Accession No
2623
Brief Description
sea sounder, by Wigzell, 1900-1925 (c)
Origin
Maker
Wigzell
Class
navigation
Earliest Date
1900
Latest Date
1925
Inscription Date
Material
glass; metal (brass); rope; wood (boxwood, other); enamel
Dimensions
box length 658mm; breadth 86mm; height 64mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Purchased from Sotheby’s Belgravia, London, England; lot 198, 18/07/1980.
Inscription
‘7548’ (on brass tube)
‘7’ (on knurled end)
‘WIGZELL’S PATENT’ (on scale)
‘WIGZELL’S
PATENT
(ATMOSPHERIC TYPE)
SEA-SOUNDING
INSTRUMENT’ (enamel plate on box)
Description Notes
Pressure sounding instrument. Glass tube with valve at one end. Other end attached to knurled brass cylinder, which fits into brass tube thus enclosing glass tube and valve. Length of rope attached to brass tube. Wooden box with instructions pasted inside lid, second glass tube and boxwood scale calibrated from 5 to 100 fathoms.
References
Events
Description
Sounder (depth finder)
Used for navigation and charting, this instrument measures the depth of water. Traditionally, a depth finder consisted simply of a line, one end of which was attached to a lead and thrown overboard. When the lead hit the bottom the length of the line to that point was recorded. However, the moment of impact with the sea floor was not always easily detectable, especially for deep seas. From 1920s, echo sounding sonar was used instead of traditional sounders, yet the traditional type are still used to collect sediment from the seafloor (useful for marine zoology).
18/10/2002
Created by: Saffron Clackson on 18/10/2002
FM:44396
Images (Click to view full size):
