Surveyor's Compass
date: label: date made
content: 1750s
name: label: also made surveyor's compasses
content: Rittenhouse, David
label: maker
content: Lamb, Anthony
notes: label: Description
content: Anthony Lamb (1703-1784) was born in London, and apprenticed with Henry Carter, a maker of mathematical instruments. In 1724, having been convicted of being an accomplice in a burglary, Lamb was banished to the American colonies. He arrived in Annapolis, Md., in December 1724. In December 1730, Lamb advertised in the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i> (Benjamin Franklin's newspaper) that he was a "Mathematical Instrument-maker, from London, now living in New-York, near the new Dock, at the Sign of the Compass and the Quadrant." He offered "all Sorts of Instruments for Sea or Land," and the compass on his trade sign was probably a navigational instrument. Lamb soon recognized the importance of the American land, and by 1745 he was trading At the Sign of the Quadrant and Surveying-Compass. In a handbill issued in the early 1750s, Lamb offered "all sorts of Surveying Compasses, with Agate capt Needles."
label: Description
content: This brass compass marked "Made & Sold by A. LAMB. New York" was probably made in the 1750s, and is thus one of the earliest instruments of this sort made in America. Following English practice, the face reads clockwise, and the bar is narrow and rather flimsy. The vertical sights fold down when not in use. David Rittenhouse would begin making surveyor's compasses with counterclockwise faces and sturdy baseplates in the 1760s.
label: Description
content: Ref: Silvio A. Bedini, <i>At the Sign of the Compass and Quadrant. the Life and Times of Anthony Lamb</i> (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1984).
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
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Bedini, Silvio A.. At the Sign of the Compass and the Quadrant, the Life and Times of Anthony Lamb
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.325900
label: catalog number
content: 325900
label: accession number
content: 251930
objectType: label: Object Name
content: surveyor's compass
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall length: 14 in; 35.56 cm
label: Measurements
content: needle: 4 7/8 in; 12.3825 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in box: 3 3/16 in x 17 in x 6 3/4 in; 8.09625 cm x 43.18 cm x 17.145 cm