Everest's three-foot theodolite made by Troughton & Simms, 1825-1830

Everest's three-foot theodolite made by Troughton & Simms, 1825-1830. Elevation drawn in 1847 of the theodolite made by Barrow at Troughton & Simms in 1825-1830 and designed to the specification of Colonel Sir George Everest (1790-1866), Surveyor General of India, to be used with a similar theodolite made by Cary for the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India (1830-1843). Its extreme solidity ensured the highest accuracy of the readings. In 1849, survey officer James Nicolson also used this theodolite to establish that a peak on Mount Everest, then known as peak 'b', was the highest in the world. In 1865, the Royal Geographical Society named the mountain after Everest in tribute to his pioneering work in mapping India. Everest's own belief was that mountains should be known by their local names. Plate taken from volume II of the 'Great Survey of India', published in 1874. ©SSPL/Science Museum