Bubble Sextant
name: label: user
content: Weems, Philip Van Horn
label: maker
content: Bausch & Lomb
notes: label: Description
content: This instrument was developed for the Navy by the Aeronautical Instrument Section of the National Bureau of Standards in 1924, and produced by the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company. The instrument bears a plaque that reads “BUBBLE SEXTANT / U.S. NAVY / BUREAU OF STANDARDS / MODEL NO. 2 / 1924 / NO. 4.” Phillip Van Horn Weems, who donated this example to the Smithsonian, noted that "Six sextants were made at the time for $250,000 each. Bausch & Lomb lost money on the deal but naturally recuperated on later orders and on later models. I drew this sextant from the storeroom in North Island, at the Naval Air Station, San Diego, and made numerous tests with it, along with Byrd, Lindbergh, Ellsworth, etc. etc."
label: Location
content: Currently on loan
place: label: associated place
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Naval
label: See more items in
content: Time and Navigation
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Weems Memorial Library
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AF.59069-N
label: catalog number
content: 59069-N
label: accession number
content: 242229
objectType: label: Object Name
content: octant
label: Object Name
content: sextant
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 in x 8 3/4 in x 7 in; 15.24 cm x 22.225 cm x 17.78 cm