Part 10

Perhaps a basis for the prevalence of wood in these trades is to be found in the lines from a familiar poem:

The Yankee boy, before he's sent to school, Knows well the mystery of that magic tool, The Pocket knife.

But, from the technical point of view, it should be noted that those craftsmen who produced clocks and instruments and did not have their own brass foundries probably found that a good piece of straight-grained hardwood was as stable for holding its dimensions with the grain as a piece of brass. Shrinkage was at right angles to the grain; hence, for fixed linear stability wood was as good as brass. For rigidity per unit weight, wood was better than brass; and for availability and ease of working, wood was superior to brass.

It has often been ventured that wooden clocks were first produced in Connecticut, because of the scarcity of brass for this purpose during the years between the beginning of the Revolution to the end of the War of 1812. The claim is made that brass was not being produced in the Colonies and that it was imported exclusively from England during this period. Certainly, the wholesale price index of metal and metal products shows a steady increase during this period, and a considerable jump during the period of the War of 1812, making brass an extremely expensive material. This may explain why the makers of clocks and instruments who made and sold brass clocks and instruments were producing the same products at the same time in wood which, as we have seen, was both plentiful and a satisfactory substitute.

It can be surmised, therefore, that surveying instruments, as well as instruments for other purposes, were produced in both brass and wood simultaneously by many of the New England makers in order to provide suitable instruments in a flexible price range to meet the demands of the trade. Whereas today modern manufacturing methods make it possible to produce instruments in a wide variety, both in quality and price, to suit the needs and capabilities of every prospective purchaser, the production facilities of the 18th century were much more limited. The constant factor of skilled hand labor was costly. Metal was expensive. As evidenced in the records of Daniel Burnap, for instance, it was possible to produce surveying compasses in brass in two grades, presumably one more elaborate than the other. Yet Burnap's prices ranged between six pounds and four pounds for the metal instruments, making them still well out of reach of many of the would-be surveyors. Accordingly, Burnap--and presumably numerous other instrument makers of the period--produced from wood an economy model that sold for not more than two pounds, thus placing the item within the reach of the nonprofessional surveyor.

This theory is supported amply by the discovery that several of the instrument makers who worked in brass also made instruments of wood during the same periods. In addition to the evidence in the records of Daniel Burnap, there are the surviving surveying instruments in brass and wood made by Samuel Thaxter, Thomas Greenough, and John Dupee, leaving little if any doubt that the reason for producing surveying compasses and similar items of wood during the 18th century was to satisfy the need for reasonably accurate yet inexpensive instruments.

Surviving Instruments

The fact that the surviving examples of the wooden instruments were produced only in New England seems to indicate merely that the New England instrument makers were more familiar with the use of wood as a material, and had greater facility in working with it.

Undoubtedly other instruments produced by the 18th-century American makers have survived in addition to those already found. Quite likely examples of these wooden instruments still remain hidden in unexplored attics and other repositories. Yet, if the few thus far discovered is any criterion, the number ultimately recoverable will probably be but a fraction of the great number produced by the 18th-century makers during the half century or more in which they worked. Even allowing for those probably destroyed in the natural course of events, one cannot help but wonder what has happened to the remainder.

A list of the surviving wooden instruments is given in the Appendix (p. 153). Many of these wooden instruments bear signatures or other marks that permit identification of their makers, but a number of specimens have been found that are not signed. In most instances they show evidence of professional workmanship, and they may have been the work of known craftsmen. One or two examples are obviously homemade by unskilled amateur practitioners.

Several unsigned wooden instruments of professional quality are in the collection of the Dartmouth College Museum. Of particular interest is a semicircumferentor (fig. 32) that belonged to the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock (1711-1779) who founded Moor's Indian Charity School at Lebanon, Connecticut, which subsequently developed into Dartmouth College. It is claimed that it was with this instrument that the area of the college was surveyed when it moved to Hanover, N.H. The instrument is actually a graphometer consisting of a block of hard wood faced with a brass plate with a trough compass; it is tentatively dated about 1769. The identity of the maker is unknown, but it may have been the product of Hagger, who made a similar instrument, illustrated here, or it may have been produced by any one of the other makers noted. The type of instrument is an old one. It is described in John Love's Geodaesia, Or the Art of Surveying and Measuring Land, published in London in 1688. Abel Flint also commented on this semicircle as being sometime used, as well as the plane table and perambulator--

... but of these instruments very little is made in New England; and they are not often to be met with. For general practice none will be found more useful than a common chain and a compass upon Rittenhouse's construction.

Another of the unusual wooden surveying instruments in the collection of the Dartmouth College Museum is a wooden surveying compass (fig. 33) in which the sighting bars appear relatively close to the dial. A metal plate, painted green, is stamped with the degrees marked to 90 deg.. A single N for the north point is stamped into it, presumably with steel punches. The instrument is relatively primitive, and is sufficiently different from the other examples noted to merit mention. There is no maker's name, nor any clue to the date or place or period of origin.

An unsigned semicircumferentor made of wood is owned by Mr. Roleigh Lee Stubbs of Charleston, West Virginia. The instrument measures 3-3/4 in. by 7-1/2 in. by 1 in., and there are sighting bars 3 in. high on a swinging brass bar pinned at the center of the base. It has a trough compass, and the gradations around the edge of the semicircle are marked with tiny brass pins. The date "1784" is stamped into the wood with the same type of figures as appear in the degree markings, probably with small steel punches.

