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ANTIQUE #SA941405

Cased Victorian Surveyors Wheel By Stanley For The Grand Union Canal Company

Status: This item has been sold
Sold by: Jason Clarke Antiques

For sale, a Victorian surveyor’s waywiser in original pine packing case by Stanley and marked to the Grand Union Canal Company.
 
This super example is comprised of a brass bound mahogany wheel with brass spokes. It is affixed to a two-part black painted iron shaft clamped by a heavy brass wingnut to allow for the shaft to be removed for storage, and culminates in a turned mahogany handle. At the base of the shaft is attached a brass case containing cogs that are activated by means of a screw shaft emanating from the centre of the wheel and a glass fronted dial for measuring distance in yards, furlongs and miles. It is further engraved to the maker, “Stanley, London”.
 
The odometer (also variously known as a sureyor’s wheel, a waywiser and perambulator) was used prolifically by surveyors and mapmakers throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. One was certainly used by Major James Rennell (Surveyor General to the Honorable East India Company) during his surveying of Bengal. He is noted in “The Cyclopedia; or Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences & Literature” in 1819 as saying that, “he measured a meridian line of three degrees with this instrument; and found it to agree minutely with the observations of latitude. An Allowance however, was made for the irregularities of the ground whenever they occurred”.
 
Their history of course is much longer than that. It is supposed that Archimedes was the inventor of the odometer and it was further developed by Vitruvius. In the seventeenth century, waywisers were put to use in John Ogliby’s surveying of the British Isles, an older style model can often be seen pictured in the cartouches present on his maps.
 
These simple instruments is still used to this day and they were certainly in great demand during the second half of the 19th century. Evidence of these within Stanley’s advertising has not been possible to locate but they continued to be sold in Louis Casella’s catalogues of the 1860’s through to the 1880’s. Casella ...
Antique #SA941405, shown on this page, originates from 1880. For historical context, the timeline below highlights the period when it was made:
1880
Famous inventions historic timeline graphic to help to give historical context to the date of this antique.
CONTACT DETAILS OF SELLER:
JASON CLARKE ANTIQUES PROFILE PHOTO WHICH LINKS TO DEALER PAGE
Jason Clarke Antiques
Berkshire
United Kingdom
STATUS
THIS ITEM HAS BEEN SOLD
HISTORIC TIMELINE OPTIONS

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