Dry Card Compass
Dry Card Compass
- Description
- This compass has a brass bowl gimbal mounted in a wooden box. A label on the box reads: "BRASS COMPASS, MANUFACTURED BY S. THAXTER & SON, 125 STATE STREET, BOSTON. Dealers in Nautical Instruments, Charts, Nautical Books, &c. N.B. Nautical Instruments Repaired." S. Thaxter & Sons sent this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1880, perhaps for use in the International Fishery Exhibition which opened in Berlin on April 20 of that year. The compass was clearly shown in the similar exhibition held in London in 1883.
- Ref: G. Brown Goode, et. al., Descriptive Catalogues of the Collections Sent from the United States to the International Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883 (Washington, D.C., 1884), vol. 2, p. 725.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- nautical compass (dry card)
- maker
- S. Thaxter & Son
- place made
- United States: Massachusetts, Boston
- Measurements
- compass: 7 in; 17.78 cm
- overall: 6 3/4 in x 10 1/8 in x 10 in; 17.145 cm x 25.7175 cm x 25.4 cm
- ID Number
- PH.039384
- catalog number
- 39384
- accession number
- 8745
- Credit Line
- S. Thaxter & Sons
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- Navigation
- Measuring & Mapping
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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