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 consists of a white plastic planisphere with the northern sky on one side and the southern on the other, seven clear plastic templates centered at 10° intervals of latitude, and a cardboard container.
Description
This consists of a white plastic planisphere with the northern sky on one side and the southern on the other, seven clear plastic templates centered at 10° intervals of latitude, and a cardboard container. The United States Hydrographic Office transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1957.
An inscription reads "H.O. NO. 2102-B / HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE / RUDE / STAR FINDER AND IDENTIFIER / (WITH HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE MODIFICATIONS) PRICE $1.00 / Published at the Hydrographic Office, Washington, D.C. Oct. 1940 under the authority of THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY"
Ref: Gilbert T. Rude, "Star Finder and Identifier," U.S. Patent #1,401,446 (Dec. 27, 1921).
Henry M. Jensen, et. al., "Navigational Instrument," U.S. patent #1,919,222 (July 25, 1933).
“Captain Rude, Naval Inventor,” Washington Post (Dec. 5, 1962), p. B13.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1940
maker
Rude, Gilbert T.
ID Number
PH.315071.2
accession number
214422
catalog number
315071.2
This star finder, designed for aeronautical use, was based on the Rude form as modified by Elmer Collins of the United States Hydrographic Office.
Description
This star finder, designed for aeronautical use, was based on the Rude form as modified by Elmer Collins of the United States Hydrographic Office. It consists of a white plastic planisphere with the northern sky on one side and the southern on the other that shows all the stars in the American and the British Air Almanacs; nine clear plastic altitude-azimuth templates for use at different latitudes up to 85° north and south; an instruction card; and a leatherette container. It was published in March 1942 under the authority of the Secretary of the Navy, and cost $2.50. The Hydrographic Office transferred this example to the Smithsonian in 1957. The instrument bears the inscription "No. 2102-C / A-N TYPE 1 / STAR FINDER AND IDENTIFIER / PATENT Nos. 2304797 - 2337545 / U.S. NAVY HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE."
Ref: Elmer B. Collins, "Star Finder," U.S. patent #2,304,797
Elmer B. Collins, "Star Finder," U.S. patent #2,337,545
Nathaniel Bowditch, American Practical Navigator (Washington, D.C.: Unted States Hydrographic Office, 1943), pp. 212-214.
"Elmer B. Collins," Washington Post (2 October 1958), p. B2.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1942
ID Number
PH.315071.3
catalog number
315071.3
accession number
214422
This consists of a two-sided cardboard planisphere of the northern and southern skies, seven clear plastic altitude-azimuth templates for use at different latitudes up to 70° north and south, and a cardboard envelope. Gilbert Rude donated it to the Smithsonian in 1958.
Description
This consists of a two-sided cardboard planisphere of the northern and southern skies, seven clear plastic altitude-azimuth templates for use at different latitudes up to 70° north and south, and a cardboard envelope. Gilbert Rude donated it to the Smithsonian in 1958. The instrument bears the inscription "STAR IDENTIFIER, Adapted from the ‘Rude Star Finder and Identifier’ originated by Captain G. T. Rude, U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey . . . Hydrographic Department, Admiralty, London. Sept. 1941 (H.S. 4026 /40)."
Ref: G. T. Rude, "Star Finder and Identifier," U.S. patent #1,401,446.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1941
ID Number
PH.315973
catalog number
315973
accession number
222109
This instrument is 5¼ inches diameter and 3¼ inches deep. The inscriptions on the face read “R. / FUESS / BERLIN-STEGLITZ” and “195153” and “D.R.P.” and “mb.” The scale around the circumference of the face extends from 0 to 1100.
Description
This instrument is 5¼ inches diameter and 3¼ inches deep. The inscriptions on the face read “R. / FUESS / BERLIN-STEGLITZ” and “195153” and “D.R.P.” and “mb.” The scale around the circumference of the face extends from 0 to 1100. A nozzle on the side of the pressure-tight steel case is designed for attaching a hose that would be connected to a testing device.
