Measuring & Mapping

Vernier Compass

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.

Place: France

Aneroid Barometer

The face of this cylindrical instrument is marked “HOLOSTERIC BAROMETER / COMPENSATED.” The additional circle with the letters “HBPN” was the logo of Naudet & Cie., and probably represents the words: Holosteric Barometer Paul Naudet.
Description
The face of this cylindrical instrument is marked “HOLOSTERIC BAROMETER / COMPENSATED.” The additional circle with the letters “HBPN” was the logo of Naudet & Cie., and probably represents the words: Holosteric Barometer Paul Naudet. The firm was founded in Paris in 1860 by Paul Naudet, and used the term Holosteric to mean “without liquid." The scale around the edge of the silvered metallic dial extends from 28 to 31 inches of mercury and is graduated to hundredths of an inch. A blued needle indicates the present pressure; a brass needle indicates a previous observation.
The “U.S. Signal Service – 1101” inscription on the back of the case refers to the organization that became responsible for America’s national weather service in 1870. The U.S. Weather Bureau transferred this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1904.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca. 1870-1890
maker
Naudet & Cie.
ID Number
PH.230002
accession number
42625
catalog number
PH*230002
230002

Graphometer

This graphometer is one of several objects from the Bureau of Education that the U. S. Department of Interior transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1910.
Description
This graphometer is one of several objects from the Bureau of Education that the U. S. Department of Interior transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1910. Active during the period 1876-1885, the Bureau of Education had organized exhibits for national and international exhibitions, and collected educational materials from around the world for display in its museum in Washington, D.C. The graphometer is of nickel-plated brass. Its semicircle arc is graduated every 30 minutes, and read by vernier scales at either end of the alidade to single minutes. The "Ed LUTZ Paris" inscription is that of Edouard Lutz, an optical and mathematical instrument maker who worked in Paris in the second half of the 19th century.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Lutz, Edouard
ID Number
PH.261271
accession number
51116
catalog number
261271

Psychrometer

The inscription on this psychrometer reads "Fastré ainé, Rue de l'Ecole Polytechnique 3, a' Paris, 1851é." The associated invoice indicates that "Monsieur Guyot" bought it for 80 francs in 1851 (along with 3 other Fastré instruments for a total cost of 155 francs).
Description
The inscription on this psychrometer reads "Fastré ainé, Rue de l'Ecole Polytechnique 3, a' Paris, 1851é." The associated invoice indicates that "Monsieur Guyot" bought it for 80 francs in 1851 (along with 3 other Fastré instruments for a total cost of 155 francs). The invoice also gives the "Comparaisons des Thermometres," which allow the arbitrary divisions on the thermometers to be converted to degrees Centrigrade. Since the thermometers were not uniform, they had to be calibrated individually. In a letter to Joseph Henry, Guyot called Fastré "the best living maker of thermometers."
A psychrometer uses the difference in readings between two thermometers, one with a wet bulb (ventilated to cause evaporation) and the other with a dry bulb, as a measure of atmospheric moisture. Although the phenomenon of cooling by evaporation was discussed as early as the 17th century, the form of this instrument dates from the early 19th century. E.F. August, of Berlin, coined the term in 1828.
Arnold Guyot was a Swiss scientist, who immigrated to the United States in 1848. He was a major consultant to the Smithsonian Institution as it established and coordinated a network of meteorological observers. He helped with selecting and equiping the sites of the observing stations, writing the "Directions for Meteorological Observations," and preparing the Smithsonian's first Meteorological Tables (see Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 1, 1862). Although the Smithsonian's weather service was of short duration, it was a key element in the development of a national weather bureau
. .
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1851
maker
Fastré
ID Number
1995.0162.01
accession number
1995.0162
catalog number
1995.0162.01

