The completion of the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858 was a cause for much celebration on both sides of the Atlantic. Tiffany & Company of New York purchased the cable remaining on board the USS Niagara after the successful completion of the cable and sold 4-inch sections as souvenirs. Each section of cable was banded at the ends with brass ferrules and had a brass plaque that read “ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH CABLE/GUARANTEED BY/TIFFANY & CO./ BROADWAY • NEW YORK • 1858.” The cable souvenirs originally sold for 50 cents and came with a reproduced letter of authenticity from Cyrus W. Field, the pioneer of the transatlantic cable system. The jubilation turned to jeers when the cable failed a few weeks later, and Tiffany never sold its supply of cable. In 1974 Lanello Reserves began reselling the transatlantic cable, and donated this object to the Smithsonian.
This has an ebony frame, a reinforced brass index arm, an ivory scale that is graduated every 20' from -2° to +107° and read by vernier with tangent screw to 30" of arc. The inscription reads "Spencer Browning & Co London. Made for D. McGregor & Co Glasgow & Greenock." Spencer Browning & Co. were in business from 1840 to 1870.
Western Union transferred this sextant to the Smithsonian in 1972.
