6 Meter Bar
date: label: date made
content: 1855
notes: label: Description
content: The Bache-Wurdemann distance measuring apparatus consists of an iron bar and a brass bar conjoined so as to reduce errors caused by thermal expansion and contraction. Alexander Dallas Bache (1806-1867), an American physicist who was familiar with European efforts along this line, and who was then serving as the second Director of the U.S. Coast Survey, devised the plans in 1845. William Wurdemann (1811-1900), a talented German instrument maker who arrived in Washington, D.C. in the 1830s and served at times as Chief Mechanician of the Coast Survey, built several sets of apparatus under Bache’s direction.
label: Description
content: The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey transferred this iron bar to the Smithsonian in 1914. An early exhibit label explained that “This bar (No. 2) is a copy of standard bar No. 1, 1847, made in 1855 for preservation at the Survey office.”
label: Description
content: Ref: E. B. Hunt, “Description of the United States Coast Survey Apparatus for Measuring Base Line,” Report of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey Showing the Progress of the Survey During the Year 1854 (Washington, D.C., 1855), pp. 103-108.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Coast & Geodetic Survey, Department of Commerce
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.285227
label: accession number
content: 57456
label: catalog number
content: 285227
objectType: label: Object Name
content: 6-meter Bar
label: Object Name
content: 6-meter bar
label: Object Name
content: 6 meter bar
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 7/8 in x 241 1/4 in x 8 in; 22.5425 cm x 612.775 cm x 20.32 cm