Surveyor's Transit
date: label: date made
content: ca 1870
label: date made
content: ca 1865
name: label: maker
content: Stackpole and Brother
notes: label: Description
content: This instrument was made by Stackpole & Brother in the 1860s, and sold to Benjamin S. Olmsted, an engineer in Rye, N.Y. A. J. Kirby of Westchester County, New York, acquired it around 1870 and used it for many years. His son gave it to the Smithsonian in 1930.
label: Description
content: The instrument is unusual in several ways: the telescope is transit-mounted but too long to transit, and an adjustable strut at the objective end holds the telescope at a fixed angle of elevation. The horizontal circle is silvered, graduated to 20 minutes, and read by opposite verniers to 20 seconds. A magnetic compass in the center of the circle is suitable only for rough orientation, and a hanging level is below the telescope. The inscription reads "Stackpole & Brother, New York 939."
label: Description
content: F. E. Brandis, who was working for Stackpole at the time this instrument was made, later incorporated some of its features--most notably the long transit mounted telescope and the adjustable strut--in what he called his Improved City Transit.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Surveying and Geodesy
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Richard S. Kirby
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.309850A
label: maker number
content: 939
label: accession number
content: 110078
label: catalog number
content: 309850A
objectType: label: Object Name
content: surveyor's transit
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/2 in; 21.59 cm
label: Measurements
content: horizontal circle: 5 1/2 in; 13.97 cm
label: Measurements
content: telescope: 13 in; 33.02 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 in x 6 1/8 in x 12 15/16 in; 22.86 cm x 15.5575 cm x 32.86125 cm