Zenith Telescope
notes: label: Description
content: The earliest evidence of this instrument comes from Andrew Ellicott, who in 1796 used "a small zenith sector of 20 inches radius" to determine the latitude of the Erie, Pennsylvania (the former French landing at Presqu'Isle). Ellicott used this instrument again in 1796-1800 when he surveyed the southern boundary of the United States. He described it as a "zenith sector of 19 inches radius to be used when the utmost accuracy was not necessary, and where the transportation of the large one could not be effected without great expense and difficulty."
label: Description
content: Ellicott took this instrument with him to West Point, when he became professor of mathematics at the U.S. Military Academy in 1813. A descendant, Andrew Ellicott Douglass, deposited it with the Smithsonian Institution in 1898.
label: Description
content: Ref: Andrew Ellicott, "Observations made on the Old French Landing at Presqu'Isle, to determine the Latitude of the Town of Erie," <i>Transactions of the American Philosophical Society</i> 4 (1799): 231-232.
label: Description
content: Andrew Ellicott, "Astronomical and Thermometrical Observations, made on the Boundary between the United States and his Catholic Majesty," <i>Transactions of the American Philosophical Society</i> 5 (1802): 204.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Surveying and Geodesy
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content: Measuring & Mapping
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: American Philosophical Society. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.152079
label: catalog number
content: 152079
label: accession number
content: 116914
objectType: label: Object Name
content: zenith telescope
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: telescope: 19 in; 48.26 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 29 3/4 in x 9 in x 17 1/8 in; 75.565 cm x 22.86 cm x 43.4975 cm