General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

7

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Metal (including brass), glass

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

109.0 cm

Width

61.0 cm

Height

25.5 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Astronomy

Category

Observation equipment

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Cooke

Country

Unknown

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Unknown

Period

ca. 1900-1940

Canada

One of the primary instruments used to determine time. It is not know if this particular instrument was solely used in Ottawa or as a primary survey transit for first order triangulation mapping projects. If the latter, it would have been used to determine the longitude of the primary reference points. If/when used in Ottawa, it would have been used to determine the time of Ottawa used as the primary or secondary instrument to define standard time for Canada and to determine the slowing or speeding up of the Earth. This is a typical astronomical transit telescope with design features having appeared in Troughton & Simms transits ca. 1850.

Function

Used to measure the passage of stars across the meridian in order to precisely determine the local time.

Technical

The transit telescope is a moderate sized instrument made by the best manufactures of the day. The transit telescope first appeared ca. 1705 in Denmark having been created by Ole Romer. The instrument is different from other astronomical telescopes in that its axis is constrained to move in the N-S plane of the sky through the zenith. They were designed to be reversed on the axis in order to observe and correct errors in the alignment of the axis.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

.3 Dial marked off from 0-90. .4 Engraved 'T. COOKE & SONS LTD./ LONDON & YORK' & '2'; Dial on side marked off from 0-90 and circle on face marked off from 0-40; An arrow and 'OUT' can be seen on inner pt. .8 Label on crate reads: "ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS/ WITH CARE'

Missing

From CA of 01/18/2002 by Matthew Bruce: No - appears complete

Finish

.1 Brass-coloured & painted black, silver-coloured eyepiece/ .2 Brass colour/ .3 Brass-coloured, some bright, some tarnished-looking areas, some black & some dull red pts/ .4 Brass colour with black pts/ .5 Brass-colour, appears black inside/ .6 Painted black, brass colour on ends/ .7 Painted black, brass-coloured pts./.8 Painted dark brown.

Decoration

N/A