Measuring & Mapping

Where, how far, and how much? People have invented an astonishing array of devices to answer seemingly simple questions like these. Measuring and mapping objects in the Museum's collections include the instruments of the famous—Thomas Jefferson's thermometer and a pocket compass used by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition across the American West. A timing device was part of the pioneering motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge in the late 1800s. Time measurement is represented in clocks from simple sundials to precise chronometers for mapping, surveying, and finding longitude. Everyday objects tell part of the story, too, from tape measures and electrical meters to more than 300 scales to measure food and drink. Maps of many kinds fill out the collections, from railroad surveys to star charts.

Mercury-in-glass thermometer with a spherical bulb. The milk-white back is marked “L. Golaz à Paris 725” and has a scale reading from -14 to +69 degrees centigrade, which seem to be done by hand rather than by machine.
Description
Mercury-in-glass thermometer with a spherical bulb. The milk-white back is marked “L. Golaz à Paris 725” and has a scale reading from -14 to +69 degrees centigrade, which seem to be done by hand rather than by machine. The inscription indicates that this thermometer was made after 1891 (when Lucien Golaz took charge of the firm that his father had begun in 1830) and before the demise of the firm in 1919.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870-1888
ca 1891-1919
maker
L. Golaz
ID Number
PH.317446
catalog number
317446
accession number
230396
Mercury-in-glass thermometer with a spherical bulb. The milk-white back is marked “L. Golaz à Paris 729” and carries a scale reading from -15.5 to +75 degrees centigrade, both of which seem to be done by hand, rather than by machine.
Description
Mercury-in-glass thermometer with a spherical bulb. The milk-white back is marked “L. Golaz à Paris 729” and carries a scale reading from -15.5 to +75 degrees centigrade, both of which seem to be done by hand, rather than by machine. The inscription indicates that this instrument was made after 1891 (when Lucien Golaz took charge of the firm that his father had begun in 1830) and before the demise of the firm in 1919.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1891-1919
maker
L. Golaz
ID Number
PH.317444
catalog number
317444
accession number
230396
A box (or pocket) sextant works like a traditional sextant, but here the mechanism is enclosed in a brass box of about 3 inches diameter. William Jones, a leading instrument maker in London, introduced the form in 1797.This example probably belonged to Llewellyn N.
Description
A box (or pocket) sextant works like a traditional sextant, but here the mechanism is enclosed in a brass box of about 3 inches diameter. William Jones, a leading instrument maker in London, introduced the form in 1797.
This example probably belonged to Llewellyn N. Edwards (1874-1952), a structural engineer. It has a silvered scale graduated every 30 minutes from -5° to +150° and read by vernier with swinging magnifier to single minutes of arc. The inscription reads "WARREN-KNIGHT CO. PHILADELPHIA. MADE IN ENGLAND." Warren-Knight began in business in 1912.
Ref: William Jones, "Description of a New Pocket Box Sextant," in George Adams, Geometrical and Graphical Essays, 2nd ed. by William Jones, (London, 1797), pp. 283-285.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1912
dealer
Warren-Knight Co.
ID Number
PH.333796
catalog number
333796
accession number
296611
“Messrs.
Description
“Messrs. Elliott Bros., of London, made our meters, and are acquainted with all requirements: they charge about ten guineas for the complete instrument.” So wrote Julien John Révy, an Austrian civil engineer living in England, in his 1874 account of his survey of the Panama and Uruguay rivers in South America.
Elliott Bro. showed a Révy water current meter at the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Instruments held in London in 1876, noting that it was made “for measuring the velocity of currents in large rivers.” The firm went on to explain that “The spherical boss is so determined that it will displace just as much water, as to weight, as will balance the weight of all the parts which are fixed to the spindle, so as to reduce friction to a minimum. Although the apparatus is covered with glass, it has to be filled, before using it, with pure water to establish similarity of pressure inside and outside. After every experiment the water is removed and the spindle thoroughly dried.”
This example is marked “Elliott Bros. London.” The U.S. Geological Survey transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1916.
William Elliott began in business in London in the early 1800s, making and selling mathematical instruments. Following his death in 1853, his sons, Frederick and Charles, began trading as Elliott Brothers, and were soon offering a wide range of instruments for engineering and industry. The Elliotts’ involvement with water current meters probably began in 1856 when they acquired Watkins & Hill, a London firm that made meters according to the designs introduced by Joseph Saxton in 1836. Elliott Brothers was absorbed into what became BAE Systems in 1988. Its archives are now in the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford.
