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.

This is an aluminum compass with brass sights. The raised rim and beveled outer ring are graduated every degree and numbered every 10 degrees in quadrants from north and south.
Description
This is an aluminum compass with brass sights. The raised rim and beveled outer ring are graduated every degree and numbered every 10 degrees in quadrants from north and south. The southeast quadrant of the face has a variation scale that extends 25 degrees one way and 45 degrees the other, that is graduated to degrees, and that reads by folded vernier to 5 minutes. The western half of the face is graduated to degrees, and equipped with a pendulum clinometer pivoted at the center. There are level vials on the SE and SW corners of the plate. The four beveled edges of the plate are graduated, one to inches and tenths, one to inches and eighths, and two as protractors. The back of the plate has a diagram showing the arrangement of township numbering. David White Co. termed it an improved geologist's or forester's compass as designed for the U. S. Forest Service. This example belonged to the University of Missouri at Columbia. New, it cost $45. The "David White Co. Milwaukee, Wis." inscription refers to a firm that was established in 1895, and renamed the David White Instrument Co. in 1956.
Ref: David White Co., Catalog and Price List, 7th edition (Denver, about 1935), p. 37.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
David White Co.
ID Number
PH.333646
catalog number
333646
accession number
300659
This type of sextant was introduced during World War II. The limb is graduated to single degrees. A drum micrometer, the teeth of which mesh with teeth cut into the edge of the limb, reads to 1 minute and, with vernier, to 6 seconds of arc. The inscriptions read "David White Co.
Description
This type of sextant was introduced during World War II. The limb is graduated to single degrees. A drum micrometer, the teeth of which mesh with teeth cut into the edge of the limb, reads to 1 minute and, with vernier, to 6 seconds of arc. The inscriptions read "David White Co. Milwaukee, Wis." and "U.S. NAVY, BU. NAV. MARK II"
Ref: Benjamin Dutton, Navigation and Nautical Astronomy (Annapolis, Md., 1948), pp. 347-355.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1941-1945
maker
David White Co.
ID Number
2004.0054.01
catalog number
2004.0054.01
accession number
2004.0054

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