Geodesy

Due to my profession as a hydrographic surveyor I started collecting navigational and land surveying instruments. Over the years I used, repaired and calibrated a wide range of instruments as sextants, levels, theodolites, transits etc. Due to this I became interested in collecting these instruments as well. In this section the geodetic instruments in my collection are shown, while the navigational instruments are shown in the Navigation Section of this web site.

The menu at the left is divided in Surveyor's crosses, Geodetic Sextants, Theodolites, Total Stations, Levels, and Tools.

The collection focusses on the 20^th century in general and on the rare and 'firsts' especially. The 'firsts' are the instruments that introduced a new era, like the 1926 Zeiss RThII, which was the first theodolite model with Heinrich Wild's patents, the 1924 Zeiss Th1, which was the first optical theodolite (and one of the very first produced) and the 1929 Wild T2, Wild's first model theodolite from his own workshop.

Among the rarities are (apart from above theodolites) the 17th c. Surveyor's Cross, the centesimally divided geodetic sextants, and the Fennel/Minilir (incidentally the first auto-tracking total station).

In addition to that the collection focusses on the main line of Wild instruments, which explains their abundance in the collection.