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Sextant

Catalogue number:
AF*9212

Inscriptions:
"Spencer Browning & Rust LONDON"

Dimensions:
radius 7.5 inches

Discussion:
This sextant was owned by Charles Francis Hall (1821-1871), and was probably with him on Aug. 30, 1871 when he arrived at latitude 82^o11' N, the furthest northern point reached by an Arctic explorer to that date. Hall’s daughter Anna donated it to the Smithsonian in 1901. It has a brass frame. The silvered scale is graduated every 10 minutes from about -3^o to about +155^o and read by vernier with tangent screw and swinging magnifier.

The sextant box is marked: "Captain Halls Quadrant – To be given to his family" and "To the Honorable George M. Robeson, U.S. N., Secretary to the Navy" and "from William Reid." A Stackpole & Brother trade card is inside.

Ref: S. W. Crompton, "Charles Francis Hall," in American National Biography, Vol. 9, pp. 851-852.

C. H. Davis, ed., Narrative of the North Polar Expedition (Washington, D.C., 1876).

Further Information:

Spencer, Browning & Rust
Sextant