Sextant
date: label: date made
content: 1966
name: label: maker
content: Plath, Carl Christian
notes: label: Description
content: This sextant, made by C. Plath (Ser. No. 25595), was used by Gerald (Jerry) R. Pitzl, while serving as a navigator for the 1967 and 1968 Plaisted Polar Expeditions—the second of which successfully reached the North Pole via snowmobile on April 20, 1968.
label: Description
content: The Plaisted team was the first to reach the North Pole using Ski-Doos, snowmobiles that were initially introduced in the late 1950s by Canadian Joseph-Armand Bombardier. The idea to embark on this journey was formed by two friends, Ralph Plaisted and Art Aufderheide, at a bar in Duluth, Minnesota. Plaisted was referred to Jerry Pitzl, who was working as a high school geography teacher, as a potential navigator.
label: Description
content: No one on the team had familiarity with polar expeditions. Plaisted was an insurance salesman, and his fellow explorers included a doctor, a mechanic, an engineer, a teacher, and a nephew of Ski-Doo developer Bombardier. Despite his inexperience, Plaisted managed to get funding and support from several companies, ultimately planning an expedition that greatly differed from previous polar explorations. Snowmobiles replaced dog teams. Packing rations and fuel with the goal of self-sufficiency gave way to a regular resupply of goods via airplane. (See also 2022.0033.02)
label: Description
content: Finding their way to the North Pole was not obvious. Massive pieces of ice or stretches of open water would block the team's path, forcing them off their course. The shape of the Earth's magnetic field makes compasses difficult to use at high latitude, so Pitzl relied on his sextant to navigate. The sextant measures the angle between two objects, usually a celestial object (sun, moon, star) and the horizon. Sextants have been used since the mid-1700s, but their successful implementation always necessitated an accurate star catalog. Pitzl used a nautical almanac (2022.0033.03) in addition to the sextant to navigate, employing a technique known as "using the pole as the assumed position."
label: Description
content: Ptizl's sextant had the capability of creating an artificial horizon, a necessity due to the irregularity of the ice formations. During the first expedition, he found the batteries in the sextant that powered the light for the artificial horizon could not tolerate the cold, so he had a teammate modify the instrument with an external battery pack that was held close his body.
label: Description
content: Pitzl kept a log of his coordinates so that it could be used as a record of the team's journey to the Pole. These notes were deposited at the National Archives (NARA Identifier 4750763). The attainment of their destination on April 20, 1968 was also confirmed by the overflight of an Air Force weather reconnaissance flight.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Pitzl, G.R., "Navigating to the North Pole—A Surface Traverse," Journal of the Institute of Navigation, v. 16, no. 1, 1969, p.32-36.
label: Description
content: Pitzl, G.R., True North: Victory in the Race to the Pole, Page Publishing, Inc., December 14, 2021.
label: Description
content: Lawson, G., "An Insurance Salesman and a Doctor Walk Into a Bar, and End Up at the North Pole: The story of an accidentally pioneering expedition," The New York Times Magazine, March 17, 2016.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Hamburg, Hamburg
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Gerald R. Pitzl
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2022.0033.01
label: catalog number
content: 2022.0033.01
label: accession number
content: 2022.0033
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sextant
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: part: sextant: 6 in x 12 1/4 in x 9 1/2 in; 15.24 cm x 31.115 cm x 24.13 cm
label: Measurements
content: in box: closed: 19 cm x 31.3 cm x 32 cm; 7 15/32 in x 12 5/16 in x 12 19/32 in
label: Measurements
content: in box: open: 43 cm x 31.3 cm x 41 cm; 16 15/16 in x 12 5/16 in x 16 5/32 in
label: Measurements
content: part: external battery pack: 140 cm x 2 cm; 55 1/8 in x 25/32 in
label: Measurements
content: part: brush: 2.5 cm x 9.5 cm x 2 cm; 31/32 in x 3 3/4 in x 25/32 in
label: Measurements
content: part: monocle: 9 cm x 4.5 cm x 8 cm; 3 17/32 in x 1 25/32 in x 3 5/32 in
label: Measurements
content: part: light bulb box: 7.5 cm x 4.5 cm x 2 cm; 2 15/16 in x 1 25/32 in x 25/32 in
label: Measurements
content: part: light blub: 1.5 cm x .8 cm; 19/32 in x 5/16 in
label: Measurements
content: part: wrench for hex head: 6.5 cm x 2 cm x .2 cm; 2 9/16 in x 25/32 in x 3/32 in
label: Measurements
content: part: wrench for square head x2: 5 cm x .9 cm x 1 cm; 1 31/32 in x 11/32 in x 13/32 in
label: Measurements
content: part: certificate: 12 cm x 18 cm; 4 23/32 in x 7 3/32 in