Sextant

Description:

This sextant has a brass frame. The silvered scale is graduated every 10 minutes from -5° to +145° and read by vernier with tangent screw and swinging magnifier to single minutes of arc. The inscriptions read "Frodsham, Liverpool" and "2602." It came from Vassar College, and may have been used by the professor of astronomy, Maria Mitchell.

Ref: Gloria Clifton, Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851 (London, 1995), p. 106.

Date Made: ca 1865

Maker: Charles Frodsham

Location: Currently not on view

Place Made: United Kingdom: England, Liverpool

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

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Gift of Vassar College

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 1980.0318.03Catalog Number: 1980.0318.03Accession Number: 1980.0318

Object Name: sextant

Physical Description: mahogany (overall material)brass (overall material)silver (overall material)glass (overall material)Measurements: radius: 8 in; 20.32 cmoverall: 4 15/16 in x 12 7/8 in x 11 1/4 in; 12.54125 cm x 32.7025 cm x 28.575 cm

Metadata Usage: CC0

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a9-0324-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_1058762

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