Surveyor's Transit
name: label: maker
content: Shaw, Robert Ludlow
notes: label: Description
content: The "Robert L. Shaw 222 Water St. N.Y." signature refers to Robert Ludlow Shaw (1813-1876). Shaw originally worked with John H. Wheeler, who boasted that he was a "real Manufacturer" of mathematical instruments. In 1836, when Wheeler withdrew from business, Shaw and Addington Frye took over the shop. They showed their surveying and navigational instruments at several exhibitions, and won several prizes.
label: Description
content: In 1845, now in business on his own, Shaw announced that "Having had many years experience in the Manufacturing Line, he feels confident that he can produce as good an article of his own manufacture, and at as low prices, as has ever been made in any part of the world." He went on to say that in manufacturing instruments, "no time or expense has been spared to enable him to compete, in point of accuracy, with the best manufacturers in Europe." Moreover, he had imported a large dividing engine based on the designs of Jesse Ramsden, "the same as is used by the London manufacturers, the accuracy of which has been subjected to the severest test, and proved to be correct." Shaw's product line included "Quadrants, Octants, Sextants, Circles, Astronomical Transits, Telescopes, Theodolites, Levels, and Surveyor's Compasses." In 1850 Shaw had $3,000 capital invested in his business; employed 11 workmen at $120 per month, spent $1,000 on materials, and produced goods worth $10,000.
label: Description
content: Despite Shaw's claims, in design and production this instrument is less successful than those made by William J. Young. The horizontal circle is graduated every 30 minutes of arc, and read by opposite verniers to single minutes. The vertical arc is graduated every 30 minutes of arc, and read by vernier to single minutes. This transit belonged to John Ferris, a surveyor of Dutchess County, N. Y., who probably bought it around 1848.
label: Description
content: Ref: Anne Preuss and Don Treworgy, "Robert Ludlow Shaw,"<i>Rittenhouse</i> 2 (1988): 65-69.
label: Description
content: R. L. Shaw's Edition of the <i>Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the Year 1848</i> (New York, 1845).
label: Description
content: Conrad Ham, "A Family History of a Group of Surveying Instruments, 1750 to the Present Year 1954," <i>Annual Report of Proceedings of the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers</i> 70 (1954): 134-138.
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: Surveying and Geodesy
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content: Measuring & Mapping
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Rittenhouse
label: Related Publication
content: Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers. Annual Report of Proceedings of the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Conrad S. Ham
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1983.0548.04
label: accession number
content: 1983.0548
label: catalog number
content: 1983.0548.04
objectType: label: Object Name
content: surveyor's transit
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 in; 33.02 cm
label: Measurements
content: baseplate: 9 in; 22.86 cm
label: Measurements
content: horizontal circle: 7 1/2 in; 19.05 cm
label: Measurements
content: needle: 6 in; 15.24 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 3/4 in x 9 1/4 in x 11 1/8 in; 32.385 cm x 23.495 cm x 28.2575 cm