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.

Theodolite

This theodolite was made between 1878 when the U. S. Coast Survey became the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and 1887 when Saegmuller began putting serial numbers on Fauth instruments.
Description
This theodolite was made between 1878 when the U. S. Coast Survey became the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and 1887 when Saegmuller began putting serial numbers on Fauth instruments. It was described variously as a Reconnaissance and Mining Transit or a Complete Transit Theodolite. Its horizontal and vertical circles, each of 4 inches diameter, are divided on silver, and read by opposite verniers to single minutes. New, it sold for $200. The marks read "Fauth & Co. Washn D.C." and "U.S.C.&G.S. No. 122."
Ref: Fauth & Co., Catalogue of Astronomical and Surveying Instruments (Washington, D.C., about 1877), p. 33.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Fauth & Co.
ID Number
PH.309668
accession number
106954
catalog number
309668

Metallic Thermometer

Joseph Saxton, an accomplished scientist, inventor, and mechanician, joined the staff of the U.S. Coast Survey in 1844 at the request of the new Superintendent, Alexander Dallas Bache, and began developing instruments for measuring terrestrial phenomena.
Description
Joseph Saxton, an accomplished scientist, inventor, and mechanician, joined the staff of the U.S. Coast Survey in 1844 at the request of the new Superintendent, Alexander Dallas Bache, and began developing instruments for measuring terrestrial phenomena. Among the first was a metallic thermometer for use in deep water. Bache described this in 1848, saying that it proved “decidedly the most convenient” of the several forms tried. The thermometer coil was “like that of Breguet, only of much stouter material, and of two metals, silver and platinum, soldered together.” And the “plan of registering resembles that adopted by Jurgensen of Copenhagen, and by Montandon of Washington, in their metallic thermometers.”
Several Saxton thermometers were made in the Coast Survey’s instrument shop, and still in use at the start of World War I. This example came to the Smithsonian in 1929. Here the thermometer is held in a brass cylinder that is encased in a hexagonal frame. The cap of the cylinder is marked “SAXTON’S / METALLIC THERMOMETER / 17.” The scale around the circumference of the thermometer extends from -40 to +174 degrees Fahrenheit; one of the two pointers registers the lowest temperature to which the thermometer was exposed.
Ref: [A. D. Bache], Report of the superintendent of the coast survey, showing the progress of the work during the year ending November, 1848, p. 39.
Bache, “Lecture on the Gulf Stream, prepared at the request of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,” Report of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey during the Year 1860, pp. 165-176, on 166.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1850-1900
Inventor
Saxton, Joseph
ID Number
PH.309672
catalog number
309672
accession number
106954

Thermometer

This mercury-in-glass thermometer has a constriction in the stem just above the cylindrical bulb. The milk white back is marked "J. Hicks. 8 Hatton Garden.
Description
This mercury-in-glass thermometer has a constriction in the stem just above the cylindrical bulb. The milk white back is marked "J. Hicks. 8 Hatton Garden. London" and "207116." The clear front is graduated every tenth of a degree [Fahrenheit?] from -14.5 to +40.5, with calibration marks at 0 and 36. It is 24.5 inches long. It was made after Hicks began working at 8 Hatton Garden in 1864 and before the expansion of his business to 8, 9, & 10 Hatton Garden in the 1880s.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
J. J. Hicks
ID Number
PH.317447
accession number
230396
catalog number
317447

Thermometer

This mercury-in-glass thermometer has a cylindrical bulb, and a milk white tube that is marked “Yale Observatory Standard No.
Description
This mercury-in-glass thermometer has a cylindrical bulb, and a milk white tube that is marked “Yale Observatory Standard No. 51 Made by Tonnelot à Paris Equal graduations Crystal glass tube made April 1879.” The scale, which extends from -4.8 to +104.6 degrees Centigrade, is graduated every degree, in fifths. The protective chrome case is marked “Yale Observatory Standard No 51.”
Ref.: Leonard Waldo, “Examination of Thermometers at the Yale Observatory,” Popular Science Monthly 18 (1881): 367-374.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1879
maker
Tonnelot, Jules
ID Number
PH.317451
catalog number
317451
accession number
230396

