Surveyor's Compass
name: label: maker
content: Lynch, James
notes: label: Description
content: Some American surveyors and instrument makers working in the second half of the 18th century may have been familiar with Irish compasses like this one, which was probably made by the eldest of three men named James Lynch who worked in Dublin during the period 1767–1846.
label: Description
content: This compass is made of brass, and the face is silvered. The rose reads counterclockwise, a feature that David Rittenhouse introduced to American practice in the 1760s. The vertical sights are held with a narrow and relatively flimsy bar. The graduated needle rim reads clockwise to 360 degrees, rather than in quadrants from north and south as was usually the case. Another graduation is at the outer edge of the face, numbered in quadrants from north and south. The compass box can be detached from the bar. The inscription on the face reads "Lynch * Dublin *."
label: Description
content: Ref: J. E. Burnett and A. D. Morrison–Low, <i>"Vulgar and Mechanick" The Scientific Instrument Trade in Ireland 1650–1921</i> (Dublin, 1989), pp. 29–35.
label: Description
content: Gloria Clifton, <i>Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550–1851</i> (London, 1995).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Ireland: Dublin, Dublin
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: Clifton, Gloria and Gerard L. E. Turner. Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851
label: Related Publication
content: Burnett, J. E.; Morrison-Low, A. D.. Vulgar and Michanick: Scientific Instrument Trade in Ireland, 1650-1921
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: John J. Boyd
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.336647
label: accession number
content: 1978.0655
label: catalog number
content: 336647
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Surveyor's Compass
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall length: 18 1/4 in; 46.355 cm
label: Measurements
content: needle: 5 1/2 in; 13.97 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 5 in x 19 3/8 in x 8 5/16 in; 12.7 cm x 49.2125 cm x 21.11375 cm