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: Philadelphia

Lithographic printing stone "Australian Fossils Pl. 4"

The image on this lithographic stone was prepared to print an image in the publication "United States Exploring Expedition, During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842," Volume 10, "Geology - Atlas," 1849.
Description (Brief)
The image on this lithographic stone was prepared to print an image in the publication "United States Exploring Expedition, During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842," Volume 10, "Geology - Atlas," 1849. The image depicts "Australian Fossils, Plate 4." The images was prepared by the lithographic firm Sarony & Major after illustrations by James Dwight Dana.
Description
The firm of Sarony & Major of Philadelphia, working between 1846 and 1857, prepared this lithographic printing stone after a drawing by Expedition Mineralogist James Dwight Dana (1813–1895) depicting Australian fossils. The lithographic illustration was published as Plate 4 in U.S. Exploring Expedition Volume X, Geology, by James D. Dana, 1849.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1849
publisher
Wilkes, Charles
original artist
Dana, James Dwight
graphic artist
Sarony & Major
printer
Sherman, Conger
ID Number
1999.0145.458
accession number
1999.0145
catalog number
1999.0145.458

Octant

An octant measures angles by bringing two images together—that of the sun, for instance, and the horizon—and was used primarily to determine latitude at sea.
Description
An octant measures angles by bringing two images together—that of the sun, for instance, and the horizon—and was used primarily to determine latitude at sea. The form was described by John Hadley in London in 1731 and still in use in the early twentieth century.
This instrument made during the American Revolution, and there are faint markings on the scale that may read "equality" and "justice." It has a mahogany frame and index arm, and ivory inset. The boxwood scale is graduated every 20 minutes from -5° to +95° and read by ivory vernier to single minutes of arc. There is also a back sight and a back horizon mirror for measuring angles greater than 90°. The radius is 17.75 inches. The "B. CONDY PHILADELPHIA 1778" inscription refers to the maker, Benjamin Condy (d. 1798).
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1778
business owner
Condy, Benjamin
maker
Condy, Benjamin
ID Number
1992.0312.01
catalog number
1992.0312.01
accession number
1992.0312

Howard Regulator Pendulum

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1874
associated institution
Allegheny Observatory
Gold and Stock Telegraph Company
associated person
Bentley, Henry
manufacturer
E. Howard & Co.
ID Number
ME.333468.01.02
catalog number
333468.01.02
accession number
294351

Tall Case Clock, Peter Stretch

Peter Stretch, a Quaker immigrant, made the movement of this tall case clock in the first decade of the eighteenth century. Stretch (1670-1746) moved with his wife and four children from Leek, England, to Philadelphia in 1703.
Description
Peter Stretch, a Quaker immigrant, made the movement of this tall case clock in the first decade of the eighteenth century. Stretch (1670-1746) moved with his wife and four children from Leek, England, to Philadelphia in 1703. Initially focused on building up his own craft business in clocks and instruments, he eventually became an active member of the local Quaker community, an engaged citizen of the city who served on the City Council and a land owner. A respected and talented craftsman, he trained three of his sons—Daniel, Thomas and William—as clockmakers.
The plain walnut case for this clock was constructed by an unknown craftsman. Stretch made the brass movement, which runs for thirty hours on a single weight and strikes a bell on the hour.
Its dial features a single hour hand and Stretch’s signature. Although critical technical improvements in the 1660s had permitted the best clocks to keep time to the second, clockmakers at the end of the 17th century were still making some domestic timepieces with only the hour hand. These clocks were usually reliable to the closest quarter hour, rather than to the minute and second.
See also: Donald L. Fennimore and Frank L. Hohmann III, Stretch: America’s First Family of Clockmakers ([Winterthur, DE]: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc.; [New York, New York]: Hohmann Holdings LLC, 2013.
Location
Currently not on view
Currently not on view (pendulum)
date made
1705-1715
1705- 1715
maker
Stretch, Peter
ID Number
1986.0489.01
catalog number
1986.0489.01
accession number
1986.0489

Howard Regulator

Most nineteenth century American clocks were cheaply made for the mass market and domestic use.
Description
Most nineteenth century American clocks were cheaply made for the mass market and domestic use. But a few firms made finely finished precision clocks for applications where accuracy was vital: determining the time of scientific observations, for example, or regulating other clocks and watches. One such firm was E. Howard and Company of Boston, specialists in quality clocks, watches and scales since 1842.
This high-quality clock, made by the firm in 1874, distributed Philadelphia time for the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company in that city. Subscribers to the firm’s service of telegraphed gold prices and stock quotations could also receive a time service to set their clocks. Fitted to the mechanical movement of this Howard timepiece are assemblies that interrupt an electric telegraph circuit to indicate every half minute, full minute, five minutes and the hour.
Before 1883, towns across the nation set their own times by observing the position of the sun, so there were hundreds of local times. Instead of Eastern Standard Time, for example, there was Philadelphia Standard Time or Charleston Standard Time. Beginning in the 1850s, railroads operated on regional times, each set to an agreed-upon, arbitrary standard time. By the 1880s, there were about fifty such regional railroad times.
In November 1883, most North American railroads voluntarily agreed to adopt a standardized railway time based on zones, a system from which the time zones in use today originated.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1874
associated date
1874
associated institution
Allegheny Observatory
Gold and Stock Telegraph Company
associated person
Bentley, Henry
manufacturer
E. Howard & Co.
ID Number
ME.333468.01
catalog number
333468.01
accession number
294351

Lewis and Clark Expedition Pocket Compass

In the spring of 1803, Meriwether Lewis began to purchase scientific and mathematical instruments for a pending expedition into the northwestern region of North America.
Description
In the spring of 1803, Meriwether Lewis began to purchase scientific and mathematical instruments for a pending expedition into the northwestern region of North America. Among the items he purchased from Philadelphia instrument maker Thomas Whitney were three pocket compasses for $2.50 each, and this silver-plated pocket compass for $5. It has a mahogany box, a silver-plated brass rim that is graduated to degrees and numbered in quadrants from north and south, a paper dial, two small brass sight vanes, and a leather carrying case. Whether Lewis purchased the silver compass for himself or intended it as a special gesture for William Clark is not known.
Following the instructions of President Thomas Jefferson, the Corps of Discovery, under the leadership of Lewis and Clark, ascended the Missouri River in May 1804 to obtain detailed information on the natural resources of the region, to search for a northwest passage, and to make official diplomatic contact with Indian leaders.
By the time they returned to St. Louis in September 1806, few of the instruments that were purchased for the trip had survived the journey. The pocket compass, however, was kept by Clark as a memento. He later gave the compass to his friend, Capt. Robert A. McCabe, whose heirs donated it in 1933 to the Smithsonian Institution.
Date made
ca 1804
user
Clark, William
maker
Whitney, Thomas
ID Number
PL.038366
catalog number
38366
accession number
122864

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