Sextant
Sextant
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- Description
- Sextant with a double brass frame of the sort introduced by Edward Troughton in London in 1788. The silvered scale is graduated every 10 minutes from -5° to +155° and read by vernier with tangent screw and swinging magnifier to 10 seconds of arc. The "Riggs Brothers, Philadelphia" inscription came into use in 1865, and probably refers to the firm that sold instruments of this sort to American customers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- sextant
- place sold
- United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
- Physical Description
- brass (overall material)
- glass (overall material)
- ebony (overall material)
- Measurements
- radius: 7 in; 17.78 cm
- overall in case: 5 1/4 in x 11 in x 10 1/2 in; 13.335 cm x 27.94 cm x 26.67 cm
- ID Number
- 1989.0010.01
- catalog number
- 1989.0010.01
- accession number
- 1989.0010
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- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- Measuring & Mapping
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- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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