Sextant
date: label: date made
content: early 19th century
name: label: maker
content: W. & S. Jones
notes: label: Description
content: This form of sextant was introduced in the 1790s and remained popular for several decades. The inscription on this example reads "W. & S. Jones. 30 Holborn London." W. & S. Jones described it as being "so framed, as not be liable to warped or strained, with adjusting screws, telescopes, and other auxiliary apparatus, the most proper for taking distances accurately, to determine the longitude at sea, &c."
label: Description
content: This example belonged to Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and may have been acquired soon after that school was chartered in 1813. The silvered scale is graduated every 10 minutes from 0° to +130° and read by vernier with tangent screw and swinging magnifier.
label: Description
content: Ref: George Adams, <i>Geometrical and Graphical Essays</i>, 2nd edition revised by William Jones (London, 1797), pp. 271-284.
label: Description
content: <i>Encyclopaedia Britannica</i> (Edinburgh, 1797), vol. 12, art. "Navigation," p. 737.
label: Description
content: W. & S. Jones, <i>A Catalogue of Optical, Mathematical, and Philosophical Instruments</i>, appended to G. Adams, An Essay on Electricity (London, 1799).
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
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Colby College
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.329687
label: catalog number
content: 329687
label: accession number
content: 273104
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sextant
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: radius: 8 1/2 in; 21.59 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in box: 4 7/8 in x 12 3/16 in x 13 in; 12.3825 cm x 30.95625 cm x 33.02 cm