Navigational Instruments in the Collection of the Science Museum, London: A Report

摘要

In the spring of 2010 I was given a short-term research fellowship by the Science Museum, in order to catalogue the octants, sextants and related navigational instruments in the same way as in Sextants at Greenwich. The Museum wanted to highlight this section, and make it available to scholars, collectors, and the general public. The 170 instruments are listed in the Appendix to this article; comprehensive descriptions can be found on the website of the Science Museum http://collection-sonline.nmsi.ac.uk/This group is part of a larger number of navigational instruments that includes ship's compasses, logs for measuring a ship's speed, instruments for depth sounding, and marine chronometers. The first navigational instrument to be accessioned by the Museum was a ship's log, in 1857; the first sextant was added eight years later [obj. no. 1865-6]. At the time that sextant was only ten years old, and of a type that was still used at sea; it was acquired from the manufacturer. The collecting of objects that represented a current or very recent development was continued by the Museum into the 1970s.