Sextant
date: label: date made
content: 1800-1819
name: label: maker
content: Berge, Matthew
notes: label: Description
content: Matthew Berge (d. 1819) worked for Jesse Ramsden in London, succeeded to the business after Ramsden’s death in 1800, used the Ramsden dividing engine, and numbered his sextants in the sequence begun by Ramsden. This example was made in the early 1800s. It has a double brass frame and a silvered scale. The inscription on the arc reads "Berge London late Ramsden" and "1513." The scale is graduated every 15 minutes from -2° to +136° and read by vernier with tangent screw and magnifier.
label: Description
content: A label in the box relates the instrument’s history. "SEXTANT owned and used by JOHN C. FREMONT on his trip across the continent to CALIFORNIA. Presented by his Daughter, ELIZABETH B. FREMONT, to HON. CHARLES SILENT and by him to FRANK J. THOMAS. Loaned to and used by WELLS MORRIS on U.S. Destroyer "MUGFORD" in GREAT WAR."
label: Description
content: Ref: A. Stimson, "The Influence of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich upon the Design of 17th and 18th Century Angle-Measuring Instruments at Sea," <i>Vistas in Astronomy</i> 20 (1976): 123-130.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Navigation
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Wells Morris, Jr.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1981.0744.01
label: accession number
content: 1981.0744
label: catalog number
content: 1981.0744.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sextant
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: sextant: 10 5/8 in x 9 1/4 in x 3 9/16 in; 26.9875 cm x 23.495 cm x 9.04875 cm
label: Measurements
content: box: 11 1/4 in x 12 3/4 in x 4 3/4 in; 28.575 cm x 32.385 cm x 12.065 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in box: 4 13/16 in x 11 1/4 in x 12 1/2 in; 12.22375 cm x 28.575 cm x 31.75 cm