1918 KEUFFEL & ESSER Young & Sons Dept, Naval Transit from US TARBELL No. 142
This Antique Naval Transit is off the destroyer USN Tarbell. Note open-mount four-inch guns (only the forward one being fitted with a shield), the 3/23 antiaircraft gun just aft of mount one, banks of torpedo tubes (two three-tube mounts per side), and unshaded number 142 at her bow. The four-story Keuffel and Esser Manufacturing Complex in Hoboken, New Jersey, was completed four years later. [2] K&E was incorporated in 1889. From 1889 until World War II, K&E employed “Spider Lady” Mary Pfeiffer to manage a “spider ranch” for the firm. It produced strands of spider web used in making crosshairs for telescopic sights. In 1892, the company commissioned the architecture firm of De Lomos & Cordes to build a showroom and offices at 127 Fulton Street in Manhattan. [3] The firm designed an eight-story brick and terracotta building in the Renaissance Revival style. The building was completed in 1893, and the company occupied it until 1961. It was designated a New York City landmark in 2005. In the first decade of the 20th century, Keuffel and Esser introduced a new line of surveying instruments based on the work of John Paoli, an Italian immigrant in Hoboken. A new Keuffel and Esser Manufacturing Complex was built in 1906, after the previous building was destroyed by fire. [2] The building was converted to housing in 1975 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 12, 1985. K&E acquired instrument maker Young & Sons of Philadelphia in 1918 and made it a department of the firm, retaining the brand name for a time. The instrument is in excellent condition, missing lens cap. The wooden box is wholly intact but it does have some issues. It is missing the key, missing name tag, missing 1 original screw on latch hook. It is missing plumb Bob, missing compass. It has all the points. The points pouch attached inside the door the snap came apart I have the parts.
