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Pocket sextant by Cary, 1795-1805. Black and white photograph, taken in 1948, from the Science Museum photographic
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Surveyor's pocket sextant made by William Cary, London, about 1800. Lacquered brass frame, polished limb, a detachable wooden handle. Signed on the crossbar: Cary London. Brass scale from -5° to 150° every 1°, measuring to 125° (digits read from the pivot). Brass vernier to 1', zero at the left. There is no tangent or clamping screw; no shades. Index glass without adjustment; adjustment of the horizon glass by a fixed milled screw. Sight vane with one pinhole. Wooden keystone box containing in the lid a label of the Geological Survey of Great Britain marked in MS: H.W. Bristow | 28 Jermyn Street | SW [and] agenda | 6747. Used for field mapping during the Peninsular War, 1808-1814.
On display
Science Museum: Making the Modern World Gallery
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Details
- Category:
- Surveying
- Object Number:
- 1876-1034
- Materials:
- base, mahogany, sextant, brass, sextant, glass
- type:
- surveyor's sextant
- taxonomy:
-
- furnishing and equipment
- measuring device - instrument
- sextant
- furnishing and equipment
- measuring device - instrument
- sounding sextant
- credit:
- Bristow, H.W.
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