Surveyor's Vernier Compass

The "RITTENHOUSE & EVANS" inscription on this compass refers to Benjamin Rittenhouse and his nephew, Benjamin Evans, who worked together in Worcester Township, Pennsylvania, around 1798-1801.
Description
The "RITTENHOUSE & EVANS" inscription on this compass refers to Benjamin Rittenhouse and his nephew, Benjamin Evans, who worked together in Worcester Township, Pennsylvania, around 1798-1801. A variation arc on the south arm extends 15 degrees either way; the "folded" vernier is moved by rack and pinion and reads to 5 minutes. John Johnson (1771-1841), the Surveyor-General of Vermont, used this compass in 1817-1820 while surveying the boundary between Maine and Canada. His notes refer to it as "a Circumferentor of 2.5 inches Radius made at Philadelphia by Rittenhouse and Evans and graduated to every 5 Minutes by the help of a nonius."
Ref: "John Johnson" in Abby M. Hemenway, ed., The Vermont Historical Gazeteer (Burlington, Vt., 1868), vol. 1, pp. 596-599
"John Johnson," in National Cyclopaedia of American History, vol. 17, pp. 290-291
Johnson's report on the Maine-Canada boundary survey, in University of Vermont Library.
Location
Currently not on view
user
Johnson, John
maker
Rittenhouse and Evans
ID Number
PH.309543
accession number
95588
catalog number
309543

Minimum Thermometer

Alcohol-in-glass Rutherford-type thermometer mounted on a flat brass plate marked "NO. 1483 SIGNAL SERVICE U.S.A." and "JAS. GREEN NEW YORK." A white porcelain strip on the plate is graduated every 5 degrees Fahrenheit from -35 to+115. The bulb is spherical.
Description
Alcohol-in-glass Rutherford-type thermometer mounted on a flat brass plate marked "NO. 1483 SIGNAL SERVICE U.S.A." and "JAS. GREEN NEW YORK." A white porcelain strip on the plate is graduated every 5 degrees Fahrenheit from -35 to+115. The bulb is spherical. The stem is marked "U.S. 1483" and graduated (but not numbered) every degree Fahrenheit from -35 to +122. It was made between 1870 (when the U.S. Signal Service established a national weather service) and 1879 (when James Green took his nephew into partnership and began trading as J. & H. J. Green).
John Rutherford, a Scottish country doctor, devised this form in 1790. Green stated in 1900 that it was "the only one in general use." It has a black index inside the tube. "On a decrease of temperature the alcohol recedes, taking with it the glass index; on an increase of temperature the alcohol alone ascends the tube, leaving the end of the index farthest from the bulb indicating the minimum temperature."
Ref.: Henry J. Green, Meteorological and Scientific Instruments (Brooklyn, 1900), p. 23.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1870-1879
ID Number
PH.317465
accession number
230396
catalog number
317465

Geodetic Transit

This transit instrument inscribed "Thos Jones Liverpool" and “U.S.C.S. No. 12" is one of the earliest extant instruments of the U. S. Coast Survey.
Description
This transit instrument inscribed "Thos Jones Liverpool" and “U.S.C.S. No. 12" is one of the earliest extant instruments of the U. S. Coast Survey. The Thomas Jones who worked as an instrument maker and dealer in Liverpool during the period 1816–1831 should not be confused with the Thomas Jones of London who made the transit theodolite for the Coast Survey, which is also in the collections.
The vertical circle attached to one end of the slightly conical horizontal axis is graduated to 15 minutes, and read by opposite verniers to single minutes. At the other end of the axis is a wooden lamp holder. The lattice work cast iron base has 3 leveling feet.
Ref: Gloria Clifton, Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550–1851 (London, 1995), p. 154.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Jones, Thomas
ID Number
PH.316521
accession number
225703
catalog number
316521

Thermometer

Mercury-in-glass thermometer mounted on a grooved metal plate that is marked "H. J. GREEN B'KLYN N.Y." and "No. 11065 U.S. WEATHER BUREAU" and graduated every five degrees Fahrenheit from -25 to +115. The stem is marked "11065" and graduated every degree F.
Description
Mercury-in-glass thermometer mounted on a grooved metal plate that is marked "H. J. GREEN B'KLYN N.Y." and "No. 11065 U.S. WEATHER BUREAU" and graduated every five degrees Fahrenheit from -25 to +115. The stem is marked "11065" and graduated every degree F. from -25 to +120.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1890
maker
H. J. Green
ID Number
PH.317455
accession number
230396
catalog number
317455