A surveying compass of the conventional type, also made of wood, is in The Farmer's Museum at Cooperstown, New York. The wood is ash or oak, 12-3/4 in. long and 6-1/2 in. in diameter, with the sighting bars 5 in. high. The compass card consists of cut-out printed letters pasted upon a printed compass rose, and the fleur-de-lis at North is inked-in by hand. This may be a homemade replacement of the original card. The instrument is believed to date between 1760-1775.

Of equal interest is a large semicircumferentor made by an unknown American instrument maker in the second half of the 18th century. The instrument (fig. 34) consists of a plate of hammered brass attached to a quarter circle block of mahogany, with a glass covered trough compass within a silvered opening, and the gradations stamped into the brass. The brass sighting bars are attached to a swivelling bar that can be fixed in place with a set screw underneath the block. The instrument, which is in the collection of the writer, is not signed with a maker's name. Its workmanship is excellent, and professional.

On the basis of a comparison of these instruments with those produced by known professional makers, it becomes apparent that all of them were made professionally. The possibility that some of these wooden surveying compasses may have been produced by the farmer or local surveyor for his own use is extremely unlikely. Homemade instruments such as those described below were unquestionably the exception instead of the rule.

An exception to this generalization, and an extremely fine example of the whittler's art, is a surveying compass (fig. 35) in the collection of Mr. Preston R. Bassett of Ridgefield, Connecticut. This is a comparatively small instrument made of maple; the body was painted red. It is carved entirely by means of a jackknife, and the sighting bars are also whittled to shape and mortised permanently into the frame. A lid covering the dial is carved from soft pine. The compass dial is handdrawn in black ink, and the North point is painted in the form of a decorative fleur-de-lis in red and green. A homemade ring of pewter surrounds the compass rose at needle level. This is graduated in degrees, with every 10 deg. marked, stamped with steel punches. The ring is set into the base by means of wooden pegs. The steel needle is nicely cut, and it is probably the only part purchased by the maker.

This is unquestionably a homemade instrument produced by a skillful whittler early in the 18th century.

Compass Cards

A fact that becomes apparent in a comparison of the surviving examples of wooden surveying compasses made in New England is the similarity of the compass cards used by makers in the seaport cities (see fig. 36). The compass card in each of these instances is the type designed for a mariner's compass, bearing a star of 32 rays to mark the 32 points of the heavens. The North point is designated with an elaborate fleur-de-lis, and the East is emphasized with scrollwork. These are features which were not designed primarily for land surveying. Presumably, these makers had a quantity of engraved or printed compass cards that they used in both marine and land surveying compasses. This is true in the case of the compasses made by James and Joseph Halsy, Greenough, Clough, Warren, Thaxter, Dupee, Breed, and Bowles. On the other hand, the dial of Huntington's compass was painted directly on the wood, and the semicircumferentors do not utilize the marine compass card. Obviously these makers resorted to this practice for reasons of economy--to reduce costs of engraving and printing, and using the same card for both types of instruments that they produced.

Trade Signs

An interesting sidelight in the study of the makers of scientific instruments is the advertising they used, particularly the design of their signboards. The most popular symbol appears to have been the quadrant, as the phrase "At the Sign of the Quadrant" is found repeatedly in advertising in several of the seaport cities of the 18th century.

In Providence, William Hamlin used the designation in the first part of the 19th century, while Philadelphian John Gould featured the sign at the end of the 18th century. During an even earlier period, William Hinton designated his address to be "At Hadley's Quadrant" in New York City. Both Gould and Hinton were English, which may have had some bearing on their selection of the quadrant as a symbol of their merchandise.

Other signboards were as colorful, such as Jonathan Dakin's "Sign of the Hand and Beam," James Youle's "Sign of the Cross-Knives and Gun," and Charles Kugler's house in Philadelphia with its "Sign of the Seven Stars" (that is, Great Bear), which housed the shops of several instrument makers.

The two most interesting and significant of the instrument makers' trade signs were those advertising the shop of Samuel Thaxter. The first of these was the carved wooden figure of "The Little Admiral," which was a favorite landmark at No. 1 Long Wharf in Boston for almost a century and a half. It was the handiwork of John Skillin, the 18th-century woodcarver of Boston, upon whose death on January 24, 1800, the Chronicle commented that "he was for many years the most eminent of his profession." John Skillin and his brother Simeon worked in Boston from about 1777 and produced most of the figureheads that issued from that port during that period, as well as a number of other notable ornamental wooden figures.

According to Mrs. H. Ropes Cabot of the Bostonian Society, the figure of "The Little Admiral" (fig. 37) had been carved for William Williams, who brought it with him to Boston from Marblehead in 1770 when he established his shop. The figure was installed in front of the Crown Coffee House, and Williams's shop was thereafter designated by this symbol. The trade sign survived through the years of the Revolutionary War. When the original building of the Coffee House was burned, the carving was saved and installed on the new building erected in its place. In an account of Boston landmarks, Porter related the figure to the Admiral Vernon Tavern at the eastern corner of Merchants Row. He was proved to have been in error, however, since the trade sign of that public-house was a portrait bust of Admiral Vernon and the place was known as the Vernon Head Tavern for half a century, even after the end of the Revolution.

When Samuel Thaxter purchased the business from Williams's estate he acquired the figure as well, and he moved it to each new location for his shop. The figure of "The Little Admiral" continued to designate the firm even after Thaxter's death, until the firm finally went out of existence at the beginning of the 20th century. When the old store was torn down in 1901, the figure was preserved, presumably by the last owner's family. In 1916 it was acquired for the Bostonian Society by several of its members, and the figure has been preserved in the Society's Council Chamber since that time.