Brass sextant signed Heath & C. Crayford London from the second half of the 19th century

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About the Item

Brass sextant signed Heath & C. Crayford London from the second half of the 19th century, housed in its original mahogany box, with brass hooks, handle, and hinges. Silver flap and vernier, wooden handle, 3 colored glasses for fixed mirror and 4 for movable mirror, a telescope, a filter, a microscope for vernier reading, graduated from o to 150°, index and horizon mirror. Fully functional State of preservation: very good. Complete with custom-made base for support made of wood and brass. Box size cm 27.8x 25x12.5 - inches 10.9x9.6x4.9. The Heath & C scientific instrument manufacturing firm was founded in 1845 by George Heath; his son George began his apprenticeship with the company in 1863 and became its owner in 1872. In 1882 two separate factories were built in Crayford and New Eltham to meet the large increase in demand for instruments. In 1937 the company was incorporated by Stanley. Curiosity The sextant is an optical instrument used in astronomical navigation to measure the height of the stars on the horizon in order to derive geographical coordinates relative to the ship's point. To make a sextant measurement of the height of a star (for example, the Sun), one places the instrument in a vertical plane and, looking through the sighting device, aims at the horizon line visible through the unsilvered half of the fixed mirror. Moving the alidade, with which the mirror is integral, causes the light rays coming from the star and subsequently reflected by the moving mirror and the silvered half of the fixed mirror to be sent back by the latter in the direction of observation: if you look through the aiming device, you 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 the value of which 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: 4.9 in (12.45 cm)Width: 10.9 in (27.69 cm)Depth: 9.6 in (24.39 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: LU1020240168242

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