FROM THE DALE BEEKS COLLECTION

This is a fascinating and rare but incomplete instrument. Made in Virginia. The Whiteley could be used as a compass to take bearings by setting the compass to point to North/South and then moving one of the arms to appropriate amount of degrees. The instrument could also be used to measure angles independently of the needle, like a Railroad Compass. Or the instrument could be used on its side as a Quadrant for taking vertical degrees.

Francis Whiteley (1776-1850+/-) was a physician residing in or around Standardsville, VA from about 1830 to 1850. There is no evidence that he ever worked as a mathematical instrument maker. Whiteley's patent model is made of brass, shows excellent workmanship, and is a working instrument (Patent #99 December 6, 1836 - attached below). There is a possibility that either George Graves or William Ewin made Whiteley's patent model instrument and placed Chandlee's "L" and "T" table on it. Ewin and Graves are the only makers known to have placed Chandlee’s L-T table on instruments after Chandlee’s death. It is also believed that the model of all subsequent instruments based on this patent were made by Jacob S. Danner (1765-1850) of Middletown, VA. Perhaps Danner was familiar with Chandlee’s L-T table since Danner, like Chandlee, was based in Virginia.

On Dec. 12, 1842 Benjamin Hyde Benton of Middleburg, VA was granted US Patent 2,880 “Improvement in Surveying Instruments”. This is basically a Trigonometer incorporated into Whiteley’s instrument. Most Whiteley instruments encountered today are of this Trigonometer form. This subsequent form of surveying instrument evolved from Whitley's and Benton's patent quadrants. The Danner Trigonometer I have is based on the Benton Patent design. The Whitescarver is a more evolved version of the Benton design.

I am only aware of 3 Whiteley patent-type instruments - the original patent model, Serial #1, and my Serial #12. Dale Beeks apparently owned all three.

There are only a handful of truly unique American designed and patented surveying instruments - Burt’s first Solar Compass design, Hanks Bow Compass, and Whiteley’s Quadrant to name the most interesting ones. So the Whiteley instrument is pretty special.

Whiteley #1 is the only known Whiteley with all of its parts. Click here to see a pic of Whiteley #1.

The Whiteley Patent model lacks a trough compass. Click here to see a pic of the Whiteley Patent Model.

The Whiteley #12 offered here lacks the trough compass and one of its sight vanes. The sight vane could be fairly easily reproduced (I can give you recommendations re who can reproduced the vane). I don't know if the trough compass could be reproduced. I do have some good measurements and pics of the trough compass from Whiteley #1, which might be useful if you wanted to explore a reproduction compass.

The Whiteley is about 12 inches long.

Please see my Whiteley - Danner - Whitescarver Webpage for more background information about these special instruments. You can also go directly to the page describing the Whiteley Patent Quadrant Instrument if you prefer.


Also, please take a look at the 360 degree view with Zoom ability thru the link below.