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: Massachusetts

Liquid Compass

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

Pocket watch, U.S. Watch Co.

The movement in this silver-cased watch, serial number 97569, was made by the U.S. Watch Company, Waltham, Mass., about 1892. It is stem-wound and set with a lever on the side of the case.Currently not on view
Description
The movement in this silver-cased watch, serial number 97569, was made by the U.S. Watch Company, Waltham, Mass., about 1892. It is stem-wound and set with a lever on the side of the case.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1892
maker
U.S. Watch Co.
ID Number
ME.317055
catalog number
317055
accession number
230383

Copley 16-Inch Terrestrial Globe

There is no cartouche on this globe, but the texts on the horizon circle read: “IMPROVED GLOBE BOSTON” and “REFERENCES / Flamstead 46. Hevelius 24. Piazzi 180. LaCaille 1661. Nebulae. W. Herschell, J. Herschell, & J. Dunlop.” and “MANUFACTURED FOR H. B. NIMS & CO.
Description
There is no cartouche on this globe, but the texts on the horizon circle read: “IMPROVED GLOBE BOSTON” and “REFERENCES / Flamstead 46. Hevelius 24. Piazzi 180. LaCaille 1661. Nebulae. W. Herschell, J. Herschell, & J. Dunlop.” and “MANUFACTURED FOR H. B. NIMS & CO. / TROY N.Y.” and “THE EQUATION OF TIME” and “Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852 by Charles Copley, in / the Clerks office, of the District Court, of the Southern District, of New York” and “MAGNITUDES / First Magnitude. . . Ninth Nebulae” and “EXPLANATION. / Ancient Constellations . . . Modern . . .”
This globe has a short 4-leg wooden base, a wooden horizon circle and a brass meridian. The astronomical information on the horizon circle suggests that this element could be used for celestial as well as terrestrial globes.
Charles Copley (b. 1800) was a cartographer and engraver from England who became an American citizen in 1844 and lived in Brooklyn. He is best known for the pair of 16-inch globes that he introduced in 1852. Despite being extremely detailed, even to the point of obscurity, these globes won a gold medal at the 1852 fair of the American Institute in New York, and a first premium at the 1853 fair of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Copley’s globes would be revised from time to time, and marketed by other firms.
This example of Copley’s terrestrial globe contains revisions that would have been of particular interest to Americans: Alaska (1867) is shown, but Lake Victoria (1858) and Mt. Kilimanjaro (1848) are not. Other additions include isothermal lines, the Atlantic Cable, and various deep sea soundings which, as advertised, “are not laid down on any other globe.”
H. B. Nims & Co., the firm that marketed this example, was in business in Troy, N.Y., from 1869 to 1885 and again from 1890 to 1896, publishing and selling books and other school supplies. The globe was probably made by Gilman Joslin in Boston.
Ref: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1999): 54-55, 63-64, and 88-89.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870
maker
Copley, Charles
Joslin, Gilman
H. B. Nims & Co.
ID Number
PH.327974
accession number
270024
catalog number
327974

Chronograph

From its infancy, timekeeping has depended on astronomy. The motion of celestial bodies relative to the rotating Earth provided the most precise measure of time until the mid-twentieth century, when quartz and atomic clocks proved more constant.
Description
From its infancy, timekeeping has depended on astronomy. The motion of celestial bodies relative to the rotating Earth provided the most precise measure of time until the mid-twentieth century, when quartz and atomic clocks proved more constant. Until that time, mechanical observatory clocks were set and continuously corrected to agree with astronomical observations.
The application of electricity to observatory timepieces in the late 1840s revolutionized the way American astronomers noted the exact movement of celestial events. U.S. Coast Survey teams devised a method to telegraph clock beats, both within an observatory and over long distances, and to record both the beats and the moment of observation simultaneously. British astronomers dubbed it the "American method of astronomical observation" and promptly adopted it themselves.
Transmitting clock beats by telegraph not only provided astronomers with a means of recording the exact moment of astronomical observations but also gave surveyors a means of determining longitude. Because the Earth rotates on its axis every twenty-four hours, longitude and time are equivalent (fifteen degrees of longitude equals one hour).
In 1849 William Cranch Bond, then director of the Harvard College Observatory, devised an important improvement for clocks employed in the "American method." He constructed several versions of break-circuit devices—electrical contracts and insulators attached to the mechanical clock movement—for telegraphing clock beats once a second. The Bond regulator shown in the forground incorporates such a device. Bond's son Richard designed the accompanying drum chronograph, an instrument that touched a pen to a paper-wrapped cylinder to record both the beats of the clock and the instant of a celestial event, signaled when an observer pressed a telegraph key.
Location
Currently not on view (unidentified components)
Currently not on view (weight (?))
Date made
ca 1868
maker
William Bond & Son
ID Number
ME.318759
catalog number
318759
accession number
230288

