Surveyor's Vernier Compass
name: label: maker
content: Pool, Horace Minot
notes: label: Description
content: This surveyor's vernier compass marked "H.M. Pool, EASTON, MASS." has a variation arc on the south arm that extends 15 degrees either way. The vernier is moved by a tangent screw, also on the south arm, and reads to 4 minutes. There are two level vials on the north arm.
label: Description
content: Horace Minot Pool (1803-1878) began working with his older brother John in the mid-1820s, making a variety of mathematical instruments. In 1841, when John withdrew from the firm, H. M. Pool continued on his own. The 1860 Federal Census of Industry reports that, with the help of six male hands, Pool had an annual production rate of 55 compasses worth $1,650, 18 transits worth $1800, 2 theodolites worth $550, and miscellaneous items worth another $500. Pool showed two "circumferentors" at the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association fair of 1850, and his surveying instruments won a silver medal at that association's fair in 1874.
label: Description
content: Ref: Donald and Anne Wing, "The Pool Family of Easton, Massachusetts," <i>Rittenhouse</i> 4 (1990): 118-126.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Easton
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: Rittenhouse
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Colby College
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.329686
label: catalog number
content: 329686
label: accession number
content: 273104
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Surveyor's Compass
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall length: 15 in; 38.1 cm
label: Measurements
content: needle: 5 1/8 in; 13.0175 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 4 3/8 in x 15 7/8 in x 7 3/4 in; 11.1125 cm x 40.3225 cm x 19.685 cm