Object data
wood, brass, iron, lead, glass, precious stone and paper
height 23 cm × width 24.7 cm × depth 24 cm
W. & T. Gilbert
Azimuth Compass in Wooden Box
London, c. 1810 - c. 1858
Inscriptions
- inscription, on the compass box: PATENT AZIMUTH & SURVEYING COMPASS, / MADE AND SOLD / By W. and T. GILBERT, / MATHEMATICAL INSTRUMENT-MAKERS AND OPTICIANS, / To the Honourable the East India Company, / nr. 148, LEADENHALL-STREET, LONDON.
- inscription, on the compass card: W. & T. GILBERT, / 148, Leadenhall Street LONDON.
- label, on the compass box: 873 former inventory label
Provenance
...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-873-2
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
Literature
J.C. Rijk, _Generaal Rapport Z.M. Pallas, s.l. _1825, manuscript with 6 appendices in HSM, inv. no. NII (03144), Appendix VI; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 873; E.G.R. Taylor, The Mathematical Practitioners of Hanoverian England 1714-1840, Cambridge 1966, p. 393, no. 1339; A.A. Lemmers, Techniek op schaal. Modellen en het technologiebeleid van de Marine 1725-1885, Amsterdam 1996, pp. 209-10
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'W. & T. Gilbert, Azimuth Compass in Wooden Box, London, c. 1810 - c. 1858', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.433085
(accessed 23 November 2024 23:48:40).