Gradienter
name: label: maker
content: Shilling, George
notes: label: Description
content: This instrument is signed "Geo. Shilling Washn D.C." and "15. U.S.G.S." It was made after 1882 when George Shilling went into business, and before 1907, when the U.S. Geological Survey transferred it to the Smithsonian. The horizontal circle and vertical arc are silvered, graduated to 30 minutes, and read by verniers to single minutes. A trough compass and level vial sit atop the telescope; a circular level sits on the horizontal circle, obscuring most of Shilling's signature.
label: Description
content: George Shilling (1844–1917) was born and educated in Norway and moved to the United States in 1867. In 1882, after working in several American instrument shops, he went into business on his own as a manufacturer of surveying and astronomical instruments. His shop was in Washington, D.C., and the federal government was his biggest customer.
label: Description
content: Ref: <i>Historical and Commercial Sketches of Washington and Environs</i> (Washington, D.C., 1884), p. 194.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Transcontinental Railroad
label: See more items in
content: Surveying and Geodesy
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.247908
label: catalog number
content: 247908
label: accession number
content: 47736
objectType: label: Object Name
content: gradienter
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: horizontal circle: 3 1/2 in; 8.89 cm
label: Measurements
content: telescope: 8 1/2 in; 21.59 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/8 in x 4 1/4 in x 10 3/8 in; 20.6375 cm x 10.795 cm x 26.3525 cm