Historical Tidbits

When reenacting or acting as a historical interpreter, its good to have a few historical dates and stories to share. This series will publish a few. May 30, 1783 – The Pennsylvania Evening Post became America’s first daily newspaper. Benjamin Towne published the first issue of the Post on January 24, 1775. The paper was supportive of …

Beer Recipe: Victory at Yorktown

October 17, 1778, General Charles Cornwallis raised a flag of truce over the fortifications at Yorktown after having suffered not only the combined French and American attack but also disease, lack of supplies, inclement weather, and a failed evacuation. With the French navy in the York River and siege lines advancing on his position, defeat …

Historical Tidbits

When reenacting or acting as a historical interpreter, its good to have a few historical dates and stories to share. This series will publish a few. May 29, 1787 – At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the Virginia Plan calling for a bicameral legislature, an executive, and a judiciary branch of government was proposed by …

Colonial Surveyor – Determining your Position using Celestial Navigation

A sextant is an intimidating complex instrument.  It consists of an A-shaped frame with an apex of 60° on a sextant or 45° on an octant.  Along the rounded lower edge of the frame is an arc, the limb, that is marked with numbers for the degree of the angles that the sextant can measure. An index …

Vector Computations without the Benefit of Modern Trigonometry

Navigating from point to point is a relatively simple task for most surveyors or mariners.  You establish a compass bearing from where you are to your intended location then measure out the distance (or in the case of sailing a speed and a time) to the new location giving what we call today a vector.  …

Government Red Tape

Today, “Red Tape” is a derisive term for rigid conformity to formal government regulations that slow or prevent action and decision-making. Usually applied to government and corporate bureaucracies, we associate “red tape” with filling out of seemingly unnecessary paperwork and various low-level rules that make conducting one’s affairs slower and more difficult.  It may surprise …