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Dear George,
I will look into Chauvenet and try to reply your
main question shortly. Now I have comments on another
part of your message:

On Sat, 1 Jan 2005, George Huxtable wrote:

> Unfortunately, such repeating circles
> are precious museum objects so I
> don't expect ever to get a chance
> to try one out

Working replicas of reflecting circles are
made (of brass) by some British companies, like Stanley and Sestrel
(they also make imitation sextants and, to my surprise,
theodolites). These copies pop up sometimes on the web for
very moderate price. I just returned from Istanbul, where
I visited the famous Grand Bazar, where I saw a lot of such copies.
Typical prices are under $100 (if they see that you understand that
this is a copy, not a real thing:-) and even this is very  much
negotiable. (I saw imitations of a "Troughton" "column frame" sextant
in a nice wood box for $100 and a very good looking
"Troughton" theodolite with a tripod
was sold
in my presence for $400. There were also several reflecting circles,
"pocket sextants"
and brass astrolabias.

Unfortunately, the word "working" I used above needs some
qualification: I mean all parts are present and move as they should,
but the joints are quite loose and
the precision of all these intruments is probably less than that
of a cardboard sextant.


Alex.

   

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