On Sat, 5 Jun 2004 15:58:20 GMT, (Henry Spencer)
wrote:

In particular, apparently there was some unhappiness when people realized
that the relative locations of the *continents* were not known accurately
enough for ICBM targeting. Within a continent it was possible to do quite
accurate surveying with aerial photos and the like, but accurately
determining the precise distance between North America and Eurasia was not
so simple, and some effort had to be made in a hurry.

This isn't of the same magnitude, but until about 1990 the charts for
the Levant were still using Beaufort's mapping from 18-something.
There wasn't anything better to use.

Beaufort also invented a wind scale that's still in use.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer