Box Sextant
date: label: date made
content: early 20th century
label: date made
content: after 1903
name: label: maker
content: Hughes
notes: label: Description
content: A box (or pocket) sextant works like a traditional sextant, but here the mechanism is enclosed in a brass box of about 3 inches diameter. William Jones, a leading instrument maker in London, introduced the form in 1797.
label: Description
content: This example has a silvered scale that is graduated every 30 minutes from -5° to +145° and read by vernier to single minutes of arc. The inscription reads "H. HUGHES & SON, LTD. LONDON No 510 1918." The inscription on the leather case reads "T. J. WEEKS & SONS 1916."
label: Description
content: Ref: William Jones, "Description of a New Pocket Box Sextant," in George Adams, Geometrical and Graphical Essays, 2nd ed. by William Jones, (London, 1797), pp. 283-285.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Howard Beall
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.336361
label: catalog number
content: 336361
label: accession number
content: 1977.1038
objectType: label: Object Name
content: box sextant
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 in; 7.62 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 5/8 in x 3 1/4 in x 2 1/4 in; 9.2075 cm x 8.255 cm x 5.715 cm