General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

7

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

.1 Brass (and possibly other metals) sextant casing & fittings; glass optics; scale divided on silver..2 brass box base..3 brass & glass construction..4 brass screw..5 brass & glass materials of construction..6 brass.7 case has wooden frame; leather exterior covering; velvet lining; metal closures.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

13.5 cm

Width

6.5 cm

Height

3.7 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Exploration and Survey

Category

Measurement-angles

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Troughton Simms

Country

England

State/Province

Unknown

City

London

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Unknown

Period

This instrument may have been used c. 1850s-1900.

Canada

Marcus Smith was born in Northumbria, England in 1831 and worked in the construction and survey of early British railways. He emigrated to Canada in 1849 and worked on the great western and Niagara & Detroit River Railway (until 1860) and Intercolonial Railway (Restigouche NB district) (1868-72); from 1872-86 smith worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was acting engineer-in-chief during the absence of Sir Sanford Fleming (1876-78). His last post was as a consulting engineer to the Canadian government. (1886-92). Marcus Smith died in 1901. (ref.1)

Function

Used to measure vertical and/or horizontal angles between objects, especially celestial objects in relation to the horizon.

Technical

Pocket or box sextant designed to house the optical components of the sextant inside the small cylindrical brass box (.2); the index arm & divided arc are outside the box. Some historians credit Edward Troughton with the invention of box sextant c. 1800. Popular as both a civilian land & military survey instrument. (ref.2)

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

.1"Troughton & Simms, London." incised in casing. Arc divided -0 to 140 +, at 30 second intervals. Vernier divided 0 to 30, at 1 minute intervals..2-.7 No markings visible.

Missing

Appears complete. .7 case is extremely fragile.

Finish

.1 Most external surfaces of sextant have darkened finish; silver scale; bright lacquered brass screws and some trim; clear glass optics..2 darkened finish on case exterior; bright brass interior..3 &.5 darkened brass finish;.3 has clear glass optics.;.5 red glass filter on eyepiece..4 &.6 bright lacquered finish on screws..7 fine dark brown leather covering on exterior; dark blue velvet lining.

Decoration

N/A