When Was The ‘Sextant’ Invented?

In the year 1731, the Sextant was invented by John Hadley. Generally speaking, the sextant is used at sea to determine the distance of a ship from the Equator or in other words to calculate the ship's latitude.

Sextant was the instrument, whose invention paved the path for modern navigation to gain momentum with the help of the sun and the stars.

The instrument got its name from the fact that it is equippeded with an arc that is usually one-sixth of a circle or more precisely 60 degrees (a circle has 360 degrees in total). It measures the angle of the sun's or a star's height above the horizon. As this angle varies with distance from the Equator, it helps the navigator to provide him the accurate point of his position, or the latitude that he is on. The rest is accomplished by determining the time, the date and the longitude, which could easily be found by comparing the local time with the time at Greenwich.

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