William Thomson, a noted physicist and engineer in Glasgow, Scotland, designed various instruments for navigation at sea. This weight is part of is the model he submitted with his application for a U.S. patent for a deep sea sounding apparatus.
Ref: William Thomson, “Improvement in Deep-Sea-Sounding Apparatus,” U. S. Patent 210,067 (Nov. 19, 1878).
Patent model for H. S. S. Watkins, "Improvement in Surveying-Instruments," U.S. Patent #213018 (1879). The inscriptions read "WATKINS Field Range Finder -- J. HICKS MAKER, 8 Hatton Garden, London" and "No. 12."
Henry Watkins, a captain in the Royal Artillery, obtained a British patent for a range finder in 1876. The instrument was soon adopted for service in Britain, and tested and found satisfactory by the U.S. Army in 1879. J. J. Hicks was a leading meteorological instrument maker in London.
Ref: F. H. Phipps, "Report on Range Finders," Report of the Chief of Ordnance to the Secretary of War for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1879, Appendix X.
Anita McConnell, King of the Clinicals. The Life and Times of J. J. Hicks (1837-1916) (York, 1998).
Thomas Walker (1805-1871) was a mechanic in Birmingham, England, who designed and manufactured apparatus for ships at sea. He submitted this model of a depth sounder to the U.S. Patent Office, along with an application for a U.S. patent. The inscription reads "T. WALKER & SON's PATENT 1148" (the number apparently referring to a British patent issued in 1866).
Walker’s uncle, Edward Massey, was the leading designer and manufacturer of mechanical logs in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Ref: Thomas Walker and Thomas Ferdinand Walker, “Improvement in Apparatus for Taking Soundings,” U.S. Patent 76,361 (April 7, 1868).
John Frederic Daniell, a young English natural philosopher, described this type of instrument in 1820. It consists of two glass balls, one partially filled with ether and the other covered with muslin, connected by a thin tube from which the air has been evacuated. There is a thermometer in the tube above the ball with the ether, and another on the supporting stand. When a few drops of ether are poured on the muslin, their evaporation chills the covered ball; that in turn causes the ether vapor inside the instrument to condense, thereby cooling the other ball and causing dew to form on its surface. These instruments, Daniell said, were "accurately constructed, and packed in a box for the pocket, by Mr. Newman, Lisle-Street." The reference was to John Frederick Newman, a noted instrument maker in London.
The stand of this example is metal. The interior thermometer is mounted on a white ivory plate, the front is graduated every degree Fahrenheit from +15 to +95, and the back is marked "5 x 31 J. NEWMAN LONDON." The exterior thermometer is missing, and the dry bulb is broken. The U.S. Military Academy purchased it sometime between 1831 and 1844.
Ref: J. F. Daniell, "On a New Hygrometer, which Measures the Force and Weight of Aqueous Vapour in the Atmosphere, and the Corresponding Degree of Evaporation," Quarterly Journal of Science 8 (1820): 298-336.
This "Hunter" 12 gauge double-barrel shotgun was used by James W. Jackson to kill Colonel Elmer Ellsworth on May 24, 1861.
Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, commander of the 11th New York Infantry, was killed on May 24, 1861. Ellsworth led a company of his men into Alexandria, VA where they saw a large Confederate flag flying over the roof of the Marshall House hotel on King Street. They went to the rooftop and lowered the flag. As they were descending they were surprised by the innkeeper, James W. Jackson. Jackson leveled this shotgun at Ellsworth and killed him instantly with a shot to the chest. Jackson was shot and bayoneted to death by Private Francis E. Brownell. Ellsworth was the first notable casualty of the Civil War and became a martyr of the Union cause.