Dumpy Level
name: label: maker
content: Fauth & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: The U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Precise Level "is constructed without regard to cost, extreme accuracy being the governing consideration. This fact accounts for the seemingly high price, which is for the complete instrument, with two achromatic eye–pieces, graduated and chambered level–vial having a value of 2 seconds per division. Completed packed, with extra heavy tripod...$300." Thus wrote G. N. Saegmuller, proprietor of Fauth & Co., describing the Precise Level that had been developed by E. G. Fischer and his colleagues in the Instrument Division of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. This example, marked "FAUTH & CO. WASHN. D.C. 2239" was made between 1900, when the form was introduced, and 1905, when Fauth went out of business. It belonged to the University of Missouri at Columbia.
label: Description
content: To minimize changes due to temperature variation, Fischer's team developed an iron–nickel alloy with a very low coefficient of expansion. They also placed the telescope tube within a slightly larger tube, and sealed the openings between the tubes with chamois leather collars. To minimize disruptions caused by changes in weight or pressure upon the ground, Fischer's team mounted the level above the telescope. A mirror, mounted above the level, reflects an image of the bubble into a tube at the left side of the telescope. Thus, while the surveyor's right eye looks through the telescope to the distant rod, his/her left eye can see both ends of the level vial.
label: Description
content: The Fischer level was Fauth's third precise level. The first was similar to the instrument that Kern had shown at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia. The second, unveiled in 1879, was based on a design originating in Vienna, Austria, and developed in the Instrument Shop of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, which was then under Saegmuller's direction.
label: Description
content: Ref: E. G. Fischer, "Description of Precise Levels Nos. 7 and 8," <i>Report of the Director of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey</i> (1900), Appendix 6.
label: Description
content: George N. Saegmuller, <i>Descriptive Price–List of First–Class Engineering & Astronomical Instruments</i> (Washington, D.C., 1903), pp. 60–61.
label: Description
content: Randall Brooks and Heather Bajdik, "Precise Levels in Surveys of North America," <i>Rittenhouse</i> 10 (1996): 48–57.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Surveying and Geodesy
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content: Measuring & Mapping
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Report of the Director of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
label: Related Publication
content: Saegmuller, George N.. Descriptive Price-List of First-Class Engineering & Astronomical Instruments
label: Related Publication
content: Rittenhouse
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.333634
label: catalog number
content: 333634
label: accession number
content: 300659
objectType: label: Object Name
content: dumpy level
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: telescope: 17 in; 43.18 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 8 13/16 in x 20 3/4 in x 10 7/8 in; 22.38375 cm x 52.705 cm x 27.6225 cm