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 309 items.
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Hagger Theodolite
- Description
- This theodolite belonged to Smith College, but was made well before that school was established. The "Hagger Maker Baltimore" signature refers to Benjamin K. Hagger, an instrument maker who worked in Baltimore during the period 1816–1824, and who later went into partnership with his eldest son. The horizontal circle and vertical arc are silvered, graduated every 30 minutes, and read by verniers to single minutes.
- maker
- Hagger, Benjamin K.
- ID Number
- 1980.0098.03
- accession number
- 1980.0098
- catalog number
- 1980.0098.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
B. Pike & Son Transit
- Description
- The "B. Pike & Son. New York. Warranted" signature identifies the shop in which this instrument was sold, but not necessarily where it was made, or by whom. It was used between 1831 and 1841, when Benjamin Pike worked with his son Benjamin Jr., and again between 1843 and 1850, when Benjamin Pike worked with his son Daniel. The word "Warranted" represents the Pikes' guarantee of quality. In design and production, however, this instrument is less successful than those made by men who specialized in instruments of this sort.
- As in William J. Young's original surveyor's transit, the horizontal circle here is inside the compass face. The circle, however, is graduated every 30 minutes of arc, and read by vernier to single seconds. The vertical circle is graduated every 1 degree, and read by vernier to 4 minutes.
- maker
- B. Pike & Son
- ID Number
- 1980.0254.01
- accession number
- 1980.0254
- catalog number
- 1980.0254.01
- 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
Surveyor's Compass
- Description
- Design features suggest that this compass may date from the third quarter of the 18th century. The bar holding the vertical sights is straight and narrow. The needle rim is graduated to single degrees, and numbered in quadrants from North and South. The face reads clockwise. And, with an extra needle and scales at North and South, the compass can serve as a clinometer for measuring angles of elevation.
- ID Number
- 1980.0695.01
- accession number
- 1980.0695
- catalog number
- 1980.0695.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Surveyor's Compass
- Description
- This compass may date from the fourth quarter of the 18th century. Although the bar holding the vertical sights is straight and narrow, the face reads counterclockwise. The needle rim is graduated to single degrees, and numbered in quadrants from North and South.
- ID Number
- 1980.0695.02
- accession number
- 1980.0695
- catalog number
- 1980.0695.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
King Surveyor's Compass
- Description
- The “C.G. King Boston” signature refers to Charles Gedney King (1808-1858), a mathematical instrument maker who apprenticed with his father, Gedney King, and traded under his own name after his father’s death in 1839. C. G. King showed his instruments at fairs sponsored by the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association in the 1840s and 1850s, and took home several silver medals.
- King also announced he "Is now manufacturing and has for sale the largest assortment of Mathematical, Nautical, Engineers, Surveyors and Drafting Instruments to be found in the city." Moreover, the engineers’ and surveyors’ instruments manufactured in the King establishment, "are divided upon a new Engine, made expressly for the purpose, the performance of which, for the accuracy of its division, cannot be surpassed, if equalled, by any Engine in the Country."
- The rim of this example is graduated to 30 minutes. There are two level vials on the south arm.
- Ref: "Evidence of the Enterprise," Rittenhouse 1 (1987): 90.
- maker
- King, Charles Gedney
- ID Number
- 1980.0696.01
- accession number
- 1980.0696
- catalog number
- 1980.0696.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Chandlee Surveyor's Compass
- Description
- This compass bears two distinct inscriptions: "G*CHANDLEE W." refers to the maker, and "J:J: WELSH" refers to the owner (who has yet to be identified). Goldsmith Chandlee (1751-1821) was born in Nottingham, Md., and apprenticed with his father Benjamin Chandlee, himself a notable clock and instrument maker. Goldsmith moved to Stephensburg, Va., in 1775. The W on this compass refers to Winchester, Va., where Chandlee settled in 1783.
- Some 22 Goldsmith Chandlee compasses are known today, and almost all have an L/T table. In this example, the table appears on the south arm. This L/T table converts links of a chain to tenths of perches, and vice versa, thus helping the surveyor determine the length of the line that had been run. A perch, in England and the United States, was equal to 16.5 feet.
- All Goldsmith Chandlee compasses have an outkeeper (an attachment to keep a tally in chaining). In this example, the outkeeper appears at the south end of the face. Most Goldsmith Chandlee compasses were made to order, and the name of the original owner is engraved on the face.
