Museo Galileo
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Virtual Museum
Surveying compass
    • Setting:
      Room VI
    • Maker:
      unknown
    • Date:
      17th cent.
    • Materials:
      brass
    • Dimensions:
      length 300 mm
    • Inventory:
      1280
    • Surveying compass (Inv. 1280)

Surveying compass composed of two flat legs, one of which ends in a screw for fastening the instrument to a support. The legs have four mobile sights and two cursors fitted with long tips at right angles to each other. The legs carry a 190-part graduation on the front and several arithmetical scales on the back. In addition to measuring position angles in surveying work, the instrument could be used as a set of proportional compasses. Provenance: Vincenzo Viviani bequest.