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Re: Old Sextant on German money
From: Wolfgang Köberer
Date: 2007 Mar 10, 14:51 +0100

Frank Reed's information points straight to the solution:

The instrument on the 10 DM bill is the Vize-Heliotrop that Gauss used. It is in the "Historische Sammlung" of the "Physikalisches Institut der Georg August Universität" in Göttingen. IThe collection is not open to the public, but one can visit on appointment.

On their web site they say that when the German Deutsche Bundesbank presented the preliminary design for the bill in 1991 there was a normal sextant on the back of the bill (which of course was to commemorate Gauss) . So they called the people at the Bundesbank and told them that they had the original - and much prettier - instrument in their collection. The Bundesbank then sent the graphic artist to Göttingen und so it came that the instrument was portrayed on the bill.

As far as I understand the description the Vize-Heliotrop is a sextant equipped with an additional mirror which reflects the image of the sun to a distant point. It is not used for measuring then but for marking the position of the observer for another observer at the distant point.

Regards,

Wolfgang

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com]Im Auftrag von FrankReedCT@aol.com
Gesendet: Samstag, 10. März 2007 03:10
An: NavList@fer3.com
Betreff: [NavList 2277] Re: Old Sextant on German money

Alex E wrote:

"This leaves open the question what sort of strange index mirror we see in this picture"

I finally have a lead for you. It does indeed have a split index mirror. The instrument is a "vizeheliotrop". What is a vizeheliotrop? That I don't know :-). There are some German web sites that describe it, but my German is not up to the task. Here are a couple of photos I found of the original instrument. This modified sextant may have been a precursor to the heliotrope which Gauss invented during his survey of the Kingdom of Hanover.

-FER
42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars

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