Measuring & Mapping - Overview
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.
"Measuring & Mapping - Overview" showing 71 items.
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Condy Octant
- Description
- An octant measures angles by bringing two images together—that of the sun, for instance, and the horizon—and was used primarily to determine latitude at sea. The form was described by John Hadley in London in 1731 and still in use in the early twentieth century.
- This example is marked "B. CONDY PHILADELPHIA 1778," the signature being that of Benjamin Condy (d. 1798). It was made during the American Revolution, and there are faint markings on the scale that may read "equality" and "justice." It has a mahogany frame and index arm, and ivory inset. The boxwood scale is graduated every 20 minutes from -5° to +95° and read by ivory vernier to single minutes of arc. There is also a back sight and a back horizon mirror for measuring angles greater than 90°. The radius is 17.75 inches.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1778
- business owner
- Condy, Benjamin
- maker
- Condy, Benjamin
- ID Number
- 1992.0312.01
- catalog number
- 1992.0312.01
- accession number
- 1992.0312
- catalog number
- 92.312.1
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Queen & Company Wye Level
- Description
- This is marked "QUEEN & CO. PHILADA 6750." The firm termed it an Improved Engineer's Y Level, and priced it at $110. The serial number suggests a date from the mid-1890s. A label in the box reads "QUEEN & CO., Inc.," referring to the incorporation of the firm in 1896.
- Ref: Queen & Co., Catalogue of Mathematical and Engineering Instruments and Materials (Philadelphia, 1887), pp. 153-154.
- maker
- Queen and Company
- ID Number
- 1980.0319.01
- accession number
- 1980.0319
- catalog number
- 1980.0319.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
W. J. Young Surveyor's Vernier Compass
- Description
- This compass is marked "Wm. J. Young Maker Philadelphia." It is not dated, but we know that William J. Young began using this particular signature around 1840, and he began putting serial numbers on his instruments in the early 1850s. The variation arc on the north arm extends 27 degrees either way. The vernier is moved by rack and pinion located on the south arm and hidden under a brass plate, and reads to 5 minutes. A circular level vial is on the south arm and an outkeeper on the north arm. The face is dark, and the needle ring was probably silvered originally.
- Ref.: D. J. Warner, "William J. Young. From Craft to Industry in a Skilled Trade," Pennsylvania History 52 (1985): 53-68.
- maker
- Young, William J.
- ID Number
- 1981.0648.02
- accession number
- 1981.0648
- catalog number
- 1981.0648.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Gurley Surveyor's Compass
- Description
- This compass was made between 1853 and 1859, and came from Gettysburg College. The "Jas. W. Queen, Philada. Warranted" signature indicates that James W. Queen sold the compass and guaranteed its quality. The style, however, indicates that it was made by W. & L. E. Gurley, the Troy, N. Y., firm that was rapidly becoming the largest producer of complex mathematical instruments in the United States. The Queen Catalogue of 1859 offered several compasses, levels, and transits, with illustrations and descriptions copied from the Gurley Manual of 1855. A compass of this sort, with 6-inch needle, two straight levels, outkeeper, and mounting for use on a Jacob staff, cost $30. A paper label inside the box reads “James W. Queen 264 Chestnut St., near 10th, Philadelphia.”
- Ref: James W. Queen & Co., Illustrated Catalogue of Mathematical, Optical, and Philosophical Instruments and School Apparatus (Philadelphia, 1859), p. 14.
- date made
- 1853-1859
- maker
- W. & L. E. Gurley
- ID Number
- 1982.0104.04
- accession number
- 1982.0104
- catalog number
- 1982.0104.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
David Rittenhouse Surveyor's Vernier Compass
- Description
- The magnetic compasses that Americans used to determine property boundaries were inexpensive and expeditious but affected by magnetic variation—the fact that magnetic north seldom coincides with true north, and the relation between the two changes over time. The vernier compass solved this problem. This example is marked "David Rittenhouse PHILADELPHIA." It dates from around 1785, and is probably the first American instrument of its kind; similar instruments were made in Ireland. David Rittenhouse (1732–1796) was a skilled clock and instrument maker, man of science, and master of the American mint.
