Geodetic Transit
name: label: maker
content: Fauth & Co.
label: designer
content: Saegmuller, George Nicholas
notes: label: Description
content: "This is an entirely novel form of Transit made by us for the United States Coast Survey, and designed by G. N. Saegmuller, Chief Mechanician, U.S.C.S. It is intended to be set up in the prime vertical, so that the telescope points due east and west. By the use of a prismatic objective, any star that passes the meridian will be reflected and seen in the field. . . ." With these words Fauth & Co. described the Coast Survey Prismatic Transit in 1877. Saegmuller would later acknowledge that Carl August Steinheil in Munich had suggested this design as early as 1849.
label: Description
content: This example belonged to the U. S. Coast Survey. It is marked "Fauth & Co. Washington, D.C." and "U. S. C. S. No. 15." It was thus made after 1874, when Fauth & Co. began in business, and before 1878, when the Coast Survey became the Coast and Geodetic Survey. With a telescope of 2.5 inches clear aperture, two eyepieces, illuminating and reading lamps, and all accessories, it cost $790.
label: Description
content: Ref: Fauth & Co., <i>Catalogue of Astronomical and Surveying Instruments</i> (Washington, D.C., 1877), pp. 22–23.
label: Description
content: George N. Saegmuller, <i>Description and Price–List of First–Class Engineering & Astronomical Instruments</i> (Washington, D.C., 1894), p. 72.
label: Description
content: C. A. Steinheil, "Ueber einen neuen Meridiankreis," <i>Astronomische Nachrichten</i> 29 (1849): 177–186.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
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: Fauth & Co.. Catalogue of Astronomical and Surveying Instruments, 1877
label: Related Publication
content: Saegmuller, George N.. Description and Price-List of First-Class Engineering & Astronomical Instruments
label: Related Publication
content: Astronomische Nachrichten
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.314635
label: accession number
content: 208213
label: catalog number
content: 314635
objectType: label: Object Name
content: geodetic transit
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 in x 12 1/2 in x 32 in; 38.1 cm x 31.75 cm x 81.28 cm