Significance To Navigation
The Elton's quadrant is not very well known as a navigation instrument. It was used, though to what degree is not known. Elton had the misfortune to invent his instrument in the same period of time as the octant. In fact, John Hadley published details on his octant prior to Elton's article in the same volume of the Philosophical Transactions (article 37 vs 48).
Given that Elton's quadrant was roughly as complex as an octant in construction, there would not likely be a significant advantage in price. The octant was an easier instrument to use and Hadley had supported the use of artificial horizon's on the octant in the form of spirit levels. This would have given no advantage to Elton's instrument. In addition, there were many other instruments competing for the attention of navigators in this period. In the end, the Hadley octant and later sextant took precedence as instruments for navigators.
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