Minimum Thermometer

Alcohol-in-glass Rutherford-type thermometer mounted on a white porcelain plate that is marked "575" and with the M/O monogram of the British Meteorological Office and "J. HICKS, 8, 9 & 10. HATTON GARDEN LONDON" and an monogram.
Description
Alcohol-in-glass Rutherford-type thermometer mounted on a white porcelain plate that is marked "575" and with the M/O monogram of the British Meteorological Office and "J. HICKS, 8, 9 & 10. HATTON GARDEN LONDON" and an monogram. The plate is also graduated every 5 degrees Fahrenheit from -20 to +110. The thermometer stem is marked "575" and with the M/O monogram; and graduated every degree Fahrenheit from -25 to +110. The whole is mounted on a wooden base that has metal guards protecting the bulb, and that once had two metal loops so that it could be hung horizontally.
James J. Hicks (1837-1916) apprenticed with Casella and rose to the position of foreman before beginning in business on his own. He rented a shop at 8 Hatton Garden in 1864 and expanded to 8, 9 & 10 Hatton Garden in the 1880s.
Ref: Anita McConnell, King of the Clinicals. The Life and Times of J. J. Hicks (1837-1916) (York, 1998).
Location
Currently not on view
maker
J. J. Hicks
ID Number
PH.317471
accession number
230396
catalog number
317471

Water Current Meter

Joseph Saxton, an ingenious American who spent several years in London, designed a current meter at the behest of the British engineer, Joseph Cubitt, and tested it at the Adelaide Gallery in 1832.This example belonged to the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals in Lowell, Mass.,
Description
Joseph Saxton, an ingenious American who spent several years in London, designed a current meter at the behest of the British engineer, Joseph Cubitt, and tested it at the Adelaide Gallery in 1832.
This example belonged to the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals in Lowell, Mass., and was probably used by James B. Francis, the chief engineer of that organization. The “ELLIOTT & SONS London” inscription indicates that it was made between 1850 and 1854. Several features—including the vane and the rotor—resemble those in the Woltman-type current meter made by Lerebours et Secretan (see PH*314769). It came to the Smithsonian in 1956.
William Davis Haskoll included an image of “Elliott’s Current Meter” in his engineering text of 1858, and described it as “a most useful instrument for ascertaining velocities, either a few inches below the surface, or at the bottom, or at any depth between.” An Elliott price list bound with this book indicates that current meters cost between £3. 3s and £5. 5s. Similar instruments were available from other London firms such as Watkins & Hill, James J. Hicks, Louis Casella, and Adie.
William Elliott began in business in London in the early 1800s, making and selling mathematical instruments. The firm became Elliott & Sons in 1850 and Elliott Brothers in 1854. It was absorbed into what became BAE Systems in 1988. Its archives are now in the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford.
Ref: “Description of the Current-Meter as Recently Improved by Mr. Saxton,” The Magazine of Popular Science and Journal of the Useful Arts 1 (1836): 108-112.
W. Davis Haskoll, The Practice of Engineering Field Work (London, 1858), pp. 261-262.
Elliott Brothers, General Illustrated Catalogue (London, [1867]), 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. 51-56.
T. N. Clarke, A. D. Morrison-Low, and A. D. C. Simpson, Brass & Glass. Scientific Instrument Making Workshops in Scotland as illustrated by Instruments from the Arthur Frank Collection at the Royal Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1989), p. 83.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1850-1854
inventor
Saxton, Joseph
ID Number
PH.314772
accession number
211155
catalog number
314772

Rude Star Finder (British)

This consists of a two-sided cardboard planisphere of the northern and southern skies, seven clear plastic altitude-azimuth templates for use at different latitudes up to 70° north and south, and a cardboard envelope. Gilbert Rude donated it to the Smithsonian in 1958.
Description
This consists of a two-sided cardboard planisphere of the northern and southern skies, seven clear plastic altitude-azimuth templates for use at different latitudes up to 70° north and south, and a cardboard envelope. Gilbert Rude donated it to the Smithsonian in 1958. The instrument bears the inscription "STAR IDENTIFIER, Adapted from the ‘Rude Star Finder and Identifier’ originated by Captain G. T. Rude, U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey . . . Hydrographic Department, Admiralty, London. Sept. 1941 (H.S. 4026 /40)."
Ref: G. T. Rude, "Star Finder and Identifier," U.S. patent #1,401,446.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1941
ID Number
PH.315973
catalog number
315973
accession number
222109