Ref: J. J. Révy, Hydraulics of Great Rivers (London and New York, 1874), appendix, “The Improved Current Meter, and Its Applications.”
Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus (London, 1876), p. 77.
Arthur H. Frazier, Water Current Meters in the Smithsonian Collections of the National Museum of History and Technology (Washington, D.C., 1974), pp. 50-51.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1874-1916
maker
Elliott Brothers
ID Number
PH.289646
accession number
59263
catalog number
289646
Like the thermometer introduced by James Six in England in 1782, this example has a U-shaped glass tube filled with alcohol and mercury. The tube has a milk-white back, and reads from -40 to +110 Fahrenheit on either side.
Description
Like the thermometer introduced by James Six in England in 1782, this example has a U-shaped glass tube filled with alcohol and mercury. The tube has a milk-white back, and reads from -40 to +110 Fahrenheit on either side. Its two ends are bent at right angles so that their cylindrical bulbs protrude out the back of the supporting black metal plate. This plate is marked, at top, “U.S. / WEATHER BUREAU / No 32” and in the middle “Taylor Instrument Companies / ROCHESTER, N.Y.” It is also marked “Tycos” with a flag announcing the company logo, “ACCURATUS TB.”
The Weather Bureau began building kiosks in 1909, equipping them with meteorological instruments, and placing them around the country where they would be seen by citizens. This thermometer was designed for that purpose, and probably was not available commercially .
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1910
maker
Taylor Instrument Co.
ID Number
PH.314533
catalog number
314533
accession number
204612
This is a factory time clock made about 1915 by the International Time Recording Company of Endicott, New York.
Description
This is a factory time clock made about 1915 by the International Time Recording Company of Endicott, New York. In workplaces around the world, employees came to use such a clock to stamp their arrival and departure times on a card, and workplace managers used that information about time and attendance for payroll.
date made
1915
1915
manufacturer
International Time Recording Company
maker
International Time Recording Company
ID Number
ME.328538
catalog number
328538
accession number
272366
This is a glass thermometer filled with a red liquid that the manufacturer termed “Permacolor or Mercolor.” The tube has a milk-white back and a front configured so as to magnify the liquid column. The supporting metal plate is marked, at top, “Tycos / ROCHESTER, N.Y. U.S.A.
Description
This is a glass thermometer filled with a red liquid that the manufacturer termed “Permacolor or Mercolor.” The tube has a milk-white back and a front configured so as to magnify the liquid column. The supporting metal plate is marked, at top, “Tycos / ROCHESTER, N.Y. U.S.A. / TORONTO, CANADA.” This is graduated from 26 to 102 degrees Fahrenheit, and provided with a metal bulb guard. This is mounted, in turn, on a wood board. The Taylor Instrument Companies donated it to the Smithsonian in 1923. It was apparently made in 1913, the year Taylor opened an office in Toronto.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1913
maker
Taylor Instrument Co.
ID Number
PH.308157
catalog number
308157
accession number
70532
This is a mercury-in-glass thermometer with a mile-white back that reads from -40 to +110 degrees Fahrenheit. Its lower part is bent so that the cylindrical bulb protrudes out the back of the supporting black metal plate. This plate is marked, at top, “U.S.
Description
This is a mercury-in-glass thermometer with a mile-white back that reads from -40 to +110 degrees Fahrenheit. Its lower part is bent so that the cylindrical bulb protrudes out the back of the supporting black metal plate. This plate is marked, at top, “U.S. / WEATHER BUREAU / No 2” and in the middle “Taylor Instrument Companies / ROCHESTER, N.Y.” It is also marked “Tycos” with a flag announcing the company logo, “ACCURATUS TB.”
The Weather Bureau began building kiosks in 1909, equipping them with meteorological instruments, and placing them around the country where they would be seen by citizens. This thermometer was designed for that purpose, and probably was not available commercially.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1910
maker
Taylor Instrument Co.
ID Number
PH.314534
catalog number
314534
accession number
204612
Wristwatches are relative newcomers among timekeepers. Although no one knows precisely when or where they first appeared, it is likely that the modern wristwatch dates from around 1880.
