Octant
date: label: date made
content: mid 19th century
name: label: maker
content: Spencer, Barrett & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: Octant with an ebony frame, reinforced brass index arm, and ivory scale. The scale is graduated every 20 minutes from -3° to +109° and read by vernier with tangent screw to single minutes of arc. The inscription reads "SPENCER, BARRETT & CO LONDON."
label: Description
content: S. Thaxter & Son, nautical instrument dealers in Boston, sent this octant to the Smithsonian in 1880. The U.S. Fish Commission included it i(then termed a quadrant) in its display at the International Fisheries Exhibition held in London in 1883, and perhaps in the similar Exhibition held in Berlin in 1880 as well.
label: Description
content: Ref: G. Brown Goode, et. al., Descriptive Catalogues of the Collections Sent from the United States to the International Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883 (Washington, D.C., 1884), vol. 2, p. 728.
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
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: S. Thaxter & Son
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.39391
label: catalog number
content: 39391
label: accession number
content: 8745
objectType: label: Object Name
content: octant
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: radius: 9 3/4 in; 24.765 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 9 7/8 in x 3 3/16 in; 30.48 cm x 25.0825 cm x 8.09625 cm