F.T.S. Cesium-Beam Frequency Standard

This was the first in a series of cesium pre-production frequency standards developed in the 1970s by Frequency & Time Systems Inc. (FTS), Danvers, Mass.
Description
This was the first in a series of cesium pre-production frequency standards developed in the 1970s by Frequency & Time Systems Inc. (FTS), Danvers, Mass. Two cesium clocks based on this early instrument, or “brassboard,” were aboard NTS-2, the second of the Navigation Technology Satellites (NTS) launched to validate the key concepts and hardware for the Global Positioning System (GPS). Built at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., NTS-2 was launched in June 1977.
FTS was founded in Danvers, Mass., in 1971 and later became a subsidiary of Datum Inc. Symmetricom acquired Datum in 2002.
Reference:
Martin W. Levine, “Performance of a Preproduction Model Cesium Beam Frequency Standards for Spacecraft Applications,” Proc. of the 10th Ann. Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Appl. and Planning Meeting, 1978, 169-193.
Brief description of an atomic clock
Electromagnetic waves of very specific and consistent frequencies can induce atoms to fluctuate between two energy states, and by measuring that frequency we can determine the “tick” of an atomic clock. A second in a cesium clock, for example, is defined as 9,192,631,770.0 cycles of the frequency that causes the cesium atom to jump between those states. Different atoms “tick” at different rates – strontium atoms tick about 10,000 times faster than cesium atoms – but all atoms of a given element tick at the same rate, making atomic clocks much more consistent than clocks based on macroscopic objects such as pendulums or quartz crystals.
Steven Jefferts, physicist, National Institute of Standards and Technology.
For additional background information go to:
http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/timekeeping.cfm
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Frequency & Time Systems Inc.
ID Number
1982.0634.03
catalog number
1982.0634.03
accession number
1982.0634

Ritchie Liquid Compass

This compass–with six needles, and a flat card with central buoyancy–was Ritchie’s most successful design and was widely used by American merchant ships and the U.S. Navy. The Ritchie ledgers, now held by Ritchie Navigation, indicate that this example was manufactured on Jan.
Description
This compass–with six needles, and a flat card with central buoyancy–was Ritchie’s most successful design and was widely used by American merchant ships and the U.S. Navy. The Ritchie ledgers, now held by Ritchie Navigation, indicate that this example was manufactured on Jan. 5, 1873 and sold to one L. J. Sloane. The U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey acquired it in 1914, and transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1929. The inscriptions read "E. S. RITCHIE BOSTON. PATENTED SEPT. 9, 1862. APL. 7, 1863. MAY 12, 1868. July 19, 1870" and "6937" and "U.S.C.&G.S."
Ritchie’s patent of Sept. 9, 1862 (#36,422) described a liquid compass so designed that the liquid would not oxidize the magnet or card, and that the friction and wear of the pivot and its bearing was minimized. Ritchie obtained two patents on April 7, 1863. One (#38,125) described a needle enclosed in an air-tight metallic case; the other (#38,126) described a liquid compass that could be read at a distance so it would not be affected by any iron on or about the deck of a ship. Ritchie’s patent of May 12, 1868 (#77,763) described a paint that would not deteriorate in the liquid in the compass. His patent of July 19, 1870 (#105,492) described a way to hold the glass in place with a water-tight joint..
Ref: E. S. Ritchie & Sons, Ritchie’s Liquid Compasses and Nautical Instruments (ca. 1905).
T. S. & J. D. Negus, Illustrated Catalogue of Nautical Instruments (New York, n.d.), p. 204.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1873
maker
Ritchie, Edward S.
ID Number
PH.309656
catalog number
309656
accession number
106954

