Home > Terms > English (EN) > William Bourne

William Bourne

(1535-1582) A British innkeeper who wrote what some consider to be the first popularization of the extent ideas constituting that which we now consider to be the field of oceanography. In this book, entitled A booke called the Treasure for Traveilers, deuided into fiue Bookes and published in 1578, he invoked the primum mobilus concept as the driving force beyond the movement of the moon, but also ascribed to the moon itself some unknown power responsible for the observed tides and steady currents (whose complexity beyond the steady westward flow of the primum mobilus he also deemed partially due to the distrupting presence of land masses).

Bourne's picture of the flow in the Atlantic started with the general westward flow around the southern tip of Africa merging with that in the Atlantic, with the combined volume being too great to squeeze through the Straits of Magellan. Thus part of the flow was diverted northwards along the South American coast, into the Gulf of Mexico, and then out between Florida and Cuba and eastwards towards Europe. He also proposed a second type of steady, non-tidal current that flows against the wind during periods of strong winds, with the driving force being a hypothesized upward tilt of the sea surface downwind caused by waves piling up water there.

0
Collect to Blossary

Member comments

You have to log in to post to discussions.

Terms in the News

Billy Morgan

Sports; Snowboarding

The British snowboarder Billy Morgan has landed the sport’s first ever 1800 quadruple cork. The rider, who represented Great Britain in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, was in Livigno, Italy, when he achieved the man-oeuvre. It involves flipping four times, while body also spins with five complete rotations on a sideways or downward-facing axis. The trick ...

Marzieh Afkham

Broadcasting & receiving; News

Marzieh Afkham, who is the country’s first foreign ministry spokeswoman, will head a mission in east Asia, the state news agency reported. It is not clear to which country she will be posted as her appointment has yet to be announced officially. Afkham will only be the second female ambassador Iran has had. Under the last shah’s rule, Mehrangiz Dolatshahi, a ...

Weekly Packet

Language; Online services; Slang; Internet

Weekly Packet or "Paquete Semanal" as it is known in Cuba is a term used by Cubans to describe the information that is gathered from the internet outside of Cuba and saved onto hard drives to be transported into Cuba itself. Weekly Packets are then sold to Cuban's without internet access, allowing them to obtain information just days - and sometimes hours - after it ...

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

Banking; Investment banking

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is an international financial institution established to address the need in Asia for infrastructure development. According to the Asian Development Bank, Asia needs $800 billion each year for roads, ports, power plants or other infrastructure projects before 2020. Originally proposed by China in 2013, a signing ...

Spartan

Online services; Internet

Spartan is the codename given to the new Microsoft Windows 10 browser that will replace Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer. The new browser will be built from the ground up and disregard any code from the IE platform. It has a new rendering engine that is built to be compatible with how the web is written today. The name Spartan is named after the ...

Featured Terms

2012
  • 0

    Terms

  • 0

    Blossaries

  • 1

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Military Category: Weapons

patriot missile

A surface-to-air missile (SAM) system designed to shoot down aerial threats, including aircraft, tactical ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. ...

Featured blossaries

Languages spoken in Zimbabwe

Category: Arts   1 4 Terms

Venezuelan Dishes

Category: Food   2 3 Terms

Browers Terms By Category