CECIL E. HANSON COLLECTION
ANTIQUE SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS

AMERICAN TRANSITS

C. C. Hutchinson - Boston, MA, ca 1905*

Telescope Length: 8"
Diameter of Horizontal Circle: 5-3/4"
Needle Length: 4"
Height: 9"
Weight: 8-3/4 lb
Box: 12-3/4"H, 9"W, 8"D (Leather covered)
Condition: Good
Found: October 19, 1966; Buff&Buff Co., Boston, MA
CEH Inventory# T20

*C. C. Huchinson started making instruments in 1883 (see below) and discontinued in 1940. Cecil Hanson had estimated that this transit was made around 1905, but the basis for that estimate has not been documented.

Excerpted from “Makers of Surveying Instruments of America since 1700” by Charles Smart, 1967, Vol 2, p. 220:

C. C. HUTCHINSON (1883 - 1940)

Charles C. Hutchinson (1832 - 1913)

Boston, Massachusetts

He was born at Boston 6 November 1832, the son of Henry and Lavinia Stevens Hutchinson.

He served his apprenticeship with Frederick W. Lincoln Jr. of Boston.

He is first listed in the Boston directory 1 July 1853 at 136 Commercial Street, the same address as Mr. Lincoln’s.

In 1858 he became a partner and the firm became F. W. Lincoln Jr. & Co.

Mr. Hutchinson became the sole owner on 1 June 1883 and the name of the firm was changed to C. C. Hutchinson. The firm was listed as such from 1883 to 1940 in the Boston directories.

He died at Federal Point, Florida 13 March 1913 and is buried in the cemetery at Winthrop, Massachusetts.

In the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah is a transit whose telescope is missing. The compass card is engraved C.C. Hutchinson Boston, Mass. The length of the needle is 4", the diameter of the horizontal limb is 5.8".