Talk:Alidade

Too specific

This article is too specific in referring to the alidade. The alidade is a very general component of many different instruments and is not specific to a theodolite, sextant or other. As well, plane tables using alidades are specific instruments and should be discussed elsewhere.

I've added more general info with a rough diagram of various kinds of alidades.Michael Daly 02:47, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was Move. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 22:04, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

This article should be renamed Alidade

Alidade is currently the name of a page that redirects to Alhidade. As such the two page names should be swapped with alhidade becoming a redirect.

Alhidade is an obscure, old spelling (as is alhidad) and is not in common use today (The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1971).

In the following books (in my possession) on antique scientific instruments or the history of navigation etc, the word alhidade never occurs; only alidade is used.

• Gerard L'E. Turner, Nineteenth Century Scientific Instruments, Sotheby Publications, 1983, ISBN 0-85667-170-3
• Gerard L'E. Turner, Antique Scientific Instruments, Blandford Press Ltd. 1980, ISBN 0-7137-1068-3
• Daumas, Maurice, Scientific Instruments of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and Their Makers, Portman Books, London 1989 ISBN 978-0713407273
• Mills, John FitzMaurice, Encyclopedia of Antique Scientific Instruments, Aurum Press, London, 1983, ISBN 0-906053-40-4
• Peter Kemp ed., The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea, 1976 ISBN 0-586-08308-1

Google hits:

Alhidade	1,200
Alidade	272,000

Filling Wikipedia with an obscure term or forcing authors to use [[alhidade|alidade]] to avoid redirects is ludicrous.

--Michael Daly (talk) 21:46, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

I would agree. Alidade is by far the more common term. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 23:56, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

{

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Removed - need clarification and/or reference

I removed the following from the end of the first paragraph of the Origins section:

"its one of the newest editions to the Armillary sphere made by the early Islamic golden age scientists"

Perhaps the contributor meant "additions to the armillary sphere"? Nonetheless, the Armillary sphere page offers no clarification and the statement needs a reference or clarification to establish is relevance. --Michael Daly 19:26, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

adelaide, alidade

ha ha i love it. Decora (talk) 17:18, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

Needs reference to Osborne Fire Finder

That's it. I don't have time to add it right now, but one of the better know land-based examples of an alidade has got to be the Osborne Fire Finder, which includes a reference to this page. Seems it deserves a reference back. --Thfump (talk) 10:49, 12 November 2015 (UTC)