Sextant (detail)

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This is a detail from a brass sextant made around 1790, probably by Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800), a scientific instrument maker based in London.

The detail shows the signature on the arc of the sextant. It reads 'Ramsden London'.

Central to Ramsden's business was the manufacture and division of the scale of sextants. It has been estimated that his workshop constructed over 1400: this example is numbered '1354'.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-190-002-057-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  T.1963.42
• Date: Around 1790
  c. 1790
  
• Material: Brass
  Sextant
  
• Dimensions:
• What: Sextant
  
• Subject:
• Who: Horsburgh Collection
  Ramsden, London (Instrument maker)
  
• Where: England, London
  
• Event:
• Description: Brass sextant with the hand lens missing, by Ramsden of London, c. 1790
  
• References:
  • For Ramsden and Troughton, see Clifton, Gloria, Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851. London: 1995, pp 227-8 
  • For Ramsden's numbering, see Stimson, Alan, ' Some Board of Longitude Instruments in the Nineteenth Century' in de Clercq, P. R. (ed.) Nineteenth-Century Scientific Instruments and Their Makers. Leiden & Amsterdam: 1985, pp 98-115 
  • Turner, Anthony, Early Scientific Instruments 1400-1800. London: 1987, pp 228-9; Bennett, J.A. The Divided Circle: A history of instruments for astronomy, navigation and surveying. Oxford: 1987. pp 136-8 
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