Surveyor's Vernier Compass
name: label: maker
content: Stancliffe, Benjamin
notes: label: Description
content: This compass is marked "B. Stancliffe - Philada Maker" and "Warranted." It has a variation arc on the north arm that extends 22 degrees to either side; the vernier is moved by rack and pinion and reads to 5 minutes. A spirit level is on the south arm. The signature refers to Benjamin Stancliffe (1782-1834) who was born in England, apprenticed with his uncle, John Stancliffe, a noted instrument maker in London, and worked for Edward Troughton making sophisticated geodetic instruments for the fledgling United States Coast Survey. Stancliffe then migrated to America, appearing in Philadelphia directories as early as 1817. In 1828 he went into partnership with his former apprentice, Edmund Draper. By 1832 Stancliffe was again in business on his own, advertising that he manufactured "all kinds of mathematical, optical, and philosophical instruments," including surveyor's compasses, theodolites, sextants, and quadrants.
label: Description
content: Ref: Robert C. Miller, "Benjamin Stancliffe and His Successors: A Century of Mathematical Instrument Makers in Philadelphia," <i>Rittenhouse</i> 11 (1996): 1-13.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Surveying and Geodesy
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content: Measuring & Mapping
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Rittenhouse
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.336362
label: accession number
content: 1977.0970
label: catalog number
content: 336362
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Surveyor's Compass
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall length: 14 1/8 in; 35.8775 cm
label: Measurements
content: needle: 5 in; 12.7 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 4 in x 16 1/2 in x 8 3/16 in; 10.16 cm x 41.91 cm x 20.79625 cm