Map of the COUNTRY Contiguous to the CHESAPEAKE & DELAWARE CANAL

While suggestions of a canal between Philadelphia and Baltimore originated in the 17th century, and efforts to dig this canal date from shortly after the Revolution, it was the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal that made the waterway a reality.
Description
While suggestions of a canal between Philadelphia and Baltimore originated in the 17th century, and efforts to dig this canal date from shortly after the Revolution, it was the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal that made the waterway a reality. Henry Schenck Tanner (1786-1858), an important early American cartographer, produced this map showing the proposed route of the canal for the Fifth General Report of the President and Directors of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company (Philadelphia, 1824). The text at bottom center reads “Longitude East from Washington.” The signature at bottom right reads “Drawn & Engrav’d by H. S. Tanner.”
Ref: Walter W. Ristow, American Maps and Mapmakers: Commercial Cartography in the Nineteenth Century (Detroit, 1985), pp. 191-206.
James Walker, “Henry S. Tanner and Cartographic Expression of American Expansion in the 1820s,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 111 (2010): 444-461.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1824
ID Number
PH.317825
catalog number
317825
accession number
231759

Minimum Thermometer

Alcohol-in-glass Rutherford-type thermometer. The back of the stem is milk glass. The clear front is marked "J. & H. J. Green. N.Y." and "Signal Service U.S. Army No. 14" and graduated every degree Fahrenheit from -90 to +135.
Description
Alcohol-in-glass Rutherford-type thermometer. The back of the stem is milk glass. The clear front is marked "J. & H. J. Green. N.Y." and "Signal Service U.S. Army No. 14" and graduated every degree Fahrenheit from -90 to +135. It was made between 1879 and 1885 (when James Green worked in partnership with his nephew Henry).
John Rutherford, a Scottish country doctor, devised this form in 1790. Green stated in 1900 that it was "the only one in general use." It has a black index inside the tube. "On a decrease of temperature the alcohol recedes, taking with it the glass index; on an increase of temperature the alcohol alone ascends the tube, leaving the end of the index farthest from the bulb indicating the minimum temperature."
Ref.: Henry J. Green, Meteorological and Scientific Instruments (Brooklyn, 1900), p. 23.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1879-1885
maker
J. & H. J. Green
ID Number
PH.317467
accession number
230396
catalog number
317467

Geodetic Transit

This instrument, which the U. S. War Department transferred to the Smithsonian in 1933, was probably used by the Army Topographical Engineers.It is marked "Troughton & Simms, London 2" and was made perhaps as early as the 1840s.
Description
This instrument, which the U. S. War Department transferred to the Smithsonian in 1933, was probably used by the Army Topographical Engineers.It is marked "Troughton & Simms, London 2" and was made perhaps as early as the 1840s. It has a double-cone horizontal axis, a lamp for illuminating this axis, a large striding level, a small vertical circle at one end of the horizontal axis, and an iron base.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Troughton and Simms
ID Number
PH.310559
accession number
122836
catalog number
310559

Gravity Pendulum

In the 1920s, as American companies began using scientific tools for petroleum prospecting, the Marland Oil Co. established a geophysical research laboratory; hired a PhD physicist named Englehardt August Eckhardt and an electrical engineer named Ralph D.
Description
In the 1920s, as American companies began using scientific tools for petroleum prospecting, the Marland Oil Co. established a geophysical research laboratory; hired a PhD physicist named Englehardt August Eckhardt and an electrical engineer named Ralph D. Wyckoff; and purchased two sets of Mendenhall pendulum apparatus. Since this apparatus "afforded a precision of measurement which was just barely sufficient" for prospecting purposes, Eckhardt and Wyckoff developed a more precise instrument. The key element of their design was a minimum period pendulum made of fused quartz, a material that was physically stable and that minimized temperature corrections. General Electric supplied the quartz, the largest pieces of this material it had yet made.
The Gulf Research & Development Corp. hired Eckhardt and Wyckoff in 1928, and asked them to design new pendulum equipment based on their past experience. By 1935, Gulf had 10 pendulum instruments in the field. The pendulums were ground and polished by J. W. Fecker from pieces of fused quartz produced by General Electric. The bearings for the knife-edges were made of Pyrex. The optical work for the instrument was done by Bausch & Lomb.
For geological purposes, the Gulf pendulum instruments were replaced by gravimeters in 1936. For geodetic purposes, however, they remained useful and important for much longer. Indeed, some examples were used during the International Geophysical Year, 1957-1958. The Gulf Research & Development Corp. donated this example to the Smithsonian in 1962.
Ref: Malcolm W. Gay, "Relative Gravity Measurements Using Precision Pendulum Equipment," Geophysics 5 (1940): 176-191.
"Pendulum and Gravimeter Measurements of the Earth's Gravity," Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 39 (1958): 1205-1211.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1930s
maker
Gulf Research & Development Corp.
ID Number
PH.319961
catalog number
319961
accession number
241314

