Portable Horizontal Inclining Sundial
date: label: date made
content: 1813 - 1822
name: label: maker
content: Blunt, Thomas
notes: label: Description
content: This horizontal inclining sundial is made mostly of brass. It has a walnut case with 2 brass hooks for fastening. The dial has 3 large levelling screws. The base of the dial holds a silver-colored compass which is calibrated from 0 to 90 X 4 by increments of 2 degrees. The compass rose contains 8 points. The compass needle is attached with a small screw. There is an extra metal pin fixed in place at 60 degrees west of South. There are two spirit (bubble) levels embedded across the North and East points of the compass rose. There is a folding brass latitude arc which is calibrated from 0 to 60 by single degree. It fits into a notch on the hour dial. The brass hour dial is calibrated from IIII to XII to VIII by I; each hour is divided into increments of 5 minutes. Two brass, decorated arcs attach to the folding triangular gnomon.
label: Description
content: Thomas Blunt (d. 1823) was a former apprentice of Edward Nairne who sold instruments under several names, including "T. Blunt & Son" from 1801 to 1822. Richard Patten (1792-1865) sold imported and perhaps his own instruments in New York (1813-1840), Washington, D.C. (1841-1846, 1862-1865), and Baltimore (1849-1860). A Patten compass is depicted in the plates of Charles Davies's Elements of Surveying (1830).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Timekeeping
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of College of the Holy Cross, Department of Physics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.326930
label: accession number
content: 264083
label: catalog number
content: 326930
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sundial, inclining
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 4.5 cm x 13.6 cm x 14 cm; 1 25/32 in x 5 11/32 in x 5 1/2 in