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.

Chromolithograph of "Great Basin from the Summit of Tejon Pass"

This tinted lithograph of “Great Basin from the Summit of Tejon Pass” was produced after an original sketch by expedition artist Charles Koppel (fl. 1853-1865). It was printed as Plate V in Volume V, Part II following page 50 in the "Geological Report by W. P.
Description (Brief)
This tinted lithograph of “Great Basin from the Summit of Tejon Pass” was produced after an original sketch by expedition artist Charles Koppel (fl. 1853-1865). It was printed as Plate V in Volume V, Part II following page 50 in the "Geological Report by W. P. Blake, Geologist and Minerologist to the Expedition," as part of the “Routes in California, to Connect with the Routes near the Thirty–Fifth and Thirty–Second Parallels, Explored by Lieutenant R. S. Williamson, Corps of Topographical Engineers, in 1853."
The volume was printed as part of the "Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean" in 1856 by A. P. O. Nicholson (1808-1876) of Washington, D.C.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1856
publisher
U.S. War Department
printer
Tucker, Beverley
author
Williamson, Robert Stockton
original artist
Koppel, Charles
Koppel, Charles
graphic artist
unknown
publisher
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Topographic Command
original artist
Koppel, Charles
ID Number
GA.10729.33
accession number
62261

Chromolithograph of bird species "Phalacrocorax Brasilianus"

Thomas Sinclair (ca 1805-1881) of Philadelphia produced this chromolithographic print of "Phalacrocorax brasilianus [GM]" or Neotropic cormorant, from an original illustration by William Dreser (ca 1820, fl. 1849-1860).
Description (Brief)
Thomas Sinclair (ca 1805-1881) of Philadelphia produced this chromolithographic print of "Phalacrocorax brasilianus [GM]" or Neotropic cormorant, from an original illustration by William Dreser (ca 1820, fl. 1849-1860). The image was published as Plate XXVIII in Volume 2, following page 204 of Appendix F (Zoology-Birds) by John Cassin (1813-1869) in the report describing "The U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere during the Years 1849, 1850, 1851, and 1852" by James M. Gillis (1811-1865). The volume was printed in 1855 by A. O. P. Nicholson (1808-1876) of Washington, D.C.
Location
Currently not on view
date of book publication
1855
graphic artist
Sinclair, Thomas
original artist
Dreser, William
publisher
United States Navy
printer
Nicholson, A. O. P.
author
Cassin, John
Gilliss, James Melville
ID Number
2008.0175.02
accession number
2008.0175
catalog number
2008.0175.02

Galileo Pendulum Clock Model, Replica

After decades of experiments with the pendulum, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) conceived of a pendulum clock that could be used to determine longitude at sea.
Description
After decades of experiments with the pendulum, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) conceived of a pendulum clock that could be used to determine longitude at sea. Near the end of his life, blind and in failing health, he discussed the design with his son Vincenzio and his biographer Vincenzo Viviani. His son made a partial model and his biographer made or commissioned a drawing of the incomplete model after Galileo’s death.
The model in the Museum’s collection, made by New Jersey instrument maker Laurits Christian Eichner in 1958, is based on the seventeenth-century drawing preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, Italy. It is made of iron and features a pinwheel escapement and a pendulum.
During the seventeenth century, the problem of finding longitude at sea was among the leading topics in scientific research. The idea of using a precise clock to find longitude dated from the century before, but no such clock existed. Clocks in Galileo’s era told time only to the nearest quarter hour and allowed only crude rate regulation. The pendulum-regulated clock, first conceived by Galileo and then realized by Christian Huygens of the Netherlands in 1656, proved unsuitable for finding longitude on a rocking ship, and a good solution to the longitude problem would not appear until the marine chronometer at the end of the 18th century. But the pendulum clock revolutionized precise time for astronomy and other research by measuring time accurately to the second.
References:
1. Bedini, Silvio A. The Pulse of Time: Galileo Galilei, the Determination of Longitude, and the Pendulum Clock. Florence: Olschki, 1991.
2. Multhauf, Robert. Laurits Christian Eichner: Craftsman 1894-1967. Washington, D.C.: N. P., 1971.
3. Vanpaemel, G. “Science Distained: Galileo and the Problem of Longitude,” Italian Scientists in the Low Countries in the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries. Edited by C. S. Maffioli and L. C. Palm, 111-130. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1989.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1958
ID Number
ME.316158
catalog number
316158
accession number
224775

Thermometer

This unusually precise mercury-in-glass thermometer measured temperatures over a very small range, especially near the melting and freezing points of substances.
Description
This unusually precise mercury-in-glass thermometer measured temperatures over a very small range, especially near the melting and freezing points of substances. Ernest Otto Beckmann, a physical chemist who worked with Wilhelm Ostwald in Leipzig, described the form in 1888.
This example has a long cylindrical bulb at the bottom, an s-shaped tube with auxiliary bulb at the top, and a porcelain plate carrying a scale that ranges from -.04 to +1.1 degrees Centigrade and that is graduated to 0.002 degrees. The back of the plate is marked “Centigrade” and “Thermometer n. Beckmann.” The whole is enclosed in a cylindrical glass tube with brass cap.
This thermometer was used at the Johns Hopkins University, perhaps by Harry C. Jones, a chemist who received his PhD from Hopkins in 1892, spent two years working in the laboratories of Ostwald and other important European chemists, and then returned to Hopkins to teach physical chemistry. It may have been made by F. O. R. Goetze, a Leipzig firm that specialized in thermometers of this sort.
Ref.: Wilhelm Ostwald, Manual of Physico-Chemical Measurements (London, 1894), pp. 180-182.
Harry C. Jones, The Elements of Physical Chemistry 4th edition, revised (New York, 1915), pp. 228-230.
John Servos, Physical Chemistry from Ostwald to Pauling (Princeton, 1990).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
ID Number
CH.315870
catalog number
315870
accession number
221777

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

Wm. Bond & Son Box Chronometer

This instrument is a specialized timekeeper originally designed for finding longitude at sea and later used everywhere as a source of portable precise time.
Description
This instrument is a specialized timekeeper originally designed for finding longitude at sea and later used everywhere as a source of portable precise time. It has an English-made chronometer movement, finished by the firm William Bond & Son of Boston and fitted with the Bond break-circuit device, electrical equipment to permit the telegraphing of time signals. The Smithsonian’s Astrophysical Observatory used the instrument. The chronometer’s wooden box fits into a padded basket for extra protection.
Mechanism details:
Escapement: Earnshaw, spring detent, later pattern
Duration: 56-hour
Power source: Spring drive with chain and fuse
Bowl details:
Brass bowl
Brass gimbals
Bezel screwed and milled
Crystal flat and plain
Dial details:
Engraved and silvered brass
Indicates hours, minutes, seconds, winding level up and down, 24-hour dial
Inscription: "WM. BOND & SON, / Boston. No. 586" on dial; "WM. BOND & SON'S, BREAKCIRCUIT. / U. S. A." on silvered inside of bezel
Hands: Gold, spade, with blued seconds and Up & Down hands
Case details:
Box: solid wood, three-part, glazed center section
Brass corners
Mother of pearl key escutcheon
Inscriptions: "WM. BOND & SON. / Boston. No 521 / BREAK CIRCUIT" on nameplate
"BOND / 521" on small oval plate in bottom of box
Carrying case: Basket, with padding
References:
1. Gould, Rupert T. The Marine Chronometer. London: Holland Press, 1960.
2. Whitney, Marvin E. The Ship's Chronometer. Cincinnati: American Watchmakers Institute Press, 1985.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870
maker
Wm. Bond & Son
ID Number
ME.314839
catalog number
314839
accession number
210897

Haskell Water Current Meter

Eugene Elwin Haskell graduated from Cornell University in 1879, spent a few years with the U.S. Lake Survey, and then joined the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Description
Eugene Elwin Haskell graduated from Cornell University in 1879, spent a few years with the U.S. Lake Survey, and then joined the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. For the purpose plotting the currents in New York Harbor he designed a horizontal-axis, screw-type current meter, the results of which could be read electrically.
John Wesley Powell, the first director of U.S. Irrigation Survey, a project of the U.S. Geological Survey, explained that the wheel of this meter “is of the propeller type, conical in longitudinal projection, thus cleaning itself from leaves and grass,” adding that “There is no question that this is the best type of wheel yet presented for a current meter.” “Beyond the inconvenience of wires and batteries common to all electric meters,” Powell went on to say, “the Haskell is superior to any form yet tried.”
This example is a variation of the Haskell meter as conceived in the late 1880s by engineers of the U.S. Irrigation Survey. It is marked “U.S.G.S. No. 3” and “J. S. J. Lallie, Maker, Denver, Colo.” The U.S. Geological Survey transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1908.
John S. J. Lallie was born in Marseilles, France, in 1856, and came to the U.S. in 1864. In 1888, after working as a surveyor for some time, he established the Western Mathematical Instrument Co. in Denver. From 1891 until his death in 1911, he traded as J. S. J. Lallie.
Ref: E.E. Haskell, “Ship’s Log,” U.S. Patent 384362 (1888).
J. W. Powell, “Irrigation Survey—Second Annual Report,” in Report of the Secretary of the Interior (Washington, D.C., 1890), vol. 4, part 2, p. 9.
Arthur H. Frazier, Water Current Meters in the Smithsonian Collections of the National Museum of History and Technology (Washington, D.C., 1974), pp. 64-67.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890
ID Number
PH.248697
accession number
48341
catalog number
248697

Transit Instrument

Heller & Brightly advertised this as an "Improved Complete Combined Transit and Leveling Instrument For Civil Engineers and Surveyors." This example is marked "Heller & Brightly Makers 5740 Philadelphia." The serial number indicates that it was made around 1884.
Description
Heller & Brightly advertised this as an "Improved Complete Combined Transit and Leveling Instrument For Civil Engineers and Surveyors." This example is marked "Heller & Brightly Makers 5740 Philadelphia." The serial number indicates that it was made around 1884. New, the basic transit cost $220. The vertical circle was an extra $25. The horizontal circle is silvered, graduated every 30 minutes of arc, and read by verniers at N and S to single minutes. There are level vials at N (this one covers a vernier) and at E. The vertical circle, also silvered, is read by vernier to single minutes, and is protected by an aluminum guard. To reduce weight, the vertical standards are ribbed and braced. The telescope is equipped with stadia wires for determining distances.
The tripod head of this transit allows the instrument to be leveled, and also to be adjusted horizontally in order to be brought over a fixed point on the ground. Daniel Hoffman obtained a patent (#197,369) on this design in 1877, and assigned the rights to Heller & Brightly in exchange for $5 for each unit sold.
Ref: Heller & Brightly, Remarks on Surveying Instruments (Philadelphia, 1886).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1884
maker
Heller & Brightly
ID Number
PH.328726
catalog number
328726
accession number
275808

