Brass sextant signed Husun Trade Mark Serial No. 55040 from the 1930s

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About the Item

Brass sextant signed Husun Trade Mark Serial No. 55040 and made by H. Hughes & Son Ltd London in the 1930s; instrument complete with optics and accessories and housed in an elegant original square mahogany wood box with brass hinges and locking hooks, leather handle. Brass frame with engraved silver goniometric scale embedded in the arch, with scale from 0 to + 125°, micrometric screw-adjustable vernier with built-in illumination and reading nonius, ebonite handle containing batteries for night illumination, four colored glasses for fixed mirror and three for movable mirror, index and 'horizon mirror, a telescope, filter, adjustment key and a rare and curious brush. A label on the inside of the box lid indicates that the instrument was serviced in 1947. Box size cm 26x27.3x14.5 - inches 10.2x10.8x5.8. The last photo is the gift box. Conservation status: good fully functional and complete with base for stand made of custom wood and brass. The firm founded by Henry Hughes around 1830 became H. Hughes & Son in 1875, and H. Hughes & Son Ltd in 1903. After merging in 1947 with Kelvin, Bottomley & Baird Ltd, the firm became Kelvin & Hughes Ltd. You place the instrument in a vertical plane and, looking through the sighting device, aim at the horizon line visible through the non-silvered half of the fixed mirror. Moving the alidade, with which the mirror is integral, causes light rays from the astro and subsequently reflected by the moving mirror and the silver half of the fixed mirror to be sent back from 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 the value of which is read on the graduated scale. The filter is used when the star to be looked at is the Sun. 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. It is in the shape of a circular sector of 60°, that is, one-sixth of a circumference, hence the name, at the apex of which is pivoted a movable alidade on which is fixed a mirror that rotates with it. On the back of the mirror is a stand with a telescope oriented toward a second mirror, only one half of which is silvered, making it possible to simultaneously observe the sea horizon, in alignment, and the pointed star, whose image is reflected by the mirror attached to the alidade and subsequently by the silvered part of the mirror. Regolando la posizione dell'indice dell'alidada è possibile far collimare l'immagine dell'orizzonte con quella dell'astro e ricavare sulla scala graduata del settore di 60° l'angolo fra l'orizzonte e l'astro. 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: 5.8 in (14.74 cm)Width: 10.8 in (27.44 cm)Depth: 10.2 in (25.91 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Brass
Period:
1930-1939
Date of Manufacture:
1930
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Milan, IT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1020241290682

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