Jahresbericht Mr.15/1960 
- Seite 106 - 
The Tide-Tables for the year 1961 appeared again in 2 volumes, viz. 
Volume I: European Waters; Volume II: Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean. 
The structure is the same as that auf the preceding year. To bring out a 
third volume covering the Pacific would not pay at present and would also 
surpass the present possibilities. The "Atlas der Gezeitenströme für die 
Nordsee, den Kanal und die Britischen Gewässer" (Atlas of Tidal Streams 
for the North Sea, the Channel and British Waters) found a surprisingly 
good market so that a new impression became necessary. As far as its 
contents is concerned it corresponds to the 1956 edition; merely some 
corrections were inserted which were published already in the German Notices 
to Mariners. A new edition is being prepared which will however hardly 
appear before summer 1961. 
For quite some time the accuracy is being examined with which the positions 
can be determined using the various methods of navigation. These investiga 
tions were also extended to a case where the position is to be fixed by two 
distance measurements (radar distances). In connection herewith stood further 
investigations which were discussed in the "Ausschuss für Funkortung". As is 
well known it was possible to determine the position of some islands in the 
Pacific by distance measurements of artificial satellites far more accurately 
than it would have been possible astronomically or geodetically. As it may be 
anticipated that suitable satellites will be present in future the question 
arises whether ship's positions might be fixed with their aid as well, for 
normal navigation, however, the expenditure would, be still too great for the 
present. But if accurate depth charts are to be produced one will possibly not 
hesitate to go to such an expenditure in a time not too far away. 
Among the Institutes participating in the International determination of 
longitudes and latitudes during the Geophysical Year in 1957/58 the time 
service of the G.H.I. did extremely well. After the additional staff was 
dismissed and due to illness a very difficult situation arose in I960. But 
by changing the methods the time service succeeded to even increase the 
accuracy of the determinations of time and latitude. 
For the International Conference for the Safety of life at Sea which took 
place in London, proposals for the widening of the official routes were elabo 
rated especially with a view to avoid collisions of ships fitted with radar. 
In the field of nautical engineering again some instruments supplied by 
the manufacturers such as gyroscopic compasses, radar equipments, direct 
reading direction finders, and loop-aerial radio direction finders were type- 
tested. The navigational testing of radio position finding equipments which 
is carried out since April 1958 and which due to shortage of personnel was 
restricted so far to equipments newly installed in ships, will now be extended