Butenschön Level
name: label: maker
content: Butenschön, George
notes: label: Description
content: The inscriptions on this level read "GEORG BUTENSCHON BAHRENFELD. B. HAMBURG" and "G.B. Hbg" and "D.R.P. 36795." Georg Butenschön was the proprietor of a workshop for scientific instruments located in Bahrenfeld, near Hamburg, and he showed his wares at the international exhibitions in Chicago (1893), Berlin (1896), and Paris (1900).
label: Description
content: His basic pocket level was based on his German patent (#36795 dated 1886), which described an instrument in which the level vial, cross hairs, and distant object were seen together through the eyepiece of the telescope. The lower, angle-measuring part of the instrument is based on another Butenschön patent (#76668 dated 1894).
label: Description
content: This example has screws for horizontal and vertical fine adjustment. The horizontal circle is graduated to degrees, and read by vernier to single minutes. The base of the instrument is a ball and socket joint that can be screwed into a piece of wood.
label: Description
content: Ref: Georg Butenschön, <i>Beschreibung der Taschen–Nivellir–Instrument</i> (Bahrenfeld bei Hamburg, 1902).
label: Description
content: Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Mechanik und Optik, <i>Special Catalogue of the Collective Exhibition of Scientific Instruments and Appliances</i> (Berlin, 1893), p. 16.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Surveying and Geodesy
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content: Measuring & Mapping
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Mechanik und Optik. Special Catalogue of the Collective Exhibition of Scientific Instruments and Appliances
label: Related Publication
content: Butenschön, Georg. Beschreibung der Taschen-Nivellir-Instrument
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.327657
label: catalog number
content: 327657
label: accession number
content: 1979.0839
objectType: label: Object Name
content: level
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 3/4 in x 9 1/4 in x 4 1/2 in; 4.445 cm x 23.495 cm x 11.43 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 2 in x 9 1/8 in x 4 3/8 in; 5.08 cm x 23.1775 cm x 11.1125 cm