Surveyor's Vernier Compass
name: label: maker
content: W. & L. E. Gurley
notes: label: Description
content: Gurley described this as "a most excellent and portable little instrument," noting that it "is especially useful for the surveyor of government lands." New, it cost $21. The rim is graduated to 30 minutes. The right side of the face is graduated to degrees, and numbered every 10 degrees from west to north, and from west to south. The outside of the box has a variation arc that extends ± 20 degrees, and that reads by folded vernier to 5 minutes. The U.S. Geological Survey, was established in 1879, and transferred this example it to the Smithsonian in 1907.
label: Description
content: Ref: W. & L. E. Gurley, <i>A Manual of the Principal Instruments Used in American Engineering and Surveying</i> (Troy, N.Y., 1878), p. 138.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Troy
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: W. & L. E. Gurley. Manual of the Prinicipal Instruments Used in American Engineering and Surveying; 23rd Edition
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Geological Survey
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.247917
label: catalog number
content: 247917
label: accession number
content: 47736
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Sighting Compass
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 3/8 in; 11.1125 cm
label: Measurements
content: needle: 3 1/2 in; 8.89 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 in x 4 3/4 in x 4 7/8 in; 15.24 cm x 12.065 cm x 12.3825 cm