302 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 60 



PRIMITIVE MEN MADE LIMITED 

 VOYAGES IN DUGOUT CANOES, 

 USING SELECTED LANDMARKS . 

 FOR GUIDANCE TO ULTIMATE ' 

 • DESTINATION 



Figure 1. — Visual line-of-sight navigation. 



this paper, but a brief discussion of guidance in general is needed to 

 bring out an overall picture, with the inertial method given its place 

 as one segment of a generalized pattern. To be complete, this pattern 

 must include the navigational means that have been used or are avail- 

 able for terrestrial, marine, aeronautical, and space vehicles ranging 

 from the dugout canoes of our caveman ancestors to the interplanetary 

 ships that will be built in the near future for explorations of the solar 

 system. Historical coverage and details of particular devices are 

 beyond the scope of this paper, which is concerned only with the basic 

 principles and methods that are used to solve the problems of naviga- 

 tion. Accordingly, references are omitted from the text, but a short 

 bibliography related to gyroscopic devices and inertial navigation is 

 provided for the convenience of those readers who may be interested 

 in pursuing the subject further. 



PRIMITIVE NAVIGATION 



"VVlien one of our remote ancestors wished to go on a trip, he selected 

 landmarks within sight and took his guidance from first one and then 

 another, until he reached his destination (fig. 1).^ If night or bad 

 weather prevented him from seeing any landmark, he was forced to 

 stop until conditions improved. Navigation with restrictions of this 

 kind limited voyages to waters near extended shorelines and islands. 



' The figures are drawn so as to be self-explanatory ; hence, little detailed discission of 

 the figures appears in the text. 



