Sundial or Template for a Quadrant
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
name: label: maker
content: D. B. Sheahan
notes: label: Description
content: This horary quadrant is made of a brass sheet and may in fact be a template rather than a functioning instrument. There is a pinhole at the vertex but no plumb-bob and string. The front bears an hour arc marked from 7 to 11 and several concentric arcs numbered from 30 to 39. A mark scratched by hand near the center of the quadrant reads: 30-39. A mark stamped near the right edge reads: D.B.SHEAHAN. A round hole, 3 cm. in diameter, is near this. The left side extends beyond the circumference of the quadrant in an arm that is 2 cm wide. The reverse of the quadrant bears another hour arc marked from 7 to 11 and several concentric arcs numbered from 40 to 45. A mark scratched by hand near the center of this side of the instrument reads: 40-45.
label: Description
content: D. B. Sheahan was a forger who lived around 1900. He may have been a sculptor who resided in New York City. Sotheby sold this instrument on behalf of the scientific instrument collection owned by Henry Russell Wray. Wray was a newspaper editor and manager who purchased the Colorado Springs Gazette in 1896 with Cornelius Vanderbilt Barton and William McKay Barbour.
label: Description
content: Acquired in 1960.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Sotheby & Company, Catalogue of a Collection of Scientific Instruments, the Property of the Late Henry Russell Wray, London, 1959 (a copy of the catalogue is in the accession file).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Timekeeping
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.316926
label: catalog number
content: 316926
label: accession number
content: 228694
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sundial or template for a quadrant
label: Object Name
content: sundial or template
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .05 cm x 12.8 cm x 14.8 cm; 1/32 in x 5 1/32 in x 5 13/16 in