Dip Circle

Object notes   Associations

Dip Circle, made in Washington, D.C. by Edward Kahler ca. 1874. Transferred from the U.S. Naval Observatory.

This is one of eight identical Dip Circles that Edward Kahler made for the American expeditions sent to observe the transit of Venus in 1874. A Dip Circle measures the vertical variations (or dip) of the Earth's magnetic field.

Catalog no. 327,714 Physical Sciences Collection, Smithsonian Institution

Related Objects

• Transit, Astronomical
• Micrometer, Photographic
• Sidereal Clock

Source

Object contributed by National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution