Sextant

Catalogue number:
PH*326932

Inscriptions:
"J. Allan, Baltimore"

Dimensions:
radius 7 inches

Discussion:
The signature on this sextant refers to John Allen (b. 1786), an "optician and mathematical instrument maker" who appears in Baltimore city directories from 1810 to 1819, and who was the son of James Allen, a noted instrument maker in London. John Allen boasted: "As all Instruments sold by me are graduated by my father’s improved self-correcting engine, for which the Society of Arts voted him their Gold Medal, on the 19^th of May, 1810–they are warranted and will be kept in repair one year, gratis."

This sextant has a brass frame. The silvered scale is graduated every 20 minutes from -5^o to +145^o and read by vernier with tangent screw and magnifier to 1 second of arc. It belonged to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Ref: Deborah J. Warner, "American Octants and Sextants: The Early Years," Rittenhouse 3 (1989): 86-112, on 89.

John Allen advertisement in the American & Commercial Daily Advertiser (June 12, 1816).

Further Information:

Sextant