This came to the Smithsonian in 1959, a transfer from the U.S. Weather Bureau. It may date from around 1940.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940
maker
R. Fuess
ID Number
PH.316274
accession number
224564
catalog number
316274
This compass has a black metal bowl gimbal mounted in a mahogany box. The inscriptions read "DEAD BEAT" "C.B. PATENT" "No 11904" "HUSUN," and H. HUGHES & SON, LTD LONDON, PATD GT BRIT.
Description
This compass has a black metal bowl gimbal mounted in a mahogany box. The inscriptions read "DEAD BEAT" "C.B. PATENT" "No 11904" "HUSUN," and H. HUGHES & SON, LTD LONDON, PATD GT BRIT. No 127135."
Hughes trade literature describes this form as having been "especially designed for the navigation of Yachts and Motor Craft, the rapid movements of which demand a compass of exceptional steadiness and sensitivity." To that end, it has a special expansion chamber that "precludes the formation of bubbles in the liquid." The needles are short, and made of cobalt-steel. The card is printed "by a new photographic process that eliminates discoloration." And patented damping filaments ensure the steadiness of the card.
British Patent #127,135 describes an "Aperiodic Magnetic Compass" made by attaching to the magnetic needle filaments of glass, wire, or other suitable non-magnetic material. This patent was granted in 1919 to George Campbell and Geoffrey Bennett, both of the Compass Department of the British Admiralty.
H. Hughes & Son, Ltd. was in business, as such, from 1903 to 1947.
Ref: Henry Hughes & Son, Ltd., Husun "Dead-Beat" Compasses for Yachts (London, 1939).
H. L. Hitchins and W. E. May, From Lodestone to Gyro-Compass (New York, 1953), pp.150-152.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1919-1947
maker
H. Hughes & Son, Ltd.
ID Number
PH.337074
accession number
1979.0026
catalog number
337074
This sextant was made 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.
Description
This sextant was made 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 inscription reads "BENDIX AVIATION CORPORATION ECLIPSE-PIONEER DIVISION TETERBORO, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A. TYPE NO. 3052-1-A." A plaque in the box reads "U.S. NAVY BUREAU OF SHIPS E.T.S. SEXTANT MARK 2 MOD. 0 N 24359 1944."
E.T.S. stands for Endless Tangent Screw. Heath & Co. applied for a British patent on the form in 1909 (issued the following year).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1944
maker
Bendix Aviation Corporation. Eclipse-Pioneer Division
ID Number
2003.0353.01
catalog number
2003.0353.01
accession number
2003.0353
Joshua Gabriel Paulin, in Sweden, developed an aneroid barometer with an adjustable capsule that was suitable for use in altimetry. This example is marked, on its face, “PRECISION ALTIMETER / Patented” and “System Paulin / Stockholm” and “MADE IN SWEDEN BY C.E.
Description
Joshua Gabriel Paulin, in Sweden, developed an aneroid barometer with an adjustable capsule that was suitable for use in altimetry. This example is marked, on its face, “PRECISION ALTIMETER / Patented” and “System Paulin / Stockholm” and “MADE IN SWEDEN BY C.E. JOHANSSON, ESKILSTUNA.” The outer scale around the circumference extends from 4000 to 9700 feet and the inner one extends from -900 to +4000 feet, and both are graduated to 10-feet intervals. The back of the case in marked "MADE IN SWEDEN A1217 PAT'D U.S.A. SEPT 9-19 APR 13-26."
A gold label on the leather case reads “The American Paulin System INC. 1220 MAPLE AVENUE LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.” This company termed this model “The ENGINEER” and, in 1929, sold it for $125.
Ref: J.G. Paulin, "Fluid-Pressure Indicator," U.S. Patent 1,315,858 (1919).
Paulin, "Instrument for Measuring Pressures and Forces," U.S. Patent 1,580,568 (1926).
W.E.K. Middleton, (Baltimore, 1964), pp. 421-422.
The American Paulin System, Inc., Catalog (1929), section III.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1929-1940
ID Number
PH.333643
catalog number
333643
accession number
300659
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.
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.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1941
1956
maker
Hamilton
ID Number
ME.314825
catalog number
314825
accession number
210893
Working at the Lamont Geological Observatory, a Columbia University facility in Palisades, N.Y., Frank Press and his mentor, Maurice Ewing, developed seismometers that responded to surface waves of long-period and small-amplitude, whether caused by explosions or by earthquakes.
