Category: History

Lowrance’s Fish-Lo-K-Tor, the good old days? 74

Lowrance’s Fish-Lo-K-Tor, the good old days?

It’s going to be short today, as these pictures speak for themselves. They probably date from the early 60’s, though even Lowrance (who provided them) doesn’t seem sure. But that’s about when the company’s...

4

The first chart plotter, 1985 & Italian

C-Map owns this ‘historic’ machine, which is supposedly the first chart plotter (bigger here) ever sold in the U.S. That was around 1985, when Navionics founders Giuseppe Carnevali and Fosco Bianchetti developed the first crude...

Weekend special, what the heck? 6

Weekend special, what the heck?

I was just looking for compass stuff in some nautical clip art I have (we used it a lot when I edited Reed’s). I came across this image and must say I don’t know...

Hurricane warnings, oldee style 1

Hurricane warnings, oldee style

  Hurricane Katrina whacked south Florida fairly hard yesterday and now it looks likely that she’ll power up and smack the northwest section of the state early next week. Per usual, there’s an extraordinary amount...

Topophone, who’s the geek now? 0

Topophone, who’s the geek now?

I joke about my often over-the-top test boat, but check this guy out! While the topophone looks like a sensible idea for improving our natural stereo audio reception (i.e., ears) so as to get better bearings on...

Download high res historic charts 4

Download high res historic charts

OK, I’m obsessed with charts, but I’m not the only navigator thus afflicted. Last week I used a snippet of a wonderful 1685 chart that’s available on the Net, and promised to tell more. The source is the U.S....