Pocket Compass (prismatic)
name: label: maker
content: A.S. Aloe and Company
notes: label: Description
content: Like the prismatic compass for which Charles Schmalcalder obtained a British patent in 1812, this one lets the user read the card while sighting a distant object. It has a tall folding sight at north, and at south, a shorter sight with a prismatic eyepiece at its base. The floating card is bright green; the numbers around its edge read correctly when seen through the prismatic eyepiece. Unlike the Schmalcalder instrument, this one has a solid plate covering most of the card. It was termed an Improved Hutchinson Prismatic Compass, said to be lighter and less bulky "than the old form," and was "adopted by the various branches of the English and Foreign Services." This example, which belonged to the University of Missouri at Columbia, is marked "A. S. ALOE CO. ST. LOUIS." A. S. Aloe & Company became A. S. Aloe Co. in 1894.
label: Description
content: Ref: James J. Hicks, <i>Illustrated & Descriptive Catalogue</i> (London, 1876), p. 141.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Missouri, St. Louis
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Surveying and Geodesy
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content: Measuring & Mapping
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Hicks, James J.. Illustrated & Descriptive Catalogue
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: University of Missouri-Columbia, Department of Civil Engineering
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.333638
label: catalog number
content: 333638
label: accession number
content: 300659
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Pocket Compass (Prismatic)
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 1/2 in x 5 1/2 in x 7 in; 3.81 cm x 13.97 cm x 17.78 cm