Description
Working at the Lamont Geological Observatory, a Columbia University facility in Palisades, N.Y., Frank Press and his mentor, Maurice Ewing, developed seismometers that responded to surface waves of long-period and small-amplitude, whether caused by explosions or by earthquakes. The first long-period vertical seismometer at Lamont came to public attention in early 1953 with news that it had recorded waves from a large earthquake that had recently occurred at Kamchatka, in the Soviet Union. A painting of a subsequent but similar Lamont instrument appeared on the cover of Scientific American in March 1959.
This example was made for the World Wide Standard Seismological Network. Established in 1961, the WWSSN was designed to detect underground nuclear tests and generate valuable information about the earth’s interior and its dynamic processes. The WWSSN was a key component of VELA Uniform, a Cold War project that was funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a branch of the Department of Defense. It was managed by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and then by the U.S. Geological Survey. That agency transferred this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1999.
Each of the 120 WWSSN stations had an instrument of this sort. This example was used in Junction City, Tex. It would have been linked to a matched galvanometer (such as 1999.0275.09) and a photographic drum recorder (such as 1999.0275.10). The “Sprengnether Instrument Co.” signature refers to a small shop in St. Louis, Mo., that specialized in seismological apparatus.
Like other long-period vertical seismometers developed at Lamont, this one was built around a “zero-length spring” of the sort that had been proposed in 1934 by Lucien LaCoste, a graduate student in physics at the University of Texas, and later incorporated into the gravity meters manufactured by LaCoste & Romberg.
Ref: United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Instrumentation of the World-Wide Seismograph System, Model 10700 (Washington, D.C., 1962)
Ta-Liang Teng, “Seismic Instrumentation,” in Methods of Experimental Physics, vol. 24 part B, Geophysics (1987), pp. 56-58.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1961-1962
maker
W. F. Sprengnether Instrument Co.
ID Number
1999.0275.03
catalog number
1999.0275.03
accession number
1999.0275
Like the "Mate" sextant made by Henry Hughes & Son, Ltd., of London, this one has a blackened brass frame, and a brass scale that is graduated every degree from -5° to +135° and read by drum micrometer to 30 minutes of arc.
Description
Like the "Mate" sextant made by Henry Hughes & Son, Ltd., of London, this one has a blackened brass frame, and a brass scale that is graduated every degree from -5° to +135° and read by drum micrometer to 30 minutes of arc. It was examined at the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington, England, in 1942.
The inscription reads "MADE IN ENGLAND FOR KELVIN & WILFRID O. WHITE Co. BOSTON & NEW YORK" and "PATENT APPLIED FOR" and "1775" and "DS&S." The DS&S insignia refers to David Shackman & Sons, the British firm that actually made this sextant. The referenced patent (GB556034), issued to Albert Shackman and Reuben Cyril Shackman in September 1943, describes details of the drum micrometer.
Ref: Kelvin & Wilfrid O. White Co., Nautical Instruments (Boston, 1940), p. 31.
Henry Hughes & Son, Ltd., Husun Navigational Instruments (London, 1939), p. 31.
M. V. Brewington, The Peabody Museum Collection of Navigating Instruments (Salem, 1963), p. 132.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1942
dealer
Kelvin & Wilfrid O. White
maker
David Shackman & Sons
ID Number
PH.337006
catalog number
337006
accession number
1978.2282
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
In the late 1880s, a German meteorologist named Adolph Richard Assmann designed an aspiration instrument which used a fan to draw air past the wet- and dry-bulb thermometers of a common psychrometer.
Description
In the late 1880s, a German meteorologist named Adolph Richard Assmann designed an aspiration instrument which used a fan to draw air past the wet- and dry-bulb thermometers of a common psychrometer. Assmann also enclosed the device in double-walled ducts of polished metal designed to minimize the effect of radiation. This form would long remain in widespread use. This example was made in Russia, and is marked "OCTN 40083 N 103157 1941 r."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1941
ID Number
PH.334153
accession number
308253
catalog number
334153
Schick, a firm best known as a razor manufacturer, made stadimeters for the U.S. Navy during World War II. This example has a telescopic sight, a height scale that read from 50 to 200 feet, and a distance drum that reads from 200 yards to infinity.
