W. & T. Gilbert

London, c. 1810 - c. 1858

Object data

wood, brass, iron, lead, glass, precious stone and paper

height 5.5 cm × width 29.3 cm × depth 20 cm

Inscriptions

  • inscription, on the compass card box: W. & T. GILBERT, / Mathematical Instrument / MAKERS AND OPTICIANS, / TO THE Hon.ble the East India Comp.y / 148, LEADENHALL STREET / LONDON.
  • inscription, on the compass card, front, printed: W. & T. GILBERT, / 148, Leadenhall Street LONDON.
  • inscription, on the compass card, back, handwritten, in ink: North / South

Provenance

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-873-1

Copyright: Public domain

Entry

Azimuth compass in a wooden box (NG-MC-873-2), with a separate tripod (NG-MC-873-3) and a compass card box (NG-MC-873-1).

The compass has a fixed pelorus. The eyesight is a combination of a prismatic sight for reading the card and a slit sight with red and a green darkening glass. The hair sight at the other side of the ring is equipped with an adjustable black mirror. The bowl is weighted with lead. Two different locking devices for the compass card are mounted in the bowl. One is a lever with a ring at the end around the pivot, which can lift the card off the pivot. The other is a simple spring pushed against the side of the card. The compass has two green compass cards, both made of paper. The scale, in four quadrants, is printed in mirror writing for the prismatic sight. One card has a metal rim on which the degrees are subdivided into twenty minute graduations. The cards are stored in a separate box beneath two iron clasps with their magnetic poles in a fixed position, so that their magnetic properties are preserved. The tripod has a fork in which the compass can be suspended in its gimbals.

This compass was known as the Patent Azimuth and Surveying Compass. The dating represents a problem, as the Dutch East India Company, as mentioned in one inscription, ceased to exist in 1800. The compass was probably purchased by Julius Constantijn Rijk (1787-1854) when he visited Portsmouth in 1825 in the sloop of war Pallas.1 According to Obreen it was in regular use on board ships of the Dutch Navy.2

Citation

(accessed 23 November 2024 23:21:05).

Footnotes