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Notable Houghton

     Notable Houghton: Rowland Houghton (1678-1744) was a Boston mechanic who designed a new “theodolate,” a brass surveying instrument. He received a patent from the General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts in 1735. This was only the second patent for a mechanical invention issued in the British colonies of North America. It is the earliest brass surveying instrument to be patented and documented. One of only two extant is an incomplete version that is housed in the Smithsonian. Notable Houghton: "Rowland Houghton’s “theodolate,” patented in 1735 in Massachusetts, is the earliest brass surveying instrument to be patented and documented. In his book With Compass and Chain, historian Silvio Bedini traces the history of the patent given to Houghton in 1735/36 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. According to the Act recorded in its Acts and Resolves II, Houghton’s instrument was designed “for surveying of lands … with greater ease and dispatch than any surveying instrument heretofore projected or made within this province.” There were many circumferentors and semi-circumferentors primarily constructed of wood during this early period, but Houghton was able to obtain a patent due to the accurate simplicity of the design of his instrument. Rowland Houghton surveyed in Maine and in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Based on an announcement of Dabney’s arrival that appeared in the Boston Gazette in July of 1739, Bedini points out that Houghton engaged the English-trained instrument maker, John Dabney, who worked with Houghton in 1739 - 1740, for some of his instrument work. The announcement stated, “Arriv’d here ... from London John Dabney, junr. who serv’d his time to Mr. Johathan Sisson, Mathematical Instrument Maker to His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales. Makes and sells all sorts of Mathematical Instruments ... at Mr. Rowland Houghton’s shop ... in Boston...To this date there are only two known examples of this Houghton “theodolate.” One is an incomplete version that is housed in the Smithsonian collection, and the other is the one that has been used for the photos in this article.” in 1735.