**The little-known history of the wristwatch—and how it was a proving ground for consumer products in the shift from a mechanical to a microelectronic world.A beautifully illustrated volume from a former curator at the Smithsonian, perfect for young and old fans of wristwatches.**Today, new watches are mostly electronic. They give everyone access to the split-second accuracy once available to only scientists and technicians. But when the first electronic watches appeared in...

If you want to know where you are, you need a good clock. The surprising connection between time and place is explored in Time and Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There, the companion book to the National Air and Space Museum exhibition of the same name.Today we use smartphones and GPS, but navigating has not always been so easy. The oldest "clock" is Earth itself, and the oldest means of keeping time came from observing changes in the sky. Early marin...

This official U.S. government guide to piloting aircraft-created by the Federal Aviation Administration-is the essential resource for finding the knowledge and skills to fly all types of planes. It includes an introduction to flight training and official information on ground operations, basic flight maneuvers, slow flight, stalls and spins, takeoff and departure climbs, ground reference maneuvers, airport traffic patterns, approaches and landings, performance maneuvers, and night operatio...

“A brilliant, coherent social and political overview spanning three turbulent centuries.”—San Francisco ChronicleStanley Karnow won the Pulitzer Prize for this account of America’s imperial experience in the Philippines. In a swiftly paced, brilliantly vivid narrative, Karnow focuses on the relationship that has existed between the two nations since the United States acquired the country from Spain in 1898, examining how we have sought to remake the Philippines “in...

The reissue of this definitive biography heralds the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight.Brilliant, self-trained engineers, the Wright brothers had a unique blend of native talent, character, and family experience that perfectly suited them to the task of invention but left them ill-prepared to face a world of skeptics, rivals, and officials. Using a treasure trove of Wright family correspondence and diaries, Tom Crouch skillfully weaves ...

Spherical trigonometry was at the heart of astronomy and ocean-going navigation for two millennia. The discipline was a mainstay of mathematics education for centuries, and it was a standard subject in high schools until the 1950s. Today, however, it is rarely taught. Heavenly Mathematics traces the rich history of this forgotten art, revealing how the cultures of classical Greece, medieval Islam, and the modern West used spherical trigonometry to chart the heavens and the Earth. ...

The growth in size, lethality, and technology of the German Luftwaffe was of concern to some defense planners in the United States before American entry into the war.Learning about the Luftwaffe became a significant effort once the conflict broke out in Europe. From defectors with German aircraft to battlefield trophies and combat crew reports, the race to understand German aero technology took on sometimes heroic proportions.After the war, German technolog...

In 1877, the U.S. Navy purchased the fast steam yacht Stiletto from the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company of Bristol, Rhode Island, for "automobile" torpedo experiments in Narragansett Bay. The submarine service was in its infancy, and interest in the self-propelled torpedo as an undersea weapon flourished. Herreshoff's fast, steam-powered boats were the first of the delivery platforms accepted by the U.S. Navy Department for experiments at the Newport Naval Torpedo Station and service duri...

First published in 1952, The Bruce Beckons was immediately acclaimed as a delightful guide to a uniquely beautiful and fascinating part of Ontario. Separating Georgian Bay from Lake Huron, the Bruce Peninsula's remarkable natural history and richly varied wildlife today continue to draw thousands of visitors every year. W. Sherwood Fox, a distinguished scholar who was for twenty years president of the University of Western Ontario, knew and loved the Bruce’s history and its folklo...

Many reasonably experienced coastal sailors (and motorboaters) find theprospect of sailing their boat to the continent appealing yet daunting.There are so many additional aspects that all need to be taken intoaccount and complied with that it can seem a forbidding prospect. Thishighly illustrated, accessible and user friendly book takes the boaterthough all the appropriate aspects in a hand-holding fashion, to dispelthe mystique, and present the un...

Today's sailors rely on GPS for position finding and passage making. But what happens if your electronic navigation systems fail?_x000D_ This book provides you with simple, practical, get-you-home navigation techniques that could save you in an emergency. These easy techniques require no complicated mathematics. Learn the principles of navigation and you will have confidence in your decision-making when you need it most. You will also learn how to make simple instruments using materials an...

What was it like to sit in the pilot's seat and take control of a P-51 Mustang in World War II? What about an F-14 Tomcat at the height of the Cold War? Or a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor today? The cockpits of these fighter and bomber aircraft are revealed in Fighting Cockpits. Showcasing more than 50 of the world's most famous combat cockpits from early World War I aircraft to present-day fighters, this book includes more than 200 rich color photos from photographer Dan Patterson, as well ...