Altitude and Azimuth Instrument
name: label: maker
content: Buff and Buff Manufacturing Company
notes: label: Description
content: Buff & Buff termed this an "air-craft theodolite" as made for the U. S. Weather Bureau, noting that it could be used for aeronautic or military purposes. The Signal Corps of the U. S. Army acquired this example around the time of World War I, and transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1923. The horizontal and vertical circles are read by verniers to 6 minutes of arc. The finish is anodized. Since the telescope is "broken," the eyepiece remains at the same height regardless of the elevation of the objective. A. De Quervain introduced this design in 1905, and it remains popular to this day.
label: Description
content: Ref: Buff & Buff, <i>Surveying Instruments</i> (Boston, 1918), p. 104.
label: Description
content: U.S. Department of Agriculture. Weather Bureau, <i>Instructions for Making Pilot Balloon Observations</i> (Washington, D.C., 1928).
label: Description
content: U.S. Army, <i>Meteorological Observer. Training Manual No. 31</i> (Washington, D.C., 1925), pp. 183-189.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Surveying and Geodesy
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Buff & Buff Mfg. Co.. Surveying Instruments
label: Related Publication
content: U.S. Department of Agriculture. Weather Bureau. Instructions for Making Pilot Balloon Observations
label: Related Publication
content: U.S. Army. Meteorological Observer. Training Manual No. 31
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: War Department, Signal Corps, Meteorological Section
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.308184
label: catalog number
content: 308184
label: accession number
content: 70852
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Altitude and Azimuth Instrument
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 in; 33.02 cm
label: Measurements
content: horizontal circle aperture: 9 in; 22.86 cm
label: Measurements
content: vertical circle aperture: 6 1/4 in; 15.875 cm
label: Measurements
content: telescope objective aperture: 1 3/4 in; 4.445 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 in x 16 1/2 in x 14 in; 33.02 cm x 41.91 cm x 35.56 cm