This compass has a heavy brass bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box and a flat card with central buoyancy. The inscriptions read "E. S. RITCHIE BOSTON 23924" and "PATENTED" and "RITCHIE, BOSTON U.S.A." The Ritchie ledgers, now held by Ritchie Navigation, indicate that it was made on May 7, 1898, and sold to T.S. & J.D. Negus, a New York firm that sold a variety of nautical and optical instruments.
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