Description
Wristwatches are relative newcomers among timekeepers. Although no one knows precisely when or where they first appeared, it is likely that the modern wristwatch dates from around 1880. About that time, fashionable women in England and Europe began to wear small watches set in leather bands around their wrists, especially for outdoor activities like hunting, horseback riding and, later, bicycling. Men, for the most part, did not wear wristwatches then. They considered them feminine jewelry.
The Swiss pioneered wristwatch manufacturing, with American firms entering the business only in the second decade of the 20th century. This example – made by the Elgin National Watch Company of Elgin, Illinois, in 1917 just before America entered World War I – features a small mechanical movement with seven jewels. Over the dial is a metal grill to protect the crystal while still permitting a quick read of the time. Such grills acquired the nickname "shrapnel guard" during the war, when wristwatches increased in popularity with men.
The practicality of having time at a glance, the feature that attracted active women to the style in the first place, changed military men's minds about wristwatches. As soldiers entered World War I, they experimented with fastening pocket watches to their sleeves or their legs. As the war progressed, the wristwatch became ubiquitous among male soldiers of all branches of the armed forces and female nurses who cared for the wounded. European manufacturers reportedly worked overtime to convert existing women's watches into military timepieces to meet the demand.
This Elgin wristwatch looks much like today's. But when wristwatches first appeared, it wasn't at all clear what they should look like or how people should wear them. The location of the winding stem, or crown, was particularly puzzling. Some early wristwatches placed the crown in line with 3:00 on the dial, others at 9:00. Also unclear was how the watch dial should be oriented on the strap. Should 12:00 and 6:00 line up with the strap or at a right angle to it? By the 1910s, the position of the crown and the orientation on the strap, for the most part, conformed to the style we know today.
In addition to a variety of appearances, the earliest versions of the newfangled timekeeper had a variety of names. Early advertisements called it "wrist strap watch" or just "strap watch" for men and "watch bracelet," "bracelet watch," "wristlet watch" or simply "wristlet" for women. After World War I, watch manufacturers tried to negate the wristwatch's feminine image by advertising that reassured men of the wristwatch's sturdy masculinity. But even as late as 1943, wristwatches were still called "bracelet watches" or "wristlets," recalling feminine jewelry.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1917
manufacturer
Elgin National Watch Co.
ID Number
ME.333963
catalog number
333963
accession number
304914
The viscosimeter began as a scientific instrument for laboratory use in the 1830s. In time, due to increased industrial production, demand for quality control, and use of mineral-based oils, it gained real-world importance.
Description
The viscosimeter began as a scientific instrument for laboratory use in the 1830s. In time, due to increased industrial production, demand for quality control, and use of mineral-based oils, it gained real-world importance. The favored form for petroleum products measured the time it took for a certain volume of fluid to empty out of a container. The standard American design was developed by George M. Saybolt, unveiled in the 1880s, and manufactured by the C. J. Tagliabue Mfg. Co. for the Standard Oil Company in New York. It resembled the viscosimeters designed by Boverton Redwood in Great Britain and by Karl Engler in Germany.
Tagliabue brought the basic Saybolt viscosimeter to the open market in 1905. An improved form adapted for steam, gas, or electric heating, appeared in 1914. It cost $82 with a stopwatch, and $75 without. Following Saybolt’s death in 1924, the New York Times implied that the viscosimeter was largely responsible for his $100,000 estate.
This example is marked: “The SAYBOLT Standard / UNIVERSAL VISCOSIMETER / C. H. Tagliabue Mfg. Co. / New York / Sole Sales Agents” and “C. J. TAGLIABUE MFG. CO. N.Y.” and “2880” and “PATENT PENDING” and “2880 STANDARD UNIVERSAL VISCOSIMETER, GEO. M. SAYBOLT, NEW YORK”. It was made after Saybolt applied for a patent in 1914, and before the patent was issued in 1915. The U.S. Military Academy donated it to the Smithsonian.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1914-1915
maker
C.J. Tagliabue Manufacturing Company
ID Number
CH.316411
catalog number
316411
accession number
223721
Carl Bamberg (1847-1892) served an apprenticeship with Carl Zeiss at Jena and studied at the Universities of Jena and Berlin before establishing a "Werkstätten für Präzisions-Mechanik und Optik" in Friedenau, a suburb of Berlin, in 1871.
Description
Carl Bamberg (1847-1892) served an apprenticeship with Carl Zeiss at Jena and studied at the Universities of Jena and Berlin before establishing a "Werkstätten für Präzisions-Mechanik und Optik" in Friedenau, a suburb of Berlin, in 1871. After Bamberg's death, the firm was managed by his widow, and then by his son. Bamberg merged with the Centralwerkstatte Dessau in 1921, forming a new company known as Askania Werke.
