Figure 67. — Wooden surveying compass made by Thomas Salter Bowles of 

 Portsmouth, New Hampshire. With spirit level. Made of birch, the com- 

 pass is 13 in. long and has a diameter of 6 in. In the Streeter Collection of 

 Weights and Measures, Yale University. 



point has a compass and square at its base, and the name t. s. 

 BOWLES is on a riband over it. Adorning the East point is an 

 American eagle bearing a shield with stars and stripes and clutching 

 arrows in one claw and a laurel twig in the other. In a ring within 

 the central medallion is inscribed (see fig. 68), "* t. s. bowles * 



PORTSMOUTH, N.H. *" 



The most interesting of the three instruments was acquired by 

 the Dartmouth Museum as part of a collection of the late Frank C. 

 Churchill, an inspector in the Indian Service. The instrument (fig. 

 69) is a quarter circle with a compass in its center and sighting bars 

 mounted on a swinging arm that reads the angle of the brass 

 scale on the arc by means of a vernier. It is mounted on a wooden 

 tripod with the customary ball-and-socket joint, which permits it 

 to be placed on a vertical plane. A built-in plumb bob at the side 

 helps to establish the vertical. ^-^ 



Interesting features of this instrument are two inscriptions en- 

 graved on the brass strip on the top of the dial. One states that 

 it was "invented by p. merrill esq." and the other relates that 

 it was "made by john kennard newmarket." No information 

 about P. Merrill has been found, and it is presumed that it was he 

 who conceived the idea of combining the various elements into a 

 single instrument and that it was made under his direction by 

 Kennard. 



Information from Prof. Alfred F. Whiting, Dartmouth College Museum. 



126 



