overall: 42 in x 37 in x 37 in; 106.68 cm x 93.98 cm x 93.98 cm
Object Name:
Astronomical Quadrant (replica)
Place made:
United Kingdom: England, Birmingham, Birmingham
Description:
Wilhelm IV (1532-1592), Landgrave of Hesse, established an observatory and began work on a new star catalog. One instrument at his disposal was a brass and iron azimuth quadrant that was associated with the Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, and that probably dates from the 1570s. The Royal Museum in Kassel sent that historic quadrant to London in 1876, for the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Instruments, and Elkington & Co. made a replica for the Science Museum. That same Birmingham firm made this replica for the Smithsonian in the early 1890s. William A. Rogers, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Colby College, determined the errors of its circles.
Ref: <i>Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus</i> (London, 1876), pp. 346-347.
William A. Rogers, “Determination of the Errors of the Circles of an Electrotype Copy of Tycho Brahe’s Altitude Azimuth Instrument now in Possession of the Smithsonian Institution,” paper read to National Academy of Sciences in 1894.