The inscription on this compass reads "CARL BAMBERG No 34717 BERLIN-FRIEDENAU GES. GESOH." and "Carl Bamberg Berlin-Friedenau 1915 Kaiserl Marine."
Ref: F. M. Feldhaus, Carl Bamberg, Ein Rückblick auf sein Wirken und auf die Feinmechanik (Berlin-Friedenau, 1929), p. 73.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1915
maker
Bamberg
ID Number
PH.337139
catalog number
337139
accession number
1979.0361
This instrument is marked "C. L. Berger & Sons Boston, USA." The firm termed it a Universal Mining Transit with Duplex Telescope Bearings, noting that C. L.
Description
This instrument is marked "C. L. Berger & Sons Boston, USA." The firm termed it a Universal Mining Transit with Duplex Telescope Bearings, noting that C. L. Berger had designed it on June 10, 1889, in order "to meet the requirements of the Mining Engineer, who must have the exact location of every shaft and tunnel in a mine" and who needed to get "the closest results under the most trying circumstances." It could measure horizontal angles between points, "one of which may be depressed as much as eighty or ninety degrees below the horizon, while the other may be as much elevated above the horizon; and also to measure with equal accuracy angles of elevation or depression above or below the horizon." The distinctive feature of this transit is that the telescope can be mounted in the center of the instrument, as usual, or, for extreme angles, it can be moved to the front of the instrument, with a counterweight attached to the back.
The Berger records indicate that C. Elliott of Pittsburgh ordered this instrument in February 1917. The horizontal and vertical circles are silvered, graduated to 30 minutes of arc, and read by opposite verniers to single minutes. With lamp, two tripods, and two plumb bobs, the instrument cost $620.
Ref: C. L. Berger & Sons, Hand-Book and Illustrated Catalogue of the Engineers' and Surveyors' Instruments of Precision (Boston, 1912), pp. 172-177.
Chicago Steel Tape-Berger Instruments (Document Management Systems, 1995), Book 36, p. 64.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1917
maker
C.L. Berger and Sons
ID Number
PH.334893
catalog number
334893
accession number
315134
Lambrecht’s Polymeter is a multi-purpose meteorological instrument consisting of a mercury thermometer for temperature (missing in this example) and a hair hygrometer for humidity. The inscriptions on the face of this example read "LAMBRECHT'S POLYMETER" and "JULIEN P.
Description
Lambrecht’s Polymeter is a multi-purpose meteorological instrument consisting of a mercury thermometer for temperature (missing in this example) and a hair hygrometer for humidity. The inscriptions on the face of this example read "LAMBRECHT'S POLYMETER" and "JULIEN P. FRIEZ / Meteorological Instruments and Apparatus BALTIMORE (Md.) U.S.A."
Wilhelm Lambrecht (1834-1904), a mechanical, optical and meteorological instrument maker in Göttingen, designed this type of hair hygrometer around 1880. The firm remains in business, advertising as "The Weather Specialists Since 1859."
Julien P. Friez opened a workshop in Baltimore in 1890; he took his elder son into partnership in 1913 and began trading as J.P. Friez & Son. In 1895, he announced in the American Meteorological Journal that he was “Special American Agent for Lambrecht’s famous Polymeter, the best single instrument ever invented for making FROST AND WEATHER FORECASTS.”
Ref: “The Polymeter” in Julien P. Friez, Illustrated Catalogue of Meteorological Instruments and Apparatus (Baltimore, 1893), pp. 35-37.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890-1913
maker
Lambrecht, Wilhelm
Friez, Julien P.
ID Number
PH.314562
accession number
204612
catalog number
314562
Made about 1914, this watch—both case and movement—were manufactured by the Keystone Watch Case Company. Keystone had bought the rights to use the Howard name, and the watch is marked: "E. Howard Watch Co.
