A Rare pre-1853 Solar Compasses Made by Young Still in Its Original Form - No Tangent Screws - One of Three Unmodified Early Young's Known

This is an extremely nice very early solar compass. Robert C. (Bob) Miller owned this solar compass for many years. Bob was a physicist, who passionately researched the history of mathematical instruments made in Pennsylvania. He was the pre-imminent authority on Burt's Solar Compass, publishing "Burt's Solar Compass - The Development, Manufacture and Daily Usage" in 2010. Bob was also the pre-imminent authority on instruments made by William Young, publishing "Dating Young Instruments" in Rittenhouse, Journal of the American Scientific Instrument Enterprise, Vol 5, No. 1 at page 21 et seq.

Bob and my father, Bud Uzes, exchanged numerous calls and emails while Bob was authoring his Burt Solar Compass book. In 2005, Bob and Bud owned 4 of the 8 known pre-1853 Young Solar Compasses, and they compared every single detail of the four instruments. Bob sent my dad numerous photos of this instruments, and based on the image names Bob apparently believed that this instrument was made circa 1848. That seems ballpark correct to me as well. Please see my webpage on Pre-Civil War Young Solar Compasses, which shows some of the evolution of design that occurred during the early years of making Burt Solar Compasses.

What makes this instrument VERY special is that it doesn't have tangent screws for adjusting the arcs. The vast majority of early solar compasses were retrofitted with arc adjustment mechanisms. As afar as I can tell, this is one of only three pre-1852 Young Solar Compasses known that have not been retrofitted with the tangent screws. Thus, this is one of three instruments that look like William A Burt's original solar compass design. My dad owned one of the other ones, and I sold that one to a private collector. The Smithsonian owns the third one. Like I said, this is a VERY special instrument.

Unfortunately, this instrument lacks its original box and all the pieces that would be included in the box. What you see in the pics is what you get. The stand is included but is not original, obviously.

Price: SOLD
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