"Benjamin Rittenhouse was born in Norriton township, now Montgomery County, Pennyslvania about 1740 and died in Philadelphia in 1825.   He was a brother of David Rittenhouse, instrument maker.  Benjamin Rittenhouse's  surveyor's chain made by order of Congress in 1796 has been in the standard of the United States land office ever since."

Visit our museum page entitled RITTENHOUSE for more information on both David and Benjamin Rittenhouse.

Instrument shown is from the collection of the National Museum of American History, a division of the Smithsonian Institution