Astronomical Transit Instrument
date: label: date made
content: 1837
notes: label: Description
content: This is the telescope assembly of the 46-inch transit instrument (the number referring to the focal length of the 2-inch aperture objective lens) belonging to Columbia College (now University) in New York City. The inscriptions read “Troughton / & Simms / LONDON / 1837” and “Property of / Columbia College.”
label: Description
content: Since Columbia did not have suitable facilities or staff, it lent this transit instrument, as well as a matching altitude and azimuth instrument, to Lewis M. Rutherfurd, a lawyer with a private observatory. In 1848, the U.S. Coast Survey used these instruments to determine the longitudinal difference between Cambridge, Mass., and New York City.
label: Description
content: Ref: Elias Loomis, “Astronomical Observatories in the United States,” <i>Harper’s New Monthly Magazine</i> 13 (1856): 25-52, on 42.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.325772
label: accession number
content: 257809
label: catalog number
content: 325772
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Astronomical Transit Instrument
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: trunion: 5 3/4 in x 25 1/2 in x 46 in; 14.605 cm x 64.77 cm x 116.84 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: objective: 2 in x 6 3/8 in x 5 in; 5.08 cm x 16.1925 cm x 12.7 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: blocks, each: 3 1/8 in x 7 3/4 in x 4 3/4 in; 7.9375 cm x 19.685 cm x 12.065 cm