Crellin's Complete Traverse Table
Melbourne, George Robertson, 1881.
Quarto, xiii, 541, vi ('Memoranda') pages with several diagrams.
Later half roan and cloth, lettered in gilt on the spine; covers slightly worn and marked; expert conservation to the first four leaves of the table proper, with a few residual earlier tape repairs; a few small pencilled calculations; some small chips, tears and other signs of use internally; a very good copy.
A set of mathematical calculation tables for use in surveying work by Victorian land and mining surveyor William Crellin. It is complete with the original type metal 'Reading Instrument', now rarely found with copies of the book, intended to facilitate the interpretation of the tables (slightly indented, in its slightly damaged original wooden box). 'No surveyor will waste his time, temper and money, in computing by the laborious method hitherto in use, when he can here find his computations already made and tabulated' (from the preface). 'In using the instrument, the keys corresponding to the distance must be tripped back ... and the instrument placed upon the column of the bearing, being set in position by the middle horizontal line on the page. The addition of the numbers thus exposed gives the total of the latitude and departure ...' (from the explanatory remarks). Contemporary newspaper articles report that Crellin was awarded a silver medal at the 1883 Amsterdam Exhibition for this work. [2 items].
Item #146148
Price (AUD):
$1,100.00