Telescope
notes: label: Description
content: The American military began using refracting telescopes with stable mounts and tubes of fixed length in the 1890s, to supplement the spyglasses used since the Revolution and the field glasses (binoculars) used since the Civil War. This example is of that sort. It is 5 feet long, with a wooden tripod and heavy cast-iron mount. The (missing) objective lens would have been 3 inches aperture. The U.S. War Department transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1933.
label: Description
content: Ref: D. J. Warner, “Optical Elements of Fire Control, 1890-1921,” <i>Rittenhouse</i> 18 (2004): 21-59.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Astronomy
label: See more items in
content: Military
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.310558
label: accession number
content: 122836
label: catalog number
content: 310558
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telescope (refracting)
label: Object Name
content: telescope, refracting
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 55 in; 139.7 cm