Octant
date: label: date made
content: mid 19th century
name: label: maker
content: Desilva, William
notes: label: Description
content: Octant with an ebony frame, reinforced brass index arm, and ivory name plate. The ivory scale is graduated every 20 minutes from -3° to +109°, and read by vernier with tangent screw to single minutes of arc. The inscription reads "W. DESILVA* LIVERPOOL."
label: Description
content: The original wooden box (now lost) had a trade label that read "William Desilva, 78 Regent Road opposite the Bramley-Moore Hotel, Liverpool." Desilva was in business from 1851 to 1881, offering optical and nautical instruments.
label: Description
content: The Smithsonian bought this octant in 1903 from Elias Heidenheimer (1833-1926), a German Jew who emigrated to the United in 1859, and worked as jeweler and pawnbroker in Washington, D.C. and Alexandria, Va.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, Liverpool, Liverpool
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Navigation
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content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.220176
label: catalog number
content: 220176
label: accession number
content: 41038
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Octant
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: ebony (frame material)
label: Physical Description
content: ivory (inlay material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: radius: 9 5/8 in; 24.4475 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 9 3/4 in x 3 3/8 in; 30.48 cm x 24.765 cm x 8.5725 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 3/8 in x 9 7/8 in x 12 in; 8.5725 cm x 25.0825 cm x 30.48 cm