Sextant
date: label: date made
content: 1870s
name: label: maker
content: Stackpole & Brother
notes: label: Description
content: This sextant belonged to Columbia University in New York, and probably dates from the 1870s.The frame is brass. The silvered scale is graduated every 10 minutes from -5° to +175° and read by vernier with tangent screw and swinging magnifier to 10 seconds of arc. The inscriptions read "Stackpole & Brother New York" and "1765."
label: Description
content: The sextant also has a small bubble level on the index arm. William Harkness, the American astronomer who introduced this feature, said that it "proved a very great convenience and saved much time and trouble."
label: Description
content: Ref: "Report of Professor William Harkness, U.S.N.," in B. F. Sands, ed., <i>Reports on Observations of the Total Eclipse of the Sun, August 7, 1869</i> (Washington, D.C., 1870), p.30.
label: Description
content: Deborah J. Warner, "American Octants and Sextants: The Early Years," <i>Rittenhouse</i> 3 (1989): 86-112, on 108-109.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Navigation
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Columbia University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.335212
label: accession number
content: 317998
label: catalog number
content: 335212
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sextant
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: mahogany (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: silver (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: raidus: 6 in; 15.24 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 4 3/4 in x 9 3/4 in x 11 5/8 in; 12.065 cm x 24.765 cm x 29.5275 cm