What was it made by?

Underneath the 32, we see a label has been covered. Who are the makers of this apparatus? Well, this is the place to find the answer. W & L.E. Gurley Insturment Makers was a company based out of New York, in a city called Troy. The Gurleys were well known in the surveying world, both for participating and for being the most consistent source for insturments. According to a resource developped at the Smithsonian, the W & L.E. Gurley company published from 1855 to 1921 a catalogue detailing their products and methods of using them properly. Within the references section, I will be linking to some of these manuals for further reading.