Quadrant, England, brass (17th century)
Commentary
Quadrant, England, brass (17th century)
Accession number:
Inv. 45309
Collection:
History of Science Museum, University of Oxford
Like the mariner’s astrolabe, quadrants were navigational instruments used to measure the altitude of points in the sky. When the user lines the sights up to a star, the string is pulled down by a weight (called a ‘plumb bob’) and indicates the relevant measurement on the arc’s scale. The plumb bob here is in the shape of a heart.
On Loan from the History of Science Museum, University of Oxford, Inv. 45309
Quadrant used to measure the height of a building, detail in Sebastian Münster, Rudimenta mathematica (Basil, 1551) ©Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte