Surveyor's Transit
name: label: maker
content: Buff and Buff Manufacturing Company
notes: label: Description
content: This transit is marked "Buff & Buff Mfg. Co. Boston 8215" and PAT'D NOV. 13-1900" and "Public Service Railway Co." It is similar, in all important respects, to the instrument that George L. Buff designed in 1866, and that Buff & Berger began making in 1871. Buff & Buff continued the tradition, boasting that this instrument "is not the product of today nor of a few years, but the crowning result of over forty years' experience in dealing with a very critical clientele." A Precise Transit No. 1C cost $234 in 1907, and was still being offered in 1938. This example belonged to the New Jersey Transit Bus Operations, Inc.
label: Description
content: The horizontal and vertical circles are silvered, graduated to 30 minutes of arc, and read by verniers to single minutes. There is a clamp and tangent to the telescope axis. The finish, termed Golden Bronze, was described in 1938 as "unique and characteristic" of Buff instruments. "It is not glaring, but is bright enough to throw off all objectionable heat rays."
label: Description
content: Ref: Buff & Buff Mfg. Co., <i>High Grade Engineering, Surveying, Astronomical and Mining Instruments</i> (Boston, 1907), pp. 7, 28, and 36-41.
label: Description
content: Buff & Buff Mfg. Co., <i>Surveying Instruments for Civil and Mining Engineers</i> (Boston, 1938), pp. 6, 15, 39, and 41-45.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
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: Buff & Buff Mfg. Co.. High Grade Engineering, Surveying, Astronomical and Mining Instruments
label: Related Publication
content: Buff & Buff Mfg. Co.. Surveying Instruments for Civil and Mining Engineers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: New Jersey Transit Bus Operations, Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1988.0154.01
label: accession number
content: 1988.0154
label: catalog number
content: 1988.0154.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: surveyor's transit
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 in; 35.56 cm
label: Measurements
content: horizontal circle: 6 1/4 in; 15.875 cm
label: Measurements
content: needle: 4 1/4 in; 10.795 cm
label: Measurements
content: vertical circle: 5 in; 12.7 cm
label: Measurements
content: telescope: 12 in; 30.48 cm
label: Measurements
content: hanging level: 6 in; 15.24 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 16 3/8 in x 10 1/8 in x 11 1/8 in; 41.5925 cm x 25.7175 cm x 28.2575 cm