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 11 items.
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Hamilton No. 1 Box Chronometer
- Description
- This instrument is a specialized timekeeper for determining longitude at sea. It is serial no. 1 from a run of approximately 10,000 similar timekeepers made by Hamilton Watch Co, Lancaster, PA in 1942.
- World War II created a dire chronometer shortage for the United States. Before the war, most chronometers for American military and civilian customers were imported. Only a few American firms—including William Bond & Son of Boston and the New York establishments of John Bliss Inc. and T.S. and J. D. Negus—finished chronometers from parts imported from European makers. Chronometer making was a craft, with only a few hundred produced in any given year. When the war started in 1941, European suppliers of parts and finished instruments halted exports to the United States.
- Anticipating the arrival of war, the U.S. Naval Observatory had asked American domestic watch manufacturers in 1939 for their participation in mass-producing chronometers. Domestic watch manufacturers Hamilton and Elgin agreed to undertake the design and production, but only Hamilton’s product met Navy accuracy requirements. Hamilton delivered two prototypes to the Navy on 27 February 1942, which passed with an error rate of 1.55 seconds per day. The firm went on during the war to mass-produce 8900 more chronometers for the Navy, 1500 for merchant shipping and 500 for the Army. Between 1942 and 1944, the price dropped from $625 to $390 per timekeeper.
- Hamilton’s design for its Model 21 chronometer did not copy traditional European standards. Instead the design introduced key changes to improve accuracy. The modifications included changes to the escapement and the chronometer’s oscillating unit—the balance and hairspring assembly.
- To find longitude at sea, a chronometer would be set to the time of a place of known longitude, like Greenwich, England, the prime meridian. That time, carried to a remote location, could be compared to local time. Because one hour of difference in time equals 15 degrees difference in longitude, the difference in time between the chronometer and local time would yield local longitude.
- References:
- 1. Dick, Steven J. Sky and Ocean Joined: The U. S. Naval Observatory 1830-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
- 2. Whitney, Marvin. The Ship’s Chronometer. Cincinnati: American Watchmakers Institute Press, 1985.
- date made
- 1941
- 1956
- maker
- Hamilton
- ID Number
- ME*314825
- catalog number
- 314825
- accession number
- 210893
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mathematical Table, Decimal Equivalents of Parts of an Inch
- Description
- Companies seeking to provide customers with advertisements they might consult repeatedly sometimes distributed convenient mathematical tables. This is an example of one of these. The small white plastic card has figures printed in blue. The table gives decimal equivalents of parts of an inch ranging from 1/64” to 1” by sixty-fourth inch increments.
- The other side of the card has a small drawing that shows the wooden building occupied by Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company of Providence, Rhode Island, in 1848. It also shows the plant at the time the table was distributed, when it occupied 33 acres.
- A mark on the back of the table reads: FORM 93 M.M.T. 7-43:100. Another mark reads: PRINTED IN U. S. A. This mark suggests that the card dates from 1943.
- This table was found in the collections of what was then the Division of Work and Industry at the National Museum of American History.
- Compare 1988.3078.02.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1943
- maker
- Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1988.3078.01
- catalog number
- 1988.3078.01
- nonaccession number
- 1988.3078
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Bryan Gravimeter
- Description
- Gravimeters (gravity meters) are extremely precise instruments that measure the earth’s gravity at a specific location. Gravimeters are often used by prospectors to locate subterranean deposits of valuable natural resources (mainly petroleum) as well as by geodesists to study the shape of the earth and its gravitational field. Differences in topography, latitude, or elevation—as well as differences in subterranean density—all affect the force of gravity. Commonly, gravimeters are composed of a weight hanging on a zero-length spring inside a metal housing to negate the influence of temperature and wind. Gravity is then measured by how much the weight stretches the spring.
- This gravimeter was built in 1940 under the direction of Andrew Bonnell Bryan (1897 1989), a Ph.D. physicist who served for many years as Director of the Geophysics Division of the Carter Oil Co., in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is similar to the other Carter gravimeter in the collection. The Carter Oil Co. donated this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1959.
- Ref: F. G. Boucher to P. W. Bishop, August 6, 1959, in NMAH accession file. Boucher was at this time Senior Research Associate at Jersey Production Research Co.
