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 spectroscope was designed to be used with a telescope to study the light of the sun. It was made in Dublin in 1877 by the famous instrument maker Howard Grubb (1844–1931).
Description
This spectroscope was designed to be used with a telescope to study the light of the sun. It was made in Dublin in 1877 by the famous instrument maker Howard Grubb (1844–1931). It was used with the 9 ½ inch Alvan Clark & Sons refractor at Princeton University.
When the College of New Jersey at Princeton hired the astronomer Charles A. Young in 1877, they also gave him funds to equip the new John C. Green student observatory. One of his first purchases was this instrument. It was custom-made, and Young helped refine the design. (Grubb's company later advertised that this was the first such spectroscope that they had sold.) The most unusual feature of this instrument is the use of a complicated system of multiple prisms to disperse the light and produce a highly detailed view of the solar spectrum.
In use, the spectroscope was mounted at the eyepiece end of the telescope and light from the sun would be directed through it. As the light passed from one prism into the next, it would be increasing dispersed, or spread out. To make the instrument more compact, the beam of light was directed first through the upper portion of the prisms and then back through the bottom part. Depending on how it was configured, the light could thus be passed through either 2, 4, 6 or 8 prisms. A particular area of the solar spectrum could be viewed by turning a small chain that moved each prism by the same amount. Because of the large number of optical surfaces involved, the light loss in this instrument was almost certainly in the 90 percent range. This was an advantage when viewing the Sun, but it reduced the usefulness of this instrument for other purposes, such as measuring the spectra of stars. The success of this instrument in making precise measurements of the solar spectrum (and thus revealing information about the composition of the sun and its atmosphere) led to its wider adoption as an important astronomical tool.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1877
user
Young, Charles A.
maker
Grubb, Howard
ID Number
PH.328885
accession number
277637
catalog number
328885
This instrument is a specialized timekeeper originally designed for finding longitude at sea and later used everywhere as a source of portable precise time.
Description
This instrument is a specialized timekeeper originally designed for finding longitude at sea and later used everywhere as a source of portable precise time. It has an English-made chronometer movement, finished by the firm William Bond & Son of Boston and fitted with the Bond break-circuit device, electrical equipment to permit the telegraphing of time signals. The Smithsonian’s Astrophysical Observatory used the instrument. The chronometer’s wooden box fits into a padded basket for extra protection.
Mechanism details:
Escapement: Earnshaw, spring detent, later pattern
Duration: 56-hour
Power source: Spring drive with chain and fuse
Bowl details:
Brass bowl
Brass gimbals
Bezel screwed and milled
Crystal flat and plain
Dial details:
Engraved and silvered brass
Indicates hours, minutes, seconds, winding level up and down, 24-hour dial
Inscription: "WM. BOND & SON, / Boston. No. 586" on dial; "WM. BOND & SON'S, BREAKCIRCUIT. / U. S. A." on silvered inside of bezel
Hands: Gold, spade, with blued seconds and Up & Down hands
Case details:
Box: solid wood, three-part, glazed center section
Brass corners
Mother of pearl key escutcheon
Inscriptions: "WM. BOND & SON. / Boston. No 521 / BREAK CIRCUIT" on nameplate
"BOND / 521" on small oval plate in bottom of box
Carrying case: Basket, with padding
References:
1. Gould, Rupert T. The Marine Chronometer. London: Holland Press, 1960.
2. Whitney, Marvin E. The Ship's Chronometer. Cincinnati: American Watchmakers Institute Press, 1985.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870
maker
Wm. Bond & Son
ID Number
ME.314839
catalog number
314839
accession number
210897
After the 1866 legalization of metric units of measure in the United States, the Office of Weights and Measures prepared standard metric weights and measures for distribution to the states. This brass cylinder holds one liter. A mark on the front reads: U.S.
