Telescope (Spyglass)
name: label: maker
content: Casella, Louis Paschal
notes: label: Description
content: This telescope was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1929. The "L. CASELLA LONDON" and "U.S.C.&G.S. No. 168" inscriptions suggest that it was made after 1878 when the U.S. Coast Survey became the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey.
label: Description
content: Casella described this as a "Military or Target Telescope" that "will show the time by a clock at six miles distance, and the form of the rocks of Calais from Dover, a distance of twenty-one miles." It has an achromatic objective, and a tapered four-draw brass body covered with leather. Its four-element erecting eye piece is "pancratic," which means that it can produce various magnifications (in this case, of 20, 25, or 30 times).
label: Description
content: Louis Paschal Casella (1812–1897) was an Italian immigrant who opened a shop in London in 1848, offering a wide range of meteorological, mathematical, optical, and philosophical instruments, and photographic apparatus. Casella prospered, and soon obtained appointments to the Prince of Wales and several government agencies. With Charles Frederick Casella in charge, the firm became C.F. Casella in 1897, and C. F. Casella & Company Ltd. in 1910.
label: Description
content: Ref: L. Casella, <i>List with Notes of Standard Meteorological and Other Instruments for Observatories, Travellers and Explorers, and the Army and Navy</i> (London, 187?), p. 61.
label: Description
content: Gloria Clifton, <i>Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851</i> (London, 1995), pp. 51-52.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Navigation
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content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.309649
label: catalog number
content: 309649
label: accession number
content: 106954
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telescope (spyglass)
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 7/8 in x 2 5/16 in; 32.7025 cm x 5.842 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 13/16 in x 2 1/2 in; 32.54375 cm x 6.35 cm