NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Sextant manufacturers
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2007 Oct 25, 13:08 +0100
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2007 Oct 25, 13:08 +0100
Alex provided an interesting list of "sextant manufacturers", but if he is going to make it comprehensive, he has a lot of labour in store. However, it could be well worth while. I think few of the English names on his list actually made their own instruments, though they may have bought them in to put into a box and attach their own name. There was a lot of badge-engineering went on, even then. Even just on the English list, there may be many more names to add. One example, not on Alex's list, is Sewill, of Liverpool, who describes himself on the label as "Maker to the Royal Navy". Sewill "made" my own Vernier sextant, which appears in all respects to be a rebadged Heath clone, but lacking their endless-tangent feature, introduced into Heath's own instruments around the same time. Alex may remember that he checked out the adjustments of that sextant when he visited me in Oxford, in the Summer. It had interested him because its Kew certificate stated that the corrections were zero at all angles. One item on his list is- | Henry Hughes and Son, formerly Kelvin and Hughes, | (Fenchurch str., London) but I suggest that ought to be the other way round.. As far as English sextants are concerned, the acknowleged authority is Gloria Clifton, who maintains a database of sextant makers. She is also the author of a directory of London instrument-makers. I have found her to be very helpful. Dr G.C. Clifton, Head of Royal Observatory, Greenwich, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London SE10 9NF Tel. 020 8312 6758 Fax 020 8312 6734 email "Gloria Clifton"============= George. contact George Huxtable at george@huxtable.u-net.com or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222) or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---