Dry Card Compass

Dry-card nautical compass with a turned wooden bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box. The "S. THAXTER MAKER No 27 STATE STREET BOSTON" inscription indicates a date between 1813 when Samuel Thaxter moved to No. 27 State Street, and 1822 when the firm became S. Thaxter & Son.
Description
Dry-card nautical compass with a turned wooden bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box. The "S. THAXTER MAKER No 27 STATE STREET BOSTON" inscription indicates a date between 1813 when Samuel Thaxter moved to No. 27 State Street, and 1822 when the firm became S. Thaxter & Son. The donor believed it had belonged to his distant ancestor, Simon Mellon, and was used in a whaling vessel in the Bering Sea.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1813-1822
maker
Thaxter, Samuel
ID Number
1995.0014.01
accession number
1995.0014
catalog number
1995.0014.01

Williamson 7-Inch Concentric Globe, Terrestrial and Celestial

In this curious instrument, a terrestrial globe sits inside a glass sphere on which the stars and constellations have been painted. This, in turn, is mounted on a decorative cast-zinc base.
Description
In this curious instrument, a terrestrial globe sits inside a glass sphere on which the stars and constellations have been painted. This, in turn, is mounted on a decorative cast-zinc base. The cartouche on the terrestrial globe reads: “IMPROVEMENT IN / CELESTIAL & TERRESTRIAL / GLOBES / PATENTED BY H. WILLIAMSON / NEW YORK. DEC. 3, 1867 / Sold by HARPER & BROTHERS / Franklin Square, N.Y.” The words “PATENTED / DEC. 3, 1867 / No 85” and “G. C. WESSMANN / NEW YORK / MAKER” appear on a brass band that circles the terrestrial globe. New, this item cost $75.
Hugh Williamson of New York City obtained a patent (#71,830) for a concentric globe in 1867, and a second prize at the American Institute fair of 1869.
Ref: Hugh Williamson, A Manual of Problems of the Globes, Designed as an Accompaniment to Williamson’s Patent Concentric Celestial and Terrestrial Globes (New York, 1868).
D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 134-135.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870
maker
G. C. Wessmann
inventor
Williamson, Hugh
ID Number
1989.0447.01
catalog number
1989.0447.01
accession number
1989.0447

Terrestrial Globe

This terrestrial globe consists of a solid wooden sphere atop a simple brass base with 3 cabriole legs. The curious brass structure mounted on the globe has not been identified. The cartouche in the north Pacific reads: “MADE / BY / D.C.
Description
This terrestrial globe consists of a solid wooden sphere atop a simple brass base with 3 cabriole legs. The curious brass structure mounted on the globe has not been identified. The cartouche in the north Pacific reads: “MADE / BY / D.C. MURDOCK / WEST BOYLSTON / MASS.”
There are very few geographical names or boundaries on this globe. But “Oasis at Taudeny” is shown in West Africa, as is the “Great Desert.” Australia (a name adopted by the United Kingdom in 1824) is here labeled “NEW HOLLAND.”
David C. Murdock (1805-1880) made inexpensive school apparatus from the 1830s until his small factory was destroyed by fire in 1868.
Ref: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 116-117.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
mid 19th century
maker
Murdock, David C.
ID Number
1987.0922.01
catalog number
1987.0922.01
accession number
1987.0922

Builder's Transit

Convertible Transit Level with a "C. L. BERGER AND SONS, INC. BOSTON, MASS. 62282 MADE IN U.S.A." inscription.
Description
Convertible Transit Level with a "C. L. BERGER AND SONS, INC. BOSTON, MASS. 62282 MADE IN U.S.A." inscription. Berger introduced this form in the early 1950s, describing it as a "modern, practical and sturdy instrument, precision engineered for the requirements of the contractor and builder." This example belonged to Charles H. Rutter, a contractor and builder in southern Prince George's County, Md. Its horizontal circle and vertical arc are divided to single degrees, and read by verniers to 5 minutes.
Ref: C. L. Berger & Sons, Inc., Solar Ephemeris and Polar Tables (Boston, 1954), p. 62.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1950s
maker
C.L. Berger and Sons
ID Number
2003.0017.03
accession number
2003.0017
catalog number
2003.0017.03

Table of Decimal equivalents, the L. S. Starrett Co.