Metric Set Square

This 6-3/8" brass rule unfolds to form a set square. The outer edge of one leg has a centimeter scale numbered by ones from 1 to 16. It is marked: Nelle Mesure. The outer edge of the other leg has a scale for French inches (approximately 1-1/16") numbered by ones from 1 to 5.
Description
This 6-3/8" brass rule unfolds to form a set square. The outer edge of one leg has a centimeter scale numbered by ones from 1 to 16. It is marked: Nelle Mesure. The outer edge of the other leg has a scale for French inches (approximately 1-1/16") numbered by ones from 1 to 5. The first unit is divided into twelfths. The scale is marked: 6 Pouces. This leg has a pinhole for hanging a plumb bob and a rectangular hole with a rounded end (approximately 15/16" long) for viewing the plumb bob. The square has no maker's mark.
For a brief history of squares, see MA.316929. Typically, the legs were marked with scales for measuring lengths. What is unusual about this square is that it has both a traditional French measure and a unit from the newly introduced metric system, which is denoted as a "nouvelle mesure," or "new measure." The metric system was created in France in the 1790s, after the French Revolution of 1789. This suggests a date of about 1800 for the instrument.
Albert Haertlein (1895–1960), who collected this square, graduated with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1918. He served in the engineering corps of the U.S. Army during World War I and taught engineering at Harvard from 1919 until 1959. Haertlein was prominent in the American Society of Civil Engineers.
References: "News From the Classes," Technology Review 21 (1919): 645; Albert Haertlein, Papers, HUG4444, Harvard University Archives, Cambridge, Mass.
Entry 1985.0580.05.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1800
ID Number
1985.0580.01
accession number
1985.0580
catalog number
333926

Solar Radiation Thermometer

This is a mercury-in-glass thermometer with a brass collar at the lower end of the tube. The milk-white scale is marked “Centigrade” and “J. Salleron 24 Rue Pavee (au Marais) Paris” and carries a scale extending from -20 to +82 degrees Centigrade.
Description
This is a mercury-in-glass thermometer with a brass collar at the lower end of the tube. The milk-white scale is marked “Centigrade” and “J. Salleron 24 Rue Pavee (au Marais) Paris” and carries a scale extending from -20 to +82 degrees Centigrade. The protective glass tube is marked “1 26”. Jules Salleron was a prominent precision instrument maker in Paris.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1875-1897
maker
Salleron, Jules
ID Number
PH.314559
catalog number
314559
accession number
204612

Surveyor's Cross

A surveyor’s cross is a simple instrument used to lay out straight lines and lines at right angles to one another. There are two forms. The open form has four arms set at right angles to one another, with an open sight at each end.
Description
A surveyor’s cross is a simple instrument used to lay out straight lines and lines at right angles to one another. There are two forms. The open form has four arms set at right angles to one another, with an open sight at each end. The closed form is solid, with four slits at right angles to one another; this seems to have been introduced around 1803 by William Jones, an instrument maker in London.
This example, closed and octagonal, has slits on each side, and a magnetic compass on top. The "E. LUTZ PARIS" inscription is that of Edouard Lutz, an instrument maker in Paris in the second half of the 19th century.
Ref: The Cyclopaedia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature, ed. Abraham Rees (London, 1819), vol. x, art. "Cross, in Surveying."
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Lutz, Edouard
ID Number
PH.261041
catalog number
261041

Aneroid Barometer

This aneroid barometer belonged to Spencer Fullerton Baird, the naturalist who served as the second Secretary of the Smithsonian.
Description
This aneroid barometer belonged to Spencer Fullerton Baird, the naturalist who served as the second Secretary of the Smithsonian. The inscriptions on the face read “HOLOSTERIC BAROMETER” and “34964.” The “HPBN” inscription on the back refers to Naudet & Cie., a firm founded in Paris in 1860.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Naudet & Cie.
ID Number
PH.284268
accession number
55865
catalog number
284268

Thermometer

Mercury-in-glass thermometer with a cylindrical bulb.
Description
Mercury-in-glass thermometer with a cylindrical bulb. The tube is graduated from -10.2 to 108.0 degrees (Centigrade?), and marked, in red, “Tonnelot à Paris (1884.5) 4289.” It is probably one of the very precise thermometers with a tube of extra-hard glass that was made by Tonnelot for the International Committee of Weights and Measures, tested at the Bureau International at Sèvres, and distributed to government organizations around the world.
Ref: J. A. Hall, “The International Temperature Scale Between 0 Degrees and 100 Degrees C,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 229 (1930): 1-48.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1884
maker
Tonnelot, Jules
ID Number
PH.317449
catalog number
317449
accession number
230396

