The Brandis serial number chronology presented in the post ‘
What do the Numbers 3500 and 1542 Tell Us? Part Two’ provides a pretty narrow range for the date of manufacture of the hypothetical Brandis #3500/USNO#1542 sextant, but it only sparsely covers the first decade of the 20th century. This earlier period won’t help us date the Nikumaroro sextant box, but developing as complete a Brandis serial chronology is a good thing nonetheless. Four time points for the 1900-1910 period can be established thanks to Robert Parrish of Antiquesurveying.com. Robert’s impressive collection of surveying instruments includes six Brandis surveying instruments that can be dated in a very straightforward way: they are marked with the year in which they were manufactured. The Brandis serial numbers and dates are listed in the table below.
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| Instrument |
Brandis Number |
Date |
| Wye Level |
2106 |
1905 |
| Theodolite |
2225 |
1906 |
| Surveying |
2290 |
1906 |
| Theodolite |
2309 |
1907 |
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In the photos below we can see how these markings appear on two instruments, a Wye level and a theodolite.
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| Photos Courtesy of Robert Parrish |
Both instruments have the date-appropriate firm name of ‘F.E. Brandis, Sons & Co’, and both are marked “The President Borough of Richmond”, presumably their original owner (the ‘Borough of Richmond’ is very likely the part of New York City commonly called Staten Island). The Wye level, Brandis #2106, is marked with the number 1905, while the theodolite, Brandis #2225, is marked with the number 1906; Robert thinks all of these markings were factory-engraved. Can we be sure that the 1905 and 1906 are dates and not owner serial numbers? I think we can, because another of Robert’s surveying instruments, Brandis #2290, is also marked 1906. It’s not clear whether Brandis #2290 was also owned by the Borough of Richmond, but if it was, it would make little sense for it to be marked with the same owner’s serial number as Brandis #2225; if Brandis #2290 had a different owner then it would be quite a coincidence for it to have the same owner’s serial number as Brandis #2225. I also note that 1905 and 1906 make sense as the years in which these instruments were made: they post-date the establishment of the Borough of Richmond in 1898 and they pre-date the 1911 delivery date of the sextant with Brandis serial number 2763 discussed in
What do the Numbers 3500 and 1542 Tell Us? Part Two, as they should if lower Brandis serial numbers correspond to earlier manufacture dates. Robert Parrish cautions that some instrument manufacturers assigned blocks of serial numbers to a single type of instrument or a single worker, which would tend to disrupt any order between manufacture date and manufacturer’s serial number; so far, I am not seeing signs of such discontinuities in the Brandis serial number chronology.
I’ll post an updated Brandis serial number chronology table that incorporates these surveying instruments, the Brandis #3249 peephole sextant, and any other datable Brandis instruments that might happen to come along; I’m hoping to get useful dating on one or two more Brandis instruments, so I may wait for a little while before updating the table.
Note added, June 2018: This post originally included information about two other Brandis instruments Robert Parrish provided date of manufacture information for, however I later realized these were not instruments owned by Mr. Parrish and will discuss them in a separate post. Also, I should soon be publishing the long-promised revised Brandis serial number chronology table.
Comments, corrections, additional relevant facts, differing viewpoints, etc., are always welcome (no one will be banned, blocked, or castigated for offering differing opinions). Send corespondance to gardnersghost@gmail.com
