Accession No

3772

Brief Description

level by Stanley, c. 1925

Origin

Great Turnstile; Holborn; London; England

Maker

Stanley

Class

surveying

Earliest Date

1925

Latest Date

1925

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass); glass

Dimensions

case length 464mm; breadth 205mm; height 228mm; aperture 43mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Christie's, London, 1990.

Inscription

‘PATENT
STANLEY. GREAT TURNSTILE. HOLBORN. LONDON
104436’ (side of telescope)

Description Notes

Black-finished dumpy level with brass fitting. A design called the ‘Engineer’s level’. Fitted box inside leather case.

Condition good; complete

References

Events

Description
The earliest form of modern surveyor’s level is the ‘Y’ level, which is a telescope supported in Y-shaped bearings. The telescope is held in place by pivoting straps, which allow the telescope to be reversed for back-sighting.

The Y level was unsuitable for difficult colonial terrain, requiring too frequent adjustments and the ‘dumpy’ level was developed in the early 19th century to overcome this. The dumpy level has a much shorter, fixed telescope, which turns about a central axis. It is compact, much more robust and is still being used in largely unaltered form on building sites and in road construction.
31/08/2006
Created by: updated by Ruth Horry on 31/08/2006

FM:44344