Graphometer

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

Duboscq-Soleil Saccharimeter

Jean Baptiste François Soleil, a leading optical instrument maker in Paris, invented the saccharimeter in 1845, described it to the Académie des Sciences, and received a gold medal from the Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale.
Description
Jean Baptiste François Soleil, a leading optical instrument maker in Paris, invented the saccharimeter in 1845, described it to the Académie des Sciences, and received a gold medal from the Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale. This new instrument was a form of polariscope that determined the saccharine strength (or purity) of a sugar solution by measuring the extent to which that solution rotated the plane of polarization of polarized light passing through it.
The inscription on this example reads "SACCHARIMETER-SOLEIL J. Duboscq, rue de l’Odeon 35 a Paris" and "No. 133." Jules Duboscq was an instrument maker who apprenticed with Soleil, married his daughter, and assumed control of the scientific side of the business following Soleil’s retirement in 1849. The address is that of the Soleil shop where Duboscq remained until the early 1860s.
This saccharimeter used a Nicol prism to polarize the light and a pair of quartz wedges to analyze it. A linear scale developed by the French chemist Clerget (missing in this example) indicated the optical rotation of the liquid in the observation tube. The vertical cylinder in the tube held a thermometer.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1850-1859
maker
Duboscq, Jules
ID Number
PH.327501
catalog number
327501
accession number
266156

Dip Circle

Wesleyan University was founded in 1831, and during the next several years it purchased some $6000 worth of scientific apparatus, much of it made in Paris. This dip circle is from that early period period.
Description
Wesleyan University was founded in 1831, and during the next several years it purchased some $6000 worth of scientific apparatus, much of it made in Paris. This dip circle is from that early period period. The vertical circle is suspended from a brass hook attached to a rotating knob, and so can be turned in any direction. The horizontal circle, on top, is graduated to single degrees. The vertical circle is graduated to 30 minutes; the glass covers are missing. The inscriptions read "Lerebours à Paris" and "W.U. No. 2"
Ref: Lerebours, Notice d'instruments d'optique, de mathematiques, et de physique (Paris, 1830).
Stanley Guralnick, Science and the Ante-Bellum American College (Philadelphia, 1975), pp. 45-46.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Lerebours
ID Number
1989.0013.03
accession number
1989.0013
catalog number
1989.0013.03

Thermometer

Mercury-in-glass thermometer with a spherical bulb. The milk-white back is marked “L. Golaz à Paris 725” and has a scale reading from -14 to +69 degrees centigrade, which seem to be done by hand rather than by machine.
Description
Mercury-in-glass thermometer with a spherical bulb. The milk-white back is marked “L. Golaz à Paris 725” and has a scale reading from -14 to +69 degrees centigrade, which seem to be done by hand rather than by machine. The inscription indicates that this thermometer was made after 1891 (when Lucien Golaz took charge of the firm that his father had begun in 1830) and before the demise of the firm in 1919.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870-1888
ca 1891-1919
maker
L. Golaz
ID Number
PH.317446
catalog number
317446
accession number
230396

Orrery

This cardboard instrument looks like an armillary sphere but functions as an orrery. The Sun is at the center, and there are concentric rings representing the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.The “à Paris Chez Delamarche Géog.
Description
This cardboard instrument looks like an armillary sphere but functions as an orrery. The Sun is at the center, and there are concentric rings representing the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
The “à Paris Chez Delamarche Géog. / Rue du Foin Saint-Jacques / au College de Mtre Gervais” inscription on the ecliptic band refers to Charles François Delamarche (1740-1817), proprietor of a cartographic shop in the Latin quarter of Paris. His successors continued the business well into the 19th century.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1800
maker
Delamarche, Charles Francois
ID Number
PH.322759
accession number
250509
catalog number
322759

Alidade

This brass alidade has folding sights that are centered on its beveled edge. The U. S. Bureau of Education transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1910. The "E.
Description
This brass alidade has folding sights that are centered on its beveled edge. The U. S. Bureau of Education transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1910. The "E. LUTZ PARIS" inscriptiion refers to Edouard Lutz, an instrument maker who worked in the second half of the 19th century.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Lutz, Edouard
ID Number
PH.313396
catalog number
313396
accession number
51116