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 black.
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 black. 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 three small drawings that show products of the L. S. Starrett Co. of Athol, Massachusetts. A mark on that side reads: THE TOOLS MECHANICS BUY (/) STANDARD FOR (/) ACCURACY, WORKMANSHIP, DESIGN, FINISH. A mark on the side of the card with the table indicates that it was made by Sanders Manufacturing Company of Nashville, Tennesee. That company has been in business since 1919.
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 1988.3078.01.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1920-1960
maker
The L. S. Starrett Co.
ID Number
1988.3078.02
catalog number
1988.3078.02
nonaccession number
1988.3078

Altitude and Azimuth Instrument

Buff & Buff termed this an "air-craft theodolite" as made for the U. S. Weather Bureau, noting that it could be used for aeronautic or military purposes. The Signal Corps of the U. S.
Description
Buff & Buff termed this an "air-craft theodolite" as made for the U. S. Weather Bureau, noting that it could be used for aeronautic or military purposes. The Signal Corps of the U. S. Army acquired this example around the time of World War I, and transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1923. The horizontal and vertical circles are read by verniers to 6 minutes of arc. The finish is anodized. Since the telescope is "broken," the eyepiece remains at the same height regardless of the elevation of the objective. A. De Quervain introduced this design in 1905, and it remains popular to this day.
Ref: Buff & Buff, Surveying Instruments (Boston, 1918), p. 104.
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Weather Bureau, Instructions for Making Pilot Balloon Observations (Washington, D.C., 1928).
U.S. Army, Meteorological Observer. Training Manual No. 31 (Washington, D.C., 1925), pp. 183-189.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Buff and Buff Manufacturing Company
ID Number
PH.308184
catalog number
308184
accession number
70852

Bond Marine Chronometer

In the 19th century, portable marine timekeepers called chronometers became indispensable instruments for determining longitude at sea.
Description
In the 19th century, portable marine timekeepers called chronometers became indispensable instruments for determining longitude at sea. To use a marine chronometer, outbound sailors would set their timepieces to the time of a known port's longitude—say Greenwich, England, or Boston. Once at sea, mariners calculated their position east or west of that place by converting the difference in time on the chronometer and local ship time into distance, 15 degrees of longitude for every hour.
Tradition says this timekeeper was the first seagoing chronometer made in America. Twenty-three-year-old Boston clockmaker William Cranch Bond constructed it during the War of 1812. When Bond made his instrument, no chronometer industry existed in the United States, and British makers dominated the world market.
Bond's instrument went to sea only once, on a voyage to Sumatra in 1818 aboard the U.S. Navy vessel Cyrus. Chronometers were uncommon aboard American ships at the time, and the Cyrus's captain warned Bond to read the record of the instrument's performance with a critical eye.
Invented half a century earlier by John Harrison in England and Pierre LeRoy and Ferdinand Berthoud in France, the chronometer by Bond's time had already assumed standard features. Most of the chronometers ran from the force of an unwinding spring and had a special feature—the detent escapement. Suspended from gimbals in a wooden box, the instrument remained horizontal even on a heaving ship. Bond's timekeeper was different. Unable or unwilling to get British spring steel in wartime, he borrowed an 18th-century Berthoud design and built his timekeeper to run with power from a falling weight.
William Bond & Son, a family firm begun by William Cranch Bond's father in 1793, became one of America's best-known chronometer dealers. As the business flourished, the younger Bond pursued his passion for astronomy. In 1839 he became the first director of the Harvard College Observatory.
Location
Currently not on view (case; sign)
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1812-1815
maker
Bond, William C.
ID Number
ME.318981
catalog number
318981
accession number
230288