Description
Made about 1914, this watch—both case and movement—were manufactured by the Keystone Watch Case Company. Keystone had bought the rights to use the Howard name, and the watch is marked: "E. Howard Watch Co. Boston U.S.A." In a 10k gold case, the nickel movement with serial number 1183943 is stem-wound and set with a lever at the side of the case near the dial’s numeral one. The style of the dial—easily-read bold black numbers, minute marks and hands—evolved for railroad watches.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1914
manufacturer
E. Howard Watch Co.
ID Number
ME.317099
catalog number
317099
accession number
230383
serial number
1183943
This transit is marked "F. E. BRANDIS, SONS & CO. NEW YORK 1569." The firm, which was in business as such during the period 1890-1916, described it as an Engineers' Transit with Level Attachment, Gradienter, and Vertical Arc.
Description
This transit is marked "F. E. BRANDIS, SONS & CO. NEW YORK 1569." The firm, which was in business as such during the period 1890-1916, described it as an Engineers' Transit with Level Attachment, Gradienter, and Vertical Arc. The horizontal circle is graduated to 20 minutes of arc, and read by opposite verniers to 30 seconds. The vertical arc is graduated to 20 minutes of arc, and read by vernier to single minutes. New, it cost $239.
Ref: F. E. Brandis, Sons & Co., Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue and Hand-Book of Instruments of Precision for Civil Engineers, Surveyors and Astronomers (New York, 1902), p. 163.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890-1916
maker
F.E. Brandis, Sons and Company
ID Number
1983.0548.08
accession number
1983.0548
catalog number
1983.0548.08
In 1912 the director of the Royal Prussian Geodetic Institute in Potsdam suggested to the superintendent of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey that the two agencies work together to make a direct connection between their respective longitude networks.
Description
In 1912 the director of the Royal Prussian Geodetic Institute in Potsdam suggested to the superintendent of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey that the two agencies work together to make a direct connection between their respective longitude networks. The observers would use "the Bamberg or broken telescope transit which had been in use in Germany for some time," and they would communicate with each other by means of the transatlantic telegraph cable. The Americans acquired two Bamberg transits for this purpose shortly before the outbreak of war in 1914 and the cutting of the transatlantic cable. These instruments were then used for longitude determinations within the United States, and they remained in use until 1960.
The Bamberg geodetic transit at the Smithsonian is of this sort. It has a "broken" telescope that is viewed through one end of the horizontal axis, a graduated vertical circle, a cast iron base, and mechanism that is used to lift and reverse the telescope. It is marked "Carl Bamberg Friednau-Berlin No 11948" and may be one of many instruments that American intelligence officers captured from the German geodetic office at the end of World War II. The National Imagery and Mapping Agency transferred it to the Museum in 2000.
Carl Bamberg (1847-1892) served an apprenticeship with Carl Zeiss at Jena and studied at the Universities of Jena and Berlin before establishing a Werkstätten für Präzisions-Mechanik und Optik in Friedenau, a suburb of Berlin, in 1871. After Bamberg's death, the firm was managed by his widow, and then by his son. The firm displayed a "broken" transit in the German Educational Exhibition at the World's Fair held in St. Louis in 1904. In 1921 Bamberg merged with the Centralwerkstatte Dessau, forming a new company known as Askania Werke.
Ref: F. M. Feldhaus, Carl Bamberg, Ein Rückblick auf sein Wirken und auf die Feinmechanik (Berlin-Friedenau, 1929), p. 73.
Carl Bamberg, Astronomische und Astrophysikalische Instrument (Leipzig/Berlin, about 1920).
Fremont Morse and O. B. French, "Determination of the Difference in Longitude between Each Two of the Stations Washington, Cambridge, and Far Rockaway," United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Special Publication 35 (1916).
G. D. Cowie and E. A. Eckhardt, "Wireless Longitude," United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Special Publication 109 (1924).
A. J. Hoskinson and J. A. Duerksen, "Manual of Geodetic Astronomy," United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Special Publication 237 (1952).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1914
maker
Bamberg, Carl
ID Number
2000.0257.01.01
catalog number
2000.0257.01.01
accession number
2000.0257
The face of this barometer is marked “COMPENSATED FOR TEMPERATURE” and “Tycos / ROCHESTER, N.Y. U.S.A.” The pressure scale around the circumference reads from 25.8 to 81 inches of mercury.
Description
The face of this barometer is marked “COMPENSATED FOR TEMPERATURE” and “Tycos / ROCHESTER, N.Y. U.S.A.” The pressure scale around the circumference reads from 25.8 to 81 inches of mercury. The altitude scale reads from zero to 5000 feet; and, it can be rotated by means of a milled ring, so that the height of the starting point can be set to the current pressure. The Taylor Instrument Companies began operating, as such, 1904, introduced the Tycos trade mark in 1908, and donated this example to the Smithsonian in 1923.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1919
maker
Taylor Instrument Co.