Description
After the 1866 legalization of metric units of measure in the United States, the Office of Weights and Measures prepared standard metric weights and measures for distribution to the states. This brass cylinder holds one liter. A mark on the front reads: U.S. (/) LITRE (/) No.46.
The U.S. National Bureau of Standards, the successor of the Office of Weights and Measures, transferred this standard to the Smithsonian.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870
maker
United States Office of Weights and Measures
ID Number
CH.309585
catalog number
309585
accession number
103830
This telescope, with an achromatic objective, erecting eye piece, and brass tube covered with leather, was probably made in England. The "E. & G. W. Blunt, New York, Day & Night" inscription indicates that it was made between 1824 and 1868. The "U. S.
Description
This telescope, with an achromatic objective, erecting eye piece, and brass tube covered with leather, was probably made in England. The "E. & G. W. Blunt, New York, Day & Night" inscription indicates that it was made between 1824 and 1868. The "U. S. Navy" inscription suggests that it might have been used during the Civil War.
Edmund March Blunt (1770-1862) opened a nautical shop in New York in 1802. His sons, Edmund (1799-1866) and George William (1802-1878) opened their own shop in 1824, trading as E. & G. W. Blunt and offering nautical books, charts, and instruments. The firm became Blunt & Nichols in 1866, and Blunt & Co., in 1868.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PH.322755
catalog number
322755
accession number
251009
Julien John Révy, an Austrian civil engineer living in England, designed this type of meter for his survey of the Panama and Uruguay rivers in South America begun in 1870. In his report on this project, Révy noted that “Messrs.
Description
Julien John Révy, an Austrian civil engineer living in England, designed this type of meter for his survey of the Panama and Uruguay rivers in South America begun in 1870. In his report on this project, Révy noted that “Messrs. Elliott Bros., of London, made our meters, and are acquainted with all requirements: they charge about ten guineas for the complete instrument.”
Elliott Bros. showed a Révy 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 Elliotts 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 came to the Smithsonian in 1955, a transfer from the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. The dial is marked “ELLIOTT BROS LONDON” and the propeller shaft housing is marked “U. S. C. & G. S. NO. 1.” It has no glass cover. It may be the Révy meter that H. L. Marindin, a Coast Survey hydrographer, reported using in 1877.
Ref: J. J. Révy, Hydraulics of Great Rivers (London and New York, 1874), pp. 155-160 and plate VIII.
Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus (London, 1876), p. 77.
H. L. Marindin, “Description of an Apparatus Devised for Observing Currents in Connection with the Physical Survey of the Mississippi River,” Report of the Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey Showing the Progress of the work for the Fiscal Year Ending with June, 1877 (Washington, D.C., 1880), Appendix 9.
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.
date made
ca 1875
maker
Elliott Brothers
ID Number
PH.314637
accession number
208213
catalog number
314637
This mercury-in-glass thermometer has a cylindrical bulb, and a milk white tube that is marked “Yale Observatory Standard No.
Description
This mercury-in-glass thermometer has a cylindrical bulb, and a milk white tube that is marked “Yale Observatory Standard No. 51 Made by Tonnelot à Paris Equal graduations Crystal glass tube made April 1879.” The scale, which extends from -4.8 to +104.6 degrees Centigrade, is graduated every degree, in fifths. The protective chrome case is marked “Yale Observatory Standard No 51.”
Ref.: Leonard Waldo, “Examination of Thermometers at the Yale Observatory,” Popular Science Monthly 18 (1881): 367-374.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1879
maker
Tonnelot, Jules
ID Number
PH.317451
catalog number
317451
accession number
230396
Alcohol-in-glass Rutherford-type thermometer mounted on a flat brass plate marked "NO. 1483 SIGNAL SERVICE U.S.A." and "JAS. GREEN NEW YORK." A white porcelain strip on the plate is graduated every 5 degrees Fahrenheit from -35 to+115. The bulb is spherical.
