Surveyor's Compass
name: label: maker
content: Hanks, Benjamin
notes: label: Description
content: Benjamin Hanks (1755-1824) apprenticed with Thomas Harland, an English clock maker who had recently migrated to Norwich, Conn. By 1777 Hanks was in business on his own in Windham, Conn. Like many American mechanics of that time, Hanks applied his skills in several directions. While specializing in clocks and watches, for instance, he asked the General Assembly to supply funds so that he could construct looms for weaving stockings. Hanks moved to Litchfield in 1780, and advertised surveyor's compasses in 1785. In 1786 he began casting bells. In 1808, now living in Mansfield and working in partnership with his son Julius, Hanks was making vernier compasses or, as he advertised, “surveyor's compasses upon the Rittenhouse improved plan.”
label: Description
content: This compass was probably made early in Hanks's career. The face reads clockwise, and the bar is narrow. The north metal brace bears the inscription “HANKS.” One unusual feature is the clinometer scale at the south end of the face, which could be used to measure vertical angles; the clinometer needle is missing.
label: Description
content: Ref: Penrose R. Hoopes, <i>Connecticut Clockmakers of the Eighteenth Century</i> (Hartford, 1930), pp. 79-83.
label: Description
content: Charles E. Smart, <i>American Surveying Instruments and Their Makers</i> (Troy, 1962), pp. 70-71.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut, Mansfield
topic: label: Subject
content: Revolutionary War
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Surveying and Geodesy
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Smart, Charles E.. American Surveying Instruments and Their Makers
label: Related Publication
content: Hoopes, Penrose R.. Connecticut Clockmakers of the Eighteenth Century
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1981.0182.01
label: accession number
content: 1981.0182
label: catalog number
content: 1981.0182.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Surveyor's Compass
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall length: 12 5/8 in; 32.0675 cm
label: Measurements
content: needle: 5 3/8 in; 13.6525 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in box: 2 7/8 in x 14 3/16 in x 6 3/4 in; 7.3025 cm x 36.03625 cm x 17.145 cm