Dry Card Compass
name: label: maker
content: Ball
notes: label: Description
content: This is a model for the mariner’s compass with glass bowl for which Jonathan Ball received a patent in 1835. It can be used as a tell-tale compass because the card is legible from above and below. This model is probably a reconstruction, made after the original was destroyed when the U.S. Patent Office burned in 1836. The Patent Office transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1926. The inscriptions read "J. BALL. PATENT" and "Engraved by W. HOOKER New York." William Hooker was an engraver who also sold charts and instruments for nautical use.
label: Description
content: Ref: "For an Improvement in the Mariners’ Compass; Jonathan Ball, Buffaloe [sic], Erie County, New York, March 6," <i>Journal of the Franklin Institute</i> 16 (1835): 234-235.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York
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.308536
label: catalog number
content: 308536
label: accession number
content: 89797
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Nautical compass (dry card)
label: Object Name
content: Nautical Compass (Dry Card)
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 3/4 in x 9 in; 14.605 cm x 22.86 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 in x 10 1/2 in x 10 1/2 in; 17.78 cm x 26.67 cm x 26.67 cm