Description
Alcohol-in-glass Rutherford-type thermometer mounted on a flat brass plate marked "NO. 1483 SIGNAL SERVICE U.S.A." and "JAS. GREEN NEW YORK." A white porcelain strip on the plate is graduated every 5 degrees Fahrenheit from -35 to+115. The bulb is spherical. The stem is marked "U.S. 1483" and graduated (but not numbered) every degree Fahrenheit from -35 to +122. It was made between 1870 (when the U.S. Signal Service established a national weather service) and 1879 (when James Green took his nephew into partnership and began trading as J. & H. J. Green).
John Rutherford, a Scottish country doctor, devised this form in 1790. Green stated in 1900 that it was "the only one in general use." It has a black index inside the tube. "On a decrease of temperature the alcohol recedes, taking with it the glass index; on an increase of temperature the alcohol alone ascends the tube, leaving the end of the index farthest from the bulb indicating the minimum temperature."
Ref.: Henry J. Green, Meteorological and Scientific Instruments (Brooklyn, 1900), p. 23.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1870-1879
ID Number
PH.317465
accession number
230396
catalog number
317465
The semicircle of this graphometer is silvered, graduated to 30 minutes, numbered clockwise and counterclockwise, and read by verniers at either end of the alidade to single minutes.
Description
The semicircle of this graphometer is silvered, graduated to 30 minutes, numbered clockwise and counterclockwise, and read by verniers at either end of the alidade to single minutes. An inscription reads "Secretan à Paris." A label in the box reads: "Lerebours & Secretan, Secretan Successeur, Optician de S. M. l'Empereur, de l'Observatoire & de la Marine. Magasins: 13, Rue Du Pont-Neuf, Ateliers: 9, Rue Mechain, Faubg St. Jacques Paris." The address of the atelier suggests a date of around 1870.
Marc François Secretan (1804–1867) went into partnership with N. M. P. Lerebours in Paris in 1844, and became the sole proprietor of the shop in 1855. The shop offered a wide range of scientific apparatus, showed its wares at several international exhibitions, and was still in business in 1930.
Ref: Paolo Brenni, "Lerebours et Secretan," Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 40 (March 1994): 3–6
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870
owner
Mount St. Mary's College
maker
Secretan, Marc Francois
ID Number
PH.326108
catalog number
326108
accession number
257245
Mercury-in-glass thermometer with a blackened bulb. The scale extends from -20 to +200 degrees Fahrenheit, and is graduated by degrees and marked every 10 degrees. The stem is marked "No.
Description
Mercury-in-glass thermometer with a blackened bulb. The scale extends from -20 to +200 degrees Fahrenheit, and is graduated by degrees and marked every 10 degrees. The stem is marked "No. 30 Patent 3647." This refers to the British patent for “Testing vacuum of solar thermometer” issued to J. J. Hicks, a meteorological instrument maker in London, in 1873. The surrounding glass container is marked "J. CALL New York."
This may have been used by John William Draper, an American polymath who received the Rumford Prize in in 1875 for his long-standing work on solar radiation. It may also have been used by his son, Daniel Draper, a noted meteorologist.
Ref: James J. Hicks, Illustrated & Descriptive Catalogue of Standard, Self-Recording, and Other Meteorological Instruments (London, about 1874), pp. 60-61.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1870s
maker
Hicks, J. J.
ID Number
PH.333988
catalog number
333988
accession number
304826
This instrument marked "W. & L. E. Gurley, Troy, N.Y." was made between 1868 when the Gurleys introduced a railroad compass with one vernier scale on the limb, and the middle of 1876 when the firm's engraving machine was up and running. New, it cost $70.
Description
This instrument marked "W. & L. E. Gurley, Troy, N.Y." was made between 1868 when the Gurleys introduced a railroad compass with one vernier scale on the limb, and the middle of 1876 when the firm's engraving machine was up and running. New, it cost $70. It belonged to Bowdoin College. The upper plate carries the sights, two level vials, and the compass. The lower plate, wider than the upper, carries the circle which is graduated to 30 minutes, and read by vernier to single minutes. A tangent screw on the south arm moves the two plates relative to one another. There is a variation arc on the compass face that extends 30 degrees either way; the folded vernier is moved by a rack and pinion located on the north arm, and reads to 2 minutes. It has a blackened or bronzed finish, and a silver–plated face.
