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

Octant

Octant with a rosewood frame, flat brass index arm, and ivory name plate. The ivory scale is graduated every 20 minutes from -5° to +95° and read by vernier to single minutes of arc.
Description
Octant with a rosewood frame, flat brass index arm, and ivory name plate. The ivory scale is graduated every 20 minutes from -5° to +95° and read by vernier to single minutes of arc. The "Andw Newell Maker Boston" inscription refers to Andrew Newell (1751-1798), a mathematical instrument maker in Boston. Inside the box is the trade card of David Baker, proprietor of a nautical instrument shop in New Bedford during the second quarter of the nineteenth century.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1800
maker
Newell, Andrew
ID Number
1991.0140.01.01
catalog number
1991.0140.01.01
accession number
1991.0140

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

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

Wye Level

This level is marked "BUFF & BUFF MFG. CO. 7205 BOSTON, U.S.A." It was made after 1898 when Buff & Buff began in business, and before 1988 when the New Jersey Transit Bus Operations, Inc. transferred it to the Smithsonian. In 1918 it cost $140.Ref: Buff & Buff Mfg.
Description
This level is marked "BUFF & BUFF MFG. CO. 7205 BOSTON, U.S.A." It was made after 1898 when Buff & Buff began in business, and before 1988 when the New Jersey Transit Bus Operations, Inc. transferred it to the Smithsonian. In 1918 it cost $140.
Ref: Buff & Buff Mfg. Co., Surveying Instruments (Boston, 1918), pp. 68-69.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Buff and Buff Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1988.0154.02
accession number
1988.0154
catalog number
1988.0154.02

Dumpy Level

E. G. Fischer and his colleagues in the Instrument Division of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey designed this precise level in 1900. C. L.
Description
E. G. Fischer and his colleagues in the Instrument Division of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey designed this precise level in 1900. C. L. Berger & Sons began making levels of this sort around 1912, noting that they "follow absolutely" the Survey's specifications, "using 'invar' where specified, thus insuring a rigid maintenance of the adjustment of instrument under marked changes of temperature." This example is marked "C. L. Berger & Sons. Boston USA 17475.” It dates from 1930, and belonged to the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Ref: E. G. Fischer, "Description of Precise Levels Nos. 7 and 8," Report of the Director of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (1900), Appendix 6.
C. L. Berger & Sons, Inc., Catalog of Engineering, Surveying & Mining Instruments (Boston, 1927), pp. 43-44.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
C.L. Berger and Sons
ID Number
1986.0395.10
accession number
1986.0395
catalog number
1986.0395.10

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

Surveyor's Compass

The “C.G. King Boston” inscription on this compass is that of Charles Gedney King (1808-1858), a mathematical instrument maker who apprenticed with his father, Gedney King, and traded under his own name after his father’s death in 1839. C. G.
Description
The “C.G. King Boston” inscription on this compass is that of Charles Gedney King (1808-1858), a mathematical instrument maker who apprenticed with his father, Gedney King, and traded under his own name after his father’s death in 1839. C. G. King showed his instruments at fairs sponsored by the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association in the 1840s and 1850s, and took home several silver medals.
King also announced he "Is now manufacturing and has for sale the largest assortment of Mathematical, Nautical, Engineers, Surveyors and Drafting Instruments to be found in the city." Moreover, the engineers’ and surveyors’ instruments manufactured in the King establishment, "are divided upon a new Engine, made expressly for the purpose, the performance of which, for the accuracy of its division, cannot be surpassed, if equalled, by any Engine in the Country."
The rim of this example is graduated to 30 minutes. There are two level vials on the south arm.
Ref: "Evidence of the Enterprise," Rittenhouse 1 (1987): 90.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840-1858
maker
King, Charles Gedney
ID Number
1980.0696.01
accession number
1980.0696
catalog number
1980.0696.01

