IT IS WRONG TO SAY "KNOTS PER HOUR."

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 1 October 1913, Page 7

IT IS WRONG TO SAY "KNOTS PER HOUR."

.;.;' Nine ••wfc;K»f tea persoas will say that ittwh asi susk a stoandnp ig enable of steaming at "tw«^r kacts per hoir." :•■■ A' nautical ia&a would simply say -"twenty knots." which would be correct? -The latter, :©f course. The mistake arises from the fact that the landsmaa thinks that a "knot" is just the nautical term for a "sea mile," which ib, ia tke rough; 6,080 feet, or about one and •ne-eightk lamd of statute miles.

A kut is H«t a &staa«e at aM—it) is speed. Tke word "speed" eembines dietance and time. For instance, if we wish to speak of the speed of a locomotive we refer to it as so many miles per hour. There is <no single word in the language to express speed unite, so we must use two words—miles and hours. As is well knowm, the sailor has a language peculiar to himself, aad he has invented, above other things, a single word for unit of speed. Tfcu& a speed of one nautical mile :er hour is called "one knot.'' Hence it is excessive to) tack on another."per hour" after the word knot when the word already includes one "fier hour."

Perhaps some will ask how the word knot originated, and the explanation of this is simple. When a seaman wishes to ascertain the speed of his craft he does so by means of a log line, which consists of a piecel of wood called the "log" or the "log.ship," to which is attached a length' of line. The line is tnotted at regular intervals, the distance between two consecutive knots bearing the samel proportions to a sea mile that the time «fa sand glass used in connection witk the operations bears to an hour.

Thus, for instance, if after the log is thrown overboard the line paying freely' out lets out fifteen of its knots in the time that it takes the sand glass to. run down, them the ship is making fifteen knots.