Wye Level
name: label: maker
content: Kern & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: This precise level is marked "J. Kern Aarau" and "U.S.C.&G.S. #36." It has a high-power inverting telescope and a delicate striding bubble level. A mirror above the level lets the observer read the bubble with one eye while sighting the rod with the other. A micrometer screw under one wye permits fine adjustments.
label: Description
content: J. Kern was an instrument maker in Aarau, Switzerland, whose precise levels were recommended by the International Geodetic Commission in 1864. To enhance his position in the American market, Kern mounted a display at the Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876. This example was made after 1878, when the U. S. Coast Survey became the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and before 1889, when J. Kern began trading as Kern & Cie.
label: Description
content: Ref: 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: Switzerland: Aargau, Aarau
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: Rittenhouse
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.307209
label: catalog number
content: 307209
label: accession number
content: 65983
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Wye Level
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 1/8 in x 6 3/8 in x 15 7/8 in; 23.1775 cm x 16.1925 cm x 40.3225 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 1/4 in x 6 1/4 in x 16 in; 23.495 cm x 15.875 cm x 40.64 cm