Thermometer

Mercury-in-glass thermometer with a spherical bulb. The milk-white back is marked “L. Golaz à Paris 729” and carries a scale reading from -15.5 to +75 degrees centigrade, both of which seem to be done by hand, rather than by machine.
Description
Mercury-in-glass thermometer with a spherical bulb. The milk-white back is marked “L. Golaz à Paris 729” and carries a scale reading from -15.5 to +75 degrees centigrade, both of which seem to be done by hand, rather than by machine. The inscription indicates that this instrument was made after 1891 (when Lucien Golaz took charge of the firm that his father had begun in 1830) and before the demise of the firm in 1919.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1891-1919
maker
L. Golaz
ID Number
PH.317444
catalog number
317444
accession number
230396

Liquid Level Indicator, Recording Mechanism

The U.S. Weather Bureau transferred this device to the Smithsonian in 1954, describing it as a recording mechanism for a liquid level indicator. The inscription reads “Siemens & Halske, Berlin. No.
Description
The U.S. Weather Bureau transferred this device to the Smithsonian in 1954, describing it as a recording mechanism for a liquid level indicator. The inscription reads “Siemens & Halske, Berlin. No. 1734.”
Werner Siemens (von Siemens since 1888) was a prominent German inventor and industrialist who established the instrument firm of Siemens & Halske in 1847.
Siemens described an electrical water level indicator in 1866. Siemens & Halske sent an example to the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus held in London in 1876, terming it a “Magneto-Electric Water Level Indicator.” The accompanying text explained that: “A float which rises or falls with the level of the water in the reservoir or tank communicates motion by a metallic chain to a magneto inductor, which, generating electric currents, works at any distance [by] an indicator connected by a cable or insulated wire.” An example was also shown in the Collective Exhibit of the Historical Development of the Applications of Electricity in Germany, at the Columbian Exhibition held in Chicago in 1893.
Ref: “Siemens & Halske’s Electrical Water Level Indicator,” in Werner von Siemens, Scientific & Technical Papers (London, 1895), vol. 2, pp. 251-255.
South Kensington Museum, Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus (London, 1876), p. 918.
Chicago. Columbian Exposition. Official Catalogue. Exhibition of the German Empire (Berlin, 1893), p. 247.
Wilfried Feldenkirchen, Werner von Siemens. Inventor and International Entrepreneur (Columbus, O., 1994).
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Siemens & Halske
ID Number
PH.314565
accession number
204612
catalog number
314565

Comparison Aneroid Barometer

This instrument is 5¼ inches diameter and 3¼ inches deep. The inscriptions on the face read “R. / FUESS / BERLIN-STEGLITZ” and “195153” and “D.R.P.” and “mb.” The scale around the circumference of the face extends from 0 to 1100.
Description
This instrument is 5¼ inches diameter and 3¼ inches deep. The inscriptions on the face read “R. / FUESS / BERLIN-STEGLITZ” and “195153” and “D.R.P.” and “mb.” The scale around the circumference of the face extends from 0 to 1100. A nozzle on the side of the pressure-tight steel case is designed for attaching a hose that would be connected to a testing device.
This came to the Smithsonian in 1959, a transfer from the U.S. Weather Bureau. It may date from around 1940.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940
maker
R. Fuess
ID Number
PH.316274
accession number
224564
catalog number
316274

