King Surveyor's Compass
- Description
- The “C.G. King Boston” signature refers to Charles Gedney King (1808-1858), a mathematical instrument maker who apprenticed with his father, Gedney King, and traded under his own name after his father’s death in 1839. C. G. King showed his instruments at fairs sponsored by the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association in the 1840s and 1850s, and took home several silver medals.
- King also announced he "Is now manufacturing and has for sale the largest assortment of Mathematical, Nautical, Engineers, Surveyors and Drafting Instruments to be found in the city." Moreover, the engineers’ and surveyors’ instruments manufactured in the King establishment, "are divided upon a new Engine, made expressly for the purpose, the performance of which, for the accuracy of its division, cannot be surpassed, if equalled, by any Engine in the Country."
- The rim of this example is graduated to 30 minutes. There are two level vials on the south arm.
- Ref: "Evidence of the Enterprise," Rittenhouse 1 (1987): 90.
- Object Name
- surveyor's compass
- maker
- King, Charles Gedney
- Measurements
- overall length: 15 5/8 in; 39.6875 cm
- needle: 5 in; 12.7 cm
- ID Number
- 1980.0696.01
- accession number
- 1980.0696
- catalog number
- 1980.0696.01
- subject
- Measuring & Mapping
- Surveying and Geodesy
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- Surveying and Geodesy
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- Additional Media
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