Polarimeter

A polarimeter measures the extent to which an optically-active substance rotates the plane of polarization of light passing through it.
Description
A polarimeter measures the extent to which an optically-active substance rotates the plane of polarization of light passing through it. This example may have been shown at the Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876, and purchased by Joseph Henry, the physicist who served as founding Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Jules Duboscq apprenticed with Jean Baptiste François Soleil, married his daughter, and assumed control of the scientific side of the business following Soleil’s retirement in 1849. By 1864 he was using the inscription “J. Duboscq à Paris” as is found on this instrument. He remained in business until his death in 1886.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1864-1886
maker
Duboscq, Jules
ID Number
PH.314955
catalog number
314955
accession number
212903

Thermometer

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

CARTE DE LA LOUISIANE ET DU COURS DU MISSISSIPPI Dressee sur un grand nombre de Memoires entrautres sur ceux de Mr le Maire Par Guillaume DeLisle de l’Academie Rle des Sciences

In 1718, a French merchant company laid the foundations for the city of New Orleans. That same year, Guillame Delisle (or DeLisle) published this map of Louisiana and the course of the Mississippi River.
Description
In 1718, a French merchant company laid the foundations for the city of New Orleans. That same year, Guillame Delisle (or DeLisle) published this map of Louisiana and the course of the Mississippi River. The inscription reads “a Paris Chez l’Auteur le Sr Delisle sur le Quay de l’Horloge avec Privilege du Roy Juin 1718.” An inset at lower right shows the mouth of the Mississippi River; the text here reads “CARTE PARTICULIERE DES EMBOUCHURES DE LA RIVIE S. LOUIS ET DE LA MOBILE.”
This map extends from 26° to 46° latitude north, and from 271° to 306° longitude west from Paris. It shows numerous Indian settlements as well as routes followed by such explorers as DeSoto, Deni, Cavier, and de Tonty. It helped bolster the French claim to ownership of this part of North America. And it was widely copied.
Ref: R. V. Tooley, “French Mapping of the Americas,” Map Collectors Circle 33 (1967).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1718
ID Number
PH.317820
catalog number
317820
accession number
231759

Aneroid Barometer

Brass instrument, 5½ inches diameter and 2¼ inches deep, with a printed paper face that reads “BAROMÈTRE DE PRÉCISON / POUR STATIONS MÉTÉOROLOGIQUES” and “ALVERGNIAT FRES 10. R.
Description
Brass instrument, 5½ inches diameter and 2¼ inches deep, with a printed paper face that reads “BAROMÈTRE DE PRÉCISON / POUR STATIONS MÉTÉOROLOGIQUES” and “ALVERGNIAT FRES 10. R. de la Sorbonne” and “BREVETÉ S.G.D.G.” The latter indicates that this instrument, or some part thereof, was covered by a French patent. The pressure scale reads from 700 to 790 cm of mercury, by centimeters. There are also words for weather conditions, in French.
This came to the Smithsonian in 1910, a transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior. It had probably been collected by the short-lived federal Bureau of Education.
Alvergniat Frères were in business in Paris from 1858 until after 1900, manufacturing a wide range of scientific instruments.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
late 19th century
maker
/Alvergniat Freres
ID Number
PH.261256
accession number
51116
catalog number
261256

Vertical Circle

This vertical circle with a "Gambey à Paris" inscription is one of several instruments that the U. S. Coast Survey acquired from H. P. Gambey in Paris in the mid-1840s. It is heavy, stable, and precise.
Description
This vertical circle with a "Gambey à Paris" inscription is one of several instruments that the U. S. Coast Survey acquired from H. P. Gambey in Paris in the mid-1840s. It is heavy, stable, and precise. The circle itself is silvered, graduated to 5 minutes, and read by four verniers and magnifiers. The "U.S.C.&G.S. NO 37" inscription would have been added after 1878, when the Coast Survey became the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840s
maker
Gambey, Henri Prudence
ID Number
PH.307208
accession number
65983
catalog number
307208

