Stackpole & Brother Transit Telescope

This is a transit, a type of telescope with a built-in spirit level and extremely fine calibration screws to allow its user to level the device exactly and thus take very precise measurements of the positions of celestial bodies. Brass telescope placed on a heavy metal mount. Front side view.

Figure 1: Stackpole & Brother Transit Telescope

This is a transit, a type of telescope with a built-in spirit level and extremely fine calibration screws to allow its user to level the device exactly and thus take very precise measurements of the positions of celestial bodies. Brass telescope placed on a heavy metal mount. Back view.

Figure 2: Stackpole & Brother Transit Telescope

This is a transit, a type of telescope with a built-in spirit level and extremely fine calibration screws to allow its user to level the device exactly and thus take very precise measurements of the positions of celestial bodies. Brass telescope placed on a heavy metal mount. Front corner view.

Figure 3: Stackpole & Brother Transit Telescope

This is a transit, a type of telescope with a built-in spirit level and extremely fine calibration screws to allow its user to level the device exactly and thus take very precise measurements of the positions of celestial bodies. This transit was likely manufactured for one of the various expeditions to observe the 1874 transit of Venus. Unusually, despite being manufactured by Stackpole & Brother, this transit bears no serial number, unlike all other known instruments from the company.

Stackpole & Brother biography