Surveyor's Compass
notes: label: Description
content: This compass, with its accompanying Jacob staff, is said to have been used in the Peirce Mill area of what is now Washington, D.C., in the 1790s, and the design seems appropriate for that period. The needle rim is graduated to single minutes and numbered clockwise from north. The face seems to have been copied from that of a nautical compass: it reads clockwise, and is numbered in quadrants from north and south.
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Francis D. Shoemaker
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.309826.01
label: accession number
content: 109599
label: catalog number
content: 309826.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Surveyors' Compass
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall length: 12 in; 30.48 cm
label: Measurements
content: needle: 4 in; 10.16 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 1/16 in x 12 1/8 in x 4 7/8 in; 15.39875 cm x 30.7975 cm x 12.3825 cm