Aneroid Barometer

Victor Beaumont was a mechanic in New York City with at least six patents to his name. The patent issued on June 14, 1859, described a gauge for measuring the pressure of steam or other fluids.
Description
Victor Beaumont was a mechanic in New York City with at least six patents to his name. The patent issued on June 14, 1859, described a gauge for measuring the pressure of steam or other fluids. When he realized that Lucien Vidie, in France, had used a similar mechanism to construct the first practical aneroid barometer, Beaumont began making instruments of this sort. At the American Institute Fair of 1859 he was awarded a diploma for a “Cheap Barometer” that was “likely to prove of importance to the agricultural community, because it is cheap, costing only $4, and as effective as the most expensive kind and not likely to get out of order, and can be transported as easily as a watch, with as little danger of injury.”
This example is marked “Beaumont’s Barometer / 175 Center Street / NEW YORK / Patented June 14, 1859.” The scale extends from 18 to 31 inches of mercury, and is graduated in tenths.
Ref: Victor Beaumont, “Gage for Measuring the Pressure of Fluids,” U.S. Patent 24,365 (1859).
“A Cheap Barometer,” 18 (1859-1861): 180-181.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1860
maker
Beaumont, Victor
ID Number
PH.313693
catalog number
313693
accession number
192408

Thermometer

This mercury-in-glass thermometer has a cylindrical bulb. The milk-white back is marked "L. Casella. London. 14490." The clear front is graduated every degree Fahrenheit from -25 to +130. It was made before the death of Louis Casella in 1897.Currently not on view
Description
This mercury-in-glass thermometer has a cylindrical bulb. The milk-white back is marked "L. Casella. London. 14490." The clear front is graduated every degree Fahrenheit from -25 to +130. It was made before the death of Louis Casella in 1897.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
L. P. Casella
ID Number
PH.317445
accession number
230396
catalog number
317445

Water Current Meter

William Gunn Price of the U.S. Corps of Engineers designed a water current meter in 1882, obtained a patent, and arranged with W. & L. E. Gurley, a large instrument firm in Troy, N.Y., for commercial production.
Description
William Gunn Price of the U.S. Corps of Engineers designed a water current meter in 1882, obtained a patent, and arranged with W. & L. E. Gurley, a large instrument firm in Troy, N.Y., for commercial production. Gurley Precision Instruments offers improved models of Price meters to this day.
This example of Gurley’s “Deep Water and Harbor Meter” has a four-blade rudder and a wheel with five conical buckets. It is 34 inches long overall. A tag on the wheel housing reads “R. R. S. No. 1 / W. G. PRICE / PAT. AUG. 25, 1885 / No. 28 / W. & L. E. GURLEY / TROY, N.Y.” The Mississippi River Commission bought it around 1890 and used it at various points between Rosedale and Vicksburg. The Engineer Office of the U.S. War Department transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1939.
Ref: William Gunn Price, “Current Meter,” U.S. Patent 325,011 (1885).
Arthur H. Frazier, William Gunn Price and the Price Current Meters (Washington, D.C., 1967), p. 50.
Arthur H. Frazier, Water Current Meters in the Smithsonian Collections of the National Museum of History and Technology (Washington, D.C., 1974), pp. 80.
W. & L. E. Gurley, Manual of the Principle Instruments Used in American Engineering and Surveying (Troy, N.Y., 1893), p. 244.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890
maker
W. & L. E. Gurley
ID Number
PH.311708
accession number
152263
catalog number
311708

Transit and Equal Altitude Instrument

The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, paying $15 million for some 828,000 square miles. This Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the country, and has often been called the greatest real estate deal ever made.
Description
The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, paying $15 million for some 828,000 square miles. This Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the country, and has often been called the greatest real estate deal ever made. Several months before the treaty was signed, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Isaac Briggs Surveyor General of what was then referred to as the Mississippi Territory. In preparation for this task, Briggs asked Andrew Ellicott for his transit and equal altitude instrument. When Ellicott refused to sell, Briggs turned to Henry Voigt (1738–1814), a German immigrant trained as a clock and watch maker. Briggs used this Voight instrument in 1804 to establish a prime meridian for the United States, running through Washington, D.C. He then took it to the new Territory and, since it had been purchased with federal funds, he left it there when he retired in 1807. The transit was transferred to the Surveyor General of Florida in the 1820s, placed in storage, and forgotten. It was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1891. The transit is marked "Henry Voigt Philadelphia."
Ref: Silvio Bedini, "The Case of the 'Worthless' Instruments," Professional Surveyor (October 1995): 49 50, and (November/December 1995): 61–62.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Voigt, Henry
ID Number
PH.311772
accession number
152769
catalog number
311772