Ritchie Liquid Compass

This compass has a brass bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box. The graduated ring is curved. The needle float is in the form of crossed cylinders, as described in the patent (#38,125) granted to Edward S.
Description
This compass has a brass bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box. The graduated ring is curved. The needle float is in the form of crossed cylinders, as described in the patent (#38,125) granted to Edward S. Ritchie on April 7, 1863.
The gimbal ring, which seems to be of a somewhat later date than the compass, identifies several Ritchie patents in addition to that of 1863. The patent of May 12, 1868 (#77,763) describes a paint that would not deteriorate in the liquid in the compass. The patent of July 19, 1870 (#105,492) describes a way to hold the glass in place with a water-tight joint. The patent of November 14, 1876 (#184,300) describes a "fascicular magnet" composed of a series of separate drawn wires of steel laid parallel to one another.
The Ritchie ledgers, now held by Ritchie Navigation, indicate that this compass was produced on March 2, 1880, and sold to S. Thaxter & Son in Boston. Smithsonian records indicate that Thaxter gave it to the Smithsonian, perhaps for use in the International Fishery Exhibition which opened in Berlin on April 20, 1880. The compass was clearly shown in the similar exhibition held in London in 1883.
Ref. D. J. Warner, "Compasses and Coils. The Instrument Business of Edward S. Ritchie," Rittenhouse 9 (1994): 1-24.
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. 728.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Ritchie, Edward S.
ID Number
PH.039385
catalog number
039385
accession number
8745

Transit and Equal Altitude Instrument

Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) was the leading geodetic surveyor in the United States in the early years of the Republic, and he aimed to produce surveys that compared favorably with those done by the best Europeans in the field.
Description
Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) was the leading geodetic surveyor in the United States in the early years of the Republic, and he aimed to produce surveys that compared favorably with those done by the best Europeans in the field. In his words, the transit and equal altitude instrument was "the most perfect, and best calculated for running straight lines." Moreover, "when the different verifications are carefully attended to, [it] may safely be considered as absolutely perfect."
Ellicott made this instrument, and used it to run the western boundary of New York in 1789, the boundaries of the District of Columbia in the early 1790s, the southern boundary of the United States in 1796-1800, and the boundary between Georgia and North Carolina in 1811. Ellicott took this instrument with him to West Point, when he became professor of mathematics at the U.S. Military Academy in 1813. A descendant, Andrew Ellicott Douglass, deposited it with the Smithsonian in 1898.
This instrument, marked "Andw Ellicott Philadelphia," is modeled on the transit and equal altitude instrument that had been made by John Bird in London, purchased by Thomas Penn in 1763, and used by Mason and Dixon for their survey of the boundary between the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Ellicott had used this English instrument in 1784, when he was part of the team of American surveyors who extended the Mason-Dixon line to the western edge of Pennsylvania.
Ref: Andrew Ellicott, "A Letter to Robert Patterson," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 4 (1799): 32-51.
Andrew Ellicott, "An Account of the Apparatus used on the Boundary between the United States and His Catholic Majesty," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 5 (1802): 204-208.
Silvio Bedini, "Andrew Ellicott, Surveyor of the Wilderness," Surveying and Mapping (June 1976): 113-135.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Ellicott, Andrew
ID Number
PH.152080
accession number
116914
catalog number
152080.01

Telescopic Alidade

This alidade has a telescope with a level mounted above, and a vertical circle that is silvered, graduated to 30 minutes, and read by vernier to single minutes. The base has six large circular holes, and a circular level vial. An inscription reads "U.S.G.S. No 11." The U.S.
Description
This alidade has a telescope with a level mounted above, and a vertical circle that is silvered, graduated to 30 minutes, and read by vernier to single minutes. The base has six large circular holes, and a circular level vial. An inscription reads "U.S.G.S. No 11." The U.S. Geological Survey transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1907, describing it as a "preliminary type" of alidade devised for the Survey about 1890.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PH.247914
catalog number
247914
accession number
47736

Terry and Andrews Shelf Clock, 1840s

Made in the 1840s by the firm of Terry and Andrews, this clock represents an effort to incorporate imported springs, instead of falling weights, to drive the brass movement.
Description
Made in the 1840s by the firm of Terry and Andrews, this clock represents an effort to incorporate imported springs, instead of falling weights, to drive the brass movement. At the time of its manufacture, there was no spring-making industry in the United States.
Theodore Terry and Franklin Andrews formed a partnership in 1842 in Bristol, Conn., to make brass clock movements, which began to replace wooden ones after 1838. In 1850 they moved to Ansonia, Conn., to form a company with Anson Phelps who owned a brass mill there. Beginning as a subsidiary of Phelps’ firm, the Ansonia Clock Company went on to build millions of clocks until it went out of business in 1929.
This clock has a brass time-and-strike movement. Its case has a beehive-shaped iron front inlaid with mother of pearl. The white painted dial has Roman numerals. A label inside the case has directions for setting up and regulating the clock and the makers’ names.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1840s
maker
Terry & Andrews
ID Number
1984.0416.030
catalog number
1984.0416.030
accession number
1984.0416