Ref: W.&L.E. Gurley, A Manual of the Principal Instruments Used in American Engineering and Surveying (Troy, N. Y., 1868), pp. 52–56.
W. Skerritt, "W.&L.E. Gurley's Engraving Machine," Rittenhouse 11 (1997): 97–100.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1868-1876
maker
W. & L. E. Gurley
ID Number
PH.329729
catalog number
329729
accession number
278336
This is an incomplete example (the arms are missing) of an unusual 4–armed instrument. The needle rim is graduated to 30 minutes. The variation scale, at south, extends ± 20 degrees, and is read by vernier to single minutes. The “F.
Description
This is an incomplete example (the arms are missing) of an unusual 4–armed instrument. The needle rim is graduated to 30 minutes. The variation scale, at south, extends ± 20 degrees, and is read by vernier to single minutes. The “F. Arnold & Co.” inscription refers to Francis Arnold, an immigrant from Frankfurt, Germany, who signed naturalization papers in Philadelphia in 1854. After working briefly for William J. Young, Arnold went into business on his own, advertising as a manufacturer of surveying and engineering instruments. He settled in Chicago around 1860. By 1875, B. Kratzenstein was advertising as Successor to F. Arnold & Co.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1850-1875
maker
F. Arnold & Co.
ID Number
PH.335531
catalog number
335531
accession number
321714
This map extends from Pueblo, Colorado, in the east to the conjunction of the Colorado and Flax Rivers in the west, and from north of Breckenridge, Colorado, to south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, or, from about 34°45' to about 39°20' north latitude, and from about 104°50' to about
Description
This map extends from Pueblo, Colorado, in the east to the conjunction of the Colorado and Flax Rivers in the west, and from north of Breckenridge, Colorado, to south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, or, from about 34°45' to about 39°20' north latitude, and from about 104°50' to about 112° longitude west of Greenwich. The scale is 12 miles to the inch. A text in the lower right corner pertains to the “CENTRAL GOLD REGIONS.” It also states “A delicate tint was ruled over the whole plate to give the effect of a plaster model of the country. Constructed and engraved by BARON F. W. VON EGLOFFSTEIN Topographer to the Surveys under the 35th and 38th parallels. Frémont’s, Beckwith’s, and Ives’ Expeditions.” The texts at bottom read “Lettering by John L. Hazzard” and “Ruling by Samuel Sartain” and “[GE]OGRAPHICAL INSTITUTE, BARON F. W. VON EGLOFFSTEIN, NO. 164 BROADWAY, N. YORK. 1864”
Baron Freidrich Wilhelm Von Egloffstein (1824-1885), the topographer who compiled this map, was a German immigrant who came to the United States in 1849. He went with John C. Frémont on a winter trek from St. Louis to the Great Basin (1853-1854), seeking a rail route to the west. He joined Edward G. Beckwith on a railroad reconnaissance from Salt Lake City to California (1854). And he travelled with Joseph C. Ives up the Colorado River and across the Southern Plateau (1857-1858), on an expedition organized by the Corps of Topographical Engineers. He had not gone on the 1859 expedition led by John N. Macomb-a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and member of the Corps of Topographical Engineers-that aimed to locate a practicable route between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the military outposts in the southern part of Utah. But he did have access to notes compiled by those who had.
