few detached articles of all the three ”

“ And, us to join, the world should all
Be cramp'd into a planisphere.
As lines, so loves oblique may well
Themselves in every angle greet;
But ours so truly parallel,
Though infinite, can never meet. ”

“ Amplitude of the Sun, or a Star, is an Arc of the Horizon, intercepted between the East or West Points, and that Point where the object rises or sets; and note! you will find the degrees of the Azimuths, and Amplitudes on the Horizon of the Index to the Planisphere; the degree of Amplitude at rising, is called Amplitude Ortive, and Occasive at setting, which must be denominated, whether it be North, or South.
Precept 9. Cosmical Rising, or Setting, is when a Star or Planet rises or sets when the Sun doth. ”

“ In this terrestrial globe, which we here present, you will find all the regions and islands as far as they have been seen, up to the present, and marked by our navigators, or have been seen and marked by the navigators of other nations, placed in their own proper position of longitude and latitude, with the greatest care and industry, which not only will be a source of pleasure to the students of geography but also of the greatest utility to those who visit far distant shores, which are warmed by another sun. ”

“ When you have thus made a sphere for yourself, or, with an artificial globe before you, if you have access to one, proceed to point out on it the various arcs of azimuth and altitude, right ascension and declination, terrestrial and celestial latitude and longitude,—these last being referred to the equator on the earth, and to the ecliptic in the heavens.
When the circles of the sphere are well learned, we may advantageously employ projections of them in various illustrations. By the projection of the sphere is meant a representation of all its parts on a plane. ”

“ O powerful Caesar! we have, here also in this map of land and sea, made use of a new division of the globe; namely, at the equator, so that each half of the globe thus divided has one of the poles as its center. By depressing the pole to the plane of the equator and by making incisions from the equator to the pole, we have made a projection similar to that presented to the public on the other map with detached poles and with the meridians separated on the same plane, without disregarding the correct dimensions of the longitude, latitudes, degrees, parallels, and climates. ”

“ If the Earth were a globe, it is evident that everywhere the water of its surface, the seas, lakes, oceans, and rivers, must be sustained the land, the Earth must be under the water; but if the land and the waters are distinct, and the Earth is “founded upon the seas,” then everywhere the sea must sustain the land as it does a ship or any other floating mass, and there is water below the earth. ”

“ We can very conveniently study the conditions of observation at the poles of the earth, the equator, and some place in middle latitude, by using an ordinary terrestrial globe. 44 The wooden horizon of the globe is parallel to the horizon of a place at the top of the globe, which horizon we can represent by a wafer. ”

“ What proportion does the extent of America bear to that of Asia? What relation do these continents bear to Europe or Australia? What is the next greatest portion on our globe? Which continent is the smallest? What relation does the surface of the Moon bear to America or Asia?
[§ 34.] Is the whole Earth equally illumined or heated by the Sun? Why not? What is, therefore, the surface of our Earth divided into? Upon what portion of our Earth do the Sun’s rays fall perpendicular? What portion do they strike more obliquely? What people, therefore, will experience the greatest heat? ”

“ To us north and south, east and west are of equal interest and importance. Our desire now is to understand, if haply we may, the complex system of which we ourselves form a part. The distribution of land and water—the configuration of continental areas and oceanic basins—the circulation of oceanic and terrestrial waters—earth-movements and volcanoes—ice-formations—the atmosphere—climatology—the geographical distribution of plants and animals—in a word, the world as one organic whole now forms the subject of our contemplation. ”

“ The globe, if it may be so called, is quite elongated, and, as you have said its ends are deeply depressed. In the centre of the depressions are pivots which rest in sockets in the ends of two upright supports. The surface of the globe is divided into spaces by metal bands suggesting latitude and longitude. Midway between the extremities of the globe is a broad band with three narrower ones on either side of it. ”

“ The planetary system in its relations of absolute magnitude, relative position of the axes, density, time of rotation, and different degrees of eccentricity of the orbits, has to our apprehension nothing more of natural necessity than the relative distribution of land and water on the surface of our globe, the configuration of continents, or the elevation of mountain-chains. ”

“ The globe is divided into five parts, termed zones, and all that portion is subject to severe cold and perpetual frost, which is under the two extremities, about each of the poles, the nearer of which is called the north, and the opposite the south, pole. The middle of the earth, over which is the orbit of the sun, is parched and burned by the flame, and is consumed by being so near the heat. ”

“ It is doubtful if such an earth would be suitable for life,—certainly not for man.
The Real Earth of Land, Water, and Inclined Axis. The different manner in which land and water surfaces absorb, radiate, and reflect the heat from the sun has a profound influence on climate, which also is modified by latitude, elevation above sea level, elevation above a valley or above a surrounding plane, direction of wind, height and trend of direction of hills and mountains, the position of lakes and inland seas, the relative position and magnitude of continents and oceans, storm tracks, and ocean currents. ”

“ They would find that the space which they passed over from north to south on the earth, was proportional to the change of place of the horizon in the celestial sphere; and as the horizon is, at every place, in the direction of the earth’s apparently level surface, this observation would naturally suggest to them the opinion that the earth is placed within the celestial sphere, as a small globe in the middle of a much larger one. ”

“ The modern general maps are such as give us a view of an entire hemisphere, or half of the globe; and are projected upon the plane of some great circle, which terminates the projected hemisphere, and divides it from the other half of the globe, at the equator, the meridian, or horizon of some place. ”