Lenoir Reflecting Circle

The Chevalier de Borda, in Paris, published a description of his new reflecting circle in 1787. This example belonged to Columbia College (now University) in New York, and probably dates from the 1790s.
Description
The Chevalier de Borda, in Paris, published a description of his new reflecting circle in 1787. This example belonged to Columbia College (now University) in New York, and probably dates from the 1790s. It has a silvered scale graduated every 20 minutes and read by two verniers with tangent screws and magnifiers to single minutes. The "Lenoir A Paris no 10" inscription is that of Étienne Lenoir (1744-1832), the French craftsman who made Borda’s first instrument of this sort.
Ref: A. J. Turner, From Pleasure and Profit to Science and Security. Étienne Lenoir and the transformation of precision instrument-making in France, 1760-1830 (Cambridge: Whipple Museum of the History of Science, 1989).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1790s
maker
Lenoir, Etienne
ID Number
PH.320412
catalog number
320412
accession number
242377

Graphometer

A graphometer consists of a graduated semicircle with a pair of sight vanes at either end, and a movable alidade with another pair of sights at either end.
Description
A graphometer consists of a graduated semicircle with a pair of sight vanes at either end, and a movable alidade with another pair of sights at either end. The form was introduced in Philippe Danfrie, Déclaration de l’usage du graphomètre (Paris, 1597), and was always popular in France. Many graphometers have an inset magnetic compass. Most are made of brass, but some American ones are made of wood. Some 19th-century examples had telescopes rather than open sights. Graphometers were also known as semi circles or semicircumferentors.
Samuel P. Langley, the third Secretary of the Smithsonian, bought this graphometer for the U.S. National Museum in 1902. The semicircle is graduated to single degrees, numbered clockwise and counterclockwise, and read by diagonal scales at either end of the alidade to 10 minutes. The "Delure A Paris" inscription indicates that it was made in the early 18th century.
Ref: J. A. Bennett, The Divided Circle (Oxford, 1987), pp. 49–50.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Delure
ID Number
PH.219497
catalog number
219497
accession number
40529

Vertical Circle

This is one of several Gambey instruments that the U. S. Coast Survey acquired in the mid-1840s. It is heavy, stable, and precise. The circle itself is silvered, finely graduated (probably to 5 minutes), and read by opposite verniers and magnifiers.
Description
This is one of several Gambey instruments that the U. S. Coast Survey acquired in the mid-1840s. It is heavy, stable, and precise. The circle itself is silvered, finely graduated (probably to 5 minutes), and read by opposite verniers and magnifiers. The signature reads "Gambey a Paris." The "U S C & G S NO 21" inscription must have been added after 1878, when the Coast Survey became the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840s
maker
Gambey, Henri Prudence
ID Number
PH.314631
accession number
208213
catalog number
314631

Metric Weights

In the late eighteenth century, French scientists introduced a new system of weights and measures known as the metric system. Units of length, volume and mass were interrelated. A cube 10 centimeters on a side (1000 cubic centimeters) was defined to have a volume of one liter.
Description
In the late eighteenth century, French scientists introduced a new system of weights and measures known as the metric system. Units of length, volume and mass were interrelated. A cube 10 centimeters on a side (1000 cubic centimeters) was defined to have a volume of one liter. The weight of one liter of pure water was called a kilogram.
These eleven brass cylinders have weights ranging from two grams to 1000 grams, or one kilogram. They are stamped in French with their weight – 2 GRAM, 5 GRAM, 10 GRAM (2 weights), 20 GRAM, 50 GRAM, 100 GRAMMES (2 weights), 200 GRAMMES, 500 GRAMMES, 1 KILOGRAMME. Each weight has a knob at the top for lifting. The weights have no maker’s mark.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1800-1900
ID Number
CH.314663
catalog number
314663
accession number
208323

Bath Thermometer

This glass thermometer has a red liquid (probably alcohol), a cylindrical bulb, and a bend in the tube above the bulb.
Description
This glass thermometer has a red liquid (probably alcohol), a cylindrical bulb, and a bend in the tube above the bulb. A paper marked “Thermomètre de Bains” carries a scale that extends from -35 to +80 Réaumur graduated in degrees, with indications for such things as “Eau Bou” (boiling water) and the coldest temperature at Paris in 1740, 1777, and 1788. The whole is encased in a glass tube.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
late 18th century
ID Number
PH.316458
catalog number
316458
accession number
223721

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.