Surveyor's Transit

Description:

Paul Weiss (1864-1943) was born in Switzerland, and moved to the United States in 1881. By 1891 he was working as an optician in Denver, Colorado. From 1904 to 1910 he worked in partnership with Frank Heitzler, whose patent (#891,733), dated June 23, 1908, described a telescope with two prisms in the optical train, making it substantially shorter than telescopes ordinarily used with surveying instruments. The telescope of this transit is of that type. The horizontal and vertical circles of this transit are silvered, graduated to 30 minutes of arc, and read by verniers to single minutes. There is a clamp and tangent to the telescope axis. The inscription on the telescope reads "Weiss & Heitzler Makers No. 32 Denver, Colo Patent June, 1908."

Ref: Charles Smart, The Makers of Surveying Instruments in America Since 1700, vol. 2 (Troy, N.Y., 1967), pp. 207 and 257.

Date Made: 1904-1910

Maker: Weiss and Heitzler

Location: Currently not on view

Place Made: United States: Colorado, Denver

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences, Surveying and Geodesy, Measuring & Mapping

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Related Publication: Smart, Charles E.. Makers of Surveying Instruments in America Since 1700

Credit Line: LaVerne Watkins

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 1989.0403.08Accession Number: 1989.0403Catalog Number: 1989.0403.08

Object Name: engineer's transit

Measurements: overall: 11 7/8 in; 30.1625 cmhorizontal circle: 5 1/4 in; 13.335 cmneedle: 3 1/2 in; 8.89 cmvertical circle: 5 in; 12.7 cmtelescope: 8 in; 20.32 cmhanging level: 4 in; 10.16 cmoverall in case: 15 1/4 in x 9 1/2 in x 7 1/2 in; 38.735 cm x 24.13 cm x 19.05 cm

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-a939-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_746034

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