Although W. & L. E. Gurley did not begin using serial numbers until 1908, the Gurley
level makers began stamping a serial number on the bottom of each baseplate in 1900. This level is stamped 2478. Company records reveal that it is one off four identical levels that Gurley made for New York University in 1906. New, with tripod, it cost $110. Bronx Community College, which had taken possession of the Bronx campus of New York University, donated it to the Smithsonian.Ref: W. & L. E. Gurley, Manual of the Principal Instruments used in American Engineering
and Surveying (Troy, N.Y. 1905), pp. 152-166.