- Ref: Edward E. Chandlee, ed., Six Quaker Clockmakers (Philadelphia, 1943), pp. 105-146.
- Richard Elgin, "On Goldsmith Chandlee," Professional Surveyor 21 (December 2001): 16-26.
- maker
- Chandlee, Goldsmith
- ID Number
- 1980.0809.01
- accession number
- 1980.0809
- catalog number
- 1980.0809.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Hanks Surveyor's Compass
- Description
- Benjamin Hanks (1755-1824) apprenticed with Thomas Harland, an English clock maker who had recently migrated to Norwich, Conn. By 1777 Hanks was in business on his own in Windham, Conn. Like many American mechanics of that time, Hanks applied his skills in several directions. While specializing in clocks and watches, for instance, he asked the General Assembly to supply funds so that he could construct looms for weaving stockings. Hanks moved to Litchfield in 1780, and advertised surveyor's compasses in 1785. In 1786 he began casting bells. In 1808, now living in Mansfield and working in partnership with his son Julius, Hanks was making vernier compasses or, as he advertised, “surveyor's compasses upon the Rittenhouse improved plan.”
- This compass was probably made early in Hanks's career. The face reads clockwise, and the bar is narrow. The north metal brace bears the inscription “HANKS.” One unusual feature is the clinometer scale at the south end of the face, which could be used to measure vertical angles; the clinometer needle is missing.
- Ref: Penrose R. Hoopes, Connecticut Clockmakers of the Eighteenth Century (Hartford, 1930), pp. 79-83.
- Charles E. Smart, American Surveying Instruments and Their Makers (Troy, 1962), pp. 70-71.
- maker
- Hanks, Benjamin
- ID Number
- 1981.0182.01
- accession number
- 1981.0182
- catalog number
- 1981.0182.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Indenture of William J. Young
- Description
- With this indenture, signed on January 30, 1813, William J. Young (1800-1870) became an apprentice to Thomas Whitney. The indenture details the conditions under which Young would work over the course of the next seven years, as well as Whitney's agreement to teach him "the Trade or Mystery of a Mathematical Instrument Maker." Alfred C. Young donated his great-grandfather's indenture to the Smithsonian in 1981.
- In 1820, having earned his freedom and with $30 in his pocket, Young went into business on his own. His was soon the leading mathematical instrument shop in the United States. Here he introduced improved forms of the railroad compass, the solar compass, and the surveyor’s transit. And here he trained younger men to carry on the tradition.
- Young was the first American to own a dividing engine—a device for mechanically dividing circles into degrees and minutes. He would not have needed such a complex and costly device just to make compasses, but he would need it to graduate the circles of more precise instruments. Not having the money to purchase a dividing engine from England, Young built his own. He had never seen a dividing engine, but worked from a printed description of an English engine. He would later modify this original engine, and build two others.
- Young signed his earliest instruments "W. J. Young Maker Philadelphia [or Philada]." He changed his signature to "Wm. J. Young Maker Philadelphia [or Philada]" around 1840, and began marking serial numbers on his instruments around 1853. These numbers began around 3000, and probably indicate the number of Young instruments to date. Analysis of these serial numbers shows that Young produced some 65 instruments per year in the 1850s, with annual production rising to 120 in the early 1900s.
- While 18th-century American instrument makers tended to work alone, or with an apprentice or two, Young usually had ten or so men in his shop, some apprentices and some journeymen. These men were all highly skilled and commanded relatively high wages. The instruments they produced were substantially more costly than those produced in factories, such as that of W. & L. E. Gurley.
- William J. Young joined with Charles S. Heller and Thomas N. Watson in 1866, and began trading as William J. Young & Co. The partnership disbanded in 1870, Alfred Young, a son of William, operated the firm as Wm. J. Young & Sons, and Heller went on to form Heller & Brightly. Alfred Young's firm began signing its instruments Young & Sons in 1875, and began using this name in advertisements around 1882. Young & Sons was incorporated in 1917. Keuffel & Esser obtained control of the firm in 1918, made it the Y&S department of K&E, and moved the operations to the K&E factory in Hoboken, N. J.
- Ref: Deborah Jean Warner, "William J. Young. From Craft to Industry in a Skilled Trade," Pennsylvania History 52 (1985): 53–68.
- Robert C. Miller, "Dating Young Instruments," Rittenhouse 5 (1990): 21-24.
- ID Number
- 1981.0511.02
- accession number
- 1981.0511
- catalog number
- 1981.0511.02
- 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