Surveyor's Compass
name: label: inventor
content: Kern, Samuel
label: maker
content: Danner, Jacob Sensensy
notes: label: Description
content: The inscriptions on this compass read "S. Kern Inventor" and "J. S. Danner Maker, Middletown, Va." On July 31, 1846, Samuel Kern of Strasburg, Va., obtained a patent (#4,675) for an instrument meant to be "at once cheap and efficient, enabling one to use it as a compass for running lines, or for leveling, as may be required." A trough compass, level vial, and outkeeper are inset into the face. The edge of the face is graduated to 30 minutes, and numbered in quadrants from north and south. Jacob Sensensy Danner (1807-1877) lived in Middletown, Va., and made instruments for surveyors.
label: Description
content: Ref: Charles Smart, <i>The Makers of Surveying Instruments in America Since 1700</i> (Troy, N.Y., 1962), p. 35.
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
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Smart, Charles E.. Makers of Surveying Instruments in America Since 1700
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: George H. Kernodle
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.312873
label: catalog number
content: 312873
label: accession number
content: 170227
objectType: label: Object Name
content: surveyor's compass
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 1/2 in; 13.97 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/2 in x 6 in; 6.35 cm x 15.24 cm