Telescope (Spyglass)

Perry Mason & Co. published The Youth’s Companion, the most popular and successful family journal in the U.S. in the second half of the nineteenth century. This small spyglass was probably a premium given for a subscription to that magazine.
Description
Perry Mason & Co. published The Youth’s Companion, the most popular and successful family journal in the U.S. in the second half of the nineteenth century. This small spyglass was probably a premium given for a subscription to that magazine. It has an achromatic objective, a four-element erecting eyepiece, and a five-section brass draw tube covered with leather. The inscription reads "PERRY MASON & Co. BOSTON." Since the firm became Perry Mason Company in August 1900, this instrument was probably made before that time.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1980.0399.0073
catalog number
1980.0399.0073
accession number
1980.0399

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

Sextant

Matthew Berge (d. 1819) worked for Jesse Ramsden in London, succeeded to the business after Ramsden’s death in 1800, used the Ramsden dividing engine, and numbered his sextants in the sequence begun by Ramsden. This example was made in the early 1800s.
Description
Matthew Berge (d. 1819) worked for Jesse Ramsden in London, succeeded to the business after Ramsden’s death in 1800, used the Ramsden dividing engine, and numbered his sextants in the sequence begun by Ramsden. This example was made in the early 1800s. It has a double brass frame and a silvered scale. The inscription on the arc reads "Berge London late Ramsden" and "1513." The scale is graduated every 15 minutes from -2° to +136° and read by vernier with tangent screw and magnifier.
A label in the box relates the instrument’s history. "SEXTANT owned and used by JOHN C. FREMONT on his trip across the continent to CALIFORNIA. Presented by his Daughter, ELIZABETH B. FREMONT, to HON. CHARLES SILENT and by him to FRANK J. THOMAS. Loaned to and used by WELLS MORRIS on U.S. Destroyer "MUGFORD" in GREAT WAR."
Ref: A. Stimson, "The Influence of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich upon the Design of 17th and 18th Century Angle-Measuring Instruments at Sea," Vistas in Astronomy 20 (1976): 123-130.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1800-1819
maker
Berge, Matthew
ID Number
1981.0744.01
accession number
1981.0744
catalog number
1981.0744.01

Solar Compass

This solar compass belonged to the U. S. Geological Survey, a federal agency that was established in 1879. It was made around 1880, and transferred to the Smithsonian in 1920.
Description
This solar compass belonged to the U. S. Geological Survey, a federal agency that was established in 1879. It was made around 1880, and transferred to the Smithsonian in 1920. The horizontal circle is silvered, graduated to 30 minutes, and read by opposite verniers to single minutes. The inscription reads "W. & L. E. Gurley, Troy, N.Y." The auxiliary telescope, which attaches to either sight vane, is marked "PAT. JULY 9, 1878," and is described by the patent (#205,712) that was granted to William and Lewis E. Gurley in 1878.
Ref: W. & L. E. Gurley, Manual of the Principal Instruments used in American Engineering and Surveying (Troy, N. Y., 1878), p. 70.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1880
maker
W. & L. E. Gurley
ID Number
PH.307086
catalog number
307086
accession number
65070

