Wye Level
date: label: date made
content: ca 1880
name: label: maker
content: Balbreck ainé et fils
notes: label: Description
content: The Panama Canal links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Central America. The idea of a waterway of this sort had been raised many times since Columbus's first voyage to America in 1492, but the discovery of gold in California in 1848, as well as the improvement of various technologies, brought increased urgency to the idea. The French engineers and investors who began to design and dig the Canal in the early 1880s were stopped by disease and lack of funds. Americans completed the project in 1914.
label: Description
content: Since the 1720s, surveyors have used telesopic levels to draw level surfaces and to determine the differences in altitude between several points. This example—marked "Balbeck ainé, Bvd Montparnasse, 81. Paris" and "Canal de Panama"— was made for the French team that laid out a Panama Canal in the 1880s.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Paris
topic: label: related event
content: Building the Panama Canal
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
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content: Surveying and Geodesy
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content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.337071
label: catalog number
content: 337071
label: accession number
content: 1979.0261
objectType: label: Object Name
content: level
label: Object Type
content: levels
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: nickel plated brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: telescope: 15 in; 38.1 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 8 3/4 in x 16 1/4 in x 9 1/2 in; 22.225 cm x 41.275 cm x 24.13 cm