Octant
date: label: date made
content: 1845-1876
name: label: maker
content: Shaw, Robert Ludlow
notes: label: Description
content: Octant with an ebony frame and reinforced brass index arm. The ivory scale is graduated every 20 minutes from -2° to +107° and read by vernier and tangent screw to single minutes of arc.
label: Description
content: The "R. L. Shaw New York" inscription is that of Robert Ludlow Shaw (1813-1876), one of the first Americans to manufacture octants, sextants, and other nautical instruments. At the American Institute Fair of 1841 he won a gold medal for work done with his large dividing engine "of the celebrated Ramsden construction, the same as is used by the London manufacturers," the president of the American Institute intoning that "it was no longer necessary to send to a foreign country to procure Nautical Instruments, as they could now have them made at home as good, and at as low prices as they could be had from abroad."
label: Description
content: Ref: Deborah J. Warner, "American Octants and Sextants: The Early Years," <i>Rittenhouse</i> 3 (1989): 86-112, on 108.
label: Description
content: Anne Preuss and Don Treworgy, "Robert Ludlow Shaw," <i>Rittenhouse</i> 2 (1988): 65-69.
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
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content: Navigation
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content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1995.0035.01
label: accession number
content: 1995.0035
label: catalog number
content: 1995.0035.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: octant
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: box: 4 in x 14 1/4 in x 13 in; 10.16 cm x 36.195 cm x 33.02 cm
label: Measurements
content: octant radius: 11 in; 27.94 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/2 in x 12 3/4 in x 14 in; 11.43 cm x 32.385 cm x 35.56 cm