This map incorporates several important and somewhat related technological innovations, all of which Egloffstein had used, to some extent, on his chart of the “AMAKARIMA GROUP WITH PART OF LOO-CHOO” (cat. PH*317505). In order to produce a landscape that appeared remarkably realistic, Egloffstein made topographical models of plaster, and photographed them while lit from one side. In order to reproduce these images, he used the technique known as heliographic etching. Following the lead of the French photographic pioneer, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, Egloffstein coated his steel photographic plates with a substance (such as bitumen of Judea) that hardened when exposed to light. After taking a picture, he washed away the still-soft parts of the substance, used an acid to eat away those parts of the plate that could now be seen, and printed the result. By inserting a fine mesh (or grid) between the model and the plate, he was able to print halftone images. Egloffstein was not the first to develop a photomechanical printing process-Paul Pretsch in England had organized a company for that purpose in 1854-but his contributions were important nonetheless.
Egloffstein was working on this map in 1860 and asking people in Washington about particular geographical details. He joined the Union army at the start of the Civil War, and was wounded in battle in 1862. He then established a Geographical Institute in New York. It was here that he completed the map, dated it 1864, and distributed some copies. In 1876 the map was published with the official Report of the Exploring Expedition from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the Junction of the Grand and Green Rivers of the Great Colorado of the West.
Egloffstein included on this map information about several expeditions in addition to the above mentioned ones led by Frémont, Beckwith, Ives, and Macomb. These included a chain survey in eastern New Mexico conducted by J. C. Brown from 1825 to 1827; William W. Loring’s 1858 trek through the San Luis Valley in Colorado; Randolph B. Marcy’s 1858 trek from Utah to New Mexico; Oliver Shepherd’s trek through Arizona in 1859; John S. Simonson’s 1859 trek along the San Juan River; John G. Walker’s 1859 trek through Navajo country south of Four Corners; and Amiel W. Whipple’s 1853 trek to find a route for a transcontinental railroad.
The map is also a clear statement of American interest in and involvement with the area. Utah and New Mexico had become territories in 1850. Colorado became a territory in 1861, in the wake of the gold rush that brought prospectors and settlers to the area around Pike’s Peak. Arizona became a territory in in 1863, at a time when Southerners, who had hoped the area would be hospitable to slavery, had seceded from the Union. Some land in eastern New Mexico and Colorado had been laid out in square townships, 6 miles on a side, according to the procedures of the General Land Survey. The Mormon Settlement is shown in Utah—and, indeed, it was fear of further conflicts with the Mormons that had led the army to sponsor Macomb’s expedition.
Egloffstein also included the path taken by Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, a priest who in 1776 sought a trail from Santa Fe to the missions in California. Other Spanish names on the map include the Spanish Trail, the San Francisco Mountains, and the Sierra Abajo mountains.
Evidence of Native Americans on the map includes Mesa Verde; Moquis Pueblo (the Anglo term for Hopi) in the Painted Desert; Navajo Valley to the east of the Painted Desert; Navajo Mesa (now known as the Black Mesa) in northern Arizona; Ildefonso, Pojoaque, Zandia (aka Sandia), Zuni, and other pueblos in New Mexico; and the ruins at Chaco Canyon and elsewhere.
Evidence of military presence in the area (in addition to the paths of military surveys) includes Fort Union (in northern New Mexico), Fort Defiance (in eastern Arizona), and Fort Hill (in southwestern Colorado).
The map also shows the paths of rivers and the positions of mountains (some with elevations) and mountain passes. Geological features include the Painted Desert in Arizona, the Needles in Utah, the Leroux cold springs and the Pagosa hot springs, the Mines in the Animas River valley (site of a major gold rush in 1860), the Dolores mines of Colorado, and the Burning Coal Bed (now the Lava Beds National Monument) in northern Arizona.
Ref: Imre Josef Demhardt, “An approximation to a bird’s eye view, and is intelligible to every eye . . . Friedrich Wilhelm von Egloffstein, the Exploration of the American West, and Its First Relief Shaded Maps,” in E. Liebenberg and I. J. Demhardt, eds., History of Cartography. International Symposium of the ICA Commission, 2010 (Dordrecht, 2012), pp. 57-74.