Mining Transit

This instrument is marked "C. L. Berger & Sons Boston, USA." The firm termed it a Universal Mining Transit with Duplex Telescope Bearings, noting that C. L.
Description
This instrument is marked "C. L. Berger & Sons Boston, USA." The firm termed it a Universal Mining Transit with Duplex Telescope Bearings, noting that C. L. Berger had designed it on June 10, 1889, in order "to meet the requirements of the Mining Engineer, who must have the exact location of every shaft and tunnel in a mine" and who needed to get "the closest results under the most trying circumstances." It could measure horizontal angles between points, "one of which may be depressed as much as eighty or ninety degrees below the horizon, while the other may be as much elevated above the horizon; and also to measure with equal accuracy angles of elevation or depression above or below the horizon." The distinctive feature of this transit is that the telescope can be mounted in the center of the instrument, as usual, or, for extreme angles, it can be moved to the front of the instrument, with a counterweight attached to the back.
The Berger records indicate that C. Elliott of Pittsburgh ordered this instrument in February 1917. The horizontal and vertical circles are silvered, graduated to 30 minutes of arc, and read by opposite verniers to single minutes. With lamp, two tripods, and two plumb bobs, the instrument cost $620.
Ref: C. L. Berger & Sons, Hand-Book and Illustrated Catalogue of the Engineers' and Surveyors' Instruments of Precision (Boston, 1912), pp. 172-177.
Chicago Steel Tape-Berger Instruments (Document Management Systems, 1995), Book 36, p. 64.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1917
maker
C.L. Berger and Sons
ID Number
PH.334893
catalog number
334893
accession number
315134

Dumpy Level

This instrument is marked "C. L. Berger & Sons. Boston, Mass. ML 1172 MADE IN U.S.A." and was probably made during World War II. Berger described it as an Engineers' Tilting Dumpy Level Model No.
Description
This instrument is marked "C. L. Berger & Sons. Boston, Mass. ML 1172 MADE IN U.S.A." and was probably made during World War II. Berger described it as an Engineers' Tilting Dumpy Level Model No. 10-X, noting that it was a "Wartime Development to simplify and expedite Peacetime Engineering Procedure." It was speedy, accurate, simplified, and streamlined, and could be used at night. This example belonged to the United States Geological Survey. It has an ivory finish, and the case is olive drab. The ML in the serial number may indicate that it was made for military use.
Ref: C. L. Berger & Sons, Inc., A Berger Instrument of Precision for Engineering and Surveying (Boston, 1945).
Location
Currently not on view
maker
C.L. Berger and Sons
ID Number
1982.0671.14
accession number
1982.0671
catalog number
1982.0671.14

Bimetallic Thermometer

This is a circular thermometer with scale ranging from -45 to +155 degrees. It is marked "FAHRENHEIT" and "MANUFACTURED FOR / FAIRBANKS & CO. / BY THE / STANDARD THERMOMETER CO. / PEABODY, MASS." and "PATENTED 10 NOV.
Description
This is a circular thermometer with scale ranging from -45 to +155 degrees. It is marked "FAHRENHEIT" and "MANUFACTURED FOR / FAIRBANKS & CO. / BY THE / STANDARD THERMOMETER CO. / PEABODY, MASS." and "PATENTED 10 NOV. 1885." The back of the case is stamped "9361."
The Standard Thermometer Co. was established in Peabody in the mid-1880s and soon employing 21 workmen. It later became the Standard Thermometer & Electric Company. Roger Upton, a Harvard graduate, was president of the firm. Edgar W. Upton, who was also involved with the firm, was an inventor; among his patents was one (D16989) for the "Design for a Case for Mechanical Thermometers" (1886).
The date on the instrument refers to the thermometer patent (#330,161) that was issued to Thomas W. Shepherd of Peabody, Massachusetts, and assigned to Edgar W. Upton.
Ref.: "D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Essex County, Massacusetts," (Philadelphia, 1888), vol. 2, p. 1027.
Beverly, Danvers and Peabody: Their Representative Business Men and Points of Interest (New York, 1893), p. 4.
"Factory of the Standard Thermometer & Electric Company," Electrical World 33 (1899): 33.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
late nineteenth century
maker
Standard Thermometer Co.
ID Number
PH.333983
catalog number
333983
accession number
304826

