Pocket Compass (prismatic)
name: label: maker
content: Green, James
notes: label: Description
content: This compass is similar to the one for which Charles Schmalcalder, a London instrument maker, obtained a British patent in 1812. It is designed so that a surveyor can 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 colored bright green; the numbers around its edge read correctly when seen through the prismatic eyepiece.
label: Description
content: This example is marked "U. S. ENGINEERS" and "J. Green N. Y." The U. S. Weather Bureau transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1954. James Green was born in England in 1808, moved to the United States around 1832, and opened an instrument shop in Baltimore. He opened a second shop in New York in the early 1840s, and retired in 1885.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Weather Bureau
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.314563
label: catalog number
content: 314563
label: accession number
content: 204612
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Pocket Compass (Prismatic)
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 in; x 7.62 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13/16 in x 4 in x 3 in; 2.06375 cm x 10.16 cm x 7.62 cm