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 3 items.
Arnold & Dent Box Chronometer
- Description
- This instrument is a specialized timekeeper designed for finding longitude at sea. Its form is that of the standardized 19th-century marine chronometer. It was transferred to the Smithsonian from the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. John Roger Arnold, son of chronometer maker John Arnold, and Edward John Dent (1790-1853) were in business together from 1830-1840 at 84 Strand, London. Charles Frodsham took over Arnold’s business after Arnold’s death in 1843. E. J. Dent, who had started making chronometers in 1814, continued in business until his death, when others continued the firm under various names and at various addresses. The business continues today.
- Mechanism details:
- Escapement: Earnshaw, spring detent
- Duration: 48-hour
- Power source: Spring drive with chain and fusee
- Balance spring: helical, blued steel
- Winding key, stamped "1131"
- Bowl details:
- Brass bowl, fitted with a sprung cylindrical inner bowl as a dust cover (original work); "1131" stamped on bottom inside of bowl
- Dimensions: 4.17" dia. across bezel x 2.7"
- Brass fittings, brass gimbal
- Bezel screwed and milled
- Crystal convex, plain
- Dial details:
- Engraved and silvered brass
- Indicates hours, minutes, seconds, winding level up and down
- Inscription: "ARNOLD & DENT, / 84. Strand, London No 1131”
- Hands: Gold, spade, with blued steel seconds hand
- Case details:
- Mahogany
- Three-part, glazed center section
- Brass side handles and escutcheon
- Bone roundel at front
- Inscriptions: "1131" engraved on roundel on case. "U.S.C.S." engraved on case lid
- References:
- 1. Gould, Rupert T. The Marine Chronometer. London: Holland Press, 1960.
- 2. Mercer, Tony. Chronometer Makers of the World. Essex: NAG Press, 1991.
- 3. Mercer, Vaudrey. John Arnold & Son. London: Antiquarian Horological Society, 1972.
- 4. Mercer, Vaudrey. Edward John Dent and His Successors. London: Antiquarian Horological Society, 1977.
- 5. Whitney, Marvin E. The Ship's Chronometer. Cincinnati: American Watchmakers Institute Press, 1985.
- date made
- 1839
- manufacturer
- Arnold & Dent
- ID Number
- ME*314612
- catalog number
- 314612
- accession number
- 206050
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Meneely & Oothout Surveyor's Vernier Compass
- Description
- This compass is marked "Meneely & Oothout, West Troy, N.Y." It was made in 1837, and the word "Warranted" indicates a guarantee of quality. It has a variation arc on the south arm that extends 30 units either way; the vernier is moved by a heavy tangent screw on top of the south arm, and reads to 2 minutes. There are two levels on the north arm. The compass was originally owned by Joseph Ham, a surveyor in Dutchess County, New York.
- Andrew Meneely (1802–1851) apprenticed with Julius Hanks, learning to cast bells and manufacture mathematical instruments. Returning to West Troy, N.Y., where he was born, Meneely established a successful brass foundry. In 1834 he advertised "Leveling and Surveying Instruments" as well as clocks and church bells. Meneely joined in partnership with Jonas V. Oothout (1814–1860) in January 1836, offering church bells, town clocks, theodolites, levels, and surveyor’s compasses of all kinds. The Meneely & Oothout partnership ended in 1838. Meneely then continued his business, taking his eldest son into partnership in 1849.
- Ref: Conrad S. Ham, "A Family History of a Group of Surveying Instruments 1750 to the Present Year 1954," Annual Report of Proceedings of the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers 70 (1954): 134-138.
- date made
- 1837
- owner
- Ham, Joseph
- maker
- Meneely and Oothout
- ID Number
- 1983.0548.02a
- accession number
- 1983.0548
- catalog number
- 1983.0548.02a
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Troughton & Simms Altitude and Azimuth Instrument
- Description
- The altitude and azimuth instruments made by Edward Troughton in London from the 1790s were remarkably stable and accurate, and Troughton & Simms continued this tradition. Indeed, Frederick W. Simms described the portable Troughton & Simms instruments as being "the most generally useful of all instruments for measuring angles, being applicable to geodesical as well as astronomical purposes."
- This example, made in 1837 for Columbia College (now University), is of this sort. It has a large and powerful achromatic telescope. The horizontal and vertical circles are silvered, graduated to 5 minutes, and read by microscopes with micrometers to 5 seconds. The graduated vertical circle is counterbalanced by a second circle on the other side of the telescope. The telescope assembly and horizontal axis rest on two conical pillars, supported by wyes and friction rollers. A long level is mounted between the microscopes reading the vertical circle. The inscriptions read "Troughton & Simms, London, 1837" and "Property of Columbia College."
- Ref: Frederick W. Simms, A Treatise on the Principal Mathematical Instruments (Baltimore, 1836), pp. 81–98.
- Date made
- 1837
- maker
- Troughton and Simms
- ID Number
- PH*319190
- catalog number
- 319190
- accession number
- 236206
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center