- Ref: D. J. Warner, "True North—And Why It Mattered in Eighteenth Century America," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 149 (2005): 372–385.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1785
- maker
- Rittenhouse, David
- ID Number
- 1983.0498.01
- accession number
- 1983.0498
- catalog number
- 1983.0498.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Potts Surveyor's Vernier Compass
- Description
- William Lukens Potts (1771-1854) worked with Benjamin Rittenhouse in the years 1796-1798, making plain and vernier compasses. In 1800, now in business on his own, he advertised "surveying instruments of all kinds, and Rittenhouse' Circumferentors, with each a nounes and spirit level compleat." "Nounes" here refers to a nonius, a term sometimes used in place of vernier.
- This example is marked "W.L. POTTS Bucks Penna." It was made between 1807, when Potts bought land in Bucks County, Pa., and 1817, when he moved to Philadelphia. It has a variation arc on the south arm that extends 15 degrees either way; the "folded" vernier is moved by rack and pinion, and reads to 5 minutes. There is a spirit level on the north arm. A copy of Thomas Whitney's 1814 discussion of "The Variation of the Compass" is pasted into the inside cover of the wooden box.
- date made
- 1807-1817
- maker
- Potts, William Lukens
- ID Number
- 1985.0468.01
- accession number
- 1985.0468
- catalog number
- 1985.0468.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
B. Rittenhouse Wye Level
- Description
- This wye level, one of the earliest made in America, is marked "Made by Benjn Rittenhouse." It was made around 1785, and owned by George Gilpin, the chief surveyor for the Potowmack Canal Navigation Company. Although this Canal Company had been organized in 1772, the project was shelved during the Revolution. It was resumed in 1785, and construction began the following year. Thomas Ellicott purchased the level at the sale of Gilpin's estate in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1813, and it remained in his family until its donation to the Smithsonian in 1997. The level vial of this instrument is mounted above the telescope. In the form that would become standard in the 19th century, the level hangs below the telescope.
- Ref: Silvio A. Bedini, "The Telescopic Level in Early America," Rittenhouse 11 (1997): 109-123.
- maker
- Rittenhouse, Benjamin
- ID Number
- 1997.0353.01
- accession number
- 1997.0353
- catalog number
- 1997.0353.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stormer Viscosimeter
- Description
- This instrument was designed by E. J. Stormer, chief chemist of the Case Threshing Machine Co. in Racine, Wisconsin. In 1909 it was described as “distinctly new in design, and since it comes from a practical chemist who has found it superior to other forms in making a large number of determinations daily, it may be expected to appeal to other practical men.” And indeed it did. Stormer viscosimeters were soon being used for paint, clay slips, and pyroxylin solutions, as well as for corn, catsup, and cod liver oil.
- Stormer’s original viscosimeter consisted of a falling weight that caused something to rotate at constant speed through a viscous liquid held at a constant temperature. Viscosity would be expressed either in terms of the number of rotations in a given time, or the time needed to make a number of rotations. By 1914, Arthur H. Thomas was offering Stormers with a rotating cylinder, and this basic form remains available to this day.
- This example is marked “ARTHUR H. THOMAS CO. PHILADELPHIA, PA.” and “FISHER SCIENTIFIC CO. PITTSBURGH, PA. USA.” The Metal Products Division of Koppers Co., Inc., donated it to NMAH in 1976.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- distributor/retailer
- Arthur H. Thomas Company
- maker
- Fisher Scientific Company
- Arthur H. Thomas Company
- ID Number
- CH*336370
- accession number
- 1978.0078
- catalog number
- 336370
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Hamilton No. 1 Box Chronometer
- Description
- This instrument is a specialized timekeeper for determining longitude at sea. It is serial no. 1 from a run of approximately 10,000 similar timekeepers made by Hamilton Watch Co, Lancaster, PA in 1942.