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

Standard Bimetallic Thermometer

Circular thermometer with scale ranging from -45 to +155 degrees. Inscriptions read "FAHRENHEIT" and "MANUFACTURED FOR / FAIRBANKS & CO. / BY THE / STANDARD THERMOMETER CO. / PEABODY, MASS." and "PATENTED NOVEMBER 10, 1885 / DECEMBER 28, 1886."The Standard Thermometer Co.
Description
Circular thermometer with scale ranging from -45 to +155 degrees. Inscriptions read "FAHRENHEIT" and "MANUFACTURED FOR / FAIRBANKS & CO. / BY THE / STANDARD THERMOMETER CO. / PEABODY, MASS." and "PATENTED NOVEMBER 10, 1885 / DECEMBER 28, 1886."
The Standard Thermometer Co. was established in Peabody in the mid-1880s and soon employed 21 workmen. It later became the Standard Thermometer & Electric Company. Roger Upton, a Harvard graduate, was president of the firm. Edgar W. Upton, who was also involved with the firm, was an inventor. Among his patents was one (D16989) for the "Design for a Case for Mechanical Thermometers" (1886).
The first date on this thermometer refers to the thermometer patent (#330,161) that was issued to Thomas W. Shepherd of Peabody, Mass., and assigned to Edgar W. Upton. The second date refers to the "Metallic Thermometer" patent (#355,291) issued to George B. St. John of Boston.
Ref: "D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Essex County, Massacusetts," (Philadelphia, 1888), vol. 2, p. 1027.
Beverly, Danvers and Peabody: Their Representative Business Men and Points of Interest (New York, 1893), p. 4.
"Factory of the Standard Thermometer & Electric Company," Electrical World 33 (1899): 33.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
late 19th century
maker
Standard Thermometer Co.
ID Number
PH.333984
catalog number
333984
accession number
304826

Hunting Case Pocket Watch

This stem-winding watch was made by E. Howard and Company of Boston, Mass.
Description
This stem-winding watch was made by E. Howard and Company of Boston, Mass. The firm was an American pioneer in building the high-quality stem-winding watches that replaced key-wound watches in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Company founder Edward Howard began a clockmaking business in 1842, branched out into watchmaking about 1850 with partners in what would eventually become the American Watch Company in Waltham and then left to form his own watch company in 1858. Howard retired in 1881, but the firm carried on under various names until the early 21st century.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1876
1873
maker
Howard Watch Company
ID Number
1984.0416.229
catalog number
1984.0416.229
accession number
1984.0416

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

Liquid Compass

Edward S. Ritchie of Boston developed the first successful liquid compass in 1862 and introduced several improvements over the course of the next two decades. This is the model for Ritchie’s third patent (#38,126) of April 7, 1863. Three features should be noted.
Description
Edward S. Ritchie of Boston developed the first successful liquid compass in 1862 and introduced several improvements over the course of the next two decades. This is the model for Ritchie’s third patent (#38,126) of April 7, 1863. Three features should be noted. The magnetic needle is enclosed in an air-tight metallic case and, with the card, is very nearly the same specific gravity as the liquid. The needle float is in the form of crossed cylinders. An elastic chamber compensates for the unequal expansion of the liquid and the bowl.
The U.S. Patent Office transferred this compass to the Smithsonian in 1926. An attached Patent Office tag reads: "No. 38,126 E. S. Ritchie. Mariner’s Compass. Patented Apl 7th 1863."
Ref: "Improved Ship’s Compass," Scientific American 11 (1864): 52.
"The Liquid Compass," Journal of the Franklin Institute 85 (1868): 218-221.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1863
maker
Ritchie, Edward S.
ID Number
PH.308535
catalog number
308535
patent number
38,126
accession number
89797

Mercury Barometer

Theodore Ruggles Timby (1822-1909) was an American inventor with several hundred patents to his name, the most famous of which pertained to the rotating gun turret as used on the “Monitor” during the Civil War.
Description
Theodore Ruggles Timby (1822-1909) was an American inventor with several hundred patents to his name, the most famous of which pertained to the rotating gun turret as used on the “Monitor” during the Civil War. The first of his two barometer patents, issued in 1857, described an instrument in which the expansion of mercury with increase of temperature would not burst the tube. Scientific American praised Timby for having “succeeded in rendering this instrument perfectly portable,” going to predict “a speedy and universal adoption, especially among agriculturists, they more than any other class (save the mariners), need the counsel of this faithful monitor which leaves nothing to conjecture, but tells with promptness of the coming storm long before a threatening is visible in the sky.”
This example is marked “ALEXR MARSH SOLE PROPRIETORS and Manfs. For the UNITED STATES, OFFICE UNION BLOCK Worcester, Mass. TIMBY’S PATENT, Nov. 3rd 1857” as well as “The fall of the mercury indicates a STORM. The rise of the mercury indicates fair WEATHER.” The barometer scale extends from 27 to 31 inches of mercury. The attached alcohol-in-glass thermometer is graduated from -40 to +185 degrees Fahrenheit. It was probably made in the early 1860s.
Ref: Theodore R. Timby, “Barometer,” U.S. Patent 18,560 (1857).
“Another Important Step in Science,” Scientific American 14 (1858): 101.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1860s
maker
Marsh, Alexander
ID Number
PH.329178
accession number
280311
catalog number
329178