Tall Case Clock

The earliest domestic clocks in the American colonies were English-made "lantern" clocks, with brass gear trains held between pillars.
Description
The earliest domestic clocks in the American colonies were English-made "lantern" clocks, with brass gear trains held between pillars. Along with fully furnished "best" beds, looking glasses, sofas, silver, and case furniture, such clocks were the household objects consistently assigned the highest monetary value in inventories of possessions.
By the 18th century, the most common style of domestic clock came to look more like a piece of household furniture. A wooden case enclosed the movement, weights, and pendulum. Through a glass window the dial was visible.
In 1769, Pennsylvania clockmaker and millwright Joseph Ellicott completed this complicated tall case clock. On three separate dials, it tells the time and shows the phases of the moon; depicts on an orrery the motions of the sun, moon, and planets; and plays selected twenty-four musical tunes on the hour.
The musical dial on the Ellicott clock allows the listener to choose from twelve pairs of tunes. Each pair includes a short tune and a long one. On the hour only the short tune plays, but every third hour, both play. During a tune, automaton figures at the top of the dial appear to tap their feet in time to the music, and a small dog between them jumps up and down.
Joseph Ellicott moved from the Philadelphia area to Maryland in 1772 and, with his brothers Andrew and John, set up a flour-milling operation in what is now Ellicott City. The clock was a centerpiece in Ellicott family homes for generations.
Who else owned clocks in early America? Clock owners, like the American colonists themselves, were not a homogeneous group. Where a person lived influenced the probability of owning a timepiece. In 1774, for example, New Englanders and Middle Atlantic colonials were equally likely to own a timepiece. In those regions, roughly 13 or 14 adults out of 100 had a clock in their possessions when they died. Among Southern colonists at that time, only about 6 in 100 had a clock.
Date made
1769
user
Ellicott, Joseph
maker
Ellicott, Joseph
ID Number
1999.0276.01
accession number
1999.0276
catalog number
1999.0276.01

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

Geologist's or Forester's Compass

This is an aluminum compass with brass sights. The raised rim and beveled outer ring are graduated every degree and numbered every 10 degrees in quadrants from north and south.
Description
This is an aluminum compass with brass sights. The raised rim and beveled outer ring are graduated every degree and numbered every 10 degrees in quadrants from north and south. The southeast quadrant of the face has a variation scale that extends 25 degrees one way and 45 degrees the other, that is graduated to degrees, and that reads by folded vernier to 5 minutes. The western half of the face is graduated to degrees, and equipped with a pendulum clinometer pivoted at the center. There are level vials on the SE and SW corners of the plate. The four beveled edges of the plate are graduated, one to inches and tenths, one to inches and eighths, and two as protractors. The back of the plate has a diagram showing the arrangement of township numbering. David White Co. termed it an improved geologist's or forester's compass as designed for the U. S. Forest Service. This example belonged to the University of Missouri at Columbia. New, it cost $45. The "David White Co. Milwaukee, Wis." inscription refers to a firm that was established in 1895, and renamed the David White Instrument Co. in 1956.
Ref: David White Co., Catalog and Price List, 7th edition (Denver, about 1935), p. 37.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
David White Co.
ID Number
PH.333646
catalog number
333646
accession number
300659

Telescopic Alidade

This is an example of the distance alidade devised by Edward Ayearst Reeves (1862-1945), a well-known British geographer, astronomer, and cartographer. The vertical arc is graduated to 30 minutes and read by vernier and magnifier to 5 minutes.
Description
This is an example of the distance alidade devised by Edward Ayearst Reeves (1862-1945), a well-known British geographer, astronomer, and cartographer. The vertical arc is graduated to 30 minutes and read by vernier and magnifier to 5 minutes. The two long edges of the base are beveled, and one is equipped with a parallel rule. Since the pedestal and telescope can fold down flat against the base, the instrument is easily portable. The "E. R. WATTS & SON 1914 No 34" inscription refers an instrument firm that was established in London in 1857. Casella offered a similar instrument, describing it as "Reeve's Pattern Folding Alidade."
Ref: Ref: E. A. Reeves, Maps and Map-Making (London, 1910), p. 50.
C. F. Casella & Co., Ltd., Surveying and Drawing Instruments and Appliances (London, about 1940), p. 30.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
E.R. Watts and Son
ID Number
PH.325675
catalog number
325675
accession number
257193

