Sounding Lead

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-1018

Sounding lead with a strap.

The lead has a glass tube with a brass scale next to it, indicating the depth. The tube is sealed at the top, the bottom can be opened with a tap in a circular open section of the lead. The water force indicates the depth. The scale can be closed off by turning a semi-circular iron tube around the lead. In the bottom, the lead has a hole for taking bottom samples.

The American John Ericsson patented this lead in the United Kingdom in 1836.¹¹An Inventory of the Navigation and Astronomy Collections in the National Maritime Museum Greenwich, 3 vols., coll. cat. Greenwich 1973, p. 13-1.

J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1018; An Inventory of the Navigation and Astronomy Collections in the National Maritime Museum Greenwich, 3 vols., coll. cat. Greenwich 1973, vol. 1, p. 13-1

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'John Ericsson, Sounding Lead, United States of America, c. 1836 - c. 1860', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244833