WITH COMPASS AND CHAIN

Transcription

1 WITH COMPASS AND CHAIN Early American Surveyors and Their Instruments by SILVIO A. BEDINI Professional Surveyors Publishing Company, Inc. Frederick, Maryland

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Illustrations Illustration Credits Foreword Preface XIII XXI XXIII XXV I Collectors and Collecting 1 II Being A History Detective 17 III Mapping the Wilderness 21 IV Surveyors' Portraits 31 1 The Colonial Surveyor 32 2 Samuel Wright Mifflin ( ) Railway Locating Engineer 36 3 A Nineteenth Century Surveyor and Chainman 40 V The Transit in the Tower 43 VI Of 'Science and Liberty': The Scientific Instruments of King's College and Eighteenth Century Columbia College in New York 93 VII The Practical Sciences in the American Revolution 131 VIII The Survey of the Federal Territory 151 IX Clock On A Wheelbarrow: The Advent of the County Atlas 175 X Tools of The Trade The Surveyor's Telescopic Level The Surveyor's Field Clock The Surveyor's Measuring Tapes The Artificial Horizon Aluminum Surveying Instruments The Prismatic Compass 240 IX

3 X WITH COMPASS AND CHAIN XI The Mathematical Instrument Makers Rowland Houghton (c ) and His "New Theodolate" The Doolittle Dynasty of Connecticut ( ) The Kings of Salem, Massachusetts ( ) Thomas Godfrey ( ) and the Invention of the Octant Benjamin King ( ) of Newport, Rhode Island Thomas Greenough ( ) of Boston, Massachusetts The Dods of Mendham, New Jersey ( ) Surveying Instruments and Steam Engines Samuel Lane ( ) Shoemaker Surveyor of Stratham, New Hampshire Ephraim Shevie (fl ) Sundial Maker and Counterfeiter Thomas Harland ( ) Master Teacher of Norwich, Connecticut Thomas Marshall ( ) The Mystery of the Meridian Instrument David Rittenhouse ( ) Dean of Instrument Makers Benjamin Rittenhouse ( ) of Norriton, Pennsylvania Joel Baily III ( ) of Chester County, Pennsylvania John Avery ( ) of Bridgewater, Connecticut William Hart ( ) Tory of Portsmouth, New Hampshire Benjamin Condy (c ) of Philadelphia Henry Voigt ( ) Mechanician and Chief Coiner Abel Buell ( ) Engraver and Counterfeiter George Wall, Jr. ( ) and His Trigonometer Andrew Newell (1750/ ) and Sons of Boston, Massachusetts Goldsmith Chandlee ( ) and George B. Graves ( ) Andrew Ellicott ( ) and the Governors Isaac Greenwood III ( ) Daniel Burnap ( ) Surveying Compasses in Brass and Wood Frederick Heisely ( ) and Sons Benjamin Clark Gilman ( ) Hydraulic Engineer William Hamlin ( ) and His Telescopes 408

4 Table of Contents XI 29 Benjamin Pike and Sons ( ) John Vogler ( ) Silversmith of Old Salem, North Carolina Isaac T. Heartte ( ) Baltimore Instrument Maker William Austin Burt ( ) Inventor of the Solar Compass Richard Patten ( ) The Enigma of Lewis Michael Metal Worker of York County, Pennsylvania John Trundy ( ) of Portsmouth, New Hampshire John Hapgood Temple ( ) Farm Boy Turned Instrument Maker Thomas Tennent ( ) " "At the Sign of the Wooden Sailor" 456 XII The Cartographers Captain John Smith ( ) Saved by a Compass Sundial Augustine Herrman (c ) Denizen of Maryland Thomas Holme ( ) Pennsylvania's First Surveyor General Eusebio Francisco Kino ( ) Pioneering Padre on Horseback The Scull Dynasty of Pennsylvania Surveyors Lewis Evans (c ) Pennsylvania Map Maker Joshua Fisher ( ) and His Chart of the Delaware Bay William Gerard De Brahm (1718-c. 1799) Military Engineer and Surveyor Bernard Romans ( ) Engineer Adventurer Captain Thomas Hutchins (c ) Military Surveyor and Cartographer Benjamin Banneker ( ) The First African American Man of Science Christopher Colles ( ) and the First Road Guide John Fitch ( ) and the Cider Press Map John Churchman ( ) and the Magnetic Atlas Simeon De Witt ( ) Surveyor, Cartographer, and Land Developer Loammi Baldwin II ( ) Surveyor and Civil Engineer 565

5 XII WITH COMPASS AND CHAIN 17 John H. Eddy ( ) New York State Geographer The Kings of Washington, D.C. ( ) Cartographers and Surveyors The Whistler Engineers ( ) 580 XIII The Surveyors The Surveying Shermans ( ) of Watertown, Massachusetts William Mayo ( ) Surveyor of the Virginia Piedmont Joshua Fry of Virginia (c ) Scholar, Surveyor, Soldier Joseph Frye ( ) Founder of Fryeburg, Maine Roger Sherman's Field Survey Book with Richard Norwood's Epitome Elijah Porter ( ) Wheelwright and County Surveyor Philip Jones, Jr. ( ) The 1730 Survey of Baltimore Town John Sellers (fl ) Farmer, Millwright, and Surveyor George Washington ( ) Surveyor and Cartographer George Gilpin ( ) Alexandria's City Surveyor and Engineer Thomas Jefferson ( ) Statesman Surveyor The Saga of Thomas Jefferson's Odometers James Whitelaw ( ) Surveyor General of Vermont The First Settlements of Wachovia, North Carolina ( ) Isaac Briggs ( ) Surveyor General of the Mississippi Territory The Case of the "Worthless" Instruments George Leighton Whitehouse ( ) Surveyor of Railways Abraham Lincoln ( ) Deputy County Surveyor 704 Bibliography 709 Index 755