Gurley Surveying Solar Compass w/Amazing WY History W.O. Owen GLO, box, tripod

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Gurley Surveying Solar Compass w/Amazing WY History W.O. Owen GLO, box, tripod:
$15000.00

This is a 1 or a kind Gurley Solar Compass that is engraved with the name of the original owner W.O Owen. I did a lot of research on this General Land Office Contract Surveyor and he was a very colorful fellow,.see my writeup below. It isin great original condition, the motions turn well and it has a great patina. It comes with a solar compass box that is notoriginal, some extra solar components and a nice tripod. The original owner was a rather famous GeneralLand Office contractor surveyor in Wyoming, some notes about him follow.below. Postage will be $75 if within the US, more if you are outside the US (note the fixed leg tripod might be a problem to ship to some countries).
Serialnumber None

Below is some information on the maker W.& L.E. Gurley and the original owner W.O. Owen:

Stones and “Bones”Set by William (Billy) Octavius Owen in Wyoming

In November 2000, while helping to create the BLM’s geographic informationsystem (GIS) base layer, termed the Geographic Coordinate Data Base (GCDB), Istumbled upon a General Land Office survey plat that fascinated me. Itwas drawn from work conducted by William (Billy) O. Owen in March and April of1881 in southern Wyoming.

Noted on the plat is a line of section corner monuments labeled as “MastodonBones.” The idea of relocating and collecting some of these “bone”section corners was intriguing. I mentioned my intent to John Lee(cadastral chief, Wyoming State Office) and learned that his staff had firstbrought the idea to paleontologist Laurie Bryant in 1999. I soon realizedthat finding these corners was also interesting to others within the BLM.

Through research at the Albany County Courthouse, we found that some of thefossil corners did, in fact, monument the location of federal lands. Dr.Danny Walker, the assistant state archaeologist, suggested that we contactBrent Breithaupt of the University of Wyoming’s (UW’s) Geological Museum forinformation concerning the history and the types of fossils discovered in thesurvey area. Breithaupt introduced the potential for finding notmastodon, but dinosaur fossils, and excitement for the project grew. BethSouthwell, Breithaupt’s assistant, began preliminary research in the AmericanHeritage Center on the UW campus and located a partial autobiography written byWilliam O. Owen (Owen 1930) that made reference to the survey of the area anddescribed what happened early in April 1881:

We had our team and wagon with us, and it was our custom, when possible, toload in the necessary number of stones at any favorable place and haul themalong with us against the frequent happening that no corner material could befound when we have to have it. There was no sign of a stone near ourcorner point so I ran on north half a mile hoping to find a supply near thequarter-section corner. But in this we were disappointed. . . . Tom Hale,my old side-partner, was my cornerman and in our extremity he pointed to theeast where, about half a mile distant, lay two hillocks where, in his opinion,might repose the material we needed.

Two of the boys jumped into the wagon and off they set for the hillocks. . .. After some time they started back and as they drew near I could tell they hadconsiderable of a load. . . . ‘We’ve got something,’ said Tom, ‘but God knowswhat it is - I don’t. It’s harder then h___ and every piece weighs aton!’ Now, what do you suppose those boys had in that wagon? Fossilbones of a dinosaur!

Upon reading this, the anticipation of discovery buzzed in the office, andsoon a date was set for our long-awaited field trip. After acquiring GCDBcoordinates for selected corner locations and inputting them into a hand-heldglobal positioning system (GPS) unit, we began preparing for the field work.

On May 31, 2001, Lee, Mike Whitmore, and I, from the BLM cadastral staff,BLM paleontologist Dale Hanson, and Marty Griffith, from the BLM Wyoming StateOffice, set off for a day of investigation. Breithaupt and Southwelljoined us in Laramie. We visited the site of the Bone Cabin Quarry togive us an idea of the type of material that Owen’s crew probably collected forcorner material.

Our search began at the closing corner on the north boundary of thetownship. Whitmore was the first to see the corner stone, and almost in adaze of exhilaration, we photographed and chattered ecstatically about thepiece of Sauropod fossil leg bone situated in a fence line. Sauropodswere very large, plant-eating dinosaurs. The Apatosaurus (formerly knownas the Brontosaurus) is one of the best-known sauropod dinosaurs.

