Equatorial Sextant
date: label: date made
content: 1856
name: label: maker
content: Burt, William A.
notes: label: Description
content: Patent model for William Austin Burt, new equatorial sextant, U.S. Patent 16,002 (1856). This instrument could apparently be used to take azimuths, altitude, and time with one observation, and thus enable one to easily obtain the position and bearing of a ship at sea. It was ingenious, but never found much of a market. Burt is better remembered for the solar compass that he introduced in the 1830s.
label: Description
content: Ref: John S. Burt, <i>They Left Their Mark. A Biography of William Austin Burt</i> (Rancho Cordova, Ca., 1985), pp. 128-130.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Navigation
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content: Measuring & Mapping
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content: Invention and the Patent Model
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content: Patent Models
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.309166
label: catalog number
content: 309166
label: accession number
content: 89797
label: patent number
content: 16,002
objectType: label: Object Name
content: equatorial sextant
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 7/8 in x 10 1/4 in x 5 5/8 in; 30.1625 cm x 26.035 cm x 14.2875 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 11 in x 5 in; 30.48 cm x 27.94 cm x 12.7 cm