Sextant

Object Details

Plath, Carl Christian

Description

This sextant, made by C. Plath (Ser. No. 25595), was used by Gerald (Jerry) R. Pitzl, while serving as a navigator for the 1967 and 1968 Plaisted Polar Expeditions—the second of which successfully reached the North Pole via snowmobile on April 20, 1968.

The Plaisted team was the first to reach the North Pole using Ski-Doos, snowmobiles that were initially introduced in the late 1950s by Canadian Joseph-Armand Bombardier. The idea to embark on this journey was formed by two friends, Ralph Plaisted and Art Aufderheide, at a bar in Duluth, Minnesota. Plaisted was referred to Jerry Pitzl, who was working as a high school geography teacher, as a potential navigator.

No one on the team had familiarity with polar expeditions. Plaisted was an insurance salesman, and his fellow explorers included a doctor, a mechanic, an engineer, a teacher, and a nephew of Ski-Doo developer Bombardier. Despite his inexperience, Plaisted managed to get funding and support from several companies, ultimately planning an expedition that greatly differed from previous polar explorations. Snowmobiles replaced dog teams. Packing rations and fuel with the goal of self-sufficiency gave way to a regular resupply of goods via airplane. (See also 2022.0033.02)

Finding their way to the North Pole was not obvious. Massive pieces of ice or stretches of open water would block the team's path, forcing them off their course. The shape of the Earth's magnetic field makes compasses difficult to use at high latitude, so Pitzl relied on his sextant to navigate. The sextant measures the angle between two objects, usually a celestial object (sun, moon, star) and the horizon. Sextants have been used since the mid-1700s, but their successful implementation always necessitated an accurate star catalog. Pitzl used a nautical almanac (2022.0033.03) in addition to the sextant to navigate, employing a technique known as "using the pole as the assumed position."

Ptizl's sextant had the capability of creating an artificial horizon, a necessity due to the irregularity of the ice formations. During the first expedition, he found the batteries in the sextant that powered the light for the artificial horizon could not tolerate the cold, so he had a teammate modify the instrument with an external battery pack that was held close his body.

Pitzl kept a log of his coordinates so that it could be used as a record of the team's journey to the Pole. These notes were deposited at the National Archives (NARA Identifier 4750763). The attainment of their destination on April 20, 1968 was also confirmed by the overflight of an Air Force weather reconnaissance flight.

References:

Pitzl, G.R., "Navigating to the North Pole—A Surface Traverse," Journal of the Institute of Navigation, v. 16, no. 1, 1969, p.32-36.

Pitzl, G.R., True North: Victory in the Race to the Pole, Page Publishing, Inc., December 14, 2021.

Lawson, G., "An Insurance Salesman and a Doctor Walk Into a Bar, and End Up at the North Pole: The story of an accidentally pioneering expedition," The New York Times Magazine, March 17, 2016.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Gift of Gerald R. Pitzl

1966

ID Number

2022.0033.01

catalog number

2022.0033.01

accession number

2022.0033

Object Name

sextant

Measurements

part: sextant: 6 in x 12 1/4 in x 9 1/2 in; 15.24 cm x 31.115 cm x 24.13 cm

in box: closed: 19 cm x 31.3 cm x 32 cm; 7 15/32 in x 12 5/16 in x 12 19/32 in

in box: open: 43 cm x 31.3 cm x 41 cm; 16 15/16 in x 12 5/16 in x 16 5/32 in

part: external battery pack: 140 cm x 2 cm; 55 1/8 in x 25/32 in

part: brush: 2.5 cm x 9.5 cm x 2 cm; 31/32 in x 3 3/4 in x 25/32 in

part: monocle: 9 cm x 4.5 cm x 8 cm; 3 17/32 in x 1 25/32 in x 3 5/32 in

part: light bulb box: 7.5 cm x 4.5 cm x 2 cm; 2 15/16 in x 1 25/32 in x 25/32 in

part: light blub: 1.5 cm x .8 cm; 19/32 in x 5/16 in

part: wrench for hex head: 6.5 cm x 2 cm x .2 cm; 2 9/16 in x 25/32 in x 3/32 in

part: wrench for square head x2: 5 cm x .9 cm x 1 cm; 1 31/32 in x 11/32 in x 13/32 in

part: certificate: 12 cm x 18 cm; 4 23/32 in x 7 3/32 in

place made

Germany: Hamburg, Hamburg

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences

National Museum of American History

Record ID

nmah_2018504

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng402babae1-fcbe-43c3-82b5-d740aecd513c