Octant with an ebony frame, reinforced brass index arm, and ivory name plate. The ivory scale is graduated every 20 minutes from -3° to +109°, and read by vernier with tangent screw to single minutes of arc. The inscription reads "W. DESILVA* LIVERPOOL."
The original wooden box (now lost) had a trade label that read "William Desilva, 78 Regent Road opposite the Bramley-Moore Hotel, Liverpool." Desilva was in business from 1851 to 1881, offering optical and nautical instruments.
The Smithsonian bought this octant in 1903 from Elias Heidenheimer (1833-1926), a German Jew who emigrated to the United in 1859, and worked as jeweler and pawnbroker in Washington, D.C. and Alexandria, Va.
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