Octant
date: label: date made
content: mid 19th century
name: label: maker
content: E. & G. W. Blunt
notes: label: Description
content: Octant with an ebony frame, reinforced brass index arm, and telescopic sight. The ivory scale is graduated every 20 minutes from -2° to +111° and read by vernier and tangent screw to single minutes of arc. The "E. & G. W. BLUNT, New York" inscription may indicate that it was made after 1857 when the Blunts began offering nautical instruments "of American manufacture," and before 1866 when the firm became Blunt & Nichols.
label: Description
content: The inscription on the brass nameplate reads: "George Davidson. Philadelphia, Pa." George Davidson (1825-1911) was a surveyor, geodesist and astronomer affiliated with the U.S. Coast Survey.
label: Description
content: Ref: Deborah J. Warner, "American Octants and Sextants: The Early Years," <i>Rittenhouse</i> 3 (1989): 86-112, on 91-92.
label: Description
content: "George Davidson," <i>American National Biography</i>, vol. 6, pp. 143-144.
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
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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.314492
label: catalog number
content: 314492
label: accession number
content: 204107
objectType: label: Object Name
content: octant
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: radius: 11 in; 27.94 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 in x 11 1/8 in x 12 1/4 in; 7.62 cm x 28.2575 cm x 31.115 cm