Description
Schick, a firm best known as a razor manufacturer, made stadimeters for the U.S. Navy during World War II. This example has a telescopic sight, a height scale that read from 50 to 200 feet, and a distance drum that reads from 200 yards to infinity. The inscription reads "STADIMETER / SCHICK INCORPORATED / STAMFORD, CONN. U.S.A." and "U.S. NAVY - BU. SHIPS N 14417-1943."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943
maker
Schick Laboratories
ID Number
2004.0056.01
catalog number
2004.0056.01
accession number
2004.0056
This circle was designed to fit atop a U.S. Navy Standard Compass.The inscriptions read "E. S. Ritchie & Sons, Inc.
Description
This circle was designed to fit atop a U.S. Navy Standard Compass.The inscriptions read "E. S. Ritchie & Sons, Inc. Brookline, Mass." and "2867" and "NEGUS, New York." The Ritchie ledgers, now held by Ritchie Navigation, indicate that it was made on April 10, 1941 and sold to T.S. & J.D. Negus, a New York firm that sold navigational instruments. The U.S. Naval Observatory transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1966.
This circle has two mechanisms for taking sights. In one, the rays of the sun are reflected from a cylindrical convex mirror to a right-angle prism on the opposite side of the ring, and then through a cylindrical lens below, appearing on the card as a bright bar of light. The other consists of sight vanes, hair line and reflector, for taking bearings of terrestrial objects.
E. S. Ritchie received his first patent (#49,157) for an azimuth circle in 1865, and another (#481,625) in 1892.
Ref: G. Dutton, Navigation and Nautical Astronomy (Annapolis, Md., 1948), pp. 33-34.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1941
maker
Ritchie
ID Number
PH.327715
catalog number
327715
accession number
283654
Working at the Lamont Geological Observatory, a Columbia University facility in Palisades, N.Y., Frank Press and his mentor, Maurice Ewing, designed seismometers that responded to surface waves of long-period and small-amplitude whether caused by explosions or by earthquakes.
Description
Working at the Lamont Geological Observatory, a Columbia University facility in Palisades, N.Y., Frank Press and his mentor, Maurice Ewing, designed seismometers that responded to surface waves of long-period and small-amplitude whether caused by explosions or by earthquakes. Their horizontal seismometer was of the “garden-gate” form: here, the horizontal boom attaches to the lower end of a vertical post, and a diagonal wire extends from the upper end of the post to the outer end of the boom. The first example was installed in 1953.
This example was made for the World Wide Standard Seismological Network. Established in 1961, the WWSSN was designed to detect underground nuclear tests, and generate valuable information about the earth’s interior and its dynamic processes. The WWSSN was a key component of VELA Uniform, a Cold War project that was funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a branch of the Department of Defense. It was managed by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and then by the U.S. Geological Survey. That agency transferred this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1999.
Each of the 120 stations in the WWSSN had two horizontal seismometers of this sort (one to capture the east-west component of the earth’s motions, and one to capture the north-south component). This example was used Junction City, Tx. It would have been linked to a matched galvanometer (such as 1999.0275.09) and a photographic drum recorder (such as 1999.0275.10). The “Sprengnether Instrument Co.” signature refers to a firm in St. Louis, Mo., that specialized in seismological instruments.
Ref: United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Instrumentation of the World-Wide Seismograph System, Model 10700 (Washington, D.C., 1962).
W.F. Sprengnether Instrument Co., Inc., General Discription (sic) Long Period Horizontal Seismometer ([St. Louis], n.d.).
W.F. Sprengnether Instrument Co., Inc., Sprengnether Horizontal Component Seismometer, Series H ([St. Louis], n.d.).
