Description

I believe this Gurley Engineers Solar Transit was made circa 1895.

Gurley apparently did not sell many Engineers Solar Transits. I have some production information for solar transits on my Gurley Maker Webpage. The information is incomplete, but it is a good representation of what Gurley was selling. From 1878 to 1885, excluding 1879, Gurley sold a total of 207 solar transits. Of the 207 STs, Gurley sold 164 Light Mountain STs, 30 Surveyor STs, and 13 Engineers STs. So for the 1878 to 1885 time period, less than 7% of all Solar Transits sold were Engineers Transits.

This result is not surprising when you realize how much bigger and heavier the Engineers Solar Transits were than the Light Mountain Transits. You can see the size differential below in the first large pic – the Engineers Solar Transit is significantly larger than the Light Mountain Transit. In terms of weight, I weighed my Engineers ST on the same scale as my Light Mountain ST. The Engineers ST weighed 18.7lbs with all the solar apparatus included, while the Light Mountain Transit weighed only 11.5lbs. Given that many solar instruments were used in remote areas, it’s not surprising that most of the solar transits sold were Light Mountain Transits.

In short, this Gurley Engineers Transit is pretty special because Gurley did not make many examples.

The transit is in nice shape as the pictures evidence.

The box is also in decent shape, and includes a worn label.

The Burt solar attachment and solar side mount level are not original to this transit. I found a Burt solar attachment and side mount level and placed them on this transit. The transit did have the stem base attachment for the solar unit, however. The box also contains the mounts for the Burt attachment and level, so the transit was originally a solar transit.

This light mountain transit has a 5 inch needle and an 11.25 inch telescope.

The liquid vials for the levels hold liquids, but I believe the vials to be replacements, not the originals.

Everything seems to work really nicely, including the needle lifter.

Optics are super sharp. Crosshairs and stadia wires are present. I note that the sun shade that seems to be slightly too big for the telescope in terms of diameter.

Also comes with a gradienter for measuring distances, a plum bob and a couple of small tools.

This is a really nice Engineers solar transit, and Engineers solar transits rarely come up for sale.

Please take a look at the 360 Degree View of the instrument, and zoom in on various views. This instrument merits a close inspection.

I have a good deal of information about Gurley, including some production information, posted on my Gurley Maker Webpage.