Locke Hand Level
date: label: date made
content: circa 1960
name: label: user
content: Vogel, Robert M.
label: maker
content: Swift Instruments, Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: John Locke, a scientist in Cincinnati, Ohio, described a reflecting level at a meeting of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists in 1842, and obtained a patent (#7,477) in 1850. Locke's instrument consisted of a small spirit level on a brass sighting tube, with a small diagonal reflector so arranged that the user can see the bubble and a distant sight at the same time.
label: Description
content: The "SWIFT INSTRUMENTS INC. BOSTON 25, MASS." inscription on this example indicates a date between 1943, when the U.S. Post Office began using the numbers of the postal substations in various cities, and 1963, when it introduced five-digit zip codes.
label: Description
content: The firm of Swift & Anderson was formed in Boston in 1926 with the aim of importing optical and other instruments. It became Swift Instruments following the death of its founder in 1950.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2007.0214.3
label: catalog number
content: 2007.0214.3
label: accession number
content: 2007.0214
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Locke level
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 in x 5 1/4 in x 1 in; 2.54 cm x 13.335 cm x 2.54 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 1/16 in x 5 1/16 in x 1 1/16 in; 2.69875 cm x 12.85875 cm x 2.69875 cm