Dry Card Compass

This compass has a brass bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box. A label on the box reads: "BRASS COMPASS, MANUFACTURED BY S. THAXTER & SON, 125 STATE STREET, BOSTON. Dealers in Nautical Instruments, Charts, Nautical Books, &c. N.B. Nautical Instruments Repaired." S.
Description
This compass has a brass bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box. A label on the box reads: "BRASS COMPASS, MANUFACTURED BY S. THAXTER & SON, 125 STATE STREET, BOSTON. Dealers in Nautical Instruments, Charts, Nautical Books, &c. N.B. Nautical Instruments Repaired." S. Thaxter & Sons sent this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1880, perhaps for use in the International Fishery Exhibition which opened in Berlin on April 20 of that year. The compass was clearly shown in the similar exhibition held in London in 1883.
Ref: G. Brown Goode, et. al., Descriptive Catalogues of the Collections Sent from the United States to the International Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883 (Washington, D.C., 1884), vol. 2, p. 725.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
S. Thaxter & Son
ID Number
PH.039384
catalog number
39384
accession number
8745

Graphometer

This instrument is made of mahogany, and has an inset trough compass. The arc is graduated into degrees. The inscription reads "NOAH BOSWORTH 1823." Noah Bosworth (1778–1837) lived in Halifax, Mass.Currently not on view
Description
This instrument is made of mahogany, and has an inset trough compass. The arc is graduated into degrees. The inscription reads "NOAH BOSWORTH 1823." Noah Bosworth (1778–1837) lived in Halifax, Mass.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Bosworth, Noah
ID Number
PH.330705
catalog number
330705
accession number
297049

Watch movement, Waltham

This watch, made about 1862, is among the earliest watch movements manufactured in the United States at what eventually became the Waltham Watch Company. It is part of the firm’s output during the Civil War, a time that unexpectedly brought successful sales.
Description
This watch, made about 1862, is among the earliest watch movements manufactured in the United States at what eventually became the Waltham Watch Company. It is part of the firm’s output during the Civil War, a time that unexpectedly brought successful sales. The movement bears the serial number 34,660 and “P. S. Bartlett,” a grade named for Patten Sargeant Bartlett, foreman of the plate and screw department until 1864.
In the 1850s, watchmakers at the firm began to develop the world's first mass-produced watches. They completely redesigned the watch so that its movement could be assembled from interchangeable parts made on special machines. They also developed a highly organized factory-based work system to speed production and cut costs of watches. Although it would be well into the 20th century before the watch industry achieved a very high level of interchangeability, the Waltham designers started the innovations that would eventually lead there.
Launched in 1849 in a corner of the Howard & Davis clock factory in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the company’s early years were financially unsteady. The company name changed repeatedly as investors came and went. Operations moved from Roxbury to Waltham in 1854, where the company settled, optimistically poised for expansion, on a tract of land with nearly 100 acres. The watchmakers at Waltham helped spawn an American industry that by 1880 had ten firms making nearly three million watches a year.
Details:
Movement: factory identification—model 1857, spring going-barrel, full plate, gilt finish, 18 size, key wind at back and key set at front, steel three-armed balance, regulator with index on back plate; marked: “P. S. Bartlett/34660/WALTHAM, MASS.”
Dial: White enamel dial, Roman numerals, blued hands (second hand missing), separate seconds at 6, marked: “American Watch Co”
References:
Henry G. Abbott, History of the American Waltham Watch Company (Chicago: American Jeweler Print, 1905).
Charles Moore, Timing a Century: History of the Waltham Watch Company (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1945).
Donald Hoke, Ingenious Yankees: The Rise of the American System of Manufactures in the Private Sector (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1862
manufacturer
American Waltham Watch Co.
ID Number
ME.252965
catalog number
252965
accession number
49576

