Cathetometer
Object Details
- Societe Genevoise d’Instruments de Physique
- Description
- A cathetometer is an upright ruler equipped with a telescope that is designed to measure the vertical difference between two points with great accuracy. The form A cathetometer is an upright ruler equipped with a telescope that is designed to measure the vertical difference between two points with great accuracy. The form was introduced in Paris around 1815 and the name around 1847.
- This example came from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and probably dates from around 1894 when Bowdoin opened its new Science Building. The signature—SOCIÉTÉ GENEVOISE / Pour la Construction / D’Instrumente de Physique / GENÈVE—refers to a Swiss firm that provided many instruments to American colleges and universities in the late 19th century. This large instrument sits on a tri-leg base, and reads by vernier to 1/50 of a millimeter. New it cost 900 Swiss francs.
- Ref: D. J. Warner, “Cathetometers and Precision Measurement: The History of an Upright Ruler,” Rittenhouse 7 (1993): 65–75.
- Société Genevoise, Illustrated Price List of Physical and Mechanical Instruments (Geneva, 1900), p. 27.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Bowdoin College
- ID Number
- 1993.0398.01
- accession number
- 1993.0398
- catalog number
- 1993.0398.01
- Object Name
- cathetometer
- Physical Description
- brass (overall material)
- iron (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 33 in x 16 in x 13 3/4 in; 83.82 cm x 40.64 cm x 34.925 cm
- place made
- Switzerland
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- Science & Mathematics
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_1183782
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-4165-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