Water Current Meter

In 1847, a French hydraulic engineer named André G. A. Baumgarten published an account of his work with a horizontal-axis current meter that was based on the form that had been described by Reinhard Woltmann, a German hydraulic engineer, in 1790. Lerebours et Secretan (fl.
Description
In 1847, a French hydraulic engineer named André G. A. Baumgarten published an account of his work with a horizontal-axis current meter that was based on the form that had been described by Reinhard Woltmann, a German hydraulic engineer, in 1790. Lerebours et Secretan (fl. 1845-1855), a prominent instrument firm in Paris, began offering a “Moulinet de Woltmann” soon thereafter, noting that this form was used in the hydraulic service of the Ponts et Chausées, the national agency in charge of bridges and roads.
The “Lerebours et Secretan / à Paris” inscription on this example dates from the period 1845-1855. The instrument came from the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals, the corporation that developed water transportation along the Merrimack River, and water power for the town of Lowell, Massachusetts. James B. Francis probably acquired it shortly after having been named manager of that organization. It came to the Smithsonian in 1956, and was restored by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Clemens Herschel opined in 1869 that “The best instrument to measure the velocity of the current at any point has generally been thought to be the so-called Woltmann wheel, or tachometer.” James B. Francis did not mention an instrument of this sort in the first (1855) edition of his Lowell Hydraulic Experiments, but in 1868 he noted that “Woltman’s mill, or tachometer, has been much used for this purpose, but to insure correct results, its application is one of much delicacy, and in our large channels would require much time.”
Ref: A. G. A. Baumgarten, “Sur le moulinet de Woltmann destiné à mesurer les vitesses de l’eau, sur son perfectionment et sur les experiences avec cet instrument,” Annales des Ponts et Chausées, Memoires et Documents (1847): 326-357.
Lerebours et Secretan, Catalogue et Prix des Instruments (Paris, 1853), p. 138.
James B. Francis, (New York, 1868), p. 156.
Clemens Herschel, “Gauging the Flow of Rivers, &c.,” Journal of the Franklin Institute 87 (1869): 305-315.
Arthur H. Frazier, Water Current Meters in the Smithsonian Collections of the National Museum of History and Technology (Washington, D.C., 1974), pp. 49-50 and 56-57.
Paolo Brenni, “Lerebours et Secretan,” Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 40 (1994): 3-6.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1845-1855
maker
Lerebours et Secretan
ID Number
PH.314769
accession number
211155
catalog number
314769

Inverted Pendulum Seismograph

Arthur J. Weed was a skilled mechanic who, as chief instrument maker of the U.S. Weather Bureau, built and maintained the seismograph that Charles Marvin had designed in 1895.
Description
Arthur J. Weed was a skilled mechanic who, as chief instrument maker of the U.S. Weather Bureau, built and maintained the seismograph that Charles Marvin had designed in 1895. Moving in 1920 to the Rouss Physical Laboratory at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Weed gained access to resources that allowed him to go further in this field. With the aid of engineering students, Weed built a inverted pendulum seismograph with a 750-pound weight. Photographs of Weed with this massive instrument ran as an A.P. story in several newspapers. One headline read: “Trapping earthquakes has become a popular business at the University of Virginia, where one of the most unique and sensitive seismographs in the country keeps a twenty-four hour watch for tremors.”
Weed also designed a smaller inverted pendulum seismograph that could “be used in many places where a more elaborate installation is out of the question.” One account described a cylindrical steady mass of about six pounds resting on three wires placed in the form of an equilateral triangle to which an oil damping device is attached.” This is an instrument of that sort. It came to the Smithsonian in 1963.
When Weed died in 1936, the chief seismologist of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey noted that “the science of seismology has lost one who has given much thought to instrumental problems, an active worker and a true friend.” The American Geophysical Union noted the loss of “a member who has long been active in the field of instrumental seismology.”
Ref: “Seismograph is Homemade,” Washington Post (July 10, 1927), p. 12, and Salt Lake Tribune (July 10, 1927), p. 10.
“Something New In Seismographs,” The Telegraph (May 4, 1932).
N. H. Heck, “Arthur J. Weed,” Science 83 (1936): 404.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1930
ID Number
PH.323393
catalog number
323393
accession number
251562

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