Offered here is a Troughton & Simms transit theodolite with tripod from the estate of Mr. Charles R. Swart.
This is one of the five items featured in the thread I started on Monday 11 April. Having separate threads for each item will be easier for those interested to follow the item and to keep track of offers as they come in. Therefore, this thread will replace that earlier thread for purposes of this instrument and tripod.
A while back I offered to help Charles' widow dispose of several survey-related items that Charles had accumulated through the decades. I am doing this simply as a favor to Mrs. Swart.
Mrs. Swart has stated she will contribute 10 percent of the selling price (exclusive of shipping charges) to RPLS Today if this instrument sells through RPLS Today.
Charles Swart was the founding president of the Montana Association of Registered Land Surveyors and had land-surveying practices both in Bozeman, Montana and San Marcos, Texas. Kent McMillan mentioned his colleague and friend Charles in several posts to this forum; you can find those threads using the search function.
Charles' web site is still available at www.landsurveyor.info. Among the articles on that site is a particularly interesting history of the establishment of the initial point of the Principal Meridian of Montana.
Rather than burn up a lot of Wendell's bandwidth on this forum, I have posted a detailed description and 23 large images on one of my download sites, along with a PDF an 1897 Troughton & Simms catalog.
I have attempted to make the description complete and the images informative, but if you have questions on details beyond what I provided please post to this thread or send me a message via this forum's conversation/message system.
As explained in the description PDF, it is believed this instrument was manufactured prior to 1916.
To access the description, images, and other related information, please point your web browser to
http://inlandwyo.com/inlandwyo/pub/Charles%20Swart%20Items/01%20Troughton%20&%20Simms%20transit%20theodolite%20with%20tripod/
The file named "01 Index - Troughton & Simms transit theodolite with tripod.pdf" contains the description of the theodolite and associated items as well as an index to the various JPG image files found in the same folder.
From what I can determine via various informed sources, the market for this model instrument with its rare and hard-to-find tripod should be around $600.
As of this posting we have a $100 offer for this instrument from "briniker", along with a $25 donation to Wendell's RPLS Today (thanks Brian!).
Please post your offer to this thread unless you wish to make a private offer, in which case you can send me your offer in a message via this forum's message system (click on my name, then click on "Start a Conversation"). I will then post your offer in the thread without revealing your name.
To facilitate the process, let's use the following minimum offer increments:
-If the previous high offer is from $0 to $99, the next offer must be at least $10 higher than the previous high offer or an even $100, whichever is lower
-If the previous high offer is from $100 to $499, the next offer must be at least $25 higher than the previous high offer or an even $500, whichever is lower
-If the previous high offer is from $500 to $999, the next offer must be at least $50 higher than the previous high offer or an even $1,000, whichever is lower
-If the previous high offer is from $1,000 to $1,999, the next offer must be at least $100 higher than the previous high offer or an even $2,000, whichever is lower
-If the previous high offer is from $ 2,000 to $4,999, the next offer must be at least $250 higher than the previous high offer or an even $5,000, whichever is lower
-If the previous high offer is from $5,000 to $9,999, the next offer must be at least $500 higher than the previous high offer or an even $10,000, whichever is lower
So the next offer for this Troughton & Simms transit theodolite with tripod will need to be at least $125 but there is no upper limit if you would like to offer any amount higher than $125.
We have not set a closing date/time for this item. We will let any new highest offer stand for at least 24 hours from the time it is posted to this thread before accepting that offer. That way others interested in the item and following this thread will have ample opportunity to submit a new higher offer.
There will be no charge for packaging and handling. Shipping charges will be the actual charges as shown on receipt(s) from the carrier(s).
On 07 July 2016 I listed this instrument on eBay, it is eBay Item No. 322185055846 and it is presently offered at $995.00 fixed price with best-offer option.
Since the objective of this effort is to obtain a fair-market-value return to Mrs. Swart, I will convert the eBay listing to a seven-day no-reserve auction if offers received via RPLS Today do not seem to reflect estimated fair market value. The opening bid amount will be one offer increment (per the system described above) over the highest offer received via RPLS Today. If any bids are received on the eBay auction the item will go to the highest eBay bidder. If the eBay auction does not attract any bids the item will go to the person making the highest offer on RPLS Today.
It is hoped that this arrangement does not offend anyone in the RPLS Today community but it is my duty to do what I can to obtain fair market value for Mrs. Swart and that includes making certain the item is exposed to all appropriate markets. If the best market is here on RPLS Today then Wendell's forum gets its share; if eBay is a better market then they get their commission.
Finally, if anyone reading this has a better idea of how to handle sales like this I welcome your suggestions. Please post to this thread or send to me via a private conversation.
Mrs. Swart and I thank you for your interest!
GB
I should mention that Charles was a friend of mine. Quite sensibly, he divided his time between summers in Bozeman, MT where he had a house and San Marcos, TX, where he also had a house. Although he had taught surveying in the Engineering Department at MSU in Bozeman, Charles was a native son , having grown up in West Texas in a small town about twenty miles outside of San Angelo, Cristoval. He hadn't settled in West Texas, though. He took a master's degree at UC Berkeley where Frank Moffitt taught surveying and had some amusing Frank Moffitt stories to tell that involved surveying quizes and fold-outs from that month's Playboy magazine.
After leaving the MSU faculty, Charles opened up a surveying practice where he offered one of the most expensive new surveying technologies, the EDM, as implemented in the Geodimeter Model 6. Reducing range measurements with the early Geodimeters was not unlike GPS baseline processing in that it took some laborious (for the time) computations to get an answer.
The eBay buy-it-now price for this instrument with tripod (eBay Item 322185055846) is now $695.
If no more offers come from RPLS Today members in the next 24 hours I will change the eBay listing to a seven-day auction with starting bid of $125.
Thanks for your interest!
GB
Yesterday afternoon I sent this instrument with tripod to a seven-day auction that will end on Thursday 21 July at 1729 hrs PDT.
The new eBay Item is 322192696514.
Right now this auction has three watchers and two bidders.
Since someone has made a bid the item will now sell through eBay.
Again, thanks for your interest and especially your offers!
GB
The eBay seven-day auction for this instrument with tripod will end in ten hours.
There is one bidder and 13 watchers.
I am quietly hoping for a bidding frenzy to erupt!
GB
Well, the bidding frenzy never happened.
This instrument with tripod attracted a total of two bids and sold for $127.50 plus shipping on the eBay auction.
GB