Ta-Liang Teng, “Seismic Instrumentation,” in Methods of Experimental Physics, vol. 24 part B, Geophysics (1987), pp. 56-58.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1961-1962
maker
Geotechnical Corporation
W. F. Sprengnether Instrument Co.
ID Number
1999.0275.04
catalog number
1999.0275.04
accession number
1999.0275
This sextant was made for emergency use during World War II. The body is plastic. The scale is graduated every degree from -5° to +140° and read by vernier to 3 minutes of arc. The box is marked "U.S. MARITIME COMMISSION / CRUVER MFG.
Description
This sextant was made for emergency use during World War II. The body is plastic. The scale is graduated every degree from -5° to +140° and read by vernier to 3 minutes of arc. The box is marked "U.S. MARITIME COMMISSION / CRUVER MFG. CO." The Cruver Manufacturing Co., in Chicago, began making novelty objects of plastic in the early 1900s. The U.S. Maritime Commission (fl. 1936 to 1950) was responsible for further developing and maintaining a merchant marine for the promotion of American commerce and defense.
Ref: W. J. Eckert, Lifeboat Sextant. Instructions for Use in Finding Latitude and Longitude Together with Simple Sailing Instructions (U.S. Naval Observatory, 1944).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1940s
maker
Cruver Manufacturing Company
ID Number
2003.0334.01
catalog number
2003.0334.01
accession number
2003.0334
Alvan Clark & Sons was the leading telescope firm in the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. Although famous for its large refractors suitable for advanced astronomical research, the firm also made smaller instruments for educational and amateur purposes.
Description
Alvan Clark & Sons was the leading telescope firm in the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. Although famous for its large refractors suitable for advanced astronomical research, the firm also made smaller instruments for educational and amateur purposes. It remained in business until the 1950s.
This example has an achromatic objective of 3 inches aperture, and several eyepieces. The brass tube is 44 inches long and extends to 40 inches. The attached finder scope is 13 inches long. The “ALVAN CLARK & SONS / CAMBRIDGE, MASS.” inscription on the faceplate at the eye end was in use during the period 1939-1944. Charles Scovil, a dedicated amateur astronomer in Stamford, Conn., donated it to the Smithsonian in 1977.
Ref: Deborah Warner and Robert Ariail, Alvan Clark & Sons. Artists in Optics (Richmond, 1995).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1939 - 1944
maker
Alvan Clark & Sons
ID Number
PH.336371
catalog number
336371
accession number
1977.0600
Companies seeking to provide customers with advertisements they might consult repeatedly sometimes distributed convenient mathematical tables. This is an example of one of these. The small white plastic card has figures printed in blue.
Description
Companies seeking to provide customers with advertisements they might consult repeatedly sometimes distributed convenient mathematical tables. This is an example of one of these. The small white plastic card has figures printed in blue. The table gives decimal equivalents of parts of an inch ranging from 1/64” to 1” by sixty-fourth inch increments.
The other side of the card has a small drawing that shows the wooden building occupied by Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company of Providence, Rhode Island, in 1848. It also shows the plant at the time the table was distributed, when it occupied 33 acres.
A mark on the back of the table reads: FORM 93 M.M.T. 7-43:100. Another mark reads: PRINTED IN U. S. A. This mark suggests that the card dates from 1943.
This table was found in the collections of what was then the Division of Work and Industry at the National Museum of American History.
Compare 1988.3078.02.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943
maker
Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1988.3078.01
catalog number
1988.3078.01
nonaccession number
1988.3078
This promotional black plastic six-inch ruler is divided along the top edge to sixteenths of an inch and numbered from 1 to 6. The bottom edge has six one-inch sections, divided to 1/10", 1/12", 1/16", 1/24", 1/32", and 1/64", respectively.
Description
This promotional black plastic six-inch ruler is divided along the top edge to sixteenths of an inch and numbered from 1 to 6. The bottom edge has six one-inch sections, divided to 1/10", 1/12", 1/16", 1/24", 1/32", and 1/64", respectively. The center of the ruler is marked: MARCHANT CALCULATORS. Between these words is marked: NORMAN G. HOUGH (/) 1412 Eye St., N.W. Washington, D. C. (/) Republic 1673-74-75. A 1946 calendar is on the back of the ruler. Compare to MA.293320.2816.
