Omnimeter
name: label: maker
content: Elliott Brothers
notes: label: Description
content: Charles A. C. Eckhold, a German engineer living in Alexandria, Egypt, obtained a British patent for the omnimeter in 1868. Contemporary accounts term it an "important surveying instrument," noting that it "measures distances and altitudes with an extraordinary degree of accuracy and great economy of time and labor; it accomplishes, without being moved, the work of Theodolite, Level, and Chain, and may be used as an ordinary Theodolite."
label: Description
content: The key feature of the Omnimeter is a tangential scale located across the horizontal circle that is read by a telescope mounted perpendicularly to the main telescope. This example is marked "Eckhold's Patent Omnimeter, No 26" and "Elliott Bros LONDON." It belonged to George Shattuck Morison (1842-1903), a prominent American engineer and bridge builder. The horizontal circle is silvered, beveled, graduated to 30 minutes, and read by opposite verniers to single minutes. The vertical circle is silvered`, graduated to 30 minutes, and read by opposite verniers and magnifiers to single minutes.
label: Description
content: Ref: "Distances" in [Edward Spon], <i>Spons' Dictionary of Engineering, Civil, Mechanical, Military, and Naval</i> (London, 1872), pp. 1210-1214.
label: Description
content: <i>Eckhold's Patent Omnimeter, Manufactured by Elliott Brothers</i> (London, n.d.)
label: Description
content: "George Shattuck Morison," <i>Civil Engineering</i> 8 (1938): 288-289.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
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: Spons' Dictionary of Engineering, Civil, Mechanical, Military, and Naval
label: Related Publication
content: American Society of Civil Engineers. Civil Engineering
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1993.0112.01
label: accession number
content: 1993.0112
label: catalog number
content: 1993.0112.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: theodolite
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 1/4 in; 38.735 cm
label: Measurements
content: horizontal circle: 5 3/8 in; 13.6525 cm
label: Measurements
content: needle: 4 1/2 in; 11.43 cm
label: Measurements
content: vertical circle: 5 3/8 in; 13.6525 cm
label: Measurements
content: telescope: 13 in; 33.02 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 8 1/8 in x 23 1/8 in x 10 1/4 in; 20.6375 cm x 58.7375 cm x 26.035 cm