Altitude and Azimuth Instrument

This instrument came from the John C. Green Astronomical Observatory at Princeton University. New, it cost $680. The horizontal circle is silvered, graduated to 20 minutes, and read by opposite verniers with magnifiers and ground glass plates to 20 seconds.
Description
This instrument came from the John C. Green Astronomical Observatory at Princeton University. New, it cost $680. The horizontal circle is silvered, graduated to 20 minutes, and read by opposite verniers with magnifiers and ground glass plates to 20 seconds. The vertical circle is silvered, graduated to 20 minutes, and read by opposite verniers with magnifiers and ground glass plates to single minutes. The telescope has a filar micrometer eyepiece; the attached level has a micrometer adjustment. The inscription reads "Buff & Berger, Boston No. 159."
George L. Buff and Christian Louis Berger went into business in Boston in 1871, manufacturing "all kinds of surveying, astronomical, mathematical and philosophical instruments." Buff & Berger was remarkably successful, attracting numerous customers, and winning awards at state and national exhibitions. The firm was dissolved in 1898, and succeeded by Buff & Buff and by C. L. Berger & Sons.
Ref: Buff & Berger, Hand Book and Illustrated Catalogue of the Engineers' and Surveyors' Instruments (Boston, 1890), p. 129.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Buff & Berger
ID Number
1983.0245.01
accession number
1983.0245
catalog number
1983.0245.01

Azimuth Circle

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

Nautical Compass

This compass has a heavy brass bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box and a flat card with central buoyancy. The inscriptions read "E. S.
Description
This compass has a heavy brass bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box and a flat card with central buoyancy. The inscriptions read "E. S. RITCHIE BOSTON 23924" and "PATENTED" and "RITCHIE, BOSTON U.S.A." The Ritchie ledgers, now held by Ritchie Navigation, indicate that it was made on May 7, 1898, and sold to T.S. & J.D. Negus, a New York firm that sold a variety of nautical and optical instruments.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1898
maker
Ritchie
ID Number
1988.0287.01
catalog number
1988.0287.01
accession number
1988.0287

Dumpy Level

Berger termed this a Service Dumpy Level, Model 110B, noting that it was a relatively inexpensive instrument designed for practical rather than precision applications.
Description
Berger termed this a Service Dumpy Level, Model 110B, noting that it was a relatively inexpensive instrument designed for practical rather than precision applications. It consists of a telescope, a bubble level hung below, a horizontal circle graduated to degrees and read by vernier to 15 minutes, and a 4-legged base. A label on the box reads: BERGER / ENGINEERING INSTRUMENTS / BOSTON, MASS. 02119 / MODEL NO. 110B / MADE IN U.S.A. A note on the box reads: DIVN. of MECH. & CIVIL ENGRNG / U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM / WASHINGTON, D.C. 20560,
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca. 1960
user
Vogel, Robert M.
maker
Berger Engineering Instruments
ID Number
2007.0214.1
catalog number
2007.0214.1
accession number
2007.0214

Watch movement, Waltham

This is one of the earliest watch movements manufactured in the United States. Made at what eventually became the Waltham Watch Company, it is part of the firm’s third run of watches in Roxbury, Massachusetts, about 1853.
Description
This is one of the earliest watch movements manufactured in the United States. Made at what eventually became the Waltham Watch Company, it is part of the firm’s third run of watches in Roxbury, Massachusetts, about 1853. The movement bears the serial number 531 and the name Samuel Curtis, one of the firm’s first investors.
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: spring going-barrel, full plate, gilt finish, 18 size, 15 jewels, key wound at back and key set at front, steel three-armed balance, lever escapement, regulator with index on back plate; marked: “Roxbury/ No. 531/ Samuel Curtis”
Dial: White enamel dial, Roman numerals, black hands (minute hand is replacement), separate seconds at 6
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
1853
maker
Howard & Davis
ID Number
ME.222557
catalog number
222557
accession number
41705

Odometer

H.R. Coburn, of Lowell Mass., designed an odometer to attach to the axle of a wagon or carriage, and submitted this model with his patent application.Ref: H.R. Coburn, “Wagon Odometer,” U.S. Patent #50,456 (October 17, 1865).Currently not on view
Description
H.R. Coburn, of Lowell Mass., designed an odometer to attach to the axle of a wagon or carriage, and submitted this model with his patent application.
Ref: H.R. Coburn, “Wagon Odometer,” U.S. Patent #50,456 (October 17, 1865).
Location
Currently not on view
Associated Date
1865-10-17
ID Number
PH.308912
accession number
89797
catalog number
308912
patent number
50,456

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