Description:
- Object ID: AGHS 2024.02.01
- Made by: Wm. Ainsworth & Sons
- Model: Unknown
- Serial Number: 3550
- Date Made: Before 1940.
- Approximate size:
- Accessories: Wooden box containing: lens shade, sunshot eyepiece and magnifying glass. Tripod (object AGHS 2024.02.02).
- Condition: Good
Commentary:
“WM AINSWORTH & SONS, DENVER, COLD.,USA” and the number 3550 is printed on the compass face of the transit. The Inside radius of the screw on the bottom of the transit is 2 1/2 inches.
There are two labels on the inside of the wooden box. One stating that the zero of the indicated distance is 0.808 feet in front of the center of the instrument which likely refered to a stadia distance. The other is a label of a Vancouver, B.C. company “Frederick Goertz Ltd. Certified Scientific Instrument Makers” which may at one time sold the instrument.
Embossed on the cap for the tripod is “WM AINSWORTH & SONS, DENVER, COLORADO THE PRECISION FACTORY.”
The transit and tripod were owned by Lloyd E. Willis, P.Eng. Terry Willis, his son and doner of the objects, assumes that they were provided to his father by the US Corps of Engineers when he worked on the Alaska Highway in 1942. They may also have used by him while working for the B.C. Department of Highways in the late 1940’s.
While there is information online on the Ainsworth company nothing could be found on the transit itself. The company stopped producing large survey instrument around 1940.
Source of Object: Donated by Terry Willis.
Notes: The Society has only one in their collection.
References: Limited information available.
Description by: Entered by Ed Titanich on December 11, 2024. Gordon Olsson April 12, 2026.