Two tripod bubbles

View this record on the National Museum of Australia's website

Type: Components
Materials: Metal - non specific, Plastic - non specific
Collection: Australian Survey Office collection no. 2
Accession number: 2004.0080.0033

Description

Two brass cylindrical spirit level bubbles in a rectangular black vinyl case. Each bubble has a circular glass spirit level at one end. The case has a fold over lid with a metal clasp and the text 'ZENITH / FIRST AID KIT' in gold coloured ink on the top. '40811' is written in black marker and 'BUBBLES / FOR / PRECISE / MEASURING EQUIPMENT' in red dymo tape are also on the top of the box. aid) 40811 in felt pen.

About the collection

This collection of thirty-four items of land surveying equipment includes a number of tellurometers, measuring wires, a chronometer, theodolite, pantograph and a slide rule. This equipment was 'booked out' to different surveyors as they completed their land surveying jobs across Australia and Papua New Guinea between the 1940s and 1980s. It complements the Australian Survey Office collection no. 1. The documentation associated with this collection is held in the NMA Archive collection. The Australian Survey Office, and its predecessors, was responsible for all Australian Government surveying work. The powers of land administration were not ceded to the Commonwealth in 1901 but the gradual acquisition of territories obliged the Commonwealth to not only administer land laws but to provide maps and/or charts for a wide-variety of uses. Commonwealth surveying work included topographic mapping, geodetic surveying , surveying associated with major Commonwealth construction projects and work associated with the administration of all Commonwealth land holdings.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:06:05 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-23. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.