Telescope

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

William Ellery model Pocketwatch

During the Civil War Army physician Dr. G. D. O'Farrell received this watch as a gift from grateful patients.In the 1850s watchmakers at what would become the American Watch Company of Waltham, Massachusetts, developed the world's first machine-made watches.
Description
During the Civil War Army physician Dr. G. D. O'Farrell received this watch as a gift from grateful patients.
In the 1850s watchmakers at what would become the American Watch Company of Waltham, Massachusetts, developed the world's first machine-made watches. They completely redesigned the watch so that its movement could be assembled from interchangeable parts made on specialized machines invented just for that purpose. They also developed a highly organized factory-based work system to speed production and cut costs.
In its first decade, the firm's work was largely experimental and the firm's finances were unsteady. The name of the company changed repeatedly as investors came and went. Operations moved from Roxbury to Waltham in 1854, and the Panic of 1857 brought bankruptcy and a new owner, Royal Robbins. Reorganization and recovery began, and output reached fourteen thousand watches in 1858.
Renamed the American Watch Company the next year, the firm was on the brink of success from an unexpected quarter. During the Civil War, Waltham's watch factory designed and mass-produced a low-cost watch, the William Ellery model. Selling for an unbelievable $13.00, these watches became a fad with Union soldiers. Just as itinerant peddlers had aroused the desire for inexpensive clocks, roving merchants sold thousands of cheap watches to eager customers in wartime encampments. By 1865, the year the war ended, William Ellery movements represented almost 45 per cent of Waltham's unit sales.
This William Ellery model watch was a gift to Army surgeon G. D. O'Farrell from his patients at White Hall, a Civil War hospital near Philadelphia. The inscription on the dust cover of O'Farrell's watch reads: "White Hall USA Gen'l Hospital, Feb. 15, 1865 Presented to Dr. G. D. O'Farrell, USA by the patients of Ward C as a token of regard & respect for his ability as a surgeon and unswerving integrity as a man."
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1864
presentation
1865
maker
American Waltham Watch Co.
ID Number
1987.0853.01
catalog number
1987.0853.01
accession number
1987.0853

Dry Card Compass

This nautical dry-card compass has a turned wooden bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box. It probably dates from the middle decades of the nineteenth century. The inscription reads "C. R. SHERMAN & Co. NEW BEDFORD." Charles R. Sherman (fl.
Description
This nautical dry-card compass has a turned wooden bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box. It probably dates from the middle decades of the nineteenth century. The inscription reads "C. R. SHERMAN & Co. NEW BEDFORD." Charles R. Sherman (fl. 1865-1905) sold instruments and other items for nautical use.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1865-1905
maker
Sherman, Charles R.
ID Number
1995.0035.02
accession number
1995.0035
catalog number
1995.0035.02

Graphometer

Mahogany graphometer with an inset trough compass. The arc is graduated into degrees. It is marked "NOAH BOSWORTH, HALIFAX MS. 1824" and "No. 9." Noah Bosworth (1778–1837) lived in Halifax, Massachusetts.Currently not on view
Description
Mahogany graphometer with an inset trough compass. The arc is graduated into degrees. It is marked "NOAH BOSWORTH, HALIFAX MS. 1824" and "No. 9." Noah Bosworth (1778–1837) lived in Halifax, Massachusetts.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Bosworth, Noah
ID Number
PH.330193
catalog number
330193
accession number
287880

Orrery

Like many instruments of the sort made in London, this American one could be used as an orrery (Sun and planets out to Saturn) or a tellurian (Sun, Earth and Moon), with the mechanisms moved by a crank with an ivory handle.
Description
Like many instruments of the sort made in London, this American one could be used as an orrery (Sun and planets out to Saturn) or a tellurian (Sun, Earth and Moon), with the mechanisms moved by a crank with an ivory handle. Four elegant brass legs support a mahogany horizon circle. The printed paper label covering this circle is marked “MADE-BY / Aaron Willard Jr. / BOSTON.” The one brass Sun can be used with either form. The planets are ivory. The plate of the tellurian mechanism is marked “A. WILLARD JR. BOSTON.”
Aaron Willard Jr. (1783-1864) was a productive and prosperous clockmaker in Boston who apprenticed with his father and took over the business in 1823. He probably made this instrument in collaboration with John Locke (1792-1856), a graduate of the Yale Medical School who settled in Cincinnati. Locke also established a school for young ladies, developed an electro-chronograph for the U.S. Naval Observatory, and made important contributions to American geology.
Ref: William Ball Jr., “Another American Orrery,” Antiques 4 (October 1938): 184-185.
“Willard’s Portable Orrery,” The Weekly Recorder (Jan. 17, 1821): 166, from Boston Centinel.
Location
Currently not on view (orrery)
date made
ca 1820
maker
Willard, Jr., Aaron
ID Number
1986.0466.01
catalog number
86.466.1
accession number
1986.0466
catalog number
1986.0466.01