- World War II created a dire chronometer shortage for the United States. Before the war, most chronometers for American military and civilian customers were imported. Only a few American firms—including William Bond & Son of Boston and the New York establishments of John Bliss Inc. and T.S. and J. D. Negus—finished chronometers from parts imported from European makers. Chronometer making was a craft, with only a few hundred produced in any given year. When the war started in 1941, European suppliers of parts and finished instruments halted exports to the United States.
- Anticipating the arrival of war, the U.S. Naval Observatory had asked American domestic watch manufacturers in 1939 for their participation in mass-producing chronometers. Domestic watch manufacturers Hamilton and Elgin agreed to undertake the design and production, but only Hamilton’s product met Navy accuracy requirements. Hamilton delivered two prototypes to the Navy on 27 February 1942, which passed with an error rate of 1.55 seconds per day. The firm went on during the war to mass-produce 8900 more chronometers for the Navy, 1500 for merchant shipping and 500 for the Army. Between 1942 and 1944, the price dropped from $625 to $390 per timekeeper.
- Hamilton’s design for its Model 21 chronometer did not copy traditional European standards. Instead the design introduced key changes to improve accuracy. The modifications included changes to the escapement and the chronometer’s oscillating unit—the balance and hairspring assembly.
- To find longitude at sea, a chronometer would be set to the time of a place of known longitude, like Greenwich, England, the prime meridian. That time, carried to a remote location, could be compared to local time. Because one hour of difference in time equals 15 degrees difference in longitude, the difference in time between the chronometer and local time would yield local longitude.
- References:
- 1. Dick, Steven J. Sky and Ocean Joined: The U. S. Naval Observatory 1830-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
- 2. Whitney, Marvin. The Ship’s Chronometer. Cincinnati: American Watchmakers Institute Press, 1985.
- date made
- 1941
- 1956
- maker
- Hamilton
- ID Number
- ME*314825
- catalog number
- 314825
- accession number
- 210893
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ellicott Transit and Equal Altitude Instrument
- Description
- Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) was the leading geodetic surveyor in the United States in the early years of the Republic, and he aimed to produce surveys that compared favorably with those done by the best Europeans in the field. In his words, the transit and equal altitude instrument was "the most perfect, and best calculated for running straight lines." Moreover, "when the different verifications are carefully attended to, [it] may safely be considered as absolutely perfect."
- Ellicott made this instrument, and used it to run the western boundary of New York in 1789, the boundaries of the District of Columbia in the early 1790s, the southern boundary of the United States in 1796-1800, and the boundary between Georgia and North Carolina in 1811. Ellicott took this instrument with him to West Point, when he became professor of mathematics at the U.S. Military Academy in 1813. A descendant, Andrew Ellicott Douglass, deposited it with the Smithsonian in 1898.
- This instrument, marked "Andw Ellicott Philadelphia," is modeled on the transit and equal altitude instrument that had been made by John Bird in London, purchased by Thomas Penn in 1763, and used by Mason and Dixon for their survey of the boundary between the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Ellicott had used this English instrument in 1784, when he was part of the team of American surveyors who extended the Mason-Dixon line to the western edge of Pennsylvania.
- Ref: Andrew Ellicott, "A Letter to Robert Patterson," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 4 (1799): 32-51.
- Andrew Ellicott, "An Account of the Apparatus used on the Boundary between the United States and His Catholic Majesty," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 5 (1802): 204-208.
- Silvio Bedini, "Andrew Ellicott, Surveyor of the Wilderness," Surveying and Mapping (June 1976): 113-135.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Ellicott, Andrew
- ID Number
- PH*152080
- catalog number
- 152080
- accession number
- 116914
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center