NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Brendan Kinch
Date: 2014 Oct 13, 00:34 +0200
Hi Jim,
It may be very hard to get any information on the history of the actual instrument – unless perhaps someone on here has actually previously owned it and done some very particular research. All I can tell you is that it is perhaps not just as old as you were previously told. Gloria Clifton in her book of British Scientific Instrument Makers lists John Crichton as working at that address from 1834 to 1865 (although during the later years it was probably his son – also John). Crichton was a well-respected manufacturer and as you see sold to Trinity House (UK Light House Authority) and East India Company (see Wikipedia –for lots of info).
So the question remains – where was it used. My guess is that it has been around the world a few times –working J
Kinch.
From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] On Behalf Of Jim Wellington
Sent: 12 October 2014 22:36
To: BrenKinch@gmail.com
Subject: [NavList] C. 1830 Octant
In 1985 I bought a c. 1830 ebony and ivory octant from Tesseract an early scientific instrument company. I have always been interested in the history of the octant. Where and when was it used? Does anyone have any information on the instrument?
