Whiteley Quadrant Serial #1Circa 1824

Francis Whiteley (1776-1850+/-) was a physician residing in or around Standardsville, VA from about 1830 to 1850. There is no evidence that he ever worked as a mathematical instrument maker. Whiteley received a U.S. Patent for his instrument in 1836 (Patent #99 December 6, 1836 - see black & white pic attached below). Whiteley's patent model that he submitted with his patent application miraculously survived a Patent Office fire that destroyed most early patent models, and is now privately owned. Whiteley's patent model is made of brass, shows excellent workmanship, and is a working instrument. A pic of the patent model appears immediately below.

There is a possibility that either George Graves or William Ewin made Whiteley's patent model instrument and placed Chandlee's "L" and "T" table on it. Ewin and Graves are the only makers known to have placed Chandlee’s L-T table on instruments after Chandlee’s death. It is also believed that all subsequent instruments based on this patent were made by Jacob S. Danner (1765-1850) of Middletown, VA. Perhaps Danner was familiar with Chandlee’s L-T table since Danner, like Chandlee, was based in Virginia.

The 1836 Patent (a pic of which is attached below) has operating instructions for the instrument. The Whiteley could be used as a compass to take bearings by setting the compass to point to North/South and then moving one of the arms to appropriate amount of degrees. The instrument could also be used to measure angles independently of the needle, like a Railroad Compass. Or the instrument could be used on its side as a Quadrant for taking vertical degrees.

I am only aware of 3 Whiteley patent-type instruments - the original patent model, Serial #1, and my Serial #12. Dale Beeks apparently owned all three at one time. Note that the patent model seems to be missing its trough compass.

There are only a handful of truly unique American designed and patented surveying instruments - Burt’s first Solar Compass design, Hanks Bow Compass, and Whiteley’s Quadrant to name the most interesting ones. So the Whiteley instrument in its original form is pretty special.