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 2 minutes of arc. The inscription reads "Made by Thos Ripley London For Frans Earle July 21st 1784." Thomas Ripley was in business from 1765 to 1790, offering mathematical and optical instruments. Caroline Bates, the widow of Major General Alfred Elliott Bates, gave this to the Smithsonian in 1916.
Ref: Gloria Clifton, Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851 (London, 1895), p.233.
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