David Hanson, “Baron Frederich Wilhelm von Egloffstein,” Printing History 15 (1993): 12-24.
Steven K. Madsden, Exploring Desert Stone: John N. McComb’s 1859 Expedition to the Canyonlands of Colorado (Logan, Utah, 2010).
Stevan Rowan, The Baron in the Grand Canyon: Friedrick Wilhelm von Egloffstein in the West (University of Missouri, 2012).
Location
Currently not on view
Associated Date
1860
1864
1876
ID Number
PH.317493
catalog number
317493
accession number
230397
After the1866 legalization of metric units of measure in the United States, the Office of Weights and Measures prepared standard metric weights and measures for distribution to the states. This brass cylinder holds ten liters or one decaliter. The stamp on the front reads: U.S.
Description
After the1866 legalization of metric units of measure in the United States, the Office of Weights and Measures prepared standard metric weights and measures for distribution to the states. This brass cylinder holds ten liters or one decaliter. The stamp on the front reads: U.S. (/)DECALITRE (/) No.35. It was transferred to the Smithsonian by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards, the successor of the Office of Weights and Measures.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870
maker
United States Office of Weights and Measures
ID Number
CH.309584
catalog number
309584
accession number
103830
This is an example of an Ithaca Calendar Clock model called “3 ½ Parlor” from the mid 1870s. Its walnut case has ebonized decorative elements.
Description
This is an example of an Ithaca Calendar Clock model called “3 ½ Parlor” from the mid 1870s. Its walnut case has ebonized decorative elements. The black upper dial shows the time in white Roman numerals, with winding arbors at IIII and VIII for the brass eight-day time-and-strike spring-driven movement behind the dial. Lower clear glass has reverse-painted white Arabic numerals for date of the month. Metal calendar apparatus visible inside case, where rotating wheels show weekday and month.
The Ithaca Calendar Clock Co., established in Ithaca, N.Y., about 1865, made clocks based on the automatic perpetual calendar mechanism patented by Henry Bishop Horton in 1865 and 1866 (see patent 57,510).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1875
ca 1875-1900
maker
Ithaca Calendar Clock Company
ID Number
ME.328555
catalog number
328555
accession number
272366
This transit instrument came from Gettysburg College, and was probably purchased for the astronomical observatory opneed in 1874. The inscription reads “STACKPOLE & BROTHER / NEW YORK / 1588.”Currently not on view
Description
This transit instrument came from Gettysburg College, and was probably purchased for the astronomical observatory opneed in 1874. The inscription reads “STACKPOLE & BROTHER / NEW YORK / 1588.”
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1870s
maker
Stackpole & Brother
ID Number
PH.318446
catalog number
318446
accession number
235480
The Rockford Watch Company, in business near Chicago between 1873 and 1915, made high-quality watches, mostly for railroad men.Currently not on view
Description
The Rockford Watch Company, in business near Chicago between 1873 and 1915, made high-quality watches, mostly for railroad men.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1876
patent date
1874-06-02
manufacturer
Rockford Watch Co.
ID Number
ME.330353
catalog number
330353
accession number
288889
This brass alidade, with folding sights centered on the beveled edge, belonged to Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Md. A label in the box reads: "Lerebours & Secretan, Secretan Successeur, Optician de S. M. l'Empereur, de l'Observatoire & de la Marine.
Description
This brass alidade, with folding sights centered on the beveled edge, belonged to Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Md. A label in the box reads: "Lerebours & Secretan, Secretan Successeur, Optician de S. M. l'Empereur, de l'Observatoire & de la Marine. Magasins: 13, Rue Du Pont-Neuf, Ateliers: 9, Rue Mechain, Faubg St. Jacques Paris." The address of the atelier suggests a date of around 1870. The firm was still in business in 1930.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870
maker
Secretan, Marc Francois
ID Number
PH.326109
catalog number
326109
accession number
257245
Wm. J. Young & Sons (fl. 1870-1881) used a simple transit instrument of this sort as their logo, placing it on their advertisements and on the front cover of their Manual and Price List of Engineering and Mathematical Instruments. The inscription on this example reads "Wm. J.