Lowe's Psychrometer

Nathaniel M. Lowe, the manufacturer of Edson's Hygrodeik, patented a similar but somewhat simpler instrument for showing relative humidity. In this example, the chart is marked "LOWE'S Graphic Hygrometer or Hygrodeik" and "N. M.
Description
Nathaniel M. Lowe, the manufacturer of Edson's Hygrodeik, patented a similar but somewhat simpler instrument for showing relative humidity. In this example, the chart is marked "LOWE'S Graphic Hygrometer or Hygrodeik" and "N. M. LOWE, BOSTON, Mass." and "Patented April 9, 1878."
Ref: N. M. Lowe, "Psychrometers," U.S. Patent 202276 (1878).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
late 19th century
maker
Lowe, Nathaniel M.
ID Number
PH.325390
catalog number
325390
accession number
254284

Marine Compass Co. Dry Card Compass

This compass has a metal bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box. It was used on a lifeboat of the SS Alcoa Mariner, an American freighter torpedoed by a German submarine in September 1942. Frank B. Hodges, a sailor on the Alcoa Mariner, gave it to the Smithsonian.
Description
This compass has a metal bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box. It was used on a lifeboat of the SS Alcoa Mariner, an American freighter torpedoed by a German submarine in September 1942. Frank B. Hodges, a sailor on the Alcoa Mariner, gave it to the Smithsonian. The inscriptions read "M. C. CO." and "ALCOA MARINER." The former refers to the Marine Compass Company, a firm that was established in Hanover, Massachusetts, in 1910. The owners of this firm purchased E. S. Ritchie & Son in 1951.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940
maker
Marine Compass Company
ID Number
1990.0577.01
accession number
1990.0577
catalog number
1990.0577.01

Watch movement, Waltham

This watch, made about 1870, was manufactured at what eventually became known as the Waltham Watch Company, Waltham, Mass. The movement bears the serial number 520977 and “Crescent Street,” a grade named for the firm’s address.
Description
This watch, made about 1870, was manufactured at what eventually became known as the Waltham Watch Company, Waltham, Mass. The movement bears the serial number 520977 and “Crescent Street,” a grade named for the firm’s address. The Crescent Street was advertised as a railroad watch, “specially recommended to railway engineers and constant travelers.” [advertisement, The Missionary Herald 67(June 1871), n.p.]
In the 1850s, watchmakers at the firm began to develop the world's first mass-produced watches. They completely redesigned the watch so that its movement could be assembled from interchangeable parts made on special machines. They also developed a highly organized factory-based work system to speed production and cut costs of watches. Although it would be well into the 20th century before the watch industry achieved a very high level of interchangeability, the Waltham designers started the innovations that would eventually lead there.
Launched in 1849 in a corner of the Howard & Davis clock factory in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the company’s early years were financially unsteady. The company name changed repeatedly as investors came and went. Operations moved from Roxbury to Waltham in 1854, where the company settled, optimistically poised for expansion, on a tract of land with nearly 100 acres. The watchmakers at Waltham helped spawn an American industry that by 1880 had ten firms making nearly three million watches a year.
Details:
Movement: factory identification--model 1870, spring going-barrel, full plate, gilt finish, 18 size, key wind and set from the back, bimetallic compensation balance, C.V. Woerd patent regulator (US 110614); marked: American Watch Co/Crescent Street/Patent Pinion/No 520977/WALTHAM, MASS.”
Dial: white enamel, Roman numerals, blued hands (hour hand missing), separate sunk seconds at 6; marked: “American Watch Co”
References:
Henry G. Abbott, History of the American Waltham Watch Company (Chicago: American Jeweler Print, 1905).
Charles Moore, Timing a Century: History of the Waltham Watch Company (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1945).
Donald Hoke, Ingenious Yankees: The Rise of the American System of Manufactures in the Private Sector (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1867
maker
American Waltham Watch Co.
ID Number
ME.271558
serial number
520977
catalog number
271558
accession number
53268

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