Measuring & Mapping - Overview
Where, how far, and how much? People have invented an astonishing array of devices to answer seemingly simple questions like these. Measuring and mapping objects in the Museum's collections include the instruments of the famous—Thomas Jefferson's thermometer and a pocket compass used by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition across the American West. A timing device was part of the pioneering motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge in the late 1800s. Time measurement is represented in clocks from simple sundials to precise chronometers for mapping, surveying, and finding longitude. Everyday objects tell part of the story, too, from tape measures and electrical meters to more than 300 scales to measure food and drink. Maps of many kinds fill out the collections, from railroad surveys to star charts.
"Measuring & Mapping - Overview" showing 5 items.
Magnetometer
- Description
- The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington designed this theodolite magnetometer around 1904, combining the best features of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey magnetometer and that used by the Magnetic Survey of India. This example is marked ";BAUSCH, LOMB, SAEGMULLER CO. Rochester, N.Y. 4594" and "C.I. MAGNETOMETER NO. 4." It was made in 1907 and, with tripod, cost $620.50.
Ref: J. A. Fleming, "Comparisons of Magnetic Observatory Standards by the Carnegie Institution of Washington," Terrestrial Magnetism 16 (1911): 61-84, on 62-63.
Bausch, Lomb, Saegmuller Co., Astronomical, Engineering and Other Instruments of Precision (Rochester, N.Y., 1907), pp. 41-43.
Carnegie Institution of Washington, Land Magnetic Observations, 1905-1910 (Washington, D.C., 1912).
- Date made
- 1907
- maker
- Bausch, Lomb, Saegmuller Co.
- ID Number
- PH*316516
- accession number
- 225703
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Saccharimeter
- Description
- This saccharimeter is marked "E. H. SARGENT & C0. 645 CHICAGO" and "BUREAU OF STANDARDS WASHINGTON" and "B.S. 2862." It was probably made by J. & J. Fric of Prague. The National Bureau of Standards transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1960.
- The Bureau of Standards was established in 1901 and given responsibility for standardizing the saccharimeters and other instruments used to assess the saccharine quality of sugar coming into the United States. Frederick Bates joined the Bureau in 1903 after having earned a M.S. in physics from the University of Nebraska. Placed at the head of the Polarimetry Section of the Optics Division, he was effectively in charge of the government’s sugar research program. In 1907 he published the design for a quartz compensating polariscope with adjustable sensibility that allowed observers to admit only as much light as was needed and thus preserve as much accuracy as possible. Bates asked J. & J. Fric of Prague to manufacture this instrument for the U.S. Customs Service. The Frics also made a slightly simpler model, as here, more suitable for chemists working in industry and academia.
- E. H. Sargent & Co., the Chicago firm that imported Fric instruments into the United States, explained that the Bates saccharimeter was the first instrument with wedge compensation for white light whose sensibility and brightness were adjustable; its optical and mechanical parts were protected by a dust-proof metal case; and its scales and verniers were etched on ground glass and read by transmitted light.
- Ref: F. Bates, “A Quartz Compensating Polariscope with Adjustable Sensibility,” Bulletin of the Bureau of Standards 4 (1907): 461-466.
- F. Bates, “Remarks on the Quartz Compensating Polariscope with Adjustable Sensibility,” Bulletin of the Bureau of Standards 5 (1908): 193-198.
- E. H. Sargent & Co., Price List No. 25. Scientific Laboratory Apparatus and Bacteriological Supplies (Chicago, 1922), p. 372.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date published
- 1907
- date made
- after 1907
- maker
- J. & J. Fric
- ID Number
- PH*318110
- catalog number
- 318110
- accession number
- 231765
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Keuffel & Esser Transit
- Description
- This is marked "KEUFFEL & ESSER CO NEW YORK." The firm termed it an Engineer's Mountain and Mining Transit, Model 5076. New, it cost $220. Its Solar Attachment, Model 5090, which is based on the design patented by G. N. Saegmuller in 1881, cost an additional $50. The serial number corresponds with a date of about 1908. By 1913, Keuffel & Esser had changed the design of this transit in several small ways.
- Ref: Keuffel & Esser, Catalogue of Drawing Materials, Surveying Instruments (New York, 1906), pp. 30-31 and 372.
- date made
- 1908
- maker
- Keuffel & Esser Co.
- ID Number
- 1989.0403.05
- accession number
- 1989.0403
- catalog number
- 1989.0403.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Gurley Transit
- Description
- This is marked "W. & L. E. Gurley, Troy, N.Y. 9296." Gurley described it as a Surveyor's Transit with two verniers to the horizontal limb. The horizontal circle is silvered, graduated every 30 minutes of arc, and read by opposite verniers to single minutes. There is a clamp and a tangent to the telescope axis. With tripod, this transit sold for $148. The serial number indicates that it was the 296th instrument that Gurley made in 1909.
- Ref: W. & L. E. Gurley, Manual of the Principal Instruments used in American Engineering and Surveying (Troy, N.Y., 1909), pp. 43-46 and 272.
- date made
- 1909
- maker
- W. & L. E. Gurley
- ID Number
- PH*318461
- catalog number
- 318461
- accession number
- 235075
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Hersey F. Water Meter
- Description
- The Hersey Manufacturing Company introduced this type of disc meter in 1901. The firm described it as a “positive displacement meter of the nutating type” that was compact, accessible, able “to do a large amount of service at the lowest possible cost, and “adapted for use on all services where accuracy, reliability and durability are required.” This example—a ⅝” meter with a capacity of 20 gallons per minute—was the smallest of several sizes made. The serial number (321,930) dates from 1908.
- Ref: Hersey Manufacturing Company, Hersey Disc Water Meter. Model F Meter (July 1, 1926).
- date made
- 1908
- maker
- Hersey Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*325846
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325846
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center