ID Number
PH.308169
catalog number
308169
accession number
70532
Battle map used by General John J. Pershing, Commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), in his office at General Headquarters (GHQ) in Chaumont, France, during World War I. Paper map mounted on wooden board.
Description
Battle map used by General John J. Pershing, Commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), in his office at General Headquarters (GHQ) in Chaumont, France, during World War I. Paper map mounted on wooden board. Colored metal pins and paper squares map the locations of the Allied and Central armies and battle lines along the Western Front. Per the legend at center left of the map, round red pins indicate battle lines, round white pins indicate army group boundaries, and round pink pins indicate army boundaries. Blue and white paper stars indicate the location of French or British armies, red paper stars indicate American armies, black and white paper stars indicate Belgian armies, and black paper stars indicate the location of German armies. Paper labels across the map indicate the location of major military leaders and the divisions under their command. A table at the upper right of the map indicates the status of the divisions of the U.S. army, including whether they are in line or in reserve, whether they are fresh or tired, and their total number. A table at the center right of the map notes which enemy divisions have been dissolved and the date of their dissolution. At the center left of the map, near the map legend, the city of Paris is highlighted in pink.
Location
Currently not on view
associated date
1918
user
Pershing, John J.
American Expeditionary Force
ID Number
AF.35106
accession number
182935
catalog number
35106
By the mid-1870s, the Pacific guano trade had mined all the available bird guano from the South American and remote Pacific Ocean islands.
Description
By the mid-1870s, the Pacific guano trade had mined all the available bird guano from the South American and remote Pacific Ocean islands. Fortunately for international agricultural interests, nitrate and phosphate mines had recently been discovered inland in Peru and Chile to fill the gap, and big sailing ships from Europe and the United States exchanged the avian excrement for chemicals that could be mined and blended for synthetic fertilizers and other products.
This track chart measured daily progress for the five-masted German barque Potosi on a nitrate voyage from Hamburg, Germany to Valparaiso, Chile in 1914. The ship was built at Geestemunde, Germany in 1895 for the Flying P Line and measured 366.3 ft. in length and 4,026 tons. Potosi cleared Hamburg on 4 July 1914, rounded Cape Horn and arrived at Valparaiso, Chile 81 days later on 23 September.
It was Potosi's last voyage under the German flag before the ship was interned at Valparaiso for the duration of World War I. The ship's captain used the time to train in Chilean navigation and obtained a Chilean Master's license. In April 1917 he received direct orders to prevent the ship from being used by the enemy, so he destroyed its steering gear as well as the standing and running rigging. After the war, new owners used Potosi in the coasting trade, but in 1925 the ship caught fire off the Argentine coast and was deliberately sunk.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1914
ID Number
1999.3004.11
catalog number
1999.3004.11
nonaccession number
1999.3004
This mercury-in-glass thermometer has a bend in the tube just above the bulb, a milk-white back, and a scale that extends from 15 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, graduated in fifths. The tube is marked “J.
Description
This mercury-in-glass thermometer has a bend in the tube just above the bulb, a milk-white back, and a scale that extends from 15 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, graduated in fifths. The tube is marked “J. HICKS LONDON” and “1052.” The surrounding cylindrical case is made of wood and brass. It is marked “J. HICKS, 8, 9, & 20 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON,” and “M/O” (the mark of the British Meteorological Office), and “KEEP IN WATER TWO MINUTES.” The upper end of the case has a ring, presumably for suspending the thermometer. The lower end has a spring, presumably for protecting against shocks. This must have been made after 1884 when Hicks expanded his business into these premises, and before he merged his business with Stanley & Co. It came to the Smithsonian from the U.S. Weather Bureau.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1884-1911
maker
J. J. Hicks
Hicks, J.
ID Number
PH.314557
catalog number
314557
accession number
204612
Paul Weiss (1864-1943) was born in Switzerland, and moved to the United States in 1881. By 1891 he was working as an optician in Denver, Colorado.