Common Theodolite

This instrument belonged to the University of Missouri–Columbia. It dates from the late 19th century, but represents a form that was widely used in the 18th century. It has a pair of sight vanes (one missing) attached to the circle, and another pair on the alidade.
Description
This instrument belonged to the University of Missouri–Columbia. It dates from the late 19th century, but represents a form that was widely used in the 18th century. It has a pair of sight vanes (one missing) attached to the circle, and another pair on the alidade. The circle is graduated to 30 minutes, and read by vernier to single minutes. The signature reads "Blattner & Adam St. Louis" and "No.5698." Henry Blattner and Frank Adam were brothers–in–law who worked together from 1872 to 1891.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Blattner & Adam
ID Number
PH.333645
catalog number
333645
accession number
300659

Abney level with compass and pentaprism

William de Wiveleslie Abney (1843–1920), an English scientist who made many important contributions to spectroscopy and photography, devised this level in the 1870s while working for the School of Military Engineering at Chatham.This Abney level is equipped with clinometer and co
Description
William de Wiveleslie Abney (1843–1920), an English scientist who made many important contributions to spectroscopy and photography, devised this level in the 1870s while working for the School of Military Engineering at Chatham.
This Abney level is equipped with clinometer and compass. Keuffel & Esser termed it a "Universal Instrument" that gives bearing, grade, and distance with sufficient accuracy for military reconnaissance and preliminary surveying. The clinometer scale is graduated to degrees, and read by vernier to 10 minutes. The inscription reads "KEUFFEL & ESSER CO N. Y." New, it cost $34.
Ref: Keuffel & Esser, Catalogue (New York, 1921), p. 434.
C. Jones, "Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney, K.C.B., D.C.L., D.Sc., F.R.S., Hon. F.R.P.S., etc.," The Photographic Journal 61 (1921): 296–311.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Keuffel & Esser Co.
ID Number
PH.333654
catalog number
333654
accession number
300659

Forester's and Geologist's Compass

Aluminum compass with brass sights. The raised rim and beveled outer ring are graduated every degree, numbered every 10 degrees in quadrants from north and south, and adjustable for variation.
Description
Aluminum compass with brass sights. The raised rim and beveled outer ring are graduated every degree, numbered every 10 degrees in quadrants from north and south, and adjustable for variation. The western half of the face is graduated to degrees, and equipped with a pendulum clinometer pivoted at the center. There is a circular level vial at NE. The four beveled edges of the plate are graduated, one to inches and tenths, one to inches and eighths, and two as protractors. The back of the plate has a diagram showing the arrangement of township numbering. The inscriptions read "KEUFFEL & ESSER CO NEW YORK" and "U.S. INDIAN FOREST SERVICE" and "32712." Keuffel & Esser noted that they had made many instruments of this sort for the United States Forest Service. The serial number indicates a date of around 1916.
Ref: Keuffel & Esser, Catalogue (New York, 1927), p. 424.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Keuffel & Esser Co.
ID Number
PH.335529
catalog number
335529
accession number
321714

U.S. Standard Liter

After the 1866 legalization of metric units of measure in the United States, the Office of Weights and Measures prepared standard metric weights and measures for distribution to the states. This brass cylinder holds one liter. A mark on the front reads: U.S.
Description
After the 1866 legalization of metric units of measure in the United States, the Office of Weights and Measures prepared standard metric weights and measures for distribution to the states. This brass cylinder holds one liter. A mark on the front reads: U.S. (/) LITRE (/) No.46.
The U.S. National Bureau of Standards, the successor of the Office of Weights and Measures, transferred this standard to the Smithsonian.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870
maker
United States Office of Weights and Measures
ID Number
CH.309585
catalog number
309585
accession number
103830

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