“ On seeing a relief map of one of the continents for the first time, there arises a sense of wonder and surprise, and as the realization dawns upon one of the continuity of the great mass of land represented, with its altitudes and depressions, and that it is one stupendous aggregation of soil, rock and vegetation, surrounded by a great expanse of water, a feeling of awe and astonishment is awakened. ”

“ Every school child that has reached the third standard knows that the globe is represented as criss-crossed by a large number of lines running from pole to pole, that is from north to south, and others right round the globe in the opposite direction, or from east to west. ”

“ I assert further, that the earth is that particular kind of a globe which is termed an oblate spheroid; because it is found by measurement in the direction of the meridian, that the length on the surface of the earth which subtends a given angle at its centre, diminishes as we recede from the equator and approach the poles. ”

“ I represents the surface of the Earth divided into land and water. Were all land on our Earth put together in a circle, and the water placed round it, then the land would only fill the inner circle, the water occupying the surrounding ring, a space nearly four times as large as the circle. Fig. II, III, IV, V and VI represent the comparative surfaces of America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. ”

“ Unfold a map of the world and observe how small a part of the earth's surface is land, how much less habitable land, how vast on the other hand—nearly three-quarters of the whole—the interminable plain of sea. ”

“ Numerous inscriptions relate to well-known geographical discoveries. Meridian and parallel circles are drawn on the globe at intervals of five degrees, the principal ones, including the equator, the tropics, and polar circles, being made especially prominent. ”

“ As at sea there is, within certain degrees of latitude and longitude, an uphill and a downhill, made by the convexity of the globe, we, perhaps, may have reached the meridian of the great voyage, and may have begun to feel the inclination which will set us forward more swiftly to the end. ”

“ Terrestrial globe on which the position of the principal places on the surface of the earth are shown according to the principal observations of the most celebrated astronomers and geographers of our times by the labor of John Gabriel Doppelmayr, mathematician, professor and publisher of Nürnberg. ”

“ We have been taught by astronomers and geodesists that our planet is a sphere flattened at the poles, and physical geographers and meteorologists have applied their powers of inductive reasoning to establish theories on the direction of the winds and ocean currents within the polar regions. ”

“ On the one hemisphere, which is formed by a meridional plane cutting the sphere, lies our own oecumene or habitable world, and that of the Antoecians in corresponding longitude and in opposite latitude ”

“ Simply by that science of the geographer which demonstrates that the earth is not flat, but spherical, and that the heavens have not edges, like a skin-tent or glass-case, to come anywhere in contact with it, but consist mainly of a diffused atmosphere, with illimitable space beyond. ”

“ We know by ordinary experience that the earth is composed of rock, sand, soil, etc., and generally covered, where there is no running or standing water in the form of rivers, lakes, or seas, with vegetation, such as trees and grass. Further experience teaches us that the earth is very large, and that its surface is divided into wide areas of land and of water. The largest bodies of water, the oceans, taken all together, cover about 72 per cent., or nearly three-quarters of the entire surface of the earth. ”

“ Finally, physical geography is permitted to spread over much the same ground from a natural-science standpoint, giving many additional and interesting facts and laws concerning zones, volcanoes, ocean-beds and currents, atmospheric phenomena, geologic history, etc. The same earth, the same lands and oceans, furnish the outline in each case, and we travel over the same ground three or four times successively, each time adding new facts to the original nucleus. ”

“ In earlier times geography was simply a catalogue of facts, and the earth's surface an ultimate datum; but nowadays we are beginning to regard the superficies of our planet as a result, to investigate the relations between its separate parts, and to note the changes which occur in it. ”

“ If in the Terraqueous globe all that now is land were sea & all that is sea were land to discover what diferences there would be in all things as to the constitution of climes, tides, navigation, & many other considerables. ”

“ I have seen one edge of the sky raised straight up a few million miles, as though some one had stuck poles under its corners, so that the western heaven did not curve cup-wise over to the horizon at all as it did everywhere else, but rather formed the proscenium of a gigantic stage. ”

“ The globes are two artificial spherical bodies, on the convex surfaces of which are represented the countries, seas, and various parts of the earth, the face of the heavens, the planetary revolutions, and other particulars. ”

“ Think of the solid earth, with trees and houses, cities and countries, mountains and seas—think of the vast tracts of land in Asia, Africa, and America—and then picture the whole mass spinning like a top, and rushing along its annual course round the sun at the rate of nineteen miles every second. ”

“ The discovery of the spherical form of the earth led to a scientific treatment of the differences between the seasons in different parts of the earth, and to a corresponding division of the earth into zones. ”

“ In the curve passing through the poles, and that diameter of the moon which always points to the earth, nature has furnished a permanent 70meridian, to which the different spots on her surface have been referred, and their positions are determined with as much accuracy as those of many of the most remarkable places on the surface of our globe. ”

“ Oceans and continents, islands and lakes, hills and valleys, have come and gone with all their successive races of living things, and that same planet has marked them all. She has seen, too, as but a thing of yesterday, the appearance of man upon the scene, with all the successive centuries that have elapsed since then. ”

“ Two thousand miles of ceaseless rush and rattle and clatter, by night and by day, and never a weary moment, never a lapse of interest! The first seven hundred miles a level continent, its grassy carpet greener and softer and smoother than any sea, and figured with designs fitted to its magnitude—the shadows of the clouds. ”

“ Objects become Smaller as they Recede to say, in the foreground—are largest; the things in the middle, or middle distance, are smallest. And to explain these apparently simple facts we must exerecise our wits. You know that when you stand on the seashore and look seaward the extent of your vision is bounded by the meeting of the sea and sky, which boundary is called the horizon. The horizon is the line that follows the line of your eyes, the boundary line. ”