Box Sextant
date: label: date made
content: mid 19th century
name: label: maker
content: Adie, Patrick
notes: label: Description
content: A box (or pocket) sextant works like a traditional sextant, but here the mechanism is enclosed in a brass box of about 3 inches diameter. William Jones, a leading instrument maker in London, introduced the form in 1797.
label: Description
content: This example has a silvered scale that is graduated every 30 minutes from -3° to +150° and read by vernier with swinging magnifier to single minutes of arc. The "Adie, London" inscription refers to Patrick Adie, an instrument maker who was in business in London from 1848 to 1886. Adie's father was an instrument maker in Edinburgh.
label: Description
content: Ref: William Jones, "Description of a New Pocket Box Sextant," in George Adams, Geometrical and Graphical Essays, 2nd ed. by William Jones, (London, 1797), pp. 283-285.
label: Description
content: Gloria Clifton, <i>Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851</i> (London, 1995), p. 4.
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
label: See more items in
content: Navigation
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content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.328762
label: catalog number
content: 328762
label: accession number
content: 308252
objectType: label: Object Name
content: box sextant
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 1/4 in; 8.255 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 2 3/8 in x 3 3/4 in; 6.0325 cm x 9.525 cm