Description
Wm. J. Young & Sons (fl. 1870-1881) used a simple transit instrument of this sort as their logo, placing it on their advertisements and on the front cover of their Manual and Price List of Engineering and Mathematical Instruments. The inscription on this example reads "Wm. J. Young & Sons 4648 Philadelphia." The serial number dates from 1872. The horizontal circle is silvered, graduated into 30 minutes of arc, and read by opposite verniers. One vernier reads to single minutes, and the other reads to 1/100 of a degree.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1872
maker
William J. Young and Sons
ID Number
1985.0800.01
accession number
1985.0800
catalog number
1985.0800.01
This is the model that Joseph Winlock, a professor of astronomy at Harvard College, and John S. F. Huddleston, a thermometer and barometer maker in Boston, submitted along with their patent application in 1873.
Description
This is the model that Joseph Winlock, a professor of astronomy at Harvard College, and John S. F. Huddleston, a thermometer and barometer maker in Boston, submitted along with their patent application in 1873. The wet bulb thermometer is mounted on a brass plate that is marked "HUDDLESTON BOSTON" and graduated every degree Fahrenheit from +10 to +115. The dry bulb thermometer is missing.
The wooden tower holds a rotating chart that indicates relative humidity, and carries a brass plate graduated every degree from +6 to +113. The patent described "a simple, efficient, and convenient means of determining the relative humidity of the atmosphere or the dew-point, so called, without calculation."
Ref: J. Winlock and J. S F. Huddleston, "Psychrometer," U.S. Patent 149176 (issued 1874).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1873
maker
Huddleston, John S. F.
Winlock, Joseph
ID Number
PH.309319
catalog number
309319
accession number
89797
patent number
149,176
Sextant with a brass frame. The silvered scale is graduated every 10 minutes from -5° to +125° and read by vernier with tangent screw and swinging magnifier to 10 seconds. The "Spencer Browning & Co. London" inscription refers to a firm that was in business from 1840 to 1870.
Description
Sextant with a brass frame. The silvered scale is graduated every 10 minutes from -5° to +125° and read by vernier with tangent screw and swinging magnifier to 10 seconds. The "Spencer Browning & Co. London" inscription refers to a firm that was in business from 1840 to 1870. The serial number is "5861."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840-1870
maker
Spencer, Browning & Co.
ID Number
PH.328887
accession number
277637
catalog number
328887
Carl Philipp Heinrich Pistor (1778-1845) was an employee of the Prussian Postal Service who, having learned about optics and precision mechanics, opened an instrument workshop in Berlin in 1813, and went into partnership with his son-in-law, Carl Otto Albrecht Martins (1816-1871)
Description
Carl Philipp Heinrich Pistor (1778-1845) was an employee of the Prussian Postal Service who, having learned about optics and precision mechanics, opened an instrument workshop in Berlin in 1813, and went into partnership with his son-in-law, Carl Otto Albrecht Martins (1816-1871) in 1841. Pistor & Martins remained in business until the early 1870s, specializing in large instruments for positional astronomy. Pistor & Martins instruments in the United States include the meridian circle at the University of Michigan (1854) and the meridian circle at the U.S. Naval Observatory (1865). American also bought several prismatic sextants based on Martins’ Prussian patent of 1843—a patent describing sextants and reflecting circles with a rectangular prism in place of the horizon glass found on ordinary instruments.
