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Brass sextant signed B. Cooke & Son Hull from the second half of the 19th century

About the Item

Brass sextant signed B. Cooke & Son Hull, from the second half of the 19th century and housed in its original mahogany wood box with brass handle, hinges, and locking hooks, complete with key lock . Silver flap and vernier, ebony handle, 3 colored glasses for fixed mirror and 4 for movable mirror, four telescopes one of which is long, 1 filter, 1 registration key, vernier graduated from 0 to 150°, index and horizon mirror. A paper label placed inside the box indicates the name of John Bliss nautical instrument repairman in New York. Conservation status: good, working and complete with base for stand made of custom wood and brass. Box size cm 25.5x23.5x12.5 - inches 10x9.2x4.8. The last photo is the gift box. Barnard Cooke founded his company around 1863, after working 1841 to 1853 with brother Thomas Cooke famous maker of telescopes and watches. B. Cooke & Son has a glorious history as a manufacturer and distributor of nautical instruments. The sextant is an ancient astronomical instrument used for measuring the height of a star (e.g., the Sun): one places the instrument in a vertical plane and, looking through the aiming device, aims at the horizon line visible through the unsilvered half of the fixed mirror. Moving the alidade, with which the mirror, it is made so that the light rays coming from the star and subsequently reflected by the moving mirror and the silver half of the fixed mirror are sent back by the latter in the direction of observation: if you look through the aiming device you can see the image of the star, obtained by double reflection, coincide with the horizon line. The height of the astro is expressed by the angle whose value is read on the graduated scale. The filter is used when the star to be looked at is the Sun. It was Sir Isaac Newton who invented the principle of double reflection in navigation instruments, but this research was never published. Subsequently, two men, independently of each other, discovered the sextant around 1730 : John Hadley (1682-1744), an English mathematician, and Thomas Godfrey, (1704-1749), an American inventor. But it was not until 1758 that Admiral John Campbell carried out a series of offshore trials to test a new method that relied on lunar distance as a means of calculating longitude. This was how the sextant was developed. Initially made of brass, they had scales divided with great precision by mathematicians who made scientific instruments.
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 4.8 in (12.2 cm)Width: 10 in (25.4 cm)Depth: 9.2 in (23.37 cm)
  • Materials and Techniques:
    Brass
  • Period:
    1870-1879
  • Date of Manufacture:
    1870
  • Condition:
    Wear consistent with age and use.
  • Seller Location:
    Milan, IT
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1020245203172

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