Following our projected section lines and using GPS coordinates, wecontinued our search for one-half mile south of this corner stone and found thenext quarter-section corner. This position had been monumented with aportion of a large fossilized Apatosaurus tail vertebra that, to our amazement,was plainly marked with “1/4” on the upper right corner. Owen had statedthat these stones were too hard to scribe, so finding one that was marked onlyadded to the historical significance of the original survey. It ispossible that we were the first people to see this particular monument in 120years. This fossil corner was collected and replaced with a BLM brasscap. It is currently housed at UW. Although we located several morebone monuments, there are several more we have yet to locate.

William Gurley (1821–1887) graduated as a civil engineer fromRensselaer Polytechnic Institute. After going as far west as Michigan seekingemployment as an engineer and finding none, he returned to Troy and went towork for five years as a foreman for Oscar Hanks, a surveying instrumentmaker. In 1845, William formed a partnership with Jonas Phelps under thefirm name of Phelps & Gurley., worked for OscarHanks, a surveying instrument maker in Troy, New York, and then went intopartnership with Jonas H. Phelps, another local instrument maker. Lewis EphraimGurley (1826–1897) worked for Phelps & Gurley, earned a B.A. from UnionCollege in Schenectady and graduated with a Bachelorof Arts degree.He then rejoined the firm and in 1852 the Gurley brothers purchased JonasPhelps' interest in the business and the firm became known as W. & L. E.Gurley.

By the mid 19th century the transit had becomestandard for topographic surveys and, in terms of sales, was probably the mostimportant instrument. It was imperative that a solar transit be devised. By thelate 1860s the rush was 0 11. The first solar transit was invented by WilliamSchmolz, a San Francisco instrument maker patented by him on December 24, 1867.His solar consisted of an attachment, basically of Burt's 1850 configuration,mounted on top of the transit telescope at the axis. Schmolz's invention wasquickly followed by F. R. Seibert's solar transit in 1869, Benjamin Lyman'ssolar compass patented in 187 I, Harrison Pearson's solar attachment patentedin 1875, Buff & Berger's Pearson's solar attachment in 1878, and J. W.Holmes' solar theodolite also in 1878.

The Gurleys could not afford to be left out of themarket in such a vital area. In mid-1874William Gurley sent his brother-inlaw, attorney Charles A. Kenney, to visitWilliam Schmolz and to negotiate the purchase of his patent. On August 10, 1874Schmolz agreed to sell the rights to Kenney for $1,000 in gold coin. On October14, 1874 the patent for "Improvements in Solar and TransitInstrument" was transferred to Kenney, and from Kenney to W. & L.E.Gurley, with one provision: "But I, the said Schmolz, hereby reserve tomyself the privilege of manufacturing at my shop in said San Francisco, andusing the said improvement on one of said instruments and no more, in each andevery year hereafter."

Production of the Solar Attachments--which werealways referred to as the Burt Solar Attachment began right away. 8 solarattachments were mounted onto Engineers' Transits with either 4" or 5"needles, and onto Surveyors' Transits with either 5" or 5 1/2"needles. In addition, older instruments could sent to the factory to beretrofitted with the new device. The solar attachment was particularly usefulon the Light Mountain Transit introduced in 1876. In fact, of the approximately500 Light Mountain Transits made from 1876 to 1885, nearly 40% were solar.During that same period, approximately 70% of all solar transits made wereLight Mountain Solar Transits. The Solarattachments continued in production with only minor modifications until 1948.The original design had no cross support. The 1876 design includes an arcuatecross support. The 1883 version has a straight cross support. In the 1911-12 form the cross supportis aligned with the spindle.

W. & L.E. Gurley patented a Latitude Level onSeptember 2, 1884. Its purpose was to "recover the Latitude of a SolarTransit, without referring to the vertical arc; and generally for setting thetelescope at any desired angle in running grades, etc." By 1885 thisdevice had been redesigned to include two adjustment screws instead of one. TheLatitude Level was first offered in 1885, and was furnished, at no charge, onall solar transits made thereafter. TheR. M. Jones Latitude Arc was Patented on January 16, 1883. Gurley securedexclusive rights to its manufacture, and it first appeared in their 1884 Manual.This device had its own vertical arc and latitude level, and replaced thenormal corresponding equipment.