The Marchant Calculating Machine Company of Oakland, Calif., was the oldest and one of the most influential American manufacturers of mechanical and electronic calculators. Established in 1911, the firm quickly built up a national sales network, with receipts of $12,000,000 in 1946. In 1958, the company merged with Smith-Corona, Inc., a manufacturer of typewriters, adding machines, and cash registers. A slow decline resulted for the combined firm, as electronic computers began performing the tasks of Smith-Corona Marchant's machines. SCM stopped selling calculators in 1973. Over 150 of Marchant's products and related documentation are in the Smithsonian collections.
Norman G. Hough, Sr., presumably distributed Marchant calculating machines in Washington, D.C. It is not known whether he was the same Norman G. Hough who directed a trade organization for lime and concrete from the 1910s to the 1930s.
References: "Marchant Calculator," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marchant_Calculator; Nigel Tout, "Marchant," Vintage Calculators Web Museum, http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/marchant.html; Ernie Jorgenson, "My Years with Marchant," December 1987, Xnumber World of Calculators, ed. James Redin, http://www.xnumber.com/xnumber/marchant.htm.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1946
distributor
Marchant Calculating Machine Company
maker
Marchant Calculators
ID Number
MA.293320.2811
catalog number
293320.2811
accession number
293320
This sextant has a frame of blackened brass. The inscriptions read "H. HUGHES & SON LTD. LONDON" and "44164" and "MADE IN ENGLAND." The silvered scale is graduated every degree from -5° to +130° and read by ivory micrometer with electric light to 10 seconds of arc.
Description
This sextant has a frame of blackened brass. The inscriptions read "H. HUGHES & SON LTD. LONDON" and "44164" and "MADE IN ENGLAND." The silvered scale is graduated every degree from -5° to +130° and read by ivory micrometer with electric light to 10 seconds of arc. The batteries for the light are in the handle of the instrument. Hughes was making micrometer sextants by the early 1930s.
Steven Memoli bought this sextant in Cardiff, Wales, in 1944. He spent the war years transporting troops from the U.S. to Europe and North Africa, and also participated in the Normandy invasion. Several years after the war, having been prodded by the U.S. Circuit Court, the Department of Defense granted veteran’s status to Memoli and other merchant seamen of his ilk.
Ref: Henry Hughes & Son, Ltd., Sextants and General Navigational Instruments (London, 1938).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1940-1945
maker
H. Hughes & Son, Ltd.
ID Number
1989.0548.01
catalog number
1989.0548.01
accession number
1989.0548
Richard Assmann, a German meteorologist and professor at the University of Berlin, designed an "aspiration psychrometer" that used a clockwork fan to draw air past the bulbs. This example, of Soviet origin, has an electric rather than a clockwork motor.
Description
Richard Assmann, a German meteorologist and professor at the University of Berlin, designed an "aspiration psychrometer" that used a clockwork fan to draw air past the bulbs. This example, of Soviet origin, has an electric rather than a clockwork motor. It bears the numbers A735203 and N124936.
Ref: Assmann, "Aspirationspsychromometer," Zeitschrift fur Instrumentenkunde 12 (1892): 1-12.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1941
ID Number
PH.317725
accession number
231230
catalog number
317725
Background on secondary gamma-ray standards, Object IDs 1994.0125.55, .56, .57, & .58Instruments used for radiation detection, measurements, or surveys need to be calibrated periodically.
Description
Background on secondary gamma-ray standards, Object IDs 1994.0125.55, .56, .57, & .58
Instruments used for radiation detection, measurements, or surveys need to be calibrated periodically. A radioactive source (not necessarily calibrated) is used to confirm the satisfactory operation of an instrument. A standard source is a radiation source exhibiting a disintegration (e.g., disintegrations per second or dps), emission or exposure rate certified by or traceable to the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), formerly the National Bureau of Standards (NBS). NIST maintains the primary radiation sources, and makes available and/or certifies secondary sources for instrument calibration. For details on survey instrument calibration, see:
http://www.rso.utah.edu/policies/rpr/52instrucare/52instrucare.pdf
Detailed description of Radium secondary gamma-ray standard, 0.100x10E-6 gm, Object 1994.0125.58
(One of the accompanying] photographs provided by donor, Prof. Herbert Clark, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.)
