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 12 items.
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Bryan Gravimeter
- Description
- Gravimeters (gravity meters) are extremely precise instruments that measure the earth’s gravity at a specific location. Gravimeters are often used by prospectors to locate subterranean deposits of valuable natural resources (mainly petroleum) as well as by geodesists to study the shape of the earth and its gravitational field. Differences in topography, latitude, or elevation—as well as differences in subterranean density—all affect the force of gravity. Commonly, gravimeters are composed of a weight hanging on a zero-length spring inside a metal housing to negate the influence of temperature and wind. Gravity is then measured by how much the weight stretches the spring.
- This gravimeter was built in 1938 under the direction of Andrew Bonnell Bryan (1897 1989), a Ph.D. physicist who served as Director of the Geophysics Division of the Carter Oil Co., in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Bryan described an earlier model at the 1937 meeting of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, noting that it "was originally designed in the laboratories of the Humble Oil & Refining Company and is now being built and used by both Humble and Carter in slightly different forms." The gravimeter weighed 112 pounds, and could be "readily handled by two men." The Carter Oil Co. donated this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1959.
- Ref: F. G. Boucher to P. W. Bishop, August 6, 1959, in NMAH accession file.
- A. B. Bryan, "Gravimeter Design and Operation," Geophysics 2 (1937): 301-308.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1938
- maker
- Carter Oil Company
- ID Number
- AG*MHI-P-7658
- catalog number
- MHI-P-7658
- accession number
- 230569
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Quartz Clock
- Description
- This clock was built at the U. S. Naval Observatory about 1936 as part of an experimental program to control time signals transmitted by radio. It is a quartz clock, that is, it depends on a specially cut piece of quartz crystal to keep time. The search for a better timekeeper than the best pendulum clocks led to the development of quartz-crystal clocks, the first of which telecommunications engineers at Bell Telephone Laboratories built in 1927 to monitor and control frequencies.
- date made
- 1936
- ID Number
- ME*319994
- catalog number
- 319994
- accession number
- 240411
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Gurley Transit
- Description
- Surveyors who carry instruments long distances, often over difficult terrain, are always concerned about weight. W. & L. E. Gurley made their first lightweight instrument—an aluminum transit—in 1876. But the prohibitive cost of aluminum kept them from manufacturing instruments of this material. Following World War I, Gurley introduced a line of instruments made of an aluminum alloy named Lynite. This transit is of that sort. Gurley termed it a Lightweight Engineers' Transit and sold it, with tripod, for $275. It is marked "W. & L. E. GURLEY TROY N.Y., U.S.A. 3028." The serial number indicates that it was the 28th instrument that Gurley made in 1930. The horizontal and vertical circles are silvered, graduated every 30 minutes of arc, and read by opposite verniers to single minutes.
- One standard is marked "PATENT 1731848." The reference is to the patent granted to W. L. Egy on October 15, 1929, and assigned to Gurley. This patent described a graduated circle or arc for surveying instruments made of an aluminum alloy.
- Ref: W. & L. E. Gurley, Light Weight Transits (Troy, N.Y., 1929).
- date made
- 1930
- maker
- W. & L. E. Gurley
- ID Number
- 1986.0091.01
- accession number
- 1986.0091
- catalog number
- 1986.0091.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Hersey H.F. Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc meter made by the Hersey Manufacturing Company in Boston, Mass. Hersey introduced the form in 1919, and described it as a “positive displacement meter of the nutating type” that was “adapted for use on all services where extreme accuracy, reliability and durability are required and where general efficiency rather than first cost is of prime importance.” The serial number (1,669,637) on this example dates from 1936. The case has been partially cut away to show the mechanism.
- Ref: Hersey Disc Water Meter. Model H.F. Meter (July 1, 1926).
- date made
- 1936
- maker
- Hersey Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*319448
- accession number
- 238754
- catalog number
- 319448
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Badger A-SOT Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. It has a frost-proof bottom, fits a ⅝” pipe, and has a capacity of 26 gallons per minute. The gear train operated in oil (SOT stood for sealed oil train). The serial number (2,342,998) dates from 1943. Due to wartime materials restrictions, the body is made of cast iron.
- date made
- ca 1943
- maker
- Badger Meter Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*325802
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325802
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Badger SC-SOT Water Meter
- Description
- This disc water meter was made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. It has a split case and so could be used in warmer climates where there was no danger of freezing. It fits a ⅝” pipe, has a capacity of 26 gallons per minute, and was designed for use with corrosive waters. Due to wartime materials restrictions, the case is made of cast iron. The serial number (2,358,003) dates from 1943. SC-SOT stands for split case, sealed oil gear train.
- date made
- ca 1943
- maker
- Badger Meter Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*325805
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325805
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Arctic Ironside Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter with frost-proof bottom and serial number 3,609,508, made by the Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company in the early 1940s. Pittsburgh Equitable explained that “Months of preparation by Pittsburgh-National Research men, preceding the limitation order on the manufacture of bronze meters by the War Production Board, now makes possible the presentation of the Pittsburgh Ironside Meter.” This is “a top quality disc meter in the construction of which over 70% of the bronze normally used in meters of this size has been eliminated. Rust-proofed cast iron and molded glass have been ingeniously substituted for bronze in the outer shell, register box and register lid.” “To meet the conditions in sections of the country where damage from freezing is likely to occur, this meter is equipped with a cast iron bottom plate especially designed so that should the water in the meter freeze, the pressure exerted by the expanding ice with break one or more of the lugs from the cast iron plate, thus allowing the vital working parts . . . to move freely with the expanding ice.”
- Ref: Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company, Ironside Water Meter, Bulletin W-535 (1942).
- date made
- early 1940s
- maker
- Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325815
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325815
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Calmet Model B-C Water Meter
- Description
- This oscillating piston water meter with split case and no serial number fit a ¾” pipe. It was made by the Well Machinery & Supply Company in Fort Worth, Texas. It has a cast-iron body and so was probably made during the materials restrictions of World War II.The city of Fort Worth agreed, in 1930, to purchase 8,000 oscillating piston meters from the California Meter Company of Los Angeles. The Well Machinery & Supply Company acquired California Meter soon thereafter, and advertised Calmet water meters as “A Texas Made Product.”
- Ref: “Water Meter Concern Cites Accepted Bid,” Los Angeles Times (Aug. 30, 1930), p. E1.
- Well Machinery & Supply Company, Calmet. The Precision Built Water Meter (Fort Worth, n.d.).
- date made
- early 1940s
- maker
- Well Machinery & Supply Company
- ID Number
- PH*325825
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325828
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Hersey I.C.H.F. Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter of the sort that the Hersey Manufacturing Company introduced in the early 1940s. Its working parts are similar to those of the Model H.F. but, due to wartime material restrictions, the case is of cast iron rather than bronze. With a capacity of 20 gallons per minute, this example was the smallest of several sizes made. The bottom is marked “Hersey anti-frost.”
- date made
- early 1940s
- maker
- Hersey Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*325845
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325845
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Hersey I.C.F. Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter of the sort that the Hersey Manufacturing Company introduced in the early 1940s. Its working parts are similar to those of the Model F but, due to wartime material restrictions, the case is of cast iron rather than bronze. With a capacity of 20 gallons per minute, this example was the smallest of several sizes made. The bottom is marked “Iron Antifrost.” The serial number (2,022,580) dates from 1944.
- date made
- ca 1944
- maker
- Hersey Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*325847
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325847
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center