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10 Inch Flat Vernier Sextant Jesse Ramsden

Vernier Sextant by Ramsden London nr. 1093 + Box

Type of object:

Sextant

Time period:

Britain rules the waves + France

Place:

London

Date:

1791

Maker / Author:

Jesse Ramsden

Publisher / Printer:

idem

Dimensions:

31.7 x 31 cm, or 10 inch radius

Material:

Brass and glass

Graduation:

0- 135°

Inscription:

Ramsden London, nr 1093 behind the apex

Provenance:

via F. Clemens and E. Delbon, from the Peter James McSloy collection

References:

Sextants of Greenwich pag 172 nr 149

Image by Austin Neill

Description

Important brass sextant by probably the most important sextantmaker in the 18th century, Jesse Ramsden
Signed on the arc Ramsden London and numbered behind apex’ 1093’; scale divided to 135°, adjustable telescope socket, seven shades, Index and Horizon mirrors, rosewood handle. No box

Additional information

Jesse Ramsden FRS (1735 – 1800) was one of the leading manufacturers of scientific instruments in the latter part of the eighteenth century, apprenticed unusually late to the industry at the age of 21, to Mark Burton, mathematical instrument maker in Denmark Street, in the Strand. Ramsden had previously been apprenticed to a cloth worker, although abandoned this trade when he apprenticed himself to Burton in 1756.

Swiftly gaining a reputation, Ramsden began trading under his own name by 1763. It was at this time that he developed a life long association with the Dollond family. Ramsden was undoubtedly influenced by and learnt from John Dollond, who had famously invented and patented 'the achromatic lens'. When Ramsden married Dollond's daughter, Sarah, he subsequently acquired a profitable share in this patent. Opening a shop in Haymarket, near Little Suffolk Street, Ramsden traded under the sign of the Golden Spectacles

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