Surveyor's Transit
date: label: date made
content: 1840s
name: label: maker
content: Megarey, Alexander
notes: label: Description
content: This surveyor's transit resembles those that William J. Young was making in the 1840s. The horizontal circle, located outside the compass box, is silvered, graduated to 30 minutes of arc, and read by two verniers to single minutes. One level vial is on the upper plate at west, and another is on the southern standard. The tangent screw that moves the plates is at east. The telescope is not centered, and transits only with the objective end down.
label: Description
content: The "A. Megarey NEW YORK" inscription is that of Alexander Megarey (1790-1850), a man who was born in Ireland and served an apprenticeship in London before moving to New York in the mid-1820s. In the 1840s he established a Navigation Warehouse, offering nautical charts and instruments, most of which were imported from England. He published a <i>Nautical Almanac</i> copied from that produced in London. He also operated a small shop for the manufacture and repair of surveying instruments.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
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
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.326958A
label: accession number
content: 264488
label: catalog number
content: 326958A
objectType: label: Object Name
content: transit
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 1/4 in; 28.575 cm
label: Measurements
content: horizontal circle: 7 1/2 in; 19.05 cm
label: Measurements
content: needle: 4 1/2 in; 11.43 cm
label: Measurements
content: telescope: 12 in; 30.48 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 15 1/16 in x 10 1/8 in x 10 5/16 in; 38.25875 cm x 25.7175 cm x 26.19375 cm