Flat-bottomed glass ampoule, approximately 3 1/8” long, 5/8” diam., held by cotton wool in a test-tube shaped container capped by a shiny steel screw-cap, 5 ¾” long, 7/8” diam. The ampoule is more than two-thirds full of colorless liquid. The ampoule bears a legend printed on the glass: “0.1 Micro gms. / Radium”. The top of the containing tube bears an adhesive label with the following words printed: “CAUTION / [symbol] / RADIOACTIVE / MATERIAL”
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1947
maker
National Bureau of Standards
ID Number
1994.0125.58
accession number
1994.0125
catalog number
1994.0125.58
Unlike car drivers on land, navigators at sea have no road signs to indicate speed limits, dangers, or routes. Navigational buoys are floating objects anchored to the bottom that serve as aids to navigation.
Description
Unlike car drivers on land, navigators at sea have no road signs to indicate speed limits, dangers, or routes. Navigational buoys are floating objects anchored to the bottom that serve as aids to navigation. Their distinctive shapes, colors, and other markings provide information indicating their purpose and how to navigate around them.
The placement and maintenance of navigational buoys are essential to shipping, since they often provide the only guidance for channel locations, shoals, reefs, and other hazards. If damaged by collisions, extinguished, or broken loose from their moorings, the Coast Guard will repair, replace, refuel, or relocate the failed buoy.
Designated an 8X20 LBR, this particular type of buoy was used by the U.S. Coast Guard Lighthouse Service on the East Coast from around 1930 until the early 1950s. It measures 8 feet in width and 20 feet high, and the letters mean Lighted, Bell, and Radar Reflector. It originally weighed ca. 15,600 pounds, including the 225-lb bell. The bottom of this example was removed to fit into the gallery.
It was designed to be deployed in shallow, protected coastal waters and could be seen about two miles away in daylight. The light on the top was powered by batteries stored under the round hatches in the large bottom compartment. The bell was rung by the rocking of the buoy in the waves.
ID Number
TR.336771
accession number
1978.2285
catalog number
336771
Background on secondary gamma-ray standards, Object IDs 1994.0125.55, .56, .57, & .58Instruments used for radiation detection, measurements, or surveys need to be calibrated periodically.
Description
Background on secondary gamma-ray standards, Object IDs 1994.0125.55, .56, .57, & .58
Instruments used for radiation detection, measurements, or surveys need to be calibrated periodically. A radioactive source (not necessarily calibrated) is used to confirm the satisfactory operation of an instrument. A standard source is a radiation source exhibiting a disintegration (e.g., disintegrations per second or dps), emission or exposure rate certified by or traceable to the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), formerly the National Bureau of Standards (NBS). NIST maintains the primary radiation sources, and makes available and/or certifies secondary sources for instrument calibration. For details on survey instrument calibration, see:
http://www.rso.utah.edu/policies/rpr/52instrucare/52instrucare.pdf
Detailed description of Cobalt 60 secondary gamma-ray standard, 1 rd, Object 1994.0125.55
Glass ampoule, approximately 3” long, 5/8” in diam., held by cotton wool in test-tube shaped transparent container capped by a shiny steel screw-cap 5 3/4” long, 7/8” diam. About two-thirds of the ampoule volume contains a slightly pinkish-tinged liquid. A small paper label is glued on the ampoule with typed legend: Co[E]60 / “1 rd”.
Received with NBS certificate, dated 1948 Jan. 30, stating that the ampoule contains 1.59 rutherfords (rd) per milliliter, and a subsequent correction that it contains 1.59 rd, total. (Herbert Clark’s letter 1994 May 4, identifies the rutherford as unit of radioactivity, 1 rd = 10E6 dps, introduced in 1946, but short-lived. The new unit is the Becquerel (bq), where 1 bq = 1 dps). The plastic container for the ampoule has a small adhesive label with the following printed words: “Caution Radioactive Material”.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1948
maker
National Bureau of Standards
ID Number
1994.0125.55
accession number
1994.0125
catalog number
1994.0125.55

Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.

If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.