Weems and Plath Electronic Barometer - Manual (Page 3)

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In May of 1919, eight years before Lindbergh’s famous solo flight, three small planes set out from
Rockaway Naval Airstation, NY headed for Plymouth, England in an attempt to make the first
trans-Atlantic flight. Only one of them made it. Twenty-five hundred feet below on board a station
tracking ship, a young navigator, Lt. Cdr. Philip Van Horn Weems, U.S. Navy, gazed up and thought
there must be a safer and simpler way than using a small armada of ships as beacons for the flight.
For centuries, man had relied on the heavens, on the circling planets and the constant horizon to
guide him in his travels. An accurate clock, compass, sextant and charts were the necessary tools for
plotting a course, but these required time for computations and a place to spread out and study the
charts. The timeworn system of celestial navigation was ill suited to the cockpit, but the airplane was
here to stay. Lt. Cdr. Weems, a brilliant, inventive and determined young man knew as he tracked
that first flight that navigation was his destiny, and he went on to revolutionize the field with his ideas,
writings and inventions.
The challenge he undertook was complex and involved the invention of new methods and new tools.
It required a horizon system independent of the sea horizon that was often not visible from the
cockpit of a plane. Weems worked for years to develop a new kind of sextant and to find someone
to manufacture it. When an accurate timepiece was needed, Weems invented the Second Setting
Watch with its inner rotating dial. He produced the famous Weems Plotter, the more precise and
easier to use plotting tool, which is still one of our most popular plotters.
All his life, Weems continued to improve the instruments and broaden the applications of his methods
until they came to include radio astronomy, polar exploration and even space navigation. He
published numerous articles and taught navigation at the Naval Academy in the 1920’s. He went
on to establish his own school in Annapolis to teach The Weems System of Navigation. Charles
Lindbergh studied with Weems before attempting his trans-Atlantic flight. Admiral Byrd, a classmate
of Weems at the Naval Academy, came to Weems for instruction before setting out for the North
Pole, as did many others.
A century earlier, Carl Plath’s company in Hamburg, Germany - C. Plath, had been manufacturing
the finest commercial sextants and magnetic compasses available. C. Plath developed the first
gyrocompass installed on a commercial vessel in 1913. Weems' school for navigation had become
the purveyor of Weems’ instruments. It was a natural development for Weems’ company to become
the North American source for C. Plath’s fine instruments; hence the alliance of two distinguished
names - Weems and Plath. The exceptional workmanship that both Philip Van Horn Weems and Carl
Plath required in developing the manufacturing of precision navigation tools remains at the heart
of all our products.
Weems & Plath is still located in the Chesapeake Bay town of Annapolis where it began so many
years ago. We are committed to supplying the world with the finest nautical products available
while maintaining the high standards of service that have distinguished Weems & Plath from its
inception.
www.weems-plath.com
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