Description
Paul Weiss (1864-1943) was born in Switzerland, and moved to the United States in 1881. By 1891 he was working as an optician in Denver, Colorado. From 1904 to 1910 he worked in partnership with Frank Heitzler, whose patent (#891,733), dated June 23, 1908, described a telescope with two prisms in the optical train, making it substantially shorter than telescopes ordinarily used with surveying instruments. The telescope of this transit is of that type. The horizontal and vertical circles of this transit are silvered, graduated to 30 minutes of arc, and read by verniers to single minutes. There is a clamp and tangent to the telescope axis. The inscription on the telescope reads "Weiss & Heitzler Makers No. 32 Denver, Colo Patent June, 1908."
Ref: Charles Smart, The Makers of Surveying Instruments in America Since 1700, vol. 2 (Troy, N.Y., 1967), pp. 207 and 257.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1904-1910
maker
Weiss and Heitzler
ID Number
1989.0403.08
accession number
1989.0403
catalog number
1989.0403.08
Marine sextant with a bubble level on the frame, and "Sewill. Maker to the Royal Navy. Liverpool" and "Hezzanith/___?__ Tangent Screw / Static Clamp / No.
Description
Marine sextant with a bubble level on the frame, and "Sewill. Maker to the Royal Navy. Liverpool" and "Hezzanith/___?__ Tangent Screw / Static Clamp / No. 17840" inscriptions.
This was used by the Royal Air Force, probably during World War I, examined at the Hezzanith Observatory in London in 1919, purchased from a hock shop in San Francisco in 1923, and donated to the Smithsonian in 1994.
Heath & Co. was an English firm that began making nautical instruments in 1835, adopted the Hezzanith trademark, and was still in business in the 1960s. The Sewill firm, established in Liverpool in 1835 and still in business in the 1990s, specialized in chronometers.
This design resembles that of Heath's "Mark IV.E Patent 'Curve-Bar' Sextant." The frame is brass. The silvered scale is graduated every 10 minutes from -5° to +155° and read by vernier with tangent screw and swinging magnifier to 10 seconds of arc. A quick-release mechanism at the end of the arm engages with worm teeth cut on the underside of the limb. This mechanism, marked "‘HEZZANITH’ ENDLESS TANGENT SCREW AUTOMATIC CLAMP PATENT No. 17840," is designed to facilitate coarse adjustments. George Wilson Heath and Heath and Company, Ltd., both of Crayford, in Kent County, England, obtained a British patent for this feature in 1909. This sextant has two telescopes--one of high power and narrow field of view; the other of low power and wide field of view--as well as a pair of binoculars.
Ref: G. W. Heath and Heath & Co., "Improvements in Devices for the Adjustments of Sextants and other like Instruments," British patent #17,840.
Heath & Co., Catalogue (London, 1921-1922), p. 506.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1918
maker
Sewill
ID Number
1994.0048.01
catalog number
1994.0048.01
accession number
1994.0048
As scientists found that even the best dip circles gave unreliable results, they began using earth inductors to determine magnetic dip. In 1912, the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington developed a new earth inductor for use at sea.
Description
As scientists found that even the best dip circles gave unreliable results, they began using earth inductors to determine magnetic dip. In 1912, the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington developed a new earth inductor for use at sea. It had three key elements: an improved gimbal stand, a means for rotating the coil without disturbing the gimbal rings, and a sensitive galvanometer.
This example marked "D.T.M. C.I.W. E.I. N° 3" is the third Carnegie marine earth inductor. When the Carnegie closed its program in terrestrial magnetism, it was lent to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. The U.S. Geological Survey acquired it in 1973 when it took over the geomagnetic program of the federal government, and transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1982.
Ref: J. A. Fleming, "Description of the C.I.W. Marine Earth
Inductor," Terrestrial Magnetism 18 (1912): 39-45.
C. W. Hewlett, "Report on the C.I.W. Marine Earth Inductor," Terrestrial Magnetism 18 (1912): 46-48.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1912
maker
Carnegie Institution of Washington. Department of Terrestrial Magnetism
ID Number
1982.0671.05
accession number
1982.0671
catalog number
1982.0671.05
The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington bought this Kew pattern dip circle in 1919.
Description
The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington bought this Kew pattern dip circle in 1919. The inscription reads "Dover, Charlton Kent, Circle 240." With four needles, tripod, case, Kew certificate of examination, and importation charges, it cost $184.70. The vertical circle is silvered, graduated to 30 minutes, and read by opposite verniers to single minutes. The horizontal circle is silvered, graduated to 30 minutes, and read by vernier to single minutes.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1919
maker
Dover
ID Number
1983.0039.02
accession number
1983.0039
catalog number
1983.0039.02

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