These bits and pieces are is all that remain of the prismatic sextant that was ordered in 1871 by Edward S. Holden, a recent graduate of the U.S. Military Academy who was then teaching math to cadets at West Point. In 1873, when the prismatic sextant arrived from Germany, Holden was working as an astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory. In 1877 Holden sold it to Charles A. Young for the new John C. Green Astronomical Observatory at Princeton University, noting that it had cost him $198.50. The frame is brass. The silvered scale is graduated every 10 minutes from -10° (actually numbered 350) to +255° and read by vernier with tangent screw and magnifier. The arc is inscribed "PISTOR & MARTINS BERLIN" and "802."
Ref: Elias Loomis, Practical Astronomy (New York, 1855), pp. 101-102.
Charles A. Young papers, Princeton University Archives.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840-1873
1870
1871
maker
Pistor & Martins
ID Number
1983.0245.02
catalog number
1983.0245.02
accession number
1983.0245
Most nineteenth century American clocks were cheaply made for the mass market and domestic use.
Description
Most nineteenth century American clocks were cheaply made for the mass market and domestic use. But a few firms made finely finished precision clocks for applications where accuracy was vital: determining the time of scientific observations, for example, or regulating other clocks and watches. One such firm was E. Howard and Company of Boston, specialists in quality clocks, watches and scales since 1842.
This high-quality clock, made by the firm in 1874, distributed Philadelphia time for the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company in that city. Subscribers to the firm’s service of telegraphed gold prices and stock quotations could also receive a time service to set their clocks. Fitted to the mechanical movement of this Howard timepiece are assemblies that interrupt an electric telegraph circuit to indicate every half minute, full minute, five minutes and the hour.
Before 1883, towns across the nation set their own times by observing the position of the sun, so there were hundreds of local times. Instead of Eastern Standard Time, for example, there was Philadelphia Standard Time or Charleston Standard Time. Beginning in the 1850s, railroads operated on regional times, each set to an agreed-upon, arbitrary standard time. By the 1880s, there were about fifty such regional railroad times.
In November 1883, most North American railroads voluntarily agreed to adopt a standardized railway time based on zones, a system from which the time zones in use today originated.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1874
associated date
1874
associated institution
Allegheny Observatory
Gold and Stock Telegraph Company
associated person
Bentley, Henry
manufacturer
E. Howard & Co.
ID Number
ME.333468.01
catalog number
333468
accession number
294351
This watch, made by the American Watch Company in Waltham, Mass., dates from 1879.
Description
This watch, made by the American Watch Company in Waltham, Mass., dates from 1879. The firm was an important force in both watch and machinery design in the 19th century.
Details:
Movement: spring going barrel, ¾ plate, gilt finish, 14 size, stem wind and lever set, bimetallic compensation balance, regulator on bridge, marked: “Amer..n Watch Co../Riverside./WALTHAM, MASS./1143246”; back of front plate marked: “WOERDS PATENTS”
Case: engraved hunting, yellow gold, marked inside dial and back covers: “6052094”
Dial: white enamel, Roman numerals, blued steel hands, sunk seconds with Arabic numerals at 6, marked: “AMERICAN WATCH CO.”
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1879
manufacturer
American Waltham Watch Co.
ID Number
ME.317280
catalog number
317280
accession number
230383
The Ritchie ledgers, now held by Ritchie Navigation, indicate that this compass was manufactured on August 11, 1877, and sold to T.S. & J.D. Negus, a New York firm that sold a variety of nautical and optical instruments. It later belonged to the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey.
Description
The Ritchie ledgers, now held by Ritchie Navigation, indicate that this compass was manufactured on August 11, 1877, and sold to T.S. & J.D. Negus, a New York firm that sold a variety of nautical and optical instruments. It later belonged to the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. The inscriptions read "RITCHIE BOSTON U.S.A." and "PATENTED APL. 7. 1863. APL. 10, 1866. MAY 12, 1868. JULY 19, 1870" and "9786."
Ref: E. S. Ritchie & Sons, Ritchie’s Liquid Compasses and Nautical Instruments (ca. 1905).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1877
maker
Ritchie
ID Number
PH.337138
catalog number
337138
accession number
1979.0361

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