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Voyager Rare Books Maps & Prints » Products » Non-fiction » Surveying

Surveying

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  • Elliot Brothers – Strand London – Prismatic Compass – c1880

    Elliot Brothers – Strand London – Prismatic Compass – c1880

    A working Victorian prismatic compass by the esteemed Elliot Brothers.

    Constructed of blackened brass, 9.5cm in diameter, weight 160 gm. Engraved on the sighting arm “Elliot Bros. 449 Strand London”. Also, likely first owners name engraved on the rear “Herbert J Dauberry”. The sighting arm still contains its “horsehair” and lifts and stays in the vertical position. The hinged prism can be moved to its operating position over the base plate. With the compass held steady and flat a notch on the prism body is aligned with the horsehair on the arm. A compass reading can be taken through the magnified prism lens, the compass can be held in position via a locking pin under the arm. The compass rotates freely, and the lead glass is unusually free of scratches. Really quite a special object.

    William Elliot founded his business at Gray’s Inn, London in 1800. He started by making fine drawing instruments. By 1807 he had moved to High Holborn and by 1816 was making telescope and barometers. In 1830 he moved to 56 The Strand and his sons joined the partnership. They began making surveying instruments particularly for the fast-developing railway industry. In 1853 Willam died, and the sons continued as Elliot Brothers. They moved to larger premises at 449 The Strand sometime around 1860 and were there until another move to St Martin’s Lane circa 1890 – so we can have a good stab at the date of manufacture.

    The business continued to flourish and eventually became part of G.E.C. and then Siemens.

    Quality Prismatic Compass – by Distinguished Elliot Bros.

    $160.00

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  • Amsler Polar Planimeter [Measuring the area of complex irregular shapes/ boundaries] c1910

    Amsler Polar Planimeter [Measuring the area of complex irregular shapes/ boundaries] c1910

    Plush-lined fitted case some 12” long contains a polar planimeter invented by Swiss mathematician Jacob Amsler. All in very good condition and working order.

    The instrument was a revolutionary change from the complex Cartesian system base instruments used before. This device uses polar co-ordinates.

    With this device two arms are connected with a pivot both arms moving around the anchor. As the pivot moves back and forth it traces an area whose net measurement is zero. The means that the area traced by the tracer point exactly equals the area of the closed curve. The area is equivalent to 2pi X the product of the length of the tracer arm, the radius of the counting wheel and the number of revolutions of the counting wheel.

    In more modern times mathematicians apply “Green’s theorem”.

    Amsler’s radical and very useful new design

    $190.00

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  • Some Mines and Mineral Deposits at the Heads of the Brisbane, Burnett and Mary Rivers – Jackson 1901

    Some Mines and Mineral Deposits at the Heads of the Brisbane, Burnett and Mary Rivers – Jackson 1901

    Queensland Department of Mines Report to both Houses of Parliament published in Brisbane in 1901, first year of Federation. At that time Dunstan was Assistant Government Geologist. The Report is presented by William Rands, Government Geologist.

    Foolscap, 19 pages plus 5 full page plates. Chipped and repaired to leading edge of front page, otherwise in good condition.

    Covers silver-lead deposits at Monsildale; the Rising Star, North Star and Great Pyramid Prospects at Biarra; Gold found near Milford Rocks Head Station; Gympie Copper Mines at Gooroomjam Creek; Nanango Gold Field; Jimma and a Cobalt Deposit at the Black Snake District.

    A few diagrams within the text and a good image from an early photograph of the entrance to the Cobalt prospect [Certainly one worth following up!]. The Plates include a god Geological sketch of the Monsildale Silver Deposit; a Plan of the Rising Star Workings; Section of Workings at Gympie Copper; the Jimna Prospecting Tunnel [looks dangerous] and the Secrets of the aforementioned Cobalt.

    A rare one and focusing on some quite boutique mining prospects of the period in the South-East of Queensland.

    $90.00

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  • Newnes’ Slide Rule Manual

    Newnes’ Slide Rule Manual

    A 1960’s revised edition of the “go to” book on the slide rule produced and published by George Newnes, London.

    Octavo, 112 pages of slide rule lovers delight. Covers the … Principle of the Slide Rule; Principle of Logarithms; Using the Slide Rule; Examples; Circular Slide Rules etc. Very good condition albeit a little creasing to the otherwise good dust jacket.

    The Preface starts … “The slide rule is considered by many a mysterious instrument requiring years of study before it can be used with facility”.

    Within twenty years sophisticated electronic calculators and personal computers made the slide made the slide rule obsolete and an “antique” of the past. Pity … to use the slide rule properly a knowledge of mathematics was required …

    A very interesting “modern” curiosity … get your slide rule today.

    Slide rules and the mathematics that flows from them.

    $25.00

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  • North West to Fortune (The Discovery of the North West Passage) – Stefansson – First UK Edition 1960

    North West to Fortune (The Discovery of the North West Passage) – Stefansson – First UK Edition 1960

    Prolific explorer and writer Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s last book on the history of solving the North West passage. A first British edition published by Allen & Unwin in 1960 … Stefansson died in 1962 at 83 years of age. Octavo, 356 pages after preliminaries, end paper maps, very good condition.

    Given his exploration record and the many years spent within the Arctic Circle who better to write this book. Starting the primary objectives of Columbus and Cabot to find route west to the Far East. The first recorded note of the concept is that of Robert Thorne, merchant of Bristol who produced two papers preserved by Hackluyt one addressed to Henry VIII … “I know it to be my bounden duty to manifest this secret to your Grace, which hitherto, I suppose, has been hid”. The proof was more difficult and many lives were lost.

    Stefansson’s record goes well beyond the broader list of adventurers Cook, Franklin, McClure (in search of Franklin) and John Rae and later Amundsen. He covers in detail the efforts of the Fur Traders and finally the epoch-making achievement” of the US submarine, Nautilus.

    North West Passage complete by Stefansson

    $60.00

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  • The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 1926 March – George Binney – Amundsen’s Polar Flight

    The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 1926 March – George Binney – Amundsen’s Polar Flight

    A very good copy of The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, March 1926, containing “Amundsen’s Polar Flight: Review” by George Binney.

    Binney reviews the two publications of Amundsen’s Polar flight: My Polar Flight – Roald Amundsen, and Our Polar Flight – Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth, both published in 1925.

    Also in this edition; an essay regarding the inter-relations of East African territories, with accompanying colour map by Maj. A. G. Church; a wonderful examination of the lakes of Scotland and Switzerland by Prof. Leon W. Collet with maps, contours, geographical and mathematical analysis and splendid photographs to accompany the piece.

    $60.00

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