Abney Level
name: label: maker
content: Keuffel & Esser Co.
notes: label: Description
content: William de Wiveleslie Abney (1843–1920), an English scientist who made many important contributions to spectroscopy and photography, devised this level in the 1870s while working for the School of Military Engineering at Chatham.
label: Description
content: The University of Missouri at Columbia gave this example to the Smithsonian in 1972. It is marked "KEUFFEL & ESSER CO N. Y." and "12485" and was made around 1906. New, it cost $13.50; the sewed leather case cost an additional $1.25. Keuffel & Esser described it as "Abney's Reflecting Level or Pocket Altimeter, 5 in., improved, with arc graduated to degrees for 60° in both directions, vernier reading to 5 minutes, gradients 1:1 to 1:10."
label: Description
content: Ref: Keuffel & Esser, <i>Catalogue</i> (New York, 1921), p. 432.
label: Description
content: C. Jones, "Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney, K.C.B., D.C.L., D.Sc., F.R.S., Hon. F.R.P.S., etc.," <i>The Photographic Journal</i> 61 (1921): 296–311.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: University of Missouri-Columbia, Department of Civil Engineering
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.333658
label: catalog number
content: 333658
label: accession number
content: 300659
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Abney level
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/8 in x 1 1/4 in x 5 in; 5.3975 cm x 3.175 cm x 12.7 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 5 3/8 in x 2 7/8 in x 1 7/8 in; 13.6525 cm x 7.3025 cm x 4.7625 cm