Surveyor's Vernier Compass
date: label: date made
content: 1837
name: label: owner
content: Ham, Joseph
label: maker
content: Meneely and Oothout
notes: label: Description
content: This compass is marked "Meneely & Oothout, West Troy, N.Y." It was made in 1837, and the word "Warranted" indicates a guarantee of quality. It has a variation arc on the south arm that extends 30 units either way; the vernier is moved by a heavy tangent screw on top of the south arm, and reads to 2 minutes. There are two levels on the north arm. The compass was originally owned by Joseph Ham, a surveyor in Dutchess County, New York.
label: Description
content: Andrew Meneely (1802–1851) apprenticed with Julius Hanks, learning to cast bells and manufacture mathematical instruments. Returning to West Troy, N.Y., where he was born, Meneely established a successful brass foundry. In 1834 he advertised "Leveling and Surveying Instruments" as well as clocks and church bells. Meneely joined in partnership with Jonas V. Oothout (1814–1860) in January 1836, offering church bells, town clocks, theodolites, levels, and surveyor’s compasses of all kinds. The Meneely & Oothout partnership ended in 1838. Meneely then continued his business, taking his eldest son into partnership in 1849.
label: Description
content: Ref: Conrad S. Ham, "A Family History of a Group of Surveying Instruments 1750 to the Present Year 1954," <i>Annual Report of Proceedings of the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers</i> 70 (1954): 134-138.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
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: Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers. Annual Report of Proceedings of the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Conrad S. Ham
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1983.0548.02a
label: accession number
content: 1983.0548
label: catalog number
content: 1983.0548.02a
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Surveyor's Compass
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall length: 16 in; 40.64 cm
label: Measurements
content: needle: 5 3/4 in; 14.605 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 4 5/16 in x 16 3/8 in x 8 13/16 in; 10.95375 cm x 41.5925 cm x 22.38375 cm