Telescope
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
name: label: maker
content: Zeiss, Carl
notes: label: Description
content: The American military began using telescopes with stable mounts and tubes of fixed length in the 1890s, to supplement the spyglasses it had used since the Revolution and the field glasses (binoculars) it had used since the Civil War. This example is of that sort. It has an achromatic objective of 110 mm (about 4¼ inches) aperture, a turret with three terrestrial eyepieces, a sunshade, an alt-azimuth mount, and a wooden tripod. The tube is 51 inches long. The “Zeiss” signature refers to the important German optical firm that began in business in Jena in 1846. The “6366” on the prism housing, if it is a serial number, suggests a date of manufacture in the 1890s. The eyepiece turret is marked: “Orthoskop. Okular f = 40”.”
label: Description
content: This instrument came to the Smithsonian from the U.S. Weather Bureau which had installed it on Tatoosh Island, off the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, and used it for spotting ships at sea. It may earlier have been used by the Army Corps of Engineers.
label: Description
content: Ref: D. J. Warner, “Optical Elements of Fire Control, 1890-1921,” <i>Rittenhouse</i> 18 (2004): 21-59.
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: Astronomy
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Weather Bureau
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.314578
label: accession number
content: 204611
label: catalog number
content: 314578
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telescope (refracting)
label: Object Name
content: telescope, refracting
label: Object Name
content: telescope
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 55 1/2 in x 59 in x 22 3/4 in; 140.97 cm x 149.86 cm x 57.785 cm