- Notes prepared by D. G. Gardner, August 19, 1959, in NMAH accession file 230,370.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1940
- maker
- Carter Oil Company
- ID Number
- AG*MHI-P-7659
- accession number
- 230569
- catalog number
- MHI-P-7659
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Badger A-SOT Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. It has a frost-proof bottom, fits a ⅝” pipe, and has a capacity of 26 gallons per minute. The gear train operated in oil (SOT stood for sealed oil train). The serial number (2,342,998) dates from 1943. Due to wartime materials restrictions, the body is made of cast iron.
- date made
- ca 1943
- maker
- Badger Meter Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*325802
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325802
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Badger SC-SOT Water Meter
- Description
- This disc water meter was made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. It has a split case and so could be used in warmer climates where there was no danger of freezing. It fits a ⅝” pipe, has a capacity of 26 gallons per minute, and was designed for use with corrosive waters. Due to wartime materials restrictions, the case is made of cast iron. The serial number (2,358,003) dates from 1943. SC-SOT stands for split case, sealed oil gear train.
- date made
- ca 1943
- maker
- Badger Meter Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*325805
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325805
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Arctic Ironside Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter with frost-proof bottom and serial number 3,609,508, made by the Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company in the early 1940s. Pittsburgh Equitable explained that “Months of preparation by Pittsburgh-National Research men, preceding the limitation order on the manufacture of bronze meters by the War Production Board, now makes possible the presentation of the Pittsburgh Ironside Meter.” This is “a top quality disc meter in the construction of which over 70% of the bronze normally used in meters of this size has been eliminated. Rust-proofed cast iron and molded glass have been ingeniously substituted for bronze in the outer shell, register box and register lid.” “To meet the conditions in sections of the country where damage from freezing is likely to occur, this meter is equipped with a cast iron bottom plate especially designed so that should the water in the meter freeze, the pressure exerted by the expanding ice with break one or more of the lugs from the cast iron plate, thus allowing the vital working parts . . . to move freely with the expanding ice.”
- Ref: Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company, Ironside Water Meter, Bulletin W-535 (1942).
- date made
- early 1940s
- maker
- Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325815
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325815
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Calmet Model B-C Water Meter
- Description
- This oscillating piston water meter with split case and no serial number fit a ¾” pipe. It was made by the Well Machinery & Supply Company in Fort Worth, Texas. It has a cast-iron body and so was probably made during the materials restrictions of World War II.The city of Fort Worth agreed, in 1930, to purchase 8,000 oscillating piston meters from the California Meter Company of Los Angeles. The Well Machinery & Supply Company acquired California Meter soon thereafter, and advertised Calmet water meters as “A Texas Made Product.”
- Ref: “Water Meter Concern Cites Accepted Bid,” Los Angeles Times (Aug. 30, 1930), p. E1.
- Well Machinery & Supply Company, Calmet. The Precision Built Water Meter (Fort Worth, n.d.).
- date made
- early 1940s
- maker
- Well Machinery & Supply Company
- ID Number
- PH*325825
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325828
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Hersey I.C.H.F. Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter of the sort that the Hersey Manufacturing Company introduced in the early 1940s. Its working parts are similar to those of the Model H.F. but, due to wartime material restrictions, the case is of cast iron rather than bronze. With a capacity of 20 gallons per minute, this example was the smallest of several sizes made. The bottom is marked “Hersey anti-frost.”
- date made
- early 1940s
- maker
- Hersey Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*325845
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325845
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Hersey I.C.F. Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter of the sort that the Hersey Manufacturing Company introduced in the early 1940s. Its working parts are similar to those of the Model F but, due to wartime material restrictions, the case is of cast iron rather than bronze. With a capacity of 20 gallons per minute, this example was the smallest of several sizes made. The bottom is marked “Iron Antifrost.” The serial number (2,022,580) dates from 1944.
- date made
- ca 1944
- maker
- Hersey Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*325847
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325847
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Sparling Water Meter
- Description
- This is a 4” water meter with a fan blade impeller and serial number 10,239. The markings--“Sparling K-473” and “Sparling – K 473”—refer to the Sparling Meter Company. This firm was formed in Los Angeles in 1912, and began manufacturing propeller meters in 1919. The cast iron body suggests that it was made during the materials restrictions of World War II.
- date made